Why Game Trailers Need Sound Effects | Video Game Trailer Academy

[@TheMarvelStarkOFFICIAL]

I notice a lot of fan trailers have issues with sound design or don't use it at all, which throws me off. Anything with sound design makes the trailer 100x better imo, just makes the trailer feel more grounded and alive, while no sound makes it look dull and uninteresting. When I do fan trailers or tv spots, I always focus on sound design as much as I can, I love sound design a lot, few years ago I didn't use sound design at all. Now I'm in love with it, I love to make sound design sing with music, like it belongs to it. Not a lot of people focus on most important part of trailer editing. Of course some trailers work with no sound design but that depends. Tip from me is to always layer few sound effects on to each other for more punchy feel but never do too much, it will overpower the music and ruin the mix plus distort the whole part. :)

[@DerekLieu]

TheMarvelStark Yeah, I think most fan trailer makers start by making montages with cool trailer music, and gradually get to the point of integrating sound design 😃

[@RobbyHuang]

Watched this and then watched the Eiyuden Chronicle trailer today and immediately realized how right you are about this.

[@DerekLieu]

Haha, you cannot unsee it. Or rather, unhear it 🤪

[@adriac1291]

One thing I spend a lot of time working on for my fanmade trailers for series, movies etc or even official ones for games, I almost always download tons of sound effect to add ambiance and make everything feel better. One small sound thats barley audible will still help so much even its for just 3 seconds. Trailers are not just about video editing, at least 50% of everything I edit is sound.

[@DerekLieu]

Absolutely! Sound is at LEAST 50% of the editing. I’m definitely going to dive deeper into this in the future.

[@sebastianschumacher9772]

If mixing sound is complicated, then working together with sound designers is probably the best choice! Picture and sound editors are meant to work together.

[@sebastianschumacher9772]

Adding on to this: You don't have to limit yourself to the sounds in-game. Most triple A games have different teams for cinematic trailers and in-game sounds. Same thing happens in film. Trailer doesn't need to sound the exact same as the game, you can make it much more grandiose, since a trailer you'll only hear once or twice, while the in-game sounds may be heard thousands of times by a single user. Use sound to its fullest extent like the big dogs do! Don't limit yourself simply to what the gameplay capture has, you have infinite libraries of sound to play with and add on top to make it juicier and more attractive.

[@DerekLieu]

These are all fantastic points! Though I do tend to be cautious about just how much creative license I'm willing to take with the game audio since it can be such a core part of the game design.

[@sebastianschumacher9772]

@@DerekLieu I agree! Adding more should mostly be for dramatic effect, transitions and title screens. Subtle but powerful! I work on film mostly but trailers are usually where I have the most fun as a sound designer.

[@sebastianschumacher9772]

@@DerekLieu Games like that Ninja one in your video don't need much added at all 🎮🎮

[@siksith]

I'm very impressed by the wealth of knowledge you have! Thanks for sharing that with us.

[@DerekLieu]

You're welcome! I have lots lots more where this came from ^_^

[@musikalniyfanboichik]

Your channel is my best find in 2020 tysm man!

[@DerekLieu]

You’re welcome!

[@iDentityUS]

You have amazing content that is very informative! I will definitely be following you to help my upcoming project. Thank you 🙏🏾

[@DerekLieu]

You're welcome!

[@iDentityUS]

@@DerekLieu would it be possible to speak to you about a few things? Im pretty adept at editing I just don’t know what it takes to actually make a trailer from scratch. Like how the CGI characters look drastically different from an in game character

[@FamilyTableTop]

This is great advice, and like how you show good and bad examples of audio use.

[@MrDevonParsons]

Excellent video. You have game trailers down to a science. Appreciate the education.

[@DerekLieu]

Thanks for watching!

[@T4coTV]

Another great piece of advice, thanks Derek!

[@BeeBlueBubble]

Fantastic video as all of your work!

[@manraiderofficial]

You just earned a new subscriber from me buddy! Keep up the good work and I hope one day, you will appreciate the work I sort of did by myself from taking the tips you did about doing game trailers!

[@DerekLieu]

I really hope the videos help you out

[@AlexStrook]

Amazing video as always !

[@agiledefinitivo]

Great adivice Derek! Thanks for sharing! =)

[@DerekLieu]

You're welcome!

[@laurenzreinthaler2301]

As always, great video!

[@DerekLieu]

Thank you!

[@kuyapaextendpo]

Hi Derek, how do you separate sound effects from the music, or dialogue audio from music bg?

[@DerekLieu]

If it’s available, turn the music down in the menu options. If necessary have only one track on at a time. If you can request raw files from the devs then that’s even better.

[@bobbychen8483]

非常感谢，我学习到了很多！

[@KIMIlKO]

what game is the shooting trailer? 3:50 its soo cool!

[@DerekLieu]

That’s Battlefield V

[@EmeraldEyeProductions]

Interesting... I feel like the podcast episode i just listened to had you saying something different. Maybe I misheard? Or maybe you’re mind’s changed? I’ve a feeling it’s the former lol

[@DerekLieu]

EmeraldEyeProductions Huh, I’m not sure which one you listened to. I feel like I’ve been pretty consistently for game sound effects in trailers 🤔

[@EmeraldEyeProductions]

@@DerekLieu I remembered wrong. I believe you and Ric were talking about the difference between sound design between movie and game trailers, and you were saying that more often in games you don't have to create your own sound design as it's already in the game. I think I confused that bit of the conversation with your opinion on the "rawness" of the FFVII remake trailer.

[@DerekLieu]

EmeraldEyeProductions ah, got it! The FFVII example is probably not the strongest example for a short video because it requires some more context to see why it feels weird. Also, it might just be my personal preference and everyone else likes it 😛 but to me those scenes feel TOO raw to be trailer-like.

[@DeadTalkLive]

Nice! Coming from a current KZbinr...

[@sparktenks]

What's the game title at 6:47?

[@DerekLieu]

That's the game "Sea of Stars" which is the upcoming game from Sabotage Studio (Creators of The Messenger)