Fox Sports has become the first U.S. broadcaster to air professional sporting events with animated fans, a solution to the coronavirus-emptied stadiums from which games are being played. A lot of media outlets are referring to these characters as “virtual” fans, but let’s just call them what they are: animated characters.
The real-time rendered characters are produced using Unreal Engine by Brooklyn-based performance capture studio Silver Spoon, and the “fans” are fully customizable from their clothing to their movements.
Even the amount of fans can be manipulated, according to Fox Sports executive Brad Zager, who told Variety that, “If it’s an 8-to-1 game, the crowd can be thinned out [late in the game].” A sales exec at Fox suggested to Variety that they may try using the fake fans for “unique ad formats and innovations” for post-season games.
