Animated Australian Open Live Streams Make Players Look Like Wii Sports Characters

The Australian Open might look a little different this year if you stream it live on YouTube. That’s because the tournament put an animated overlay on some of its matches to avoid broadcast licensing conflicts, making players look terrible. Wii Sports characters, as reported earlier by The Guardian.

Animated players follow all the same movements as their real-life counterparts as they move around a cartoon-style pitch, while the ball’s ‘wap’, crowd chatter and commentary all remain authentic. But the animations aren’t perfect, as players’ sneakers appear to clip on the court at times, while Naomi Osaka’s animated tank top appeared ripped during her match against Caroline Garcia.

Thanks to animated live streams, the Australian Open can stream its matches on YouTube without conflicting with broadcast deals sold to networks and streaming services around the world, according to The Guardian.

The technology, first introduced at the Australian Open last year, uses 12 cameras to “process the human silhouette in real time and stitch it onto 29 points of the skeleton”, director Machar Reid of innovation at Tennis Australia. the organization behind the tournament, said The Guardian. “It’s not as smooth as it could be – we don’t have fingers – but over time you can start to imagine a world where this happens.”

Based on the information provided by the sensors, the Australian Open’s systems can then create an animated version of live events with a two-minute delay.