The 3 P's
Planning Notes
(Conducted 16/03/24)
music:
opening music 0:00-1:05
aerith's theme 0:00-0:20
Plan to fade out to aerith's theme, few shots of aerith, then fade to logo.
Video length with music added together is ~1:26
Videos needed:
Headshot of all 4 main characters, for a "character introduction" shot
general gameplay
shots of Aerith, preferably at the church
general cutscenes
Midgar skyline
honeybee inn
sephiroph
Credits to include on each shot:
1. Director - Tetsuya Nomura
2. Co-Directors - Naoki Hamaguchi, Motomu Toriyama
3. Story - Kazushige Nojima
4. Music - Masashi Hamauzu, Mitsuto Suzuki, Nobuo Uematsu
5. Battle Director - Teruki Endo
6. Enviroment Director - Takako Miyake
7. Cutscene Director - Hidekazu Miyake
8. Animation Director - Yoshiyuki Soma
9. Cloud - Cody Christian
10. Aerith - Briana White
11. Tifa - Britt Baron
12. Barret - John Eric Bentley
Shot lengths roughly:
1. 7:20
2-7. 3:15-3:18
8. 2:22
9-12. 3:15-3:18
13-14. 3:09-3:15
15. 7:05
16. 4:29
17. 2:03
18-???. 14:03 (Depending on how many shots I use)
19. 6:00
I already had quite a few ideas of things I wanted to add to my title sequence, and an idea of the music to pair it with. The purpose of these disjointed notes was to allow me to know what types of clips I need to collect up, and how many.
This task also coincided with the next one, as I also needed to note how long each shot would run to and how many shots there would be to figure out how to match it to the music.
Music Planning
(Conducted 16/03/24)
As evidenced by my audience research, good music choice was said to be a very important aspect of an enjoyable title sequence. This was what led me to the idea of needing my title sequences visuals to match the movements of the music, and for that I developed this fairly unorthadox method of marking it off in premiere pro, sort of like a non-visual animatic.
I originally was attempting to just do this through my written notes, but found it an unreasonable task, and so came this solution.
This task was done alongside the previous, to also help me get an idea of what clips I will be needing.
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I wanted the sequence to transition into a slower paced ending, to show off the game's more calmer side, and focus heavily on Aerith, a character most vital to the game's story and worldbuilding. I want to reflect on how the remake tries to strongly focus on her a lot more.
Clip Collection
(Conducted 18/03/24)
After planning out what I what my sequence to contain, I needed to scrounge up the necessary clips from the game. Using my notes, it was easy to get exactly what I needed for my title sequence.
As the idea changes, perhaps during the storyboarding or even final production stage, I may need to acquire more, or not make use of some deemed unnecessary.
Moodboard
(Conducted 18/03/24)
The purpose of this task was to figure out what I want to do with the style and colours of my product, also allowing me to understand what sorts of imagery I want to feature throughout the title sequence.
The green tinted video idea was inspired by the Deus Ex: Human Revolution sequence that I looked at in my research, with it's yellow tint being the inspiration for my green.
Storyboard
(Conducted 19/03/24)
After planning out the general movements of my title sequence, along with the style I want it to follow, it made sense to go onto creating a storyboard to help aid with the creation of the product. The purpose of this task is to allow me a way to easily visualise and sketch out what each frame of my title sequence will be like.
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I used storyboarding techniques that I discovered during my storyboarding research, such as movement arrows and text for information, as well as putting down each shot's length for a guide.
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I plan to make my train motion graphics somewhat 3D using after effects' rather simple and easy to use 3D tools. This was inspired by the Metal Gear Solid 3 title sequence's use of simplistic 3D, that I looked at and found inspiration from during research.
Motion Graphics Text Box
(Conducted 02/04/24)
This is a motion graphics text box that I created ahead of time, to be used repeatedly across my title sequence. This will display the credits. The purpose of this task was so that I could use this in the final product without having to totally recreate it every time.
Going forward this will make me have an easier time while creating my final product.
I first tried this using solids, but realised I needed to instead use a rounded rectangle instead, to have the edges be rounded like the original game's menus.
A showcase of the Bevel and Emboss effect on my border, as learned from a previous tutorial during my after effects experimentation phase.
The roughen edges effect used on my border, to create the rusty and rugged effect I wanted to convey.
The creation process of making the rust effect, something that you can see in more detail during my experimentation phase, by looking at the tutorial I followed for the rust effect there. I added the blue gradient to my texture, and set the rust effect opacity to about 10%, which looks about right.
The mask used to create the simple reveal, using the same technique used to create the rusty reveal effect in my after effects experimentation.
Premiere Pro Clip Editing
(Conducted 04/04/24)
In preparation for beginning production, I cut down the clips I had collected, and added the light green tint I mentioned wanting with an adjustment layer. The purpose of this task was so that I had all the clips ready to be utilised in the production of my title sequence.
Going forward I now don't have to worry about doing this later during production.
Train Asset Creation
(Conducted 05/04/24)
This task involved creating a simplistic train graphic for use in my title sequence. I have little artistic skills, and this is an after effects focused project, so I traced some of the game's concept art. I first put the image into photoshop to use perspective warp on it, to make it look straighter on, and then put it into illustrator to trace.
Going forward I will add the wheels in After Effects, so I can animate their spinning and the movement of the pistons.