It’s déjà vu all over again for Virtual Yogi Berra
Submitted by Brett Fisher on Fri, 12/07/2018 - 3:33pm
New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra is being reincarnated as an interactive digital avatar at the Baseball Winter Meeting in Las Vegas this week.
America’s legendary sports celebrity appears in the Action Sports America Booth (#1063) in an ongoing presentation by performance animation artist Gary Jesch of CHOPS Live Animation.
“Virtual Yogi” is ready for stages, screens and even speaking engagements around the world, to share his funny bits of popular wisdom known as “Yogi-isms,” just like he did throughout his life.
With the permission of the Berra family, Jesch created “Virtual Yogi” to entertain and amuse baseball fans, corporate audiences and even children with his computer wizardry.
He controls his avatar like a digital puppet that speaks when he speaks, and has an animated face and body which appears on a round “Bubble Screen” video projection.
Attendees can talk with him or listen to his conversations with those gathered around the booth.
Jesch has been performing with his other characters as a “Digital Puppeteer” for about 25 years on the trade show and corporate special events circuits.
People rarely see him working to bring his animated characters to life in real time, since he works from “behind the curtain,” connected to his computers and software.
“Being in the presence of an avatar is an experience that is still pretty rare for people, so there’s not much reference for what it’s like,” comments Jesch. “You might have seen something like it with ‘Turtle Talk with Crush’ at Disney’s theme parks, but that’s about it. Live animation with 3D characters hasn’t been seen much yet in mainstream media and cartoons, however. I think that is due to change.”
“In my opinion, Yogi is the ideal celebrity to work with,” Jesch explains. “He was my dad’s age, from what we call the ‘Greatest Generation.’ He’s well-remembered and he has a huge following of baseball fans and friends around the world. Yogi was known for his humility, his sense of fair play, sportsmanship and getting along with everyone. He loved his family and he has a great life story. This is my tribute to his life, using my unique art form.”
Yogi Berra was a Baseball Hall of Fame catcher and outfielder for the New York Yankees from 1947 to 1963, winning three American League MVP Awards during his remarkable career. He managed both the Yankees and the NY Mets and is the only major league player to own 10 World Series Championship rings.
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 by President Barack Obama just a few months after he passed at 90 years old.
Such beloved sayings as “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over,” “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” “Nobody goes there any more – it’s too crowded,” and dozens of others are still heard in common use every day.
The next places “Virtual Yogi” may appear are on the jumbo screen at a professional ball park, on peoples’ smartphones during a live trivia game or even on a Facebook page as a live streaming video.
Jesch has plans introduce him next spring at the Yogi Berra Museum in New Jersey, possibly with Dale Berra providing the voice.
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