Xonotic Trailer (help needed!)

Thanks everyone for taking the time to give feedback. If Archer don't have the time I can finish the trailer instead(back home very soon). I won't remake the whole thing though, mostly because it would be way too time consuming but also I kinda like the current one. As for the issue with the pace as Halogene suggests, I don't think it is a very big problem, I've shown it to some people whom never heard of Xonotic and neither complained about the pace.

So this is what I will do:

• Change the "9 weapons.." clip to make text visible
  
• Make "12 different modes..." clip more consistent in size with the other text clips
  
• Fix the runningman slowmo clip (there's "bloody screen" in the last miliseconds)
  
• More contrast in the logo clip
  
• See if logos will work in the last "Download at.." clip
  

I hope I can make it as good as possible, but there's always room for improvement. Someone have to decide when it's good enough (which i personally think it is when I've fixed the above issues). To make it clear; I've already applied a lot of feedback from Archer, kojn, asyyy, Nethicx and Mirio so you don't think I ignore feedback (i very much appriciate it).

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Also will see if I can stick some crylink action too, a lot of rl in current one.

I agree, it is pretty much good as it is.

I agree, it is pretty much good as it is.

I have to disagree there, it's going to be good, but with the last rendered version that was posted the second part is a mess and requires a different more subtle approach, like some others have pointed out.

I don't think it's a good idea to be pleased too soon with something that's going to appear on the Xonotic home page, we should really look at the details and try to make it as good as we can, we're absolutely not in a hurry anyway.

It's not a mess, it's structured simply like this:

1. Build up tension (show off maps and gfx, kick in some slowmo action with the beat)
   
2. Get viewer interested (show off logo, some gameplay + "cool" info)
   
3. Show off game (various gameplay clip)
   
4. Direct viewer where to get the game (outro with link to website)
   

Being too explicit about the info (e.g. showing off weapons after "9 weapons..." or showing off secondary after etc.) it would be hard and necessary for the viewer to interpret that information, she wanna see what the game is about and information about how many weapons and that they have secondaries is just a fact to make the game more appealing not teaching exactly what is happening in the clips. Because how is the viewer supposed to know what is a combo, secondary or regular shot without trying? It's possible to show ofc, but I think it's not really relevant in contrast to the fact that there is a certain number of weapons and they have secondary fire modes. And if you were to make this so he sees every little feature and fact the trailer would not be a trailer but a review of the game (without the opinions).

Obviously I am biased to have an opinion on this, because I edited that way based on how I interpreted feedback and my own ideas. But I can say it's not a mess because I've shown it to people who have never played Xonotic and neither complained about the pace or structure.

Okey this said, of course anyone can make a trailer for Xonotic and it's up to the maintainer of the website and core team to decide weather to consider if it's worth showing off on the website, but more trailers is not bad. Most new games have several trailers (teaser, launch trailer, tv ad trailer, gameplay trailer, trailer featuring a particular feature etc.) so I guess more is just better. You make it sound like my work was redundant and that's why I get a bit frustrated because I took a lot of my free time to making the current one. But by no means, make it absolutely perfect if you can, and I'm not sarcastic because I believe ofc you can if you take the time for it! But here is a trailer almost ready for viewing and it's hopefully better than no new promotional video at all.

It's not a mess, it's structured simply like this:

1. Build up tension (show off maps and gfx, kick in some slowmo action with the beat)
   
2. Get viewer interested (show off logo, some gameplay + "cool" info)
   
3. Show off game (various gameplay clip)
   
4. Direct viewer where to get the game (outro with link to website)
   

Being too explicit about the info (e.g. showing off weapons after "9 weapons..." or showing off secondary after etc.) it would be hard and necessary for the viewer to interpret that information, she wanna see what the game is about and information about how many weapons and that they have secondaries is just a fact to make the game more appealing not teaching exactly what is happening in the clips. Because how is the viewer supposed to know what is a combo, secondary or regular shot without trying? It's possible to show ofc, but I think it's not really relevant in contrast to the fact that there is a certain number of weapons and they have secondary fire modes. And if you were to make this so he sees every little feature and fact the trailer would not be a trailer but a review of the game (without the opinions).

Obviously I am biased to have an opinion on this, because I edited that way based on how I interpreted feedback and my own ideas. But I can say it's not a mess because I've shown it to people who have never played Xonotic and neither complained about the pace or structure.

Okey this said, of course anyone can make a trailer for Xonotic and it's up to the maintainer of the website and core team to decide weather to consider if it's worth showing off on the website, but more trailers is not bad. Most new games have several trailers (teaser, launch trailer, tv ad trailer, gameplay trailer, trailer featuring a particular feature etc.) so I guess more is just better. You make it sound like my work was redundant and that's why I get a bit frustrated because I took a lot of my free time to making the current one. But by no means, make it absolutely perfect if you can, and I'm not sarcastic because I believe ofc you can if you take the time for it! But here is a trailer almost ready for viewing and it's hopefully better than no new promotional video at all.

Of course it is not literally a mess, there is always a structure when making videos, but it comes across as one though to me, while the first part (before logo) is actually the contrary: nicely built up, can easily tell what's going on, and the logo bit is quite magnificent.

But then, one big mistake you make in the second part (after logo) is starting the action scene with slow motion, at the song's climax, it just feels wrong. Another note on slow motion stuff, which frostwyrm also mentioned, is that it simply looks plain ugly in Xonotic. So if we wanna do slow-mo we gotta find a moment where this ugliness is least apparent.

To be very honest, you don't need slowmo with the fast pacing of the track, you could try it at the very end, just before the link shows, but there's not really another suitable place for it.


As some others have mentioned too, making things too focused on the guitar rhythm will not work very well, it will only work with effects, not with the decision that goes about when to show text and such.

Then towards the end, no more text appears for quite a while, all that while the first bit of the second part is crammed with text/video sequences. What you could do is try to find a different way of showing text and content, so that it would be more evenly spread across the vid. Don't show too much text or too many new subjects, or if you insist, let me know so I can make the song longer.

All the above is commentary on part 3 in your list "show off game" for the record.

The final part, with link, can use some more fluff too, if you are going to pick up the trailer again I could make a nice screen for that, and I could also make something regarding the darkplaces engine logo for the beginning (but I mentioned that already).


You're right regarding the viewer though, after all we're not making a tutorial video or a review, we're making a showcase of Xonotic's finest features, but it should still be clear what's going on, if all they see is a big clusterfuck of text and stuff then the trailer won't appeal.

This is where feedback from people comes in, preferably ones that know things about trailers and video editing (and with a sense of quality), to let you know what's appealing about the video and what is not

Try not to listen to the first next person regarding feedback if they say it's cool, instead listen to the ones that criticize your video. When I show my music to people, it's really great if they say they like it, but honestly it's the most useless feedback I can get because nothing I make is ever perfect, there's always room for improvement and I personally always strife for that, try to strife for the same thing!

Let me know if you are going to pick up the trailer again, we'll speak @ IRC when I have the time (somewhere next week)



EDIT: Quick note on the many trailers thing, I find it annoying myself. Some early access games make like 6 trailers showing essentially the same thing over and over with one feature more or less, it comes over as cheap, a bit like "guy didn't know how to make a good trailer first time so he made another one, then repeated that five times", it gets old after the second or third one really. This guy and his game are an overly extreme example of what I mean, he made like... 9 "official" trailers lol: https://www.youtube.com/user/phr00t/videos

Just don't wanna end up like that : D

Ideally there should be a trailer now or with 0.8, and one on release if that's ever going to happen. If development continues after that, special trailers that purely focus on what's new can be made, but that's not relevant atm.