With this project I am attempting to put all of my skills together in order to make a teaser trailer for a fictional game. I plan on making it between one and two minutes long, and creating all assets for it myself. I will likely put the scenes together in unreal engine, composite them in after effects, and then put them together in premiere pro.
So far I have completed the planning stage of this project by creating a storyboard and a script. The storyboard and script are subject to change but I doubt doing so will have any hindrance to my workflow as any changes will be minor ones.
Here is the script
1 Minute trailer Script
*Scene fades in on an establishing rack focus shot with the mouth of a cave on the left third affected by sunlight giving an orange hue and a hanging bat on the right upper third in relative darkness giving off a blue hue*
*The bat is slowly illuminated by torchlight from behind the shot’s FOV eventually aggravating it and causing it to fly from its perch*
*Using the bat’s movement we cut to an overhead shot of a character (we’ll call him X for now) who is progressing through the cave with torch in hand*
*Using a match cut we transition into a medium close-up of X with a slight camera tilt on the x-axis*
*The camera moves in relation to X until an opening is revealed in the right third of the screen*
*X turns into the opening and we cut along with the motion into an over the shoulder shot of X coming into the open area of cave that was established beforehand*
*We cut to a shot of some cave crystals along the cave path*
*X walks near them, stops, and drops his gear*
*We shift the camera upwards to a closeup of X as he goes to rest on a stone protruding from the wall*
*X pulls out a flyer and we match the motion for a cut to a close up of the flyer. The flyer has an image of his destination and directions to reach it*
*The scene fades into a wide shot of the forest outside of the cave with his destination in the same portion of the screen as it was in the previous shot of the flyer*
*We cut to the forest floor near the path at the mouth of a cave to a medium shot of a rabbit*
*X steps near the rabbit startling it*
*We shift to a close up of X breathing in fresh air and basking in the sunlight*
*The right side of X’s face slowly becomes illuminated by harsh red light as the camera gradually shakes*
*X turns to observe what is casting such a bright light and the camera cuts with his motion for an extreme close up of his eyes, which are reflecting a fireball of something falling through the atmosphere*
*X covers his eyes and the motion of this is used to cut to a wide shot of X in an isometric view shielding himself from the wind of the object passing over him to a crescendo of music which cuts off in time with a black screen*
*in the dark screen before the logo there may be some dialogue between X and the thing that fell from the sky not sure yet*
*A logo and maybe a music theme come on screen to end the video*
Here are the storyboard images
When I was still under the impression that I had time to create an entire high quality character model for animation I practiced creating arms, these are screen shots of what I ended up with.
For the past two months I have worked hard to come to an understanding with the various creative tools inside of unreal engine. Eventually I found that the scope of my project was far too large for a three month time period inside of a semester. So as a result I decided to halt any additional modelling I had planned for the project and use outside asset resources (Save for a few models and textures) to build my trailer inside of Unreal Engine 4 and to focus on learning the engine through research and practice.
I have written and produced a VA script that is present in this trailer. I used the on campus recording studio and equipment. Here is the script:
-Outline-
Setting is in a temperate forest, main visual content will be of plants, ponds, rivers, etc. No character will visually appear; However, narration will be the main storytelling element. The narration will come from a character of the world. The lines will be in-frequent in the video and mostly cryptic (as a way to build intrigue). Ambience will be used in conjunction with narration and visual cues in order to give the video substance.
-To the Scripts and Character Profiles-
General Applications of all Profiles
Names basically don’t matter much for a narrator, so it will be left out. (When building characters it is generally better to establish mannerisms and personality before naming them regardless).
This trailer focuses on laying out groundwork for a world crisis event that is currently happening in the Narrator’s present, meaning the focus is in the past, and also that the Narrator will most likely be apathetic about her current situation.
The basic structure for each script will be the same, just with minor style differences between them, placed in a way so as to allude to their narrator’s character.
Character Profiles
Profile 1 - Calm, Polite, and Serious. This Narrator is a part of the political elite, and commands respect from her subjects. Script format for this character will likely take the likeness of a speech to the masses or as a briefing to other political leaders.
Profile 2 - Kind, Empathetic, and Hardworking. This Narrator is an everywoman, part of the lower - middle class, is known throughout her community as kind and trustworthy. Script format for this Narrator may take the form of a tale at a tavern, or a fireside tale to family.
Profile 3 - Clever, Mysterious, and Pompous. This Narrator is an important scholar and is a top advisor to the political elite. As the forefront of Academia she is revered and disliked for her competence and narcissistic mannerisms. Script format for this character will take the form of a scientific report and advisory towards the world’s political power.
Profile Scripts
P1 - “Pardon my forthrightness, but the world is in danger is it not?”
“It has been brought to my attention that several crash sites were spotted on the surface.”
“They appear to be becoming more and more frequent.”
“I fear the time to act has passed.”
“If we stay separated and idle,”
“we will surely fail in our duty to protect ‘Aethuun/Aem/Jaia’. (I’m just throwing out possible names for the god/goddess of this place’s world, names are hard.)”
P2 - “This planet is not just home to us.”
“It is home to every living thing we make contact with.”
“Even the plants from the grass, to the trees, even to the moss at our feet.”
“In harmony we existed under the same sky.”
“That sky was yet tainted by dissonance.”
“A calamity was upon us.”
“Yet all was not lost, for we had those who would protect us.”
“We called them.”
“(Disclaimer: Only one of these phrases will be used not particularly sold on any particular one yet.)
‘The Emissaries of Aethuun’
‘The Guardians of Aem’
‘The Hands of Jaia(Pronounced hi-a)’.”
P3 - “Sir, I feel that your lax attitude towards recent events may be a tad irresponsible.”
“Given your esteemed position, do you not think it wise to act on the matter?”
“Currently the world stands as you do, still;”
“However, the issue at hand will not wait for us to overcome idleness.” “So why not give me the order.”
“So that I may
‘Appoint the Emissaries of Aethuun’/
’Select the Gaurdians of Aem’/
’Collect the Hands of Jaia’.”
While going through the process of creating my trailer I learned many things. I learned lighting controls, Cascade (the particle emitter engine inside of UE4), and how to make dynamic materials with UE4's material blueprints. I gained experience in resource management, and I learned a whole lot about different modeling concepts through using professional 3d scans, models, and textures.
I applied a ton of knowledge I've gained from my minor into finishing this project. While I didn't have the time to understand all of these aspects in Unreal perfectly I feel confident that I will be able to create better trailers, videos, renders, and games with the knowledge I've gained during this Independent study.
Here is the final product, it is 45 seconds long and I was able to do everything that I set out to do after my project revision. I am happy with it, and I think this will be a fantastic addition to my portfolio.
The Models that I produced inside of this trailer are the background white pine trees, the creation of which you can see in my environment generation project, and the meteor at the end was something I made from scratch using cascade inside of Unreal Engine 4.
