Evaluation

Amaray Cover

Learning how to use Photoshop was great, I really enjoy learning new things, however I’m sure I have barely scratched the surface. But once I got past the point of learning I found it a bit tedious to use and time consuming. However it was made more fun by creating my game amaray cover.

I’m quite happy with the result of my cover in that I think the layout is good, it’s not too sparse or too busy. I don’t think I could improve much upon the back cover, I think that looks the best of all. However the front cover could have used some more work. Whilst the main picture of the man bowling fits nicely with the space background and the fence I feel that the pictures of the planets and the spaceship do not blend too well with the overall image. More work was probably required in terms of adding adjustment layers to these images to make them fit better in the overall picture.

This said it does give the game a feel of b-movie style in that it looks kind of low budget and developed by a company that is not well known for game production which is kind of what I was trying to achieve as the idea itself doesn’t take itself too seriously anyway.

Disc Label

I am very pleased with the disc label that I managed to produce. I think it looks clean and simple but without being boring. Simplicity was definitely the key here as an over fussy image would ruin the effect I was trying to achieve.

I also think the logo I created for the fictional game studio “Potato Games” is also really good and simple and I feel it encapsulates what I was trying to achieve in terms of the comedy element of this project.

Video

I found this to be the hardest stage of the project. Although I am pleased with the overall result of the video I feel that if more work went into it could be even better. I think I put too much at the start of the video which ate into my 1 minute limit which did not allow for more in game footage.

This is also an area I struggled with, because of the niche nature of the game idea I had I was limited to almost zero footage that I could use in making my video. This resulted in my having to make the game more about action and shooting just so I could make a video, however this added an ironic sense to the project which was in keeping with the comedy side of things. In the future I think I would pick a more realistic theme that would be easier to recreate in a video, like a football game, but at least I have some originality with this idea.

Finished Video and Exporting From Premiere

Now my video was complete all I had to do was save it and export it as an appropriate file type.

I did this by going to file, export then clicking media.

It then brought up a window where I could change the file type and settings associated with this. I chose to save the video as an avi file as this is a standard format that is compatible with nearly all media and video players.

I then clicked export and the file was saved.

Unfortunately I cannot upload the video to the blog as it is too big!

Transitions and Effects

When getting inspiration for my video I noticed that all the videos I watched used a transition effect between each scene that it changed to. This gave the videos a smooth feel and they weren't choppy.

At this point this is exactly how my video was, choppy and stutter, it didn't seem to transition well between clips, so I set about adding transitions.

There were a number of transitions available to me in Premiere however I only chose to use one as all the videos I watched seemed to use it plus I found it was the one that best worked for me, it was the dip to black transition.

In order to apply it to the video I clicked the effects tab in the project window, then opened video transitions, then opened the dissolve folder.

Then it was just a case of dragging and dropping the transitions where I wanted them on my timeline, which was between each clip.

By overlapping the transition across 2 clips it created a nice smooth flow for the video.

I wanted to add an effect to the space picture at the start of the video so it wasn’t a still image and it was as though the camera was panning across space. So I double clicked the image on the timeline to load it into the source window.

I then selected the effect controls tab.

From here I was able to apply the effect I wanted. I did this first by selecting toggle animation next to position.

Then using the positioning numbers I changed where the camera started on this picture and created a key frame.

Then I created another key frame at the end of the sequence with the camera in a different position, this meant that when played back it gave the impression of movement.

Titles

The next step was to add titles to the video in order to display all the text that I wanted.

This is when I started adding my titles to my title bin.

I started by clicking the title tab at the top of the screen and going to new title, default still.

This brought up the title creation window.

I then clicked in the window where I wanted to start typing and typed out the text I required.

I then used the selection tool from the toolbar to reposition the text where I wanted it to be.

Next I selected the font/ colour that I wanted. I wanted to use something that almost looks out of place and a bit sill in order to keep up the idea that this is not a serious game. So I used Hobostd Slant Gold from the title styles.

