jack bannister

MEMBERS NEWS
catch
up with:
Justin
Bates
illions 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.
Amongst 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.
“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
“The final results were fantastic, the
Champions League set was used in production
for many years and it will always be close to
me, as that is where it all started”
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 the staff based at their
Isleworth headquarters for almost four years.
View Justin Bates’ Showreel at
https://vimeo.com/35885062
12 BtB issue 18 / thepca.co.uk