AE:Trailer

General information

Soundtrack

HERE (MP3)

• First 50 seconds of Ambient Suite (the part that sounds redundant) for the mini-overview of Oni.
• No One Left To Trust for the actual Edition trailer.
• A few more seconds of Ambient Suite at the end (actually Ambient Suite was just muted throughout NOLTT)

geyser's draft

HERE (WMV, 640x480)

This draft (made primarily in Windows Movie Maker) will be updated with directions, placeholders and "final" scenes, focusing on timing and scene dynamics. Eventually this will become a placeholder for a higher-quality trailer, or it can be released on its own. For all the featured scenes I will provide either the footage or the binary "ingredients" used. Feel free to re-record and re-edit this at higher quality.

geyser 00:48, 28 July 2008 (CEST)

• • • I can do video, but I still don't know if it will be good for something (who's making trailer? Is my (sucky) wmv quality good enough or not?) --Loser 11:19, 5 August 2008 (CEST)
    • The WMV format is good enough at least for the placeholder trailer I have in mind: I'll be piecing stuff together in WMM, with a focus on timing and scene dynamics; eventually, either the trailer will provide a guideline for a better-quality trailer, or it can be released on its own as a last resort: of course WMM's text and video effects suck, but its straightforward workflow sorta meets my needs. So, go ahead and upload footage in 640x480 WMV, it will be put to good use - if it's awesome enough ^_^ --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)
    • There might be a problem with the FRAPS watermark. I encourage you to use Taksi to record the AVI (this implies further losses, but some codecs offer a decent compromise; see, e.g., Tracker's recommendations on the settings he used to record Oni On Time - which I later used in Serious Konoko). --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)

Basic idea for the footage

Two sections: original Oni footage and Edition footage. There should be more than enough footage for the original Oni (e.g., ZDLO's Fighting School and stealth tactics, grenade jumping, parkouring, maybe snippets from Resurrection or a few anthological screenshots).

As for the Edition part, the basic idea is a sequence of feature highlights à la 1999 trailer, each highlight rather short, announced by similar-looking full-screen titles. Before and after the systematic highlights, there can be intense mixed-bag sections.

General advice

Nice-looking and varied locations are a plus (e.g., if you want to show new AI skills, don't do it all in the Warehouse).

Content doesn't necessary have to be in-game Oni (can be an external render or an editor view), as long as it looks good.

Animated video is not a must (e.g., an ultra-quick slideshow is fine). Varied viewing angles and camera effects welcome.

A very nice setting for fights are the foggy rooms in CHAPTER 11 . DREAM DIVER: the characters disturb the fog as they move, which is a feast for the eyes; plus, the rooms themselves have nice colors and shapes

An example...

...of the kind of dynamics and creativity I expect from the action sequences. HERE

A very nice example, geyser. Can I have that footage without the text, by the way? It's more than an example, it's actual video I can use.

I think you and I are on the same page as to how to make the trailer exciting, geyser. As long as our video-capturing helpers keep mixing things up and recording dynamic kinds of footage, we can have a great trailer. (If possible, I will record some things too, but for now I am focusing on putting out a draft using what I've got on hand.) --Iritscen 17:30, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

The video is nothing more than an example. It was recorded in lousy quality with the lousy example WMV in mind, keeping in mind that the car's texture is nowhere near final anyway, and that we might want to add headlight and taillight particles to the object as well. So it's nothing but a placeholder, and if a placeholder is all you need, heck, use the one with the text. The ingredients of the sequence are those I released on the DeLorean page; additionally, the camera was aligned to face 315° (with chr_facetoflag 0 63) and upwards, then placed on the sidewalk and moved forwards+right in manual camera mode 1 (no mouse control). The speed of the camera was set to gs_input_accel=1.5 --geyser 19:01, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

---

Intro

The intro sequence was done with this script, and an act-of-god to kill everybody at the start of the boss battle. The camera was turned slightly to the right so as to better capture the dead bodies. Recording was done with Taksi (Microsoft Video 1, rate of time compression at 1.0, compression level at 75), using Rossy's DLL for better hooking. Time inversion was done with Video Time Reversal. The text effects in WMM are rather primitive. Other notable problems are lag while recording (the open environment as well as the dish and Daodan particles make Oni use more CPU than usual) and the low detail of the dish particles.

