Video Game Trailer: Skirmish Society
My goal was to introduce an online war/strategy game, played via Discord messages, in a visually and narratively exciting way. I adapted the narrative from a gameplay video the developer provided, and presented it by alternating between the reality of the game, the players, and the game's Discord bot (represented as a mysterious figure living at a placid lakeside cottage). The whole process from animatic to finish took about 14 days.
My assets were a combination of stock footage from Pexels, self-shot iPhone footage, and CG elements and photo collages combined in Blender. Additional elements came from phone-recorded audio, stock music and environmental sounds from the YouTube Studio library, game screenshots provided by the developer and game community, and maps and icons by the game's designer and graphic designers, Andy Wallace, Chris Hernandez, and lastspark. I used the Virtucamera plugin to record handheld camera movements for the Blender sequences, DaVinci Resolve for compositing, editing, motion graphics, and color grading, Ableton Live for sound mixing/editing, and Affinity Photo for additional graphic design. You can check out some process breakdowns below the video, and find more info on the game at https://skirmishsociety.com/
Top row, assets for a shot: stock footage, cell phone video, Blender render, and cell phone bokeh source. Bottom row: two frames of the final shot, composited in Resolve.
Top row: a Blender scene and cell phone video. Bottom row: the final composite, plus motion graphics made in Fusion.
Left: a Blender scene with CG elements, game icons, and stock photos. Middle and right: the final shot, with additional bokeh/lens flare footage composited in Resolve.
Top row, assets: Blender render, cell phone clips, and stock video. Below: the final composite, with additional color grading and motion graphics.
Top row: a Blender scene, showing setup, and a stock footage layer. Below: the final shot, with additional color grading and effects in Resolve.
A color grading comparison, showing the original stock footage, the addition of grading and glow effect, and the final shot with additional changes to the color provided by compositing a bokeh/lens flare clip.
More final shots from the trailer.
