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In the summer of 2016, Derek Watkins, then graphics editor at The New York Times, faced a challenge.
How were newspapers able to provide their readers with coverage of the Olympic Games in record time?
Watkins and other graphics editors ultimately decided on what would become a winning solution: miniature versions of the events generated in a matter of minutes. Since the 2016 Olympics, members of the digital news design, graphics, and research and development teams have been creating small, animated visualizations of the Olympic events of swimming, running, skiing, and figure skating.
“It looked like a 2D sprite,” Eden Weingart, art director for the Digital News Design team, said of the early version of the simulation. With each Olympics since, she and her team have built on that initial idea.
This year's track and field and swimming videos have been hits on TikTok and Instagram. Tiny 3-D swimmers change their style for each lap of a medley, racing to video-game-like sound effects. On the track, animated runners leap from the starting blocks, waving their arms, letting viewers know exactly when in the race a runner will pull ahead or fall behind. Take Noah Lyles, who won the 100 meters on Sunday by five-thousandths of a second. It was hard to tell on TV, but in the New York Times video, Lyles' avatar helped readers see just how far he outpaced his rivals at the finish line.
In a recent interview, Weingart talked about what was the most challenging part of creating the visualization and what she and her team plan to do next. These are edited excerpts.
How long does it take to create a visual?
We all watch the race together over video calls or in the office. Shortly after the race is over, the Olympic Committee releases the data on all the athletes' times. Our team built an internal application that lets us customize and modify 3D elements that react to the data.
As events occur, we feed that data into the app to generate the animation, making sure that the animation matches what we just saw, with all times and outcomes accurate.
The whole process takes about 15-20 minutes, and we strive to respond as quickly as possible.
What was your biggest challenge?
A big challenge was creating characters that were generic enough, but didn't seem weird – we definitely avoided the uncanny valley a few times.
Some races have to be sped up by 10 times to fit into a minute. For example, an 800m freestyle swimming event lasts about 8 minutes. While viewers may enjoy this animation, they're not going to watch it for 8 minutes. But you don't want to go so fast that the swimmers' arms start looking like propellers.
I was impressed by the attention to detail. In the medley, the swimming style is also changed.
With each Olympics we build on the accomplishments of the last. At the Tokyo Olympics, the little swimmers had no legs. They looked like little foosball players, their arms moving during the stroke but no legs to kick.
When I did the figure skating competition at the Beijing Olympics, I realized that I could add legs and feet and joints to the model and it didn't look strange, so I thought, “I can definitely do a backstroke to breaststroke turn.”
What did you think about the feedback you received from readers?
It's really great to see that our readers and viewers are knowledgeable and know that this is motion design and animation and that there are people behind it. They're saying things like “the designers deserve a gold medal.” We've also seen a few comments like “this is AI,” but most people seem to recognize that this is craftsmanship-driven. That's really encouraging for us.
of “Boo” sound The scene where the swimmer touches the wall is particularly popular. Who will be the judge?
This year, I first worked with Dan Powell and his audio team, who create original sound for “The Daily” and other Times podcasts. I met with him and told him I wanted it to have a video game feel. I was inspired by the tinny thuds of the Nintendo Switch and footsteps in Animal Crossing. At first, I thought about making it a water splash sound, but realized something more abstract would work better.
We shared the victory themes from Final Fantasy VII and Mario Kart as musical inspirations, and we said, “Let's bring all of that into the world of the Challengers soundtrack. The audio team did an amazing job.”
What are your hopes for future Olympic coverage?
There are a few running events that we are not currently covering, such as relays and long distance running. It would be a lot of fun to be able to animate a baton pass. As for swimming, we have achieved most of the items on our wish list. But for the next Olympics, we are also looking at creating different costumes based on the swimsuits that the athletes will wear, and adding a world record line like you see on TV.
If you could try one Olympic sport that you haven't tried yet, which one would you choose?
Gymnastics is great but just too complicated. I'd love to see a mini pommel horse or balance beam but that would require a ton of animation.