geyser 00:48, 28 July 2008 (CEST)

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Oni highlights

I have retrieved high-quality footage for THESE TWO YouTube videos: they cover pretty much all we want to show about Oni's original gameplay in 20 seconds. I'd only add a grenade jump to a watchtower in Chapter 14 and some parkour (either in Loser's warehouse - truck to crates to crane - or Storming-The-Rooftops style). Both nicicles (parkour and grenade jumping), however, would have to be recorded anew. As for the two aforementioned YT videos, they can be downloaded here: http://geyser.oni2.net/edition/trailer/oni

---

Upbeat part

This is for the NOLTT part, dedicated to Edition footage. Unmodded Oni footage goes in a separate section.

Mixed-bag

(spanning first "verse" and "chorus" of NOLTT, and maybe the last chorus as well)

massive OTA gameplay

(early on, to make people wonder: "multiplayer?")

jetpacking as Barabas

(don't forget to add the particle to the TRAM)

• • See: http://loser.oni2.net/Videos/Barabus_jetpack.wmv ;--EdT
  • That's OK, I guess... except for the boring camera angle all the way through. Maybe shoot some extra sequences where a flying-shooting Barabas is seen from a static point below, or with an orbiting camera... Also, are the required binary resources available anywhere? --geyser 13:11, 4 August 2008 (CEST)
    • Well, we do need the binary resources. Personally, I think that the few seconds where Barabus flies while shooting at the Striker is useable and if we're going to show half the stuff in this list, we only have a few seconds for each feature, so more footage is not needed. My concern is more a matter of video quality, because that footage is not going to cut it. So if I get the resources, I will record something myself at high quality. --Iritscen 14:45, 4 August 2008 (CEST)
    • HERE is alpha stage of jetpacking Barabus. Use at own risk (seriously, I don't know what it will do on your machine). Included also my version of Barabus's regeneration particles.
    • The compression is OK, and I totally encourage you (Loser) to provide further footage in this format: apart from Iritscen, no one will notice ^_^ As for quality over quantity - "that's what I'm talking about!" ... "A few seconds" are enough for two or three different cuts, but there's nothing awesome to pick from in this video: because of the aforementioned lack of camera variety, and also because the skyline of that location is rather dull (why is it cool to fly around some stupid-a$$ boxes? ). I'll try and suggest a better setting, complete with camera angles, after a quick look at your binaries (thanks). --geyser 16:42, 4 August 2008 (CEST)

sniper scope

(shooting remote targets from crouching or prone poses)

parkour and beyond

kangaroo and marypoppins cheats, dev mode teleportation and cam fun

alternative single-player

playing against the TCTF as Mukade or a comguy-ninja (Kojiro)...

delocalized characters

(characters appearing where they don't belong: globalization, chr_location, etc)

animated consoles

(those are easy to do, but easily overlooked by the viewer unless there's a lot of them side by side, which doesn't happen at all)

fighting doppelgänger Mukades

• HERE is rar which contains scripts&files for doppelganger fight. Apply, then play rooftops, last savepoint. Good luck, take some footage and then try to defeat him, if you can ^_^. --Loser 11:19, 5 August 2008 (CEST)
• Thanks for the doppelgänger stuff (please don't delete anything from your account unless alloc or I tell you to; broken links suck ^_^) --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)
• The WMV format is good enough at least for the placeholder trailer I have in mind: I'll be piecing stuff together in WMM, with a focus on timing and scene dynamics; eventually, either the trailer will provide a guideline for a better-quality trailer, or it can be released on its own as a last resort: of course WMM's text and video effects suck, but its straightforward workflow sorta meets my needs. So, go ahead and upload footage in 640x480 WMV, it will be put to good use if it's awesome enough (e.g., for Mukade, try and record a few seconds from a fixed camera). --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)
• There might be a problem with the FRAPS watermark. I encourage you to use Taksi to record the AVI (this implies further losses, but some codecs offer a decent compromise; see, e.g., Tracker's recommendations as for recording Oni On Time). --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)
• HERE is video of Doppelganger Mukade fight, I tried to make it so you can see him cloning+lots of teleportations. Surprisingly Mukade behaves quite as if he actually KNEW he has clones. After cloning process, he often cloaks himself and then he stays in range and only observes. Bastard ^_^. And fuel for funny scenes - HERE is what actually happened on its own, I was not "helping them" to kick my @$$, they did on their own with joy and I just stared in awe ^_^. --Loser 16:53, 9 August 2008 (CEST)
• Erm, whatever happened to the video quality? "When we said sucky, we didn't mean that sucky..." Seriously, parkour.wmv looked much better than that. And why the fraps do the Mukades have some whitish texture without reflectivity? Is this supposed to look cool? Huh. The teleportations and pwnage will make nice placeholders though, thanks ^_^ While you're at it (covering Mukade), maybe you can show off some teleportation techniques (dev mode) playing as him. And don't forget the Mukade chasing you along (it actually looks good enough in the warehouse, for once, so just upload the footage you used for THIS video) --geyser 16:33, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

