A large LED screen occupying a wall in a lobby space, displaying a patchwork of images, including news anchors, field reporters, and governmental buildings.

Showcasing the Past, Present, and Future of Broadcasting

The National Association of Broadcasters wanted to use their new lobby space to show the world who they are, so they asked Bluecadet to create a visually stunning, technologically-inspired media wall that would present broadcasters as community heroes and cutting edge innovators. Using the latest features of Adobe After Effects, we created a modular design system that could generate hours of content by procedurally remixing NAB’s imagery, brand colors, and trademark graphic elements.

Role – Motion Design
Art Direction – Aaron Richardson, Alyssa Hamilton
Design – Alyssa Hamilton
Additional Motion – Nick Greenawalt

A diagram of an example playlist, with captioned thumbnails alternating between "home state" and the names of specific modes: "Milestones", "NAB Statistics", "Mosaic Sweep", and "Brand Moment"

A Modular Motion System

NAB needed the ability to take a small pool of source media and output hours of fresh content, ranging in tone from ambient to informational, depending on foot traffic and time of day. This was initially expected to be a CMS-driven piece of software. But knowing that motion graphics should be the star, we did some focused experiments and found that we could create a dynamic, generative, modular playlist using entirely pre-rendered video on a BrightSign player.

Video documentation of the lobby wall, showing an image of Gugliemo Marconi, which shrinks down to become part of the "home state" patchwork
An image of a local news stage breaks apart into color bars which re-form into the "home state" patchwork

Seamless playback is accomplished using a universal cut point: a single frame amidst the patchwork of images that plays interstitially between each mode. Each piece of content has a unique transition to and from this cut point.

An animated gif panning through a patchwork of images, including newscasters and governmental buildings, each animating in and out with colorful transitions.
A partial screenshot of an After Effects window, showing multiple layers each with four color controls ranging from blue to teal to red-orange

Responsive Color

Using After Effects expressions and essential properties, we created templates that respond dynamically to the colors of a sampled image. In this example, content authors can select a set of colors from NAB’s brand palette, and color bars will appear at whatever spots those colors can be found in the image. This creates a cohesive composition that amplifies the colors of any image you drop into the template.

An animated gif of the After Effects interface, in which a user is selecting colors from a palette to see how each color responds to the sampled image

Dynamic Content & manual Overrides

Images are pulled randomly from NAB’s library, and colors are determined via random selection from NAB’s brand. Content authors can override these random selections and choose specific images and colors to refine the composition.

An animated gif of the After Effects interface, where a user is changing the properties of each layer to display specific colors and images
A screenshot showing many lines After Effects expressions, employing simple javascript
A video of people standing, silhouetted in a dark room, watching motion tests playing back at scale.

Testing, Installation, and Handoff

Working closely with NAB over the course of a year, we frequently reviewed content in person at real scale, testing for speed, pacing, and watchability.

After install, we handed off a package of decks and spreadsheets that would guide the process of playlist editing and future content creation.

A screen recording cycling through the pages of a deck, with diagrams and tables to illustrate content types and playlist creation