Designing Trailers and Openings?

[Auro-Cyanide]

This is something that I'm going to have coming up around Decemeber to get ready for the release of BCM.

I did a super basic trailer before, but since I was doing it during Nanoreno, it isn't great. And since then I have actually figured out how to use the camera and use pre-comps in my work. The effects and whatnot aren't my biggest concern since I'm at least okay at After Effects and there is plenty of instruction out there. My concern is figuring out what to show. After Effects is not a program that you want to go in willy nilly since it can turn into a mess very quickly. So I have to plan what it is I want to show, but when I think about it, I'm not sure how. Does anyone have any advice for this. Should I create a story line with story boards? Music will play a big part so should I start designing from that? A bit of both? I understand a lot of this is going to depend on what I'm doing for it, but if anyone has had any experience with it (and can warn me of potholes) I would be grateful

[Ziassan]

Hmm by experience (hired to compose for openings), people seem to want the music before doing anything. If the way it goes also in the anime industry, most of the time.
Altough it's not bad to have an overall idea beforehand to give to your composer (for instance I got this guideline from one person"If the start/intro could be smooth during around XX seconds and then the song really begins").

In short, making a music on an already-made animation can make the work harder for the composer, while having a music to work on for the artist can give more inspiration and allow a nearly perfect synchro. I guess it's because music already have strict times rules to follow by itself.

If you're worried about a deadline though, you can ask the sketch of the track and starts work on it while the composer is finishing it (like, the instrumental is done, and while the singer is working his/her record, you can work on your side).

[ThisIsNoName]

I'm not exactly experienced, but one of the first things I would do is to ask yourself who your target audience is. Once you know that, list about 10 things that target audience would be looking for in your game. So, in your case I might choose: a dark storyline, awesome art, non-linear gameplay, and BxB, just to list a few.

Once you have that done, prioritize them according to how much you want to emphasize them. Just remember that they don't have to be mutually exclusive. For example, if you wanted to emphasize the art, the trailer would focus on backgrounds and sprites, with hints at the story and gameplay. Otherwise, if you wanted to focus on the story, you'd have a lot more text, making sure the trailer has a beginning, middle and end.

Now that you know what to emphasize, you can talk to the composer about how you want the trailer to feel. Again, if you're focusing on the art, you might want a low-key, mystical score, as opposed to the story, where you might like more heavy and dynamic.

From there, it's a lot of tweaking to get just the right feel. One thing to remember is that you want to "fish" for your audience. First bait them in, and once you have them, lull them into letting their guard down. Then, at the last second, hook them with something that completely changes how they looked at the story.

[Deji]

Afaik, like other previously said, you get the music first with whatever "feeling" or "concept" you want to convey.
After that, you make a sketchy storyboard that matches the music you got. Just sketching the "scenes" that'll go on the trailer will do.
Make a sort of animatic with the sketches with the music. See if that works. If not, repeat until you like what you got. Then develop the video further with final art (:

And don't forget to give your audience some eye candy/foreshadowing I remember the trailers/openings I've liked the most are the ones that foreshadow important events and show me stuff that make me go "*O* I want to see how/when something like this happens!! It looks so cool!"

[Geckos]

Afaik, like other previously said, you get the music first with whatever "feeling" or "concept" you want to convey.
After that, you make a sketchy storyboard that matches the music you got. Just sketching the "scenes" that'll go on the trailer will do.
Make a sort of animatic with the sketches with the music. See if that works. If not, repeat until you like what you got. Then develop the video further with final art (:

And don't forget to give your audience some eye candy/foreshadowing I remember the trailers/openings I've liked the most are the ones that foreshadow important events and show me stuff that make me go "*O* I want to see how/when something like this happens!! It looks so cool!"

Pretty much sums it up!

[Auro-Cyanide]

This all seems like very good advice (especially the idea of prioritising what I want to say). Thank you I'm not really used to thinking in so many dimensions with visuals, movement, storytelling and music all going at the same time, so I want to make sure I plan correctly to save myself some pain.

I agree that the music should be a key element to the trailer since the transistions and visuals should link up to it. I'm not really sure what type of mucis I would want, but I'm learning towards something fairly fast and strong. I do know that it would be good to have a song that has... parts? I'm not sure what you would call them. Like an intro, a chorus, a verse type thing. I think with designated areas that have a different feeling to them would be good for building up the story. I think having a decent beat also helps with get the transistions to work... I really have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to music :/

I haven't really come across too many examples that are like what I feel like I want to do. Many of the Japanese VN openings I've seen are a little too... flashy for what I am after. There are also a couple conventions I don't want to do, like the character introductions. I don't feel like it suits what I'm trying to communicate. (If anyone has examples like that I would love to see them )

I guess I want something fairly cinematic that focuses on the storyline of muder, mystery, family and friends. And definitely a good splash of foreshadowing, which should be fun to do XD I'm hoping the way I have planned to do the CGs should help me a fair bit in getting it to work. Though I'm not sure how to work in the gameplay elements, or if I should leave them to be shown off in screenshots... hmm.

[Ziassan]

Ahah well, you're wondering about things which are more the work of the composer (unless you're composing yourself). Depending on how much he's implied / how much work you want into this opening, there will probably be a fairly long talk to set exactly the right feel.
You explain what you want to convey and some of the links you'd like to have, and after that's usually up to the composer to find the ways to make something from what you described.

Oh and a side-note, can seem unimportant, but isn't : ask the composer if he's recording some real instruments for the track or not.
Because when done by virtual instruments, it's easy to duplicate a part, or tweak this or that, wihtout adding to much work.
But it can be a pain to have to record again an real instrument (especially if he's not the one recording it but hiring extern players)
In short, if you're worried that you'd change your mind after the track is done, ask about how much work it make for him to do a change afterward (if you're hiring this composer that's for you and your budget, if it's a volunteer, to avoid making him crash his head on the wall)

[ThisIsNoName]

Just to make sure are we talking about trailers or openings?

If you're designing a opening, I don't think you'd have to worry about gameplay much, if at all. The main thing you want an opening to accomplish is to hook the player into staying with the game, even if the actual game doesn't hook them so well. I think one of the best openings that I can think of that accomplishes that is the Metal Gear Solid 2 opening. One of the things I really like about it is how it includes scenes from both the first half hour and much later in the story. When I was playing the game, I noticed I would use the opening as a sort of "benchmark" for how far I was in the story. There were times when it felt all I was doing was backtracking and any other game I probably would have ragequit. But since I saw the scene in the opening with the main character and Solid Snake back to back, I kept saying to myself "just a little bit further. Just a little bit further."

If you're designing a trailer, I think the best place to put the gameplay would be in the middle, lull part of the trailer. That way, the viewers will go away thinking about the story, but every time they remember the story, they'll also remember that little bit of gameplay.

[Auro-Cyanide]

@Zissan, Thank you, I will keep that in mind I'm not very good with music, but I figure it would help if I had some idea what I might want so I'm not one of those people who just shrugs when asked XD

@ThisIsNoName, Ahhh, trailer technically. At the moment. Our game is already going to be huge, we are probably not going to add a video file on top of that. Most of my reference points are openings though, and I'm definitely leaning towards something cinematic and story based. But our maps and time travel structure is also important, so I'm thinking it would be good to include it somehow. I liked the MSG2 Opening I liked the way they broke up the content. It might be a good idea to help with transitions.