The music in my trailer is something I spent a lot of time choosing, I originally wanted to splice 2 tracks together but despite experimenting with various audio transitions, the change was too obvious and really distracted the viewer from the trailer. Finally, I chose 'Heart of Courage' by composer Thomas J. Bergersen as it provided a subdued start before reaching a crescendo before trailing off at the end. Very little was done to the track apart from cutting the section I needed, increasing the base and altering the volume. At 00:14:04 the character attacks a bandit as drum hit in the soundtrack, I increased the bass at this point as a way of emphasizing the impact of the sword. As the title, date and developer logo fade out at the end of the trailer, the soundtrack gradually fades out due to the use of pen anchor points placed at 100% and 0%.
A knife 'stabbing' sound is also played at each clip played during the war trail scene. I felt that without these sounds these small clips seemed to carry no effect. For each of the clips I reduced the volume by 12.7db as any more and it was not audible and any louder and it took precedence over the soundtrack, I also increased the bass by 24 db on each clip to create a deeper 'thud' alongside the shrill knife sound. Lastly I slowed the clips down so they match the action on screen, this also increased the bass sound thus giving the actions on screen more impact.
The music was the first thing I decided on as it gave me a guide as to where I should place clips. Until 00:21:19 the music is very subdued, whilst onwards from this point the intensity increases and sounds epic until 00:52:17 where the intensity dials down into a single thud before slowly fading out. I saw these as marker points with the beginning being where I could place darker clips with scenes of evil and death, then at the crescendo having all clips being of glorious landscapes, particularly calming water. These scenes would continue until the thud at the end, and while the music fades out I could display my title, date and developer logo. I believe I stuck to these guidelines very well.
After the dip to white transition (00:39:13) the next clip is of my character running through the a forest, with a sword in a first person perspective. I filmed this clip after capturing some footage of a real forest, because of this I knew to look for a similar type of woodland in game. I think I found a similar piece but definitely not identical, this is something I would like to change by either finding a different place within skyrim, or a different forest for live action footage. Due to the difference in forests, a dissolve effect didn't have the desired effect, it was too obvious and very distracting meaning the viewer focussed more on the differences rather than enjoying the trailer. Aside from the type of trees, one of the main differentiating factors was the colour scheme. To combat this I changed the brightness and contrast of the clip to 51.8 and 61.4 respectively but this still didn't provide a smooth transition.
At 00:39:13 the clip starts to fade into black and white, this was achieved by slicing the end of the Skyrim clip and the start of the live action clip with the razor tool, applying the black and white video effect to both of them, then used the cross dissolve transition between the 4 clips to fade from Skyrim colour, black and white, then to live action black and white and finally to colour. As I also had clips in tracks 4 and 5 that started midway through the transition, I had to clip them, apply black and white, then a cross dissolve so all clips were consistent.
Once the black and white fades into the colour (00:42:21) there are 3 clips running in parallel. The forest clip speed was increased to 257% as it was quite a long clip and needed to fit between my other clips, the speed starts to get reduced at 00:45:05, where it falls from 100% to, eventually, 1% by the end of the clip, this is to simulate the slow down at the end of sprinting. To reinforce the idea the person is running I applied a camera blur of 3% at the start of the clip which begins to reduce at 00:46:13, (when the running slow down begins to become apparent) it reaches 0% a few milliseconds later to simulate focussing on the trees.
In track 4 I have the green screen footage of me 'running' with the sword. This effect was achieved by standing in front of the screen, holding the camera at my chest and lifting the sword up and forward, then down and back. Once the footage was completed, I applied an ultra key video effect and tweaked the settings so that the green was eradicated, but did not erase any of the sword detail.
Due to the sword's reflective surface, some of the green screen can be seen on the sword itself. To combat this I used the change colour video effect, and after keying out the green screen, used this to dull the sword colour slightly and spread the silver effect. I then copied this clip into the one above and changed the blend mode of the one below to lighten. Upon close inspection the forest can be seen through the sword, in motion this merely looks like a reflection, although I would like to tweak this more if I have time. To finish, the sword clip speed was set to -128% to match the running speed of the forest clip.
At 00:47:24 the dragon can be seen swooping down, after being sped up. On the track above is a clip of the sword being held and swaying slightly, this was created by using a section of the original sword clip just before I started moving it, this section was then slowed down to simulate it being held still. The track below is a still from the forest clip, this was used as the person isn't moving. The dragon was downloaded from youtube, I then applied an ultra key and tweaked the settings so the green couldn't be seen but also didn't cut off any part of the dragon. I also applied basic 3D to change the angle of the dragon by 3 degrees as I felt it wasn't looking at the center of the screen.