This would become the standard style I would use in my video for all the titles I created. I then repeated the previous steps to create all my titles and then moved them all into the title bin within the project window.

I then just dragged and dropped the titles onto the timeline. However I placed them on the track above the images where I wanted the text to appear.

I then just adjusted the length of time the text would appear by shortening its length so it would fit with the images.

Adding Audio

The next step was to add all the audio to the video and remove any unwanted sounds that were already attached to the clips used.

To start with I removed the unwanted audio that I did not need. This was on the video clip of bowls and also the game footage I had taken from the Mass Effect 3 video clips.

So in order to do this I right clicked on each clip and selected unlink.

This then separated the video from the audio track underneath it. This then meant I was able to select the audio track independently of the video, and delete it.

I then repeated this until all the unwanted audio was removed so I could add in my introduction sounds and backing track for the rest of the video.

The first audio I wanted to add was to the game studio logo I had added, potato games. In keeping with the fictional ethos of the company I wanted it to be silly and funny so I thought a duck quacking sound effect would be good.

So I went to freesound.org to try and find a duck quack sound effect that was suitable, but could not find one as most were recorded in the wild and had too much background noise. So I went to youtube and found a video of a world champion duck call instructor. Once I downloaded the video I was able to edit it in premiere.

Once I found the sound I wanted I marked in and out on the video to create a clip, I then inserted it onto the timeline, unlinked the video from the audio, deleted the video and then moved the audio into place on the audio track underneath the image. The image was longer than the audio so I adjusted the length the image was displayed so they fit together.

This took me down under a minute of footage but I just extended the final image of the video by a few frames.

Next I added some audio for the first few introductory seconds of the video. I wanted some music or sound effects that were dramatic and set the scene, to make the viewer think this was going to be something serious.

So I went back to freesound.org to try and find something suitable. I performed searched for violins and strings, but it was my search for cinematic that returned the audio that I desired, and so I downloaded a cinematic sound effect.

Once loaded into premiere I cut this audio clip down using mark in and mark out and inserted it onto the timeline. The just tweak image length to get it to fit the video and to keep the video to a minute in length.

I had to put the introduction audio on a lower track as it overlapped with the explosion sound effect and I wanted both to be present.

Now that was the introduction to the video sorted I just needed to add the backing track to the rest of it.

I wanted some music that was in the metal sort of genre to add a gritty feel to the video and compliment the action footage in the video. I already had a piece of music in mind whilst I was creating this and that was the theme tune to the video game Doom 3.

I managed to find a video on youtube that had the song on it, so I downloaded the video in mp4 format and loaded the video, from the video clips bin, in premiere. The beauty of using this song is that there is a break in the music, just before the main instrumental, 43 seconds into the track, so this was a great point for me to mark in.

All I needed to do then was to insert this onto the timeline, without marking out as I would just adjust the length of the audio clip to fit to the end of the video.

First I had to unlink the video, from the Doom 3 theme, from the audio and then delete the video. The use ripple delete to remove any gaps it created.

Then like I say I just reduced the length of the audio clip, on the timeline, so that it fit the length of the video. This however meant that the music ended abruptly when the video finished, so to combat this and refine it I faded the music out.

To do this I selected the pen tool from the tool bar next to the timeline.

I then clicked 2 points on the audio track, one a few seconds short of the end and the one right at the end.

I then selected the selection tool from the tools.

I then hovered over the point I had created, with the pen tool, at the end of the audio track. I clicked and held the point and dragged it down in order to create a gradual fade in the volume.

Thus creating a more refined ending to the video.

Cutting Down To Size and Ripple Delete

Now I had the basis for my video, all video and images had been added to my timeline. However the video, as it stood was 1 minute 13 seconds and 2 frames long so I needed to cut it down to the desired minute mark.

