Enter the World of Movies! A dazzling industry with action, complex storylines, state-of-the-art visual effects, feeding an entertainment-hungry fanbase. Cinema started in 1895 – in Paris and Berlin. People were blown away by the most simple movement on a big screen back then. Equally impressive for people: “Spacewar!” in 1962, maybe the first video game ever. But video games didn’t receive their own trailers until “Zaxxon” was launched in 1982. And why would they? Back then video games and movies were completely separate media, produced in very different ways. Before I throw more numbers at you – I’m “Sky_Linx”, the host of this Forge article. Movie and video game obsessed and willing to provide insights into today’s topic: How to produce a video game…ahem…video. So get a bucket of your favorite popcorn, squish yourself in a comfortable chair of your liking and grab a hold of your glasses. We’re about to get real. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42049322/2184b30120e7c41f6b74b8b91819838fd24a9caa.png[/img] [h2]This must be unreal![/h2] Sorry - it’s more like: We’re about to get “Unreal”. Have you heard of a video game with that title? It was launched in 1998 and based on a very new, groundbreaking software: Unreal Engine. Considering that no creativity was wasted in giving the “Unreal software” a different name than the “Unreal Game”, the effort put into the program itself paid out: it enabled creation of 3D Worlds with ease. And right here, this is where we crossover to our video production. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42049322/9827510314af4d8db260e6dbc8f85794b516832c.png[/img] [h2]Step 1: Think.[/h2] We don’t just produce any random video (naturally!). Our goal is to keep our players entertained and informed. As already mentioned, we are lucky enough to possess an in-house Video Team. But there’s far more than that. We also have lore writers, sound designers, story-boarders, etc. So before we start the process, we bump all our creative heads and decide on what is needed. This can happen several weeks to sometimes even a whole year before the video is released, according to the complexity of what we are going to show. Gameplay videos are simpler to produce. We can just capture a lot of our in-game footage or put Hunters into a scenario where they are able to best showcase their abilities. Then, press record. Give it a subtle touch with a frame or a voice-over. Voila! Gameplay-Video a la mode. But other videos are much more difficult to create – e.g. Reveal Trailers. Here, we really want to show our Hunters' best side and make sure we portray them in what we believe is their natural habitat. In this case, it is not unlikely for us to create a whole new staging – still set within our world but tweaked to our satisfaction. But what does that mean? And when are we ever really satisfied? [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42049322/328b5abc7d633cf1e7e78468b3eebdac16a6fac3.png[/img] [h2]“I am a player…”[/h2] …and as a player I try to include in my work what I believe other players want to hear and see. I pay attention to details, mechanisms – and spend as much time on them as I can afford.” This quote from one of our Video Designers emphasizes well how weighted the next stages of work are: Within the Unreal Engine, we set a "dummy". You can imagine this as placing an object somewhere when you want to photograph it. Now, of course, if we want to photograph it, we need to position a camera as well. And, if you don’t only want to capture the object, you will need surroundings. These are the mentioned "sets", more often than not taken from our maps – since crafting completely new "sets of sets" takes a lot of time and effort. But let’s just go with the idea of creating: We have to do everything – level the ground, plant trees if needed, a car here, a house there, and before you notice you are building up this super-elaborate 3D-puzzle. World-building, almost in a literal sense. Well, but the drama’s not over, right? Remember, we wanted the pictures to move? Hm. Ok. But that requires motion-capturing. So, let’s move the camera first and get an impression of what we will see as we drag our viewer’s eyes along the screen with us in the final version of it. Oof! Luckily, we prepared a little video for you to see how this works. https://www.youtube.com/embed/DBg8jHuRK2o?si=il4mG_oRNaBpGGwB [h2]Follow me[/h2] In the video above you can see a loop. Basically, it highlights the stages our videos go through. Observe how every time we pass the “starting line” some additional detail is added. And this is done until we’re happy with the base work. But having a solid base doesn’t build a pretty Crimson Ridge service tunnel, right? And finally, I'm allowed to scream out the words I have been urging to yell since I started this very article: “LIGHTS, PLEEEEASE!!!” [h2]“Pack your bags, honey. We’re moving to California!”[/h2] No, we're not. But remember my little history and numbers exercise at the beginning of this text? When the movie industry moved away from Europe to Hollywood, one of the main reasons was the amazing sunlight in California. And yes, lights are really THAT important in video Creation. Just the way they fall upon the metallic outsides of our Hunters, the way they reflect, the colors, how we can fill the room with them, the highlights - they help us to "set the scene". (Or set a "set of scenes". As mentioned before.) Let me tell you that sometimes for only one staging we create more than 20 different light-sources just to provide our main characters with a certain dynamic and a beautiful look. Because we love beautiful things – and we want our stuff to look amaaazzziiiing!!! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42049322/718bf2ca74d82ca4d98053f3d9aee2ac84b29d70.png[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42049322/a451458083f999410b277542d412fbe61d1461d1.png[/img]   [h2]We’ve come a long way[/h2] After this – visually speaking – we almost arrived at our final destination. Once the full video is completed, we move on to rendering (a process that enhances photorealism)…for that extra tasty look we all adore. Now we can start the final editing and breakdown into the different versions: we need videos for social media, our portal, video platforms, and more! But before you can see it, we’re still missing the sound: And this is added at the very end, just before the final Master version. Our voice-overs and Hunter Voices are done by professional actors. Carefully selected to match the tone and character of Setting and Hunter. And once everything is done, we release our work for you to see, comment, interact with and enjoy. With a subtle smile, hoping you enjoy it as much as we did enjoy creating it. And if you want to see more: Follow us on our[url=https://www.youtube.com/c/SteelHuntersOfficial] Youtube Channel[/url] https://www.youtube.com/embed/CKXv-lazJgU?si=GiDUhvELbDSwCtr1