modded parkouring

• See: http://loser.oni2.net/Videos/parkour.wmv --EdT

priceless moments

Konoko pointing the gun at the secretary in One Small Mistake

The entire cutscene: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/TinyMistake.mov

ultra-quick "slideshows"

showing off all available character classes (since it's anecdotal you can also show Motoko and whoever), preferably in some nice place(s), with an orbiting camera

Is this what you had in mind? http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/AllChar.mov --EdT 02:42, 9 August 2008 (CEST)

It takes longer than I thought it would... We must take it down to 4 seconds or so by showing one ONCC for each ONCV: a red Fury with red hair, a blue one with a headband, etc. Another trick would be to show characters 3 by 3 (standing in a triangle, with their backs to the invisible player). Obviously, in both cases, you'd have to use scripts with chr_set_class (and in your case that means emulating the beta or the PC build). As yet another trick, random body sizes should be ruled out. Oh, and the location is rather dull, don't you think? There's not much for a scenery except for those (very) distant cars... That's a no-no. --geyser 03:12, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

Here's an alternative (5 seconds): (xvid compressed: 2 MB); (fraps raw: 56 MB)

If you tell where to find the white BGI guys I can record a new vid. Found it. But seems I cannot load black and white troops at same time. Will try to export them from plugin into level0_Final.

Is the location okay? Or should I place them into the glass hall? --Paradox-01 12:15, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

Yes, Dox, that's already much better: consider yourself in charge of this "hasta la victoria" ^_^ As for the locations, the lab is nicer than most levels because of the warm sunset colors, but there's much more to the world than the lab. The glass hall would probably have looked better, but there are a few nicer places in CHAPTER 07 . A FRIEND IN NEED, CHAPTER 11 . DREAM DIVER, etc; ideally, you'd avoid empty rectangular areas completely. Oh, and I don't know what's up with the white Spartans: who made them? they probably don't even have reflectivity? "my" BGI troops are black and that's it.

As for the ONCC lineup, your "random" succession actually looks just as good as systematic switching would (3 Strikers, then 3 Furies, etc), if not better, and the random character size is not much of a problem in that case. Maybe mix up the ONCCs even more, so that TCTF guys and "thugs" are not grouped together, but scattered among Strikers and Elites and Ninjas etc. I also recommend placing the 3 characters in a triangle and orbiting the empty space between them (just place the player below the ground, and use chr_nocollision and cm_height). If that's too much work (trigonometry...), you can use 4 characters arranged in a square.

If you're courageous, you can also try the following, more in line with my previous suggestion. Set all the random body sizes to 1 (in the ONCC) and use 3 characters: one for females, another for Comguy-like skeletons, and another for the taller Striker-like characters. Then time the ONCC changes so that each of the 3 characters explores its range of ONCC in 4 seconds or so. The advantage of this is that you can actually play animations seamlessly on the characters (walking, taunting, whatever), and since their body size is continuous, it will really look like they're "shapeshifting": like one character morphing from one appearance into the other, not characters replacing each other. See if you're interested in having it look that way.

geyser 16:03, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

Developer mode

• • various debugging visuals (panels, lines, messages... the more, the better)
  • runtime scripting in fast-motion (spawning AI, issuing weapons, etc)
  • act of god (F6), shapeshifter, gunshifter (F7)
  • manual camera in single step mode, e.g., orbiting a jumping character
  • "teleportation": End, man-cam+End, Ctrl+Shift+U, and anim-freeze key
  • ...

