February 23, 2019 at 16:36Moving Marketing: The Year of GIF Production
- Transfer
When Bundy and a friend started working on the dynamic Wizard of Legend bagel, they realized that the main problem was a lack of experience. They had no connections, marketing budget or expertise that industry veterans could use. Therefore, it was important to start talking about the game as early as possible.
They quickly realized that gif images more accurately convey the dynamics of the game and better attract people's attention. Over the year, they learned a lot about how to make a gif convincing.
The gif must convey one idea or message. Do not try to explain the whole game in one gif image. If you are demonstrating a new spell, crop the overlay animations and highlight only the effect of using it. If you show a beautiful environment, do not add noise to the scene as a massive battle. Your goal is to highlight such an aspect of the game that will push a person to learn more about it.
The first Wizard of Legend GIF that lacks accents.
Focus on one company spell
Adjust the scene and eliminate all the "dead space" so that you leave only what you need. This makes it easier to create gifs, as you have a chance to hide the roughness in the game. GIFs usually have fewer screenshots, so a close-up helps people better see what happens. Your game may look great in 1080p, but it doesn’t help if you squint to see the animation reduced to a gif image with a width of 600 pixels. Unless it’s the main part of the gameplay, you should trim the UI or hide it entirely.
The original look of the Wizard of Legend vs cropped and increased emphasis on action
Optimally, the gif lasts 3-4 seconds. You run the risk of losing a person’s attention and increasing loading time if it lasts longer. The gif should be short and interesting enough for most people to watch it at least twice. Concise communication is always better than striving to show more. If you are having problems shortening the length of the video, maybe you are trying to show too much at a time.
The resulting dynamics after trimming the overlay animations and spell cooldown
The movement is striking, and today it is harder than ever to hold someone's attention as they flip through endless feeds of messages. For this reason, it is always better to maintain momentum throughout the GIF: start with an action and end with an action. After viewing the first frames, it should be clear that it is animated. It is also very rare to see characters without animations during the game, and it will be strange if they remain motionless in the gif image.
The movement always attracts attention!
Do not limit yourself and play with the settings. If you record frames of the raw version and find that it does not work the way you want, you can temporarily change the game. Bundy gives an example of how a gif was created that demonstrated the destructive power of a new spell. They noticed that some of the strongest enemies would survive the spell all the time, unless they were previously damaged. Instead of wasting time on this before applying the spell, the developers changed the health settings of all enemies, so that the spell instantly caused the devastating consequences that were originally conceived. As a result, the gif was easier to create and emphasize the effect of the spell. Before changing the settings of the game, create a backup copy of the project!
Result: Scrubbing the entire room with a homing swirl!
Not all of this may apply to you and your game, but we hope you find something useful to you.
They quickly realized that gif images more accurately convey the dynamics of the game and better attract people's attention. Over the year, they learned a lot about how to make a gif convincing.
Focus on one thing
The gif must convey one idea or message. Do not try to explain the whole game in one gif image. If you are demonstrating a new spell, crop the overlay animations and highlight only the effect of using it. If you show a beautiful environment, do not add noise to the scene as a massive battle. Your goal is to highlight such an aspect of the game that will push a person to learn more about it.
The first Wizard of Legend GIF that lacks accents.
Focus on one company spell
Scale and crop
Adjust the scene and eliminate all the "dead space" so that you leave only what you need. This makes it easier to create gifs, as you have a chance to hide the roughness in the game. GIFs usually have fewer screenshots, so a close-up helps people better see what happens. Your game may look great in 1080p, but it doesn’t help if you squint to see the animation reduced to a gif image with a width of 600 pixels. Unless it’s the main part of the gameplay, you should trim the UI or hide it entirely.
The original look of the Wizard of Legend vs cropped and increased emphasis on action
Make them short and attractive.
Optimally, the gif lasts 3-4 seconds. You run the risk of losing a person’s attention and increasing loading time if it lasts longer. The gif should be short and interesting enough for most people to watch it at least twice. Concise communication is always better than striving to show more. If you are having problems shortening the length of the video, maybe you are trying to show too much at a time.
The resulting dynamics after trimming the overlay animations and spell cooldown
Keep the momentum
The movement is striking, and today it is harder than ever to hold someone's attention as they flip through endless feeds of messages. For this reason, it is always better to maintain momentum throughout the GIF: start with an action and end with an action. After viewing the first frames, it should be clear that it is animated. It is also very rare to see characters without animations during the game, and it will be strange if they remain motionless in the gif image.
The movement always attracts attention!
Do not be afraid to change the game
Do not limit yourself and play with the settings. If you record frames of the raw version and find that it does not work the way you want, you can temporarily change the game. Bundy gives an example of how a gif was created that demonstrated the destructive power of a new spell. They noticed that some of the strongest enemies would survive the spell all the time, unless they were previously damaged. Instead of wasting time on this before applying the spell, the developers changed the health settings of all enemies, so that the spell instantly caused the devastating consequences that were originally conceived. As a result, the gif was easier to create and emphasize the effect of the spell. Before changing the settings of the game, create a backup copy of the project!
Result: Scrubbing the entire room with a homing swirl!
Some more general tips
- If possible, try making the first and last frames the same;
- Avoid using text where possible. It is difficult and long to read, and it takes a lot of skills to correctly enter it into the image;
- If you are demonstrating multiple GIFs, the order matters. Always start and end with spectacular gifs. Try varying the type of content that you show so that the viewer does not get tired;
- Realize the ability to record and play inside the game so as not to replay until you get the perfect shots;
- Add a simple developer menu that allows you to reset the entire scene for recording.
Now Go and Make Gifs!
Not all of this may apply to you and your game, but we hope you find something useful to you.