Permanent Collection

Edgar Allen Poe’s Raven Heads to Baltimore for Hype Opener by Already Been Chewed

Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Victorian era literature references simply do not come to mind when it comes to branding pro sports teams, which makes this dark and dramatic work for the Baltimore Ravens by the CG/VFX team at Already Been Chewed so refreshing.

Barton Damer, founder/digital artist at Already Been Chewed: “The Baltimore Ravens have used Edgar Allen Poe themes in the past but we have avoided them as we weren’t sure how to fit it into a football graphics package. But we got excited about a modern take on Poe, one inspired by Doctor Strange and with an Inception vibe to it.

“We threw a lot at this project, everything from set design combined with a Volume wall as well as a green screen station for capturing the live action of the players. We also we had a lot of CG to create, the clock tower tornado swirling along with the stadium morphing and forming. We used Houdini to make it all come to life.

“We got excited about a modern take on Poe, one inspired by Doctor Strange and with an Inception vibe to it.”

“We also planned a separate shoot specifically for the motion capture of our CG football player. We knew it was going to be an issue figuring out how to get (Lamar Jackson) to run up a curved football field. There’s too much risk of injury on set for that.

“Thankfully, I have a friend who played college football but is also a long time skateboarder. He’s used to skating ramps and jumping down big hand rails. I knew he wouldn’t care one bit about filming some football moves on a curved surface.

“So we went to 4DWN skate park in Dallas and filmed our stunt double, Chris Vernon, running up and down a vert ramp to capture the football move we needed which you can see in the BTS video below.”

Watch the BTS film:

Watch the in-stadium experience

Images

2025 Baltimore Ravens Hype Opener Video by Already Been Chewed | STASH MAGAZINE

Credits

Client: Baltimore Ravens

Production: Already Been Chewed
CD: Barton Damer
Assistant CD/Live Action Director: Ryan Noreen
Head of Production/Assistant Live Action Director: Aaron Smock
DP: Marcus Taplin
Production Manager/3d Motion Artist: Matt Milstead
3d Motion Artist: Bryan Talkish, Cody Clack, Kyle Kerr, Jake Odgers, Alberto Fernandez, Mark Fancher, Nick Walsh, Isaiah Rivers, Ryan Dean
3d Modeler/Look Dev: Margaritis Gitopoulo, Clayton Sjoerdsma
1st AC: David Ishida
Media Management: Kristie Osborne
Gaffer: Dan Stack
Key Grip: Zach Frederick
Best Boy Grip: Rhett Bloomquist
Best Boy Electric: Jason Shinsato
Dimmer Board Operator: Rodney Jones
LED Wall Project Manager: Brianne Djamco
LED Wall Tech: John Womble, Xavier Salamanca, Russ Wylie
ICVFX Operator: Drew Smith
Art Lead: Matthew Buck
Art Assist: Melissa Conner
Art PA: Taylor Teusch, Ashley-Chynel Stevenson
Production Assistant: Javan Butler, Aiven Davis