As the dragon lands (00:49:13) I used a dust green screen effect. This was taken from youtube and an ultra key applied to it. Aside from the usual changes to make the green not visible but not cut into the dust, I also changed the luminance in the colour correction segment. By changing it to 75 the original white colour was changed to a shade of brown that matched the dirt on the floor in my forest clip, this adds to the idea that the dragon is swooping down with tremendous force. To add to this, I sped up the beginning of the clip so the dust flies up quickly, then using time remapping, slowed it down to 35% of the original speed so the dust slowly falls as there are no other forces in the scene such as wind. At 00:49:23 as the dragon rears it's head, the speed is reduced by 50% to give the impression it takes a lot of effort and power to shoot it's fire breath. At this time, the idle sword clip is changed to the sword being sheathed. This was originally at the start of the clip when it was being raised, by right clicking the clip, selecting speed/duration and clicking reverse speed, the clip played in reverse giving the impression that it is being sheathed.
At 00:52:17 the screen suddenly goes black, I did not use fade to black as I wanted the effect to be sudden after the fire had reached the screen. The clip following it had the opacity set to zero for 1 second as this fit in with the music trailing off (I will expand on this in another blog post) before slowly increasing the opacity to reveal the flames, this gives the impression they are the dragon's flame remnants. The title begins to fade in at 00:53:20, this is a screenshot of the title from the cover. Using the colour replacement tool in photoshop I changed the black background to green, then imported it into premiere, this allowed the ultra key to be easily applied eradicating the background. This technique was also applied to the developer logo seen at 00:56:22.
The date begins to fade in at 00:55:22, this was created using the title tool. I used the center tools in the bottom left to ensure the title was central. I selected a font that matched my overall theme and found one similar to the font I used for my description on my game cover. I initially wanted the colour to be similar to that of the title so it was consistent but as I began experimenting, this changed. I positioned the fiery background behind the title, and wanted my date to reflect that there was fire present. By using the colour seen in the screenshot with the gradient, it gave the impression the fire was being reflected from the date. To aid this effect, I used a red sheen to intensify the flame colour, the angle match where the title was placed and the offset so the flame reflection was at the bottom of the letters as it would be. Finally I used the texture tool to make the date look like it was made of slightly reflective stone, this fits in with the rugged theme of my project.
The title, date and developer logo fade in one after the other so the user has time to focus and acknowledge each one, before they all begin to fade out at 00:59:05 along with the music so the trailer finishes with a black screen. I felt ending with a black screen was important as the majority of trailers I saw finished with the date and title before fading to black.
Following the shackled skeleton clip, it cuts to a dragon in an open plain firing an ice ball. (00:20:03) I wanted the blue ice ball to be available for a transition to the next clip with blue water but the ball was fired to quickly and was essentially a blue flash on screen. By using the time remapping tool I was able to slow down the clip where the dragon spits the ice ball down to 50% giving the ice ball a couple more seconds on screen giving the viewer more time to take it in. This then cuts to the clip of water rushing forward to reveal the blue sky, I didn't have a transition between these 2 clips as they felt too forced, however I feel that because the majority of the 2 clips are a similar shade of blue, it is still a move transition.
At 00:21:19 this clip begins the transition into the clip under the bridge. I used the cross dissolve transition as I was going from a predominantly blue scene to a scene of the same type. The transition is slightly off center, beginning later in the first clip as this allowed the clip to flow better. The grey foam blended into the grey stone floor, the stone sconces blended into the bridge arches, the water and sky blending into one another make the transition flow smoothly.
Again, going from a scene with water and blue sky to a scene in the same vane, additive dissolve enabled this change to happen without being distracting. By using this transition in particular the water, sky, trees, and mountains blend into each other smoothly. Of all the water scene transitions, the additive dissolve at 00:29:20 is my favourite. After experimenting with all the dissolve transitions, additive was most suitable when placed slightly off center between the two clips, starting later in the geyser scene. Due to this, the foam from the geyser blends into the white/grey sky in the water's reflection, the vapour fades into the snowy stump of the dock, and the trees, sky, and mountains also flow into one another, this makes the transition smoother.
As the camera begins to point past the trees and into the sky (00:33:24) the cross dissolve transition begins to happen. This was shortened to 00:00:24 milliseconds and moved to earlier within the lake scene, as this allowed for an almost seamless transition between the sky and trees. The dip to white transition at 00:38:13 was placed off center, slightly earlier in the sun clip. This was to create a 'blinding' effect when the camera was central at the sun.