Weapons

• • ultra quick slideshow of all available weapons (since it's anecdotal you can show Halo rips and swords and whatever), preferably in varied locations, with varied characters holding the guns, and of course camera angles that show the weapons advantageously... for example, you can record a full cm_orbit turn for every weapon/location and then those turns can be combined into a morphing series with the camera/body orientation of the body evolving seamlessly between scenes. As for the characters, maybe start with the 7 Konokos and then move on to different, possibly odd characters (possibility of comic relief)
  • WMC Lite (grenade then ray, all while doing acrobatics)
  • Telekinetic bracelet (dragging enemy around, blasting him away, preferably with some body movement, duh)
  • Chaingun (in the hands of an enemy, please; otherwise it's boring; Ed's "too hard Oni" is actually quite good)
  • microwave chaingun, bazooka, flame thrower... pending
  • Chaingun Too: mini-cutscene with BGI troopers (Black Halo Spartans) mowing down Strikers and civilians
  • ...

Just a raw sample. It needs to be edited. There are 3 weapons, camera rotating around Konoko holding weapon and firing weapon. If this style is ok, I'll make more. http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/weapon1_3.mov

Another version, cycling through the weapons, again raw footage. http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/Allweapons1.mov

Thanks for the all-character shapeshifting movie above, Ed, it's quite useful. As far as the weapons movies are concerned, I think geyser and I wanted to see them being used in combat, by Konoko or even by the enemy. We'll only have a few moments to make an impression with each new weapon, so we want those moments to be exciting. geyser made some suggestions in this section, as to how to use the weapons, that maybe you can try, if you have the time. Thanks for all your work so far! --Iritscen 23:27, 11 August 2008 (CEST)

Here Ed was primarily responding to the weapon-kaleidoscope idea (those lengthy orbits would be smashed into one, lasting about 1 second for every 4 weapons), but regrettably the locations for the orbiting views of the first 2 guns are drop-dead dull. As for showing off the exact operating mode of the weapons: 1) the weapon must be shown from anywhere but back or 3/4 back view - either head-on or in profile or in 3/4 front; 2) only the new weapons need to be shown (unless we're highlighting dodging and such); 3) this should take place in the nicest locations we can find; 4) possibly the guns should be wielded by new characters (e.g., BGI handguns would be operated by BGI execs, machineguns and WMC Lites - by Spartans, etc); 5) all that should ideally be staged as small cutscenes from scratch, or (if you're lazy) by giving new guns to some AI in the original logic and trying to play through those parts. A trailer is supposed to show ingame action, dammit. Otherwise we will come across as, well, lazy and uncreative; and that's about the last thing we want to come across as. Oh well, I guess I'll have to offer more ingredients and guidance... --geyser 03:37, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

Collision effects

• • wall collision? maybe... nice comic relief with the pillar in the TCTF HQ parking lot; one scene is enough
  • combos and throws breaking glass? definitely; one of each, please, with varied locations and player characters
  • glass shards dealing damage - not sure how dramatic the effect can be; beef up the damage, kill a whole crowd?
  • probably not characters sliding down stairs or through windows, unless it accidentally looks good ^_^
  • ...

Combat logic

• • brutal Striker (possibly with other ONCC) pwning Konoko (e.g., tackling her, back-kicking her as she's preparing for a backbreaker, etc)
  • brutal Konoko (possibly with other ONCC) pwning the player (e.g., block-circle-backbreak, but ***pleeeeeeease***, not in the Warehouse!)
  • dodging fire spreads and projectiles (preferably in a realistic-looking situation, e.g., CHAPTER 05 . HOT PURSUIT SP1)
  • dodging grenades or Screamers: e.g., in the atrium of CHAPTER 09 . TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES for best results (the closer to the origin, the better)
  • ...

