Drew Brees breaking the NFL all-time career passing yardage record

EPSN

Unexpected Heights

The Saints QB is now the all-time passing yards leader in NFL history. ESPN tracked his path to 71,968 yards.

Background

ESPN

As Drew Brees approached the record, EPSN wanted to feature a timeline of this achievement, starting as far back in his career as November 4th, 2001 up to the 62-yard touchdown pass to rookie receiver Tre’Quan Smith on December 19th, 2019

Content

The Creative

The team at ESPN handed off a sketch file with mobile & desktop designs, fantastic illustrations and animations by Iveta Karpathyova, and an HTML wrapper file for me to use.

The Distance

Yardage Counter

As the user scrolls down the the site, the counter updates Drew’s total yards to date and how many quarterbacks are ahead of his current yardage.

_instance = {n : 0};

scrollUpdate = (scrollPos, skipAnimation) => {
    const els = [...document.querySelectorAll('['+attr+']')];
    let count = 0;
    els.forEach(el => {
        const top = el.getBoundingClientRect().top;
        if(top < scrollPos) {
            count = Number(el.getAttribute(attr));
        }
    });
    if(skipAnimation){
      el.innerHTML = getCounterString(count);
      n = count;
      return;
    }
    TweenLite.to(_instance, .6, {
      n: count,
      ease: Quad.easeOut,
      onUpdate: function() {
        el.innerHTML = getCounterString(_instance.n);
      },
      onUpdateScope:this
    });
  };
// plot data
    var plot = function(data, color) {
      var px,py;
      data.forEach(function(value, index){
        x = (index+1) * inc + origin.x;
        y = origin.y - value/80 * graph.height;
        _svg.paper.circle(x, y, 3).attr({
          fill: color
        });
        if(px && py) {
          _svg.paper.line(px,py,x,y).attr({
            'font-family':"BentonSans-Medium, BentonSans",
            'font-size':"13",
            'font-weight':"400",
            'letter-spacing':"0.6",
            fill:"#9B9B9B",
            stroke: color,
            'stroke-width': 2
          });
        }
        px = x;
        py = y;
      })
    };
Data Visualizations

Snap.svg

A challenge while in development was that the data was always changing as Drew played each game. Therefore, we couldn’t create static data visualizations, and after each game ESPN would supply me with new numbers. As a result, I used the javascript library, snap.svg, to dynamically create the graphs.

The Result

Unexpected Heights

Launch Project
The Tech

Loading up the toolbox

I am a huge fan of GSAP all the way back from the days of Flash. With the exception of using GSAP and Snap.svg the rest of the technologies used were standard: HTML5, SCSS, Webpack, and JSON for data-modeling.

Considerations and Recommendations

As a freelancer, you wear many hats. As project manager, I chose tools that help the team organize tasks and assets. For ESPN, I recommended Trello and created a board that borrows features from agile planning.  This provides visibility to the client for the work that is outstanding, in development and completed.

Google Sheets

JSON

Nunjucks

HTML5

FEED ME!

Content Management

ESPN has their own CMS to handle article content, however developers do not have access to it. In order to get the copy deck into HTML markup, the content team at ESPN edits a google sheet, then I export it to JSON, and use that to compile the markup (via Nunjucks). When updates are required, the team makes the changes in google sheets, and I export a fresh JSON file, compile it and then they can copy & paste the markup into their CMS.

The Team

Associate Art Director –– Sarah Pezzullo
Reporting –– Mike Triplett
Sr. Designer –– Titus Smith
Developer –– Chad Drobish

The Year of BO

ESPN

The Year of BO

Thirty years ago a run of events happened that would turn Bo Jackson from a brilliant enigma into an international icon. Jackson was known before 1989, but in 12 months, everything changed.

BACKGROUND

Working with ESPN

I was contracted to develop a featured article that highlights 12 months of Bo Jackson’s achievements. ESPN provided me with well documented Sketch file, a wrapper HTML, and some base styles. The rest was history.