After watching several trailers most started with either a Pegi rating or a certificate warning, to make my trailer look authentic I wanted to include a rating. As I was using Skyrim for my filming, it seemed fitting to use the Pegi rating used at the start of their trailer. To do this I used keepvid.com to download the video and the razor tool to cut the section I needed. Using the pen tool, I then placed an anchor point towards the end of the clip and at the end of the clip, lowering the latter point made the clip gradually fade out. (This can be seen at 00:01:08.).
The clip following the rating (00:02:00) of the skeleton on the burial plinth was originally central but after I experimented with transitions, I moved it to the left a large amount so the purple book was central. Because of this, the non-additive dissolve transition (00:05:10) works to great effect, giving the impression that the ghost in the next clip is coming out of the book. I wanted this effect to give the impression that the ghost was being summoned from the book. To achieve this, I had to delay the transition considerably, so much so that the transition isn't between the two clips but at the start of the ghost clip. Towards the end of this clip I used the dip to black transition (00:06:19) and positioned it so as the ghost walked towards the screen, the screen started to darken and went black as the ghost's head was at the camera. The skeleton speed was set to 304.7% due to the 1 minute time restriction. This speed was set by right clicking the clip, selecting speed/duration and changing the duration to the amount needed to fit in between the pegi and ghost clips. The ghost clip was set to 150% also due to the time restriction.
The black lifts into my war trail clip, (00:07:15) I originally wanted this to be a clip following my character in a battle scene but due to technical limitation this wasn't possible. I had the scrolling clip on video track 1, I then placed 3 clips of battle on video track 2 (at 00:08:06, 00:11:18, and 00:13:20). The reason for the odd gap placement is intentional, I wanted to the side scrolling environment to be taken in before a scene of violence. I found putting the clips closer was overwhelming as the changes in scenery were too quick, any further apart and I was running out of space before the next clip. Towards the end of side scrolling clip, I used time remapping to slow the clip down by 50% (of the original 300%), this then slowed down further so that attention could be paid to the blood splattered sword before going into the darkness. I went for this style as I wanted it to look very cinematic and an inventive way of showing a battle scene, with the audience being presented with the aftermath and slowly getting information as to what happened and who was responsible.
The following transition (00:16:13) takes place as the camera moves towards a shadow. I wanted this clip to merge with the following clip of the skeleton in shackles in a way that made it seem the camera was moving through the shadow and revealing what was within. The slide and push transitions moved the clip of screen to the right and looked very unprofessional. I created a new colour matte and placed it between the 2 clips, increasing the border width to 60 so that it merged fully with the shadow. By using the slide transition between the war trail and the black colour matte, it looks as if the camera is scrolling left into the shadow and then (due to putting a slide between the black matte and the skeleton clip) emerging next to skeleton. The overall affect I wanted to convey here was that the mystery killer was going into the shadow, and the viewers got an idea what was within.
As I mentioned in a previous blog posts, I wanted to source my own footage. Thanks to the video camera on my phone and the recording software on my computer, all of the footage in my trailer is my own.
In Game Footage
Although I set out to use a variety of games/programs for footage, I ended up just using Skyrim. I tried to transition different scenes from different games into one another but it looked very obvious where the differences were due to the different game engines. Skyrim was the best one to use though as it had a lot of varied environments allowing me to capture a wide variety of footage and due to it's console, using a command I was able to use a free camera mode which allowed me to move outside the constraints of the character. I used this ability to capture the image used for the reflection of my shield as well as the majority of footage seen in the trailer. Having the ability to move freely allowed me to capture footage very low to ground and also high in the sky which otherwise wouldn't have been possible.
Live Action Footage
For the outdoor scene I traveled to the local woods and found a good spot to film in, I knew I would be using footage from Skyrim so I tried to find a similar environment, unfortunately this forest didn't have the volume or type of trees I would have liked but it was passable. I initially started by running with the sword and filming, however this resulted in shaky and blurry footage. I decided instead to walk very slowly forward without the sword in hand as I knew I could speed up the footage in Premiere. This worked out a lot better for the forest shot but I was still unsure how I was going to insert the sword into the footage.
My tutor had set up a green screen wall for use during class so, after getting permission, I brought the sword in and filmed my hand lifting the sword up and down against the green screen. I then used an ultra key to eliminate the green screen, put it against the background and matched the speeds. The result can be seen in the trailer and I am personally very happy with it.
Following the completion of my on disc label, my file was corrupted and lost. I had a presentation within the next 3 days so I had to re-create the label, but this gave me chance to experiment and implement some of the feedback I had received.
My original aim was to get the disc looking the way it did originally, however after assembling all the pieces I decided to experiment and attempt to implement some of the feedback I had received.. I made the shield smaller and fit within the draconic ring but this lost the majestic effect the disc conveyed. I then tried moving the shield behind the ring, but because the edges couldn't be seen, it wasn't very obvious it was a shield. I then tried moving it to the far right but this felt very uneven and made the disc look 'wonky'.
