What sort of things *should* be in a mod trailer?

[Sith Holocron 2,477]

So I had a random thought: What sort of things should be in a KOTOR/TSL mod trailer?  And what sort of things shouldn't be bothered with?

Keep in mind that I'm thinking of larger scale mods: think planet mods, arena mods, or any of the larger content mods. 

Other questions I was thinking about: what's a good length of a trailer?  If you wish to get into specifics like teaser trailers compared to a a final release trailer, feel free to do so.

[InSidious 237]

It should definitely contain a release date a year before the current date.

 

More seriously, it should probably be made late enough in the project to actually show off something worth seeing, and that tells the viewer what the mod is actually about, rather than melodramatic music, still frames and some running about, for instance. For length, I'd probably say about 3 minutes is about as long as you want to go.

[Sith Holocron 2,477]

I appreciate the self own, especially as I did something quite similar in an unfinished project.

Just wanted to have something to point other people towards in the future to avoid these sorts of things.

If anyone else would like to chime in, have at it.

[Malkior 476]

I'd say treat a mod trailer like a videogame teaser rather than a (now defunct) E3 trailer.

Show the best examples of what you've added and really use the opportunity to introduce the viewer to some of your characters or themes.

Don't hype the viewer up with amazing music and pre-rendered videos when the final product won't look or sound anything like either.

Don't show how you wish the mod will look, just show what it actually is.

[N-DReW25 1,336]

4 hours ago, Sith Holocron said:

So I had a random thought: What sort of things should be in a KOTOR/TSL mod trailer?  And what sort of things shouldn't be bothered with?

Keep in mind that I'm thinking of larger scale mods: think planet mods, arena mods, or any of the larger content mods. 

Other questions I was thinking about: what's a good length of a trailer?  If you wish to get into specifics like teaser trailers compared to a a final release trailer, feel free to do so.

That would depend on exactly what the mod does.

 

A trailer is kind of like advertisement, your trailer should pitch the mod to the audience and should make them want to download your mod. The key to making a good Kotor mod trailer is to get things like the music, footage and other special effects to work with what you're presenting.

 

A common error I see Kotor mod trailer's make is that they record their mod footage with either the game's background music, background ambient noises or NPC chatter when these sounds would be best left out of the trailer. If you wanted to show an NPC talking, go into the sound menu of K1 or K2 and turn down the music and background noises to 0 whilst keeping the NPC dialogue up, in-game, you will only hear the NPC speak and the rest of the game will be silent.

 

This would be useful if you wanted to have GLIntercept flyby shots of an area and the scene faded into another scene, you wouldn't want to have a soft flyby of Manaan hearing the loud crashing of the ocean's wave only to fade into Tatooine and unnaturally go from ocean waves to dust winds with no transition. Or you wouldn't want to loudly hear a ship take off in the background when an NPC is talking.

 

If needed, you could use the vanilla game's/mod's sound effect files and add them in your video editor so you, the trailer maker, can choose when these sound effects play to complement the trailer instead of them being an annoyance in the background (A spooky Korriban mod trailer for example would do great with some Sith whispers and background screams which we hear in-game). 

 

In addition to the in-game audio, you'll want to make sure whatever music you picked isn't 'too loud'. I remember one of TSLRCM's old trailers having a part with Kreia narrating something and all I can hear is the Sith theme screeching over the top of her... the lesson we can learn from that trailer is: make sure the music isn't loud enough to overshadow the narrator and/or mod footage you are trying to showcase.

 

When it comes to things like music, your pick should 'work' with the 'theme' of your mod. Is your mod an action packed custom content mod? You probably wouldn't want the K2's Rebuilt Enclave music playing for that. Many Kotor trailer's have music and features which work with their video theme, but sometimes these video features don't work whether it be with the video itself or with the mod you're showcasing. I could use various Kotor mod trailers as examples but I wouldn't want to draw criticism on the mods or their authors (Even if their trailers aren't good, most of the times the mods are amazing!).

 

I would like to reiterate what Malkior has stated: I think that a trailer should only be made when the mod is essentially complete (You can discuss and plan it privately before hand, but that's it). You wouldn't want to have a trailer with half finished/poorly made content or, as Malkior put it, have a trailer which shows pre-rendered content which isn't even in the mod (If that was to be done, it'll only leave a bad impression on both your "mod" and yourself as a modder).

 

If it's a teaser, it can be as short as 20 seconds or as long as a 1:30 depending on what exactly you want to show. The teaser should only 'tease' the mod whereas the trailer hence why it should be on the shorter end of the stick, whereas a trailer you'd go all out and do a 1 minute or 3 minute trailer, of course the timing of your trailer will be different depending on what the mod does: Does it rely heavily on combat? Is it voiced? Is it custom content? Is the mod big? etc. Trailers shouldn't really go for longer than 4 minutes I would say.

[ShayOrdo 9]

Well, that depends on what changes you do and how you aim to use the mod. How much you want to change stuff /etc. 

Cause if we are talking about global mods - it is a big event and due to what you may want to make it look big and promising as hell. For an example, one of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Game series mods, known as Ray Of Hope (Multiplayer freeroam Project that is kinda made to work like an MMO) has a full on list of trailers from short stuff to big "Developer Diary" videos that go in details about every change, rework, model rework, weapon rework, animations, gameplay mechanic and etc.