Alarm logic

(I'm not sure this can be visually stunning and NOLTT-friendly... depends a lot on the setting)

• • "butt-touching sensor" ***pleeeeeeease***, not in the Warehouse!
    • Don't worry, as this won't be in trailer (my opinion). REASON: You can't recognize it, in video it looks like you made some noise, not like you touched enemy. Leave this for in-game experience ^_^ --Loser
    • This could still look "OK" as a short cut in series with other alarm stuff. In side view, for example, the contact will be more obvious (see? varied camera angles are your friends...) --geyser 16:42, 4 August 2008 (CEST)
      • I agree, a side angle will show the butt-touching better. In fact, because it can be shown in only a couple or a few seconds, this is more trailer-compatible than the calling-for-backup feature, which takes a little while longer to show (a simple edit or two, though, will help get the concept across in only a few seconds). So, yeah, a simple shot of Konoko touching a guy and alerting him would be good. The best possible shot (this falls under the category of "If you have the time to set up something complicated") is one where Konoko alerts a guy out in an open area, and there's another enemy in the distance in that side-angle shot pacing away so that he can't see Konoko. When the alerted guy starts fighting Konoko, the farther guy (who can't be too far away) hears the fight, turns around and heads towards them. But ultimately, that's just icing on the cake, anything is fine for now. --Iritscen 17:22, 12 August 2008 (CEST)
  • "dead comrade" please make the patrol discover the corpse around a corner (for a more credible "surprise"), preferably showing the player on-screen (hidden from the patrol, but visible to the camera) for a better effect
    • HERE is what I gave to Iritscen, OUP format. Scene is in TCTF building, copfem discovers guy you killed in room behind doors near her patrol path (you have to kill him manually ^_-), she observes for a while then calls backup.
    • I've read that but haven't tested it yet. "Observes for a while" doesn't sound good. The trailer is upbeat, so the fewer pauses, the better. If there are two patrolmen, one can scan the surroundings while the other runs/calls for backup right away (see below). And what's that crap with having to kill guys manually? ^_^ --geyser 16:42, 4 August 2008 (CEST)
    • VIDEO of my dead comrade alarm scene --Loser 16:53, 9 August 2008 (CEST)
  • "dead comrade too" make one of the patrol guys run away (call for backup, sound alarm, whatever) while the other one guards the dead body
  • AI stopping to fight off the player shortly before reaching an alarm console, then resuming the run once the player is stunned (the bastard has a VDG, of course)
  • group of AI noticing you after you engage one of its members (even if they can't see each other; again the camera work is essential)
  • large group of ninja (supposedly alerted) surrounding and overwhelming the player
  • ...

Modding tools

• • OniBrowser and AE Tools capture (show texture/geometry preview for OniBrowser)
  • View of levels, characters and weapons in XSI/Cheetah/Blender (for characters and weapons, show a texture editor panel)
  • View of new weapons, vehicles and level parts in those editors (keep the view panning or rotating while you capture)
  • ...

New content

• • DeLorean (ideally a moving shot: be creative and use the OBAN available at the airport or at the TCTF HQ)
  • "Carmaggeddonish" SteamBo (basically a replacement for the van that breaks into the TCTF HQ's lobby.
  • weapons again
  • HD Griffin (e.g. in a CHAPTER 14 . DAWN OF THE CHRYSALIS, with a manual cam closeup on his arrival in the helicopter)
  • textures (coool's Konoko texture will do fine here, but only as comic relief, admittedly)
  • level part candidates (turbosquid and Daz3D stuff that I haven't been talking about much)
  • ...

Consolidated plot

• • black Strikers (aka Muro's pets): a good spot is at the end of CHAPTER 07 . A FRIEND IN NEED
  • Comguy ninja (maybe just a few of those in a combat stance), Kojiro facing Mai...
  • Casey (challenging Konoko in the training course, or fighting alongside her; the CHAPTER 02 . ENGINES OF EVIL intro is a good setting to introduce him)
  • BGI troopers (black Halo Spartans with phase cloaks, heavy weaponry and electric melee)
  • BGI executives (men in black; trivially retextured male scientists; weird eyes optional)
  • DeLorean again? ^_^ (I even have a BGI HQ building... maybe worth an editor shot of two)
  • a horde of Screamers homing in on Mai (e.g., in Hasegawa's room)
  • Iron Demon (the best we can do is editor shots of either model, preferably the Walker)
  • ...