During the first game of the 2021 football season, the Carolina Panthers wowed 70,000 fans at the Bank of America Stadium with a giant mixed reality (MR) panther that leaped onto the Jumbotron. A video of the spectacle went viral, with 5.9 million views on Twitter alone.

To bring the panther to life, TruePoint Laser Scanning did a full 3D laser scan of the stadium and panther statue outside it. This provided a scale model of the panther and all the physical elements with which it would interact.

In 1 ½ days on site, TruePoint’s project manager documented the as-built conditions of the stadium. Using a Leica P40 ScanStation, point cloud data of the interior field, stadium bowl, seating and upper rigging area was captured. CAD technicians used the point cloud data to create a Revit 2021 LOD 200 3D model of the stadium. The panther statue at the front of the stadium was 3D laser scanned to create a triangulated 3D mesh model in .fbx file format for the animation/CGI. Meshes are volumetrically accurate, high density and high resolution.

In November 2002, during a Thursday Night Football game, the team unveiled another mixed reality experience created by The Famous Group: an interactive, operator-controlled broadcast-ready version of the Panther mascot. This builds on the infamous Mixed Reality Panther that debuted last year, with additional unique and individual moments that can be created by the team and then run during the game. Read more here.

For information on 3D laser scanning for mixed reality applications, contact TruePoint 3D Laser Scanning at 419-843-7226 or info@truepointscanning.com.

Read the project highlights on the Epic Games and Unreal Engine website:

Mixed reality puts the purrr-fect twist on Carolina Panthers games