Rhythm & Beats: SLASH! Tournament Trailer

Ad for an event that took place in North Carolina, fully remote, made from scratch.

The Process

The client wanted a futuristic, high-tech looking trailer for a big Smash tournament down in North Carolina. This was a big project to take on alone, so I wanted to work in mind with the big details first so the little changes would make this the equivalent of a passion project. This essentially meant: spend most of the time recreating the map, copying the art style and mimicking its most crucial background elements, then make all the assets afterwards. What’s also great about this project is that it follows the one-take animations I’ve been keen on making a part of my 3D art style. I wanted to work mostly with high-typography over a Beatsaber map while the map itself changes to exacerbate to be both exciting and further display the message presented.

I started off by presenting this storyboard:

Client
RogueRhythm (discord)

Year
01/27/2023

Mood Board

This was how I pitched it.

Technical Process

The planning process was all about careful spreadsheeting and diligence. As long as I knew how to put it together, the project was already done. I started off with an asset log, followed by some technical demos of how the notes would get to the finish line.

Frame 15, where the notes begin to turn and a beam is emitted.

Presentation Shots

Compositing

Everything I do requires some combination of both 2D and 3D elements. In my opinion, that’s how you have to approach Premiere. Anything that would be easier to add as a 2D object, becomes a 2D object. With that said, the hierarchy of 3D rendering was:

1. Lightsaber movements

2. Typography

3. All notes

4. Volumetric stage & background lights

5. Any other background assets (Setups, rotating squares, etc)

There were some exceptions, like the green screened flames and the logo, which were flat PNGs, but I tried to keep as much as I could to Blender’s production. I had some errors with rendering its bloom effect, as well as some mistimed notes, but one by one, they were all sorted out. That’s why I stay up until 3AM!

Closing Thoughts

This project came with far more complexity than I was expecting. It showed me every little limitation of Blender and where I should focus my skillset next. I learned that I’m most comfortable with modeling, set design and the technical bits, and I could improve my rendering knowledge to make sure everything looks proper.

One of my favorite and most valuable takeaways was the amount of nuances I learned about rendering in Blender. All its strengths and its weaknesses, and how each piece interacts with one another in the end. I learned about spline animation, PNG sequences vs. MP4 renders in the case of proper timing, volumetric lighting, and yet again expanded my portfolio of musically charged montages. I learned to optimize my compositing skills in order to make this project work. My hope for the next is to better match the lighting between shots and learn the frame rates between programs for better syncing.

Was I in over my own head? Absolutely—and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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