Transitions

Wednesday evening we did something a bit different for the 11pm newscast. Thursday morning, the Maryland Transportation Authority had to close some ramps off the Wilson Bridge.

It was the perfect time to showcase our new traffic maps.

At 11pm, we rarely have use for them since rush hour has long been over. Occasionally, we'll get a traffic story where we can use the maps and Wednesday evening was one of those occasions.

The maps are animated and have little green or red cars on the major arteries to indicate the flow of traffic. The green cars mean traffic is flowing at a nice pace, while the red cars mean the traffic is jammed.

We had Todd situated at the green screen and put an animated map underneath him. Todd took the time to explain the traffic map to our viewers and how the traffic map would change. Afterwards, he was supposed to introduce Brittney Morehouse to elaborate on those changes.

Instead of just cutting to Brittney, I wanted to do some type of effect to our reporter in the field. Our technical director, James, built a motion effect that would squeeze the traffic map back, and then cube effect to Brittney. James pulled it off brilliantly.
Click here to watch Todd introduce Brittney.