The NHL broadcasted a game using real-time 3D animation and here’s how it works

The NHL saw what the NFL did with its Nickelodeon broadcasts and decided to up the ante with the Big City Greens Classic.

On Tuesday, the NHL broadcasted its first ever game in real-time 3D animation. Yes, you read that right. The Washington Capitals and New York Rangers faced off against one another in a real game Tuesday night — broadcasted on ESPN — but on Disney Channel, fans got a whole different view of the action.

In a collaboration with Disney’s animated show Big City Greens, the NHL provided an alternate broadcast to Tuesday night’s game. The difference? The Big City Greens classic featured “live, real-time volumetric animation of players and teams modeled after characters on the show.”

The result was a wholly unique experience that’s hard to put into words.

We have live animated hockey! I demand all offside and goalie interference reviews be run this way pic.twitter.com/SxNqLd19dl

— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) March 14, 2023

So, how does it work? The NHL already uses puck and player tracking technology, with chips inserted in the pucks and jerseys that give teams additional data on games and player performance. From there, a virtual 3D environment was made to house the animated versions of the players as they played the game live on ice at Madison Square Garden

And honestly, despite some jankiness with the player models — the chips in the jerseys don’t track exact body movement — the result wasn’t half bad.

That first Rangers goal but make it a cartoon pic.twitter.com/RpN3rrZ8EP

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 14, 2023

I get some real Wii Sports vibes from this, honestly. Plus, they even had a chicken referee as well!

CHICKEN. REF. #BigCityGreensClassic @ESPN pic.twitter.com/P0MbRz36rl

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) March 14, 2023

All in all, a neat first step for the NHL in this new frontier of 3D animated games!