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Sneak peek: Check out the Dunedin-made graphics set to overlay the America's Cup

Dunedin’s Animation Research have been working around the clock in recent months to make racing fly.

A lot has changed in the last 30 years when it comes to the America’s Cup.

While the boats tend to draw the biggest comparison between campaigns, it’s the graphics we watch at home that truly show just how much technology has evolved.

“Back then it was very simple. You look at the model and you laugh at the quality in comparison to today,” Animation Research senior developer Paul Sharp says.

Dunedin’s Animation Research have done the Cup's graphics for the last 29 years and will once again control the coverage for the upcoming campaign.

Sharp, who’s been involved in every campaign since 1992, says the graphics were designed to help those at home understand the racing.

“It was a sport people struggled to understand. Partly the rules, but partly the dynamics of who was in front and by how much,” Sharp says.

While many of the graphics will look similar to years past, there’ll be a big difference when it comes to the live camera.

Helicopter cameras will super-impose grid lines over the water, to show distances between the boats.

Unlike other years, no data will be needed from the boats, for that part of the coverage.

The technology had it’s first and final trial in Dunedin this afternoon and will be shipped up to Auckland tomorrow, in time for racing in just a few weeks’ time.

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