An animated version of Novak Djokovic. | Image: Australian Open
The Australian Open might look a little different this year if you’re livestreaming it on YouTube. That’s because the tournament has put an animated overlay on some of its matches to avoid broadcast licensing conflicts, making players look an awful lot like Wii Sports characters, as reported earlier by The Guardian.
The animated players follow all the same movements as their real-life counterparts as they travel across a cartoon-ish court, while the “whap” of the ball, chatter from the crowd, and commentary all remain authentic. But the animations aren’t perfect, as the players’ sneakers seem to clip into the court at some points, while Naomi Osaka’s animated tank top looked like it was ripped during her match against Caroline Garcia.
Screenshot: The Verge
Naomi Osaka’s tank top didn’t look quite right.
With the animated livestreams, the Australian Open can air its games on YouTube without conflicting with the broadcasting agreements it sold to networks and streaming services around the world, according to The Guardian.
The technology, which the Australian Open first introduced last year, uses 12 cameras to “process the silhouette of the human in real time, and stitch that together across 29 points in the skeleton,” Machar Reid, the director of innovation at Tennis Australia, the organization behind the tournament, told The Guardian. “It’s not as seamless as it could be — we don’t have fingers — but in time you can begin to imagine a world where that comes.”
Based on the information from the sensors, the Australian Open’s systems can then create an animated version of the live events with a two-minute delay.
We’ve seen other broadcasters and sports leagues experiment with creating alternate telecasts of games as well. During the Super Bowl LVIII, CBS Sports partnered with Nickelodeon to add Spongebob Squarepants and slime animations to the big game, while the NFL aired an animated football game featuring The Simpsons last year.