Wimbledon Champions Explode Into Words

A tweet by type designer Nadine Chahine made me discover a superb typographic promo by BBC for its Wimbledon 2012 coverage. The 40-second launch trailer created by Red Bee Media shows some of the top male and female tennis players performing their signature shots. Their bodies suddenly are rendered in words describing their characteristics, playing styles and traits. The impact of the ball hitting the tennis racket makes letters fly off their silhouette, finally forming the word "Champion".

BBC Wimbledon 2012 | Red Bee | Mainframe from Liam Chapple on Vimeo.

Motion graphics studio Mainframe laid out the typography over the characters before painstakingly animating the text paths to move with the players bodies and actions.

Entirely created in After Effects we were keen to ensure that the type didn't feel like it was 'stuck' to the players but that it retained a graphic style with no deformation as it moved with the players. This was also the case with the particle effects, ensuring only z rotation is used to retain the graphic laid out text feel.