SKY’S THE LIMIT FOR BATES Millions will have admired Sky’s spectacular visual effects but few will know that one of the creative talents behind them is former Sussex off-spinner Justin Bates. Bates, who played 21 first-class matches and eight one day between 1997 and 2000, has progressed from a freelance designer to Creative Director of Visual Effects at Sky. As Head of the Visual Effects department, Bates now leads a large specialised team of artists and has been responsible for creating many of the high end visuals and designs for Sky’s branding, entertainment, movies and sports channels. Among an impressive CV of work that Bates has generated in a 14 year association with Sky are eye-catching graphics to promote their coverage of Premier League football, Ashes cricket, F1, and rugby. Bates’ success story begins with his decision to be released from contract by Sussex at the end of the 2000 season despite taking four five wicket hauls including nine in the match at Northampton in 1998. ” I went straight into cricket as most of us do. I didn’t go to university, I went straight from doing A Levels to signing for Sussex,” Bates said. ” I did computer science and fine art at A Levels and I had always done some graphic design work in my off seasons, print stuff and brochures mainly. ” If I hadn’t gone into cricket I pretty much knew what I wanted to do which was to get into animation and film. I would have gone down that route somehow as it had always been a passion of mine from an early age. ” When I finished with Sussex I didn’t decide to try anywhere else. I love cricket but I was a bit disillusioned with it all at that time. Instead I went straight back to doing graphics by going freelance. I didn’t have any clients though so I had to start from scratch.” Bates worked on a few projects for his father’s office furniture company and taught himself Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) which provided him with experience that was to prove crucial for the future. ” I used one of the CG software programmes that was around at the time, read the manual front to back and taught myself how to use it,” he said. ” I then started doing architectural stuff for brochures. My dad was in the partitioning and office furniture business so I started trying to recreate full CG rooms so they didn’t have to go and photograph them. That’s how I taught myself to do 3D. It went from there really.” A contact put him in touch with Sky but he lacked a diverse portfolio of work to impress at his first interview. But Bates went away, produced a showreel and used that to get his foot in the door. ” Coming from a cricket background I’m pretty determined so I went home and created a mock-up of a NatWest cricket sponsorship sequence. Looking back, the animation would have been pretty basic but I wanted to prove that I could create and design motion graphics that would have been relevant to Sky Sports. I phoned Sky up and said: ‘ I have got some new work, can I come back in and show you?'” he said ” I went in showed them all the new animations plus my architectural images and they asked me to come in and do some work. ” They placed me in set design team because of the architectural work. That is where I started. I got my foot in the door working for Sky Sports on the set designs for their programmes. ” The first thing I designed at Sky was for one of their flagship football shows the Champions League. I built the set in 3D and showed them all the camera moves they could potentially achieve in the studio. ” It was the first time they had really seen a set designed and visualised in 3D so they could actually see what they were going to get. The final results were fantastic, that particular set was used in production for many years and it will always be close to me as that is where it all started for me in the broadcast industry.” Bates spent 10 years as a freelancer, during which time he designed and crafted the opening titles sequences for Sky Sports flagship Premier League football coverage. He has now been on staff based at their Isleworth headquarters for almost four years. ” My role is now as a Creative Director overseeing the creation of a vast amount of projects. It’s not just for Sky Sports but across all the entertainment, movie channels and in particular Sky’s branding.” Bates said. ” The nature of this industry and the attention to detail that has to go into my work is incredibly pressured and intense but I absolutely love it. Sky is a truly great company to work for.” Bates did not use his experience of having played first class cricket to help him secure work with Sky but the competitive instincts from his playing days have certainly helped him to progress in his new career. ” All the things that we learn playing cricket, discipline, drive and passion have, without a shadow of a doubt, helped me to get where I am now,” he said. ” They are all key characteristics that help in everyday life.” View Justin Bates’ Showreel here: {{ak_sharing}}
