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Luleå Hockey Intro Animations (2025 Update)

TL;DR

Annual collaboration with agency Samuraj to update Luleå Hockey's intro animations across the arena's screens and ice projection. This year's focus was refining existing sequences: goal celebration, TNT song, player introductions, and player entry animation. Technical improvements included custom scripting and 3D visualization of the arena for seamless screen integration.

Project Overview

This project is part of a yearly collaboration with the creative agency Samuraj, where we create and maintain intro and in-game animations for Luleå Hockey. The animations are played across multiple displays in the arena—including a newly installed LED cube—and a large ice projection system.

Unlike previous years where we created a brand new intro, this year's focus was on updating four existing sequences:

Preproduction & Workflow

Samuraj typically supplies a concept deck that includes rough sketches and early visual assets. Based on that, I develop a rough animation outline that locks in pacing and the overall concept.

To help align screen content and transitions, I've also developed a custom 3D visualizer of the arena. This tool helps us simulate and plan how animations look across the arena's irregular screen setup.

TNT Sequence – "LU-LE-Å"

Before the players enter the ice, the crowd sings a version of AC/DC's "TNT", replacing the letters with "LU-LE-Å". The sequence ends with the arena chanting "…watch me explode!"—which of course calls for a giant virtual explosion.

To support this moment, we animated a burning fuse wrapping around the mid-cube screens. Due to the cube's varying sizes and tiled layout, this required significant technical tweaking. The result is a high-impact sequence that makes full use of the new continuous LED cube.

Goal Sequence – The Flaming Puck

When LHF scores, instead of showing text like "GOAL", the team requested a more symbolic animation. We designed a flaming puck that descends from the LED cube, crashes into the ice, and triggers a fiery explosion across the arena's lower screens and floor projection.

Since this plays during the match, only lower screens and the ice are used—ensuring the sequence is both dramatic and non-intrusive.

Player Entry – Flow of Sparks

For the entry animation, the team wanted something subtle but dynamic: a flow of glowing sparks emerging from the player entrance and traveling across the ice. These sparks bounce off virtual walls to add depth and realism to the projection.

Player Presentations

These are updated each season with new players, names, numbers, and images. Thanks to a custom script I've built, generating updated player presentations is a streamlined process—minimizing manual work while maintaining high visual consistency.

Technical Notes

All videos are rendered in ProRes, then transcoded to HAP for playback in the arena. Since neither After Effects nor Adobe Media Encoder supports HAP natively, I wrote a custom export script to automate this part of the pipeline.