I have been waiting like many other fans hoping for another next avatar cartoon and when it was announced from rumors to officially a yes even more excited. I have been following a handful of sites and people who always like the show and keep up with the news. So when this trailer was released last week after being viewed at SDCC I was way amped!!!…
I watched it a bunch of times and did the twitter as well. Then I went to sleep thinking about the trailer and what I could do with it. I deiced to make a commercial spot for it, something that would be used on TV in either 15 or 30 seconds. This turned into more of a trailer spot eventually because that’s how my editing and planning lead me to. I also wanted to use a past pretty common motion graphics technique that I had never tried before.
I proceed to begin by getting the highest quality version I could get which my first source, http://www.lastairbenderfans.com/’s video was taken down. But of course something this popular could not be contained and I found a good alternative at 720 HD.
I brought it into Premier Pro and proceed to reedit it into 30 seconds. The beginning is essentially the same I just shorten it but after that I just took it as a puzzle and piece it together. I kept in mind frames I wanted to do my freeze frame effect in mind that I though would look cool. I also remembered John Dickinson’s (motionworks.com.au) breakdown on how he approached it, though I made bunch of mistakes anyway(but that’s how you learn).
Once I had a rough idea of how it was going to work I made the clips I wanted to do a freeze frame on a after effects comp with dynamic linking so I could edit it and have flexibility to change it. I sort of designed it half in Photoshop half in AE depending on the clip. Originally I wanted to 5, Korra, her two companions, Mako & Bolin, Amon of the Equalists, and Naga Korra’s animal companion. There wasn’t enough time and there not being good shots of the two boys I took them out.
After the designing the freeze frames I just had to animate them. I also did 4 overall textures that also have slight animations as well that change after a while. I was trying to make the trailer seem more grungy and steampunkish since that is some of the idea behind the series. I think I could have pushed it more but I think it works well with the trailer as is.
Lastly I re-edited the audio in audition, which is a lot better then soundbooth. There is a little click I couldn’t mask completely when I jump the sound the match the footage but I don’t think it’s too obvious if you into the trailer. There was also another beat I wanted to hit but couldn’t quite get it. I had really high hopes going to this and I like the way most of it ended up but there’s a bunch I would have like to do more so it was truly high quality.
So there you go my fan commercial trailer of the Legend of Korra can’t wait for the show to start!!!!