Star Wars Squadrons Gameplay Trailer
Electronic Arts
Role: Senior Motion Designer and Video Editor
Client: Motive, Electronic Arts, Lucasfilm
Production Company: Electronic Arts
Well this might be it… this might be the peak of my career right here! What an honour it was to be the video editor for this gameplay reveal trailer for Electronic Art’s newly announced title: Star Wars Squadrons.
It’s been a wild ride over the last few months but a really exciting one for me. I was tasked with coming up with a motion graphics package and animated logo as well as being the video editor on the gameplay trailer for the big reveal at EA Play Live. It was my first time working with many of the members of the Squadrons team and it was a great experience. Yes, there were a lot of extra hours and sleepless nights but the passion of the team shone through. It was a true pleasure to be involved with a project like this and a childhood dream come true.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak our studio has been working from home since March but by no means were we quiet. With the design team, I helped bring the branding to life used it to build out the Motion Graphics package that was weaved throughout the gameplay trailer and will be used for the rest of the campaign. We wanted to bridge the gap between the painted artwork that had been produced and the 3D stylized look being used in-game. This is when I decided to bring in the iconic starfighters into the mix as silhouettes but still use the painted effect to help bring those styles together. We also wanted to make sure we didn’t lose too much of the detail from the ships, so using various passes I brought elements back to help create depth to the cockpit shots and dynamics to the animated starfighters.
Here’s the collection of graphics I made for the franchise which were all made to be re-purposed and translated into multiple languages.
After finishing the animated logo for Squadrons I then took it upon myself to add an extra layer of detail to the opening logo animation of the gameplay trailer. I took the static animated logo and using the x-wing thruster to peel away to the coloured treatment. This was something we spoke about earlier in the process but there was talk of us having to go down a simpler approach. But I was keen to keep it in and work it up to really kick the piece off. I’m proud of what I have managed to put together for this and how well it went down with EA, Motive and Lucasfilm.
Looping teaser made to direct fans to the EA Play livestream and gameplay trailer.
Working in quite a small team that covered a lot of locations we managed to pull off the gameplay trailer when at times we weren’t sure if we were going to have the capabilities to capture what we needed. We worked closely with Lucasfilm and Motive to ensure we were showing the Star Wars universe and the Squadrons game off as best we could. Credit to them for trusting us and letting us really have fun with this piece. We wanted to ensure that we showed off the detail and work everyone had put in to making this a true pilot experience. We also worked with composers Gordy Haab and Blake Robinson to weave in the iconic John Williams themes as well as the music from in-game into the trailer. This in itself was a huge challenge as the orchestra weren’t able to record in the same studio all at once due to the pandemic restrictions. So it was down to them to bring it together in post and create our beautiful soundtrack. Thanks guys – it still gives me chills!
A huge thanks the EA capture team and Darkburn Creative for all of their hard work and hours they put in for us. It’s always a pleasure working with you guys and it wouldn’t have been possible without you. A special thanks to the Mill for the VFX work; the team at Soundsource for their audio work on the whole piece, it really brings everything together. And lastly a huge thanks to my direct team: Galen, Neel, Chris B and Chris W. It truly was a mammoth job and without everyone’s efforts, I don’t think we could have created such a successful asset. It’s still early days but the fans look to be as excited as we are – which is a great sign. Already looking forward to jumping in an x-wing and taking down a star destroyer!
