It's a new mixed reality feature that Ravens Productions has worked on for months, in collaboration with The Famous Group, a fan experience company based in Culver City, Calif.

On a night when the Ravens clinched the AFC North, the special effects were also championship caliber.

"Our goal is to make every game an event, something you can't miss," said Jay O'Brien, Ravens vice president of broadcasting. "You've got to come to the stadium because no two games are alike. We want to create 'wow' moments, when afterward fans say, 'Did you see that?' With this Raven, it was like that. Fans' responses were, 'What did we even see?'''

Greg Harvey, CEO and executive creative director of The Famous Group, explained some of the intricacies that were needed to create the bird's riveting appearance.

"The beauty of mixed reality is the ability of computer-generated objects to interact with the physical environment, this sells the realism," Harvey said. "To achieve this, parts of the stadium were captured with a laser-scanning technique. We scanned where the goal post was, where the field was, the vertical boards and brought that into a computer. When the bird is actually on the uprights, its claws wrap around the cross bar and its wings appear behind the uprights. We also captured all of the stadium lighting, this ensures the shadows cast by the Raven correctly interact with the physical stadium and that the Raven itself is lit by the actual stadium lights at night."

Andrew Isaacson, executive vice president of The Famous Group, was pleased that the Raven had the flexibility to be featured throughout night, in sync with the flow of the game.

"We are really excited about the in-game entertainment possibilities of mixed reality and using the Raven for more than just the summoning open that went viral," Isaacson said. "We created additional animations to play for defensive situations and celebratory plays and built different states and locations for the animations which can be looped and timed to fit within the breaks of the game. It allows for flexibility in the control room and the fans never know exactly where the Raven will appear next!"