I employed a couple of techniques to accomplish this. To start with I adjusted the scroll bar at the bottom of the timeline in order to expand the size of the clips. This magnified any gaps there were between the clips.

I was then able to right click in the gaps between clips and select ripple delete in order to close them.

I then resized some of the still images, I had used, so that they did not take up as much time on the timeline. I did this as opposed to editing the video footage as I was happy with the footage I had and did not want to change it. I then used ripple delete to close any gaps that this method created on the timeline.

This then gave me a nice round minute of footage.

Video Editing

Its now time to start editing the video clips and images I’m going to use and add to the timeline. Naturally I started with the opening sequence of the video which included the pegi 18 age rating, Xbox branding and game studio logo I created.

So first I double clicked the video clip, in the video clip bin in the project window, so it would load into the source window for editing. I found the pegi 18 video on YouTube and downloaded it from there as an mp4 file in order to get the highest quality possible.

This particular clip was over 4 seconds long. All I needed from it was the audio and the image and the audio stopped after 2 seconds. So with this in mind I cut the video down in length using the mark in and mark out tools.

Now that the clip was the length that I wanted it I just clicked the insert button in order to add it onto the timeline.

The next clip to add to the timeline was the xbox branding, so once again I loaded it into the source window by double clicking it.

This clip had 17 frames of nothing at the start of it so using step forward/ back 1 frame button I got the clip to a point where the video and audio actually started. Once at the correct point I marked in. The video clip also had about 5 seconds where the audio had finished and there was no more animation in the video, so again using the step forward/ back 1 frame button I got it to the point where the audio had just finished and marked out.

Now my clip was the right length I added it to the timeline with the insert button.

The next step in this preliminary part of the video was to add the game studio logo, that I had previously created in illustrator, to the timeline. This was a simple process as I just dragged and dropped it from the images bin onto the timeline.

The image as it was took up a lot of time and frames on the timeline, however I left it as it was as if I overran the 1 minute run time this is something I could reduce in order to meet my target without having to pull any of my video.

Next in the sequence is the introduction of the game. This starts with an image of space, so again dropped the image of space onto the timeline from the relevant bin in the project window.

This was to be followed by some footage of bowls.

I found some footage on youtube of a bowls game being played so downloaded it. This could be found in the video clips bin I had created. I double clicked the video in order to load it into the source window so I could edit it. I watched through the footage to find some bowls action that I wanted to used and then proceeded to mark in and out around the clip I wanted and inserted it into my timeline.

As you can see in the above image the video does not fit the size of the pane in the sequence playback window, and subsequently does not match the size of the other footage so far. In order to remedy this I double clicked the image and expanded it to fit manually.

Although this remedied the problem it created another one as some of the quality is lost on this particular clip, but in a way I think it works as it fits with the way this game mocks lawn bowls.

Next I added the explosion that would serve as the background when the title flashed up at the end of the intro. This was a quick step as I only had to trim a couple of frames off at each end of the video.

This took me up to the 30 second mark in the timeline so far, which is quite a lot considering I only have a minute to work with but I was not worried as I had left the previous images that could be shortened at the end.

Now I started to add some game footage. Going back to what had been said previously in the blog, this game was going to be more about action and shooting than bowls, as per the “20% more guns 80% less bowls” on the back of the amaray game cover.

With this in mind I sourced my footage from youtube. I wanted some game footage of a sci-fi shoot em up type game and found that from clips of Mass Effect 3 game footage. There were 2 videos in particular that suited my needs. One was a trailer for a DLC package and the other was a video of some multiplayer gameplay that someone had recorded. So I downloaded them in mp4 format and began editing them.

I took 3 clips from the first video, the video of the DLC trailer and added them to my timeline.

I then added 2 clips from the multiplayer footage.

To finish the sequence I added the picture of my game cover that I had previously created in photoshop. I had to load the file in illustrator though in order to save it in a format whereby it could be loaded into premiere and used on the timeline.