Assets

Great Content

ESPN provided me with animated gifs in the classic 8-bit NES style. These animations were not just crafted beautifully, but file size averaged around 100kb.

Illustrations by Jude Buffum

NES Shout-out

Tecmo Bowl

It is always a pleasure when working on a project where you enjoy developing the work as much as the content itself.

Parallax

Scrolling Extras

While exploring each month, there are two reveal animations. Using GSAP, I can queue up animations that can tween through its progress while the user scrolls.

...
const isInView = () => {
            const {
                y,
                top,
                height
            } = el.getBoundingClientRect()            
            const yPos = y || top;
            return (height + yPos > 0 && yPos < window.innerHeight);
        }
...
...
const onScroll = () => {
            container.style.visibility = isInView() ? 'visible' : 'hidden';
            const vh = window.innerHeight;
            const {
                y,
                top,
                height
            } = el.getBoundingClientRect();
            const yPos = y || top;
            const progress = ((yPos + height) / (vh + height));
            // tl : TimelineLite that has the animation of the image and text
            TweenLite.to(tl, 0.4, {
                progress
            });
        }
...
window.addEventListener('scroll', throttle(onScroll, 10), false);
The result

The Year of Bo

Launch Project
The Tech

Loading up the toolbox.

When getting a local development set up quickly, I like to use Viget Labs – Blendid:

Blendid is a delicious stand-alone blend of tasks and build tools that form a full-featured modern asset pipeline. It can be used as-is as a static site builder, or can be configured and integrated into your own development environment and site or app structure

http://github.com/vigetlabs/blendid/tree/blendid5

Google Sheets

JSON

Nunjucks

HTML5

FEED ME!

Content Management

ESPN has their own CMS to handle article content, however developers do not have access to it. In order to get the copy deck into HTML markup, the content team at ESPN edits a google sheet, then I export it to JSON, and use that to compile the markup (via Nunjucks). When updates are required, the team makes the changes in google sheets, and I export a fresh JSON file, compile it and then they can copy & paste the markup into their CMS.

Conclusion

This featured article took a little over a month to develop. The team was lean and efficient resulting in a quick production.

Kick Game Evolution

ESPN

Kick Game Evolution

Being an NBA sneakerhead has become more than having the biggest closet.
Meet three players who have embraced the sneaker culture evolution.

BACKGROUND

Working with ESPN

ESPN contacted me through a recommendation from a colleague– looking for help creating one-page featured articles. The handoff would consist of Sketch files with redlining notation, and an HTML wrapper.

My contribution is building out the markup, javascript, styles, and provide input on interactions as well as polish up animations.

THE HANDOFF

How things can run so smoothly

The design team at ESPN is exceptional! They provide me a lot of detailed information, and in this case a video on how they would like the flow of the site to animate. With all that work completed before I even touch the keyboard, they ask me to please take all liberties to go ’off-script‘ and experiment with animations that I think would improve the experience.

THE RESULT

ESPN – Kick Game Revolution

Launch Project
The tech

Loading up the toolbox

I am a huge fan of GSAP all the way back from the days of Flash. The rest of the technologies used are the standard: HTML5, SCSS, Webpack, and JSON for data-modeling.

Considerations and Recommendations

As project manager, I chose tools that help the team organize tasks and assets. For ESPN, I recommended Trello and created a board that borrows features from agile planning.  This provides visibility to the client for the work that is outstanding, in development and completed.

Discovery & Pride

The intro animation presented itself as the largest challenge. Two separate images, a foreground and background, are matched up, a Ken Burns effect is applied, followed by masks to reveal and hide the previous and current slide.

Google Sheets

JSON

Nunjucks

HTML5

FEED ME!

Content Management

ESPN has their own CMS to handle article content, however developers do not have access to it. So in order to get the copy deck into markup, I have the content folks at ESPN edit a google sheet. I then export it to JSON, and use that to compile the markup (via Nunjucks). If and when updates are required, the team makes the changes in google sheets, and I export a fresh JSON file, compile it and then they can copy & paste the markup into their CMS.