In the end I settled for a slightly changed version of the original. I moved the shield to the center of the disc and increased the size slightly to create an even split down the disc as opposed to my offer center approach previously. To accommodate the shield I had to move my developer logo to the bottom of the disc alongside the pegi and technology logos. I also increased the size of these as I felt they were too small, especially when compared to actual game discs.
Whilst trying to find the blending mode I used for the blood splatter I came across the one pictured. Although it isn't the same as the original I found that it has a very good effect and looked even more realistic than the effect I used previously. I also applied a different blend mode to the leather background that shows the map texture slightly poking through, although this effect was not intended I think it helps make the leather look worn.
Being as I have finished front cover and my on disk label, I have decided it would be best if I had a couple of my peers to give me their feedback on my work. This will help me improve my work further and give me a better idea of how other users would perceive it.
User F
Cover
Overall think that the design for
the cover has been very well thought out, and certainly a lot of time must have
been taken to carefully think about the different elements that were going to
go into the title. For example, on the back cover the used of the three
different pictures are very nicely linked in with the three different
subtitles. Staying with the rear cover, the font choices had been very well throughout
out, obviously linking in well with the theme of the game. Continuing with the
font theme the contrasting colours work well for ease of reading. Moving to the
front cover, there has been a lot of time spent on this and this is very
evident too. The combination of the textured background, the highly detailed
shield, claw marks and burnt edge all work very well indeed. Personally I
cannot think of any improvements for the cover.
My response - I am pleased the overall tone of my cover comes across easily and that the elements I spent a long time creating, are well received. The pictures and subtitles on the back come from my research of multiple PC cases. I am pleased small details such as font have been noticed as I did spend time choosing the best front that could be easily read but also convey the harsh, medieval tone of my project. I am glad the elements of my front cover have been easily understood (The burnt edge is noticed by the user and actually looks like a burnt corner) and that they think it looks good.
Disk Label
In regards to the disk label, my
first impressions are that it is very good that a general “house theme” or “house
style” has been incorporated with the use of the fonts, colour scheme and of
course the shield too. I like the way the shield has been incorporated into the
design, with half being left off and the rest being left for space for that of
information on the disk. A new feature on this disk is that of draconian ring,
which adds a very nice effect to the disk and promotes another area of
interest, whilst also leaving space around the bottom of the small print information
to be placed too. In regards to the specification points I feel that they have
all been met, as well as going above and beyond the specification too. I also
like that the finishing touch of placing the disc logo on a backdrop is a nice for
the presentation – obviously when printed this will not be featured however for
the purpose of the presentation element this is a good idea.
My response - Similar to the cover, I am glad the theme of my project comes across easily from just viewing the disc with no prior knowledge. I was very cautious where I placed the draconic ring and what colour to make the small print. I think by choosing a blend mode on the ring and a white font for the print, both things look good, but are also practical (as the small print is easily seen)
User S
Cover
The DVD case most certainly
captures the intended feel. The medieval mead drinking warriors of the Ragnarok
epic series shine through across the entirety of the DVD case. Following on
from this, It is easy to see that this is PC game from the layout of the rear
of the case which certainly warrants credit to the creator for their research.
One particular aspect that I like and one which clearly took a large amount of
time was the reflective shield which takes center stage on the front cover. The
shield clearly shows the reflection of a 'Ye Old' bar which again adds to the
feel of the times represented by this franchise. Overall, it is a fantastic
piece of work and from my perspective, one I cannot find fault with.
My response - Similar to F, the style and feel of the cover I was creating has come across to S. I am glad that the rear of my case looks believable as I did spend a lot of time researching common themes between PC game cases. I am pleased small nuances such as the bar reflection in the shield are noticed and look natural to the user.
Disk Label
The on disk label continues the
feel of the medieval, epic adventure story which takes place in Ragnarok. The
use of blood stains and the map showing through the solid black background with
the leather effect, definitely aids the perception that this disk label is
battle warn. One aspect which i would possibly change is the shield, which features on the right of
the label. The straight thick line which
separates the two sides of the disk is slightly too hard for me and
therefore would need to be changed. Following on from this, I would minimize
the size of the shield to show of more of the dragon around the outside edge.
This is another fantastic piece of work and one that not only looks
professional, but engaging. My response - I am glad my theme is clearly seen on the disk label as it was meant to look worn and ragged. I did experiment with the shield (making it smaller, changing the position etc.) but the changes didn't look very good. The small shield didn't make the disc look as impressive, moving it further out/in made the disc feel 'wonky' and the other elements didn't flow because of it.
