At E3, I had the pleasure of speaking with the guys at Big Machine Design about their Front Mission trailer for Square Enix. Recently we sat down again to discuss another project from Square Enix they have been working on, along with projects for other companies. You may recognize some of their stuff from NFL GameDay, Animal Planet, and more. These guys put together the stuff you don't think twice about, but it can make or break the appearance of a show, trailer or commercial. A lot of people fail to realize that someone had to design and create that awesome graphic. In a increasingly 3D world, the competition is tough for any design team. Big Machine Design is definitely on the right track; taking special emphasis on what their client wants, as well as the audience. For my interview with Steve Petersen (Creative Director at BMD) about all their current projects, read on!
So tell everyone a bit about who Big Machine Design is and what it is you guys do.
We work mostly on motion graphics, effects, trailers and commercials for film, TV, advertising, and gaming. More so gaming because it’s so visual in nature, and graphics and effects are in such high demand for that field. All of our staff has backgrounds in art. Most companies want graphic heavy work, and that’s where we come in. Being in the gaming industry is a natural evolution for what we do. The core staff consists of designers, animators, editors, producers, compositors, writers and my partner and I (we’re the creative heads). We’re big on story and narrative, so we hire writers to write scripts and stories. That’s what sets us apart from other trailer companies, the way we feel that story is key to a visual piece.
Aside from game trailers, what other projects have you guys worked on?
Actually in the past we worked on the all the Sunday NFL GameDay graphics. We actually made a football particle accelerator that builds energy and fires into big machine which then electrifies and the logo shoots out. There were actually 500 separate deliverables for that project.
Another project we just finished was for Animal Planet. We made the intro graphics for their up-coming “I’m Alive” show. The show is about gruesome animal attacks and the survivors. The graphic had to work for the entire show, so it couldn’t have just one animal. It also had to focus on the person’s emotional journey, despair turning into hope. So the graphic actually has arms reaching up and another pair reaching down to help. These arms represent the victims and those who kept them alive: their children, parents, so on. We used a lot of ink elements and human arms.
We saw your previous project that premiered at E3, how did everyone react to the trailer? Square Enix, Front Mission fans?
Everyone was really excited. Some of the comments came from GameTrailers.com where people wondered if that’s what the game would look like. It’s quite a radical departure from the other Front mission games. The old Front Mission games were mainly strategy to a FPS look. Everyone was wondering if those shots were actually from the game. Which is very flattering.
Square Enix was obviously impressed, and shortly after requested that Big Machine Design work on something else for them, what was it?
They asked us to do the Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days spots for the marketing campaign. We did a few 30 second TV spots, and one 60 second TV spot. The 60 second one was a special spot for MTV that had a whole separate set of requirements. Square Enix provided DS footage, which was hard to enlarge for the TV screen since the DS footage is so small. We framed the footage in a design world that matched the Kingdom Hearts campaign. Sunsets are an important part of Kingdom Hearts as they represent the end of time or a life. So we worked mostly sunset colors (oranges, reds, so on). You kind of already know the ending, so this time you play as “bad” guy who’s not really bad. It’s just a different side. It’s basically a beat the clock game.
What goes into a project like this (programs, number of people, so on)?
Unlike front mission where there was free reign, the world of Kingdom Hearts is already very designed. So it must stay true to the world it’s already in. We took design queues from existing Kingdom Hearts games. We really didn’t want to overshadow the game. We did some of the storyboards with Photoshop and Illustrator while others were hand drawn. Once that was done we submitted them to Square Enix and they picked the one they liked best. For programs we used After Effects for compositing, Final Cut to edit it together and the 3D elements were from Cinema 4D. There were three designers/animators, one animator and one producer for this project.
So, did Sqaure Enix throw in any sidewinders? Special requests?
Disney had to have a say in it too, since a lot of Kingdom Hearts has to do with their worlds and characters. We had to observe a sort of sensitivity for the balance in Disney and Square Enix. Which was very interesting. I think the fans are really going to like the new worlds in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.
Now that the project is completed, where does it go from here? Has Square Enix indicated that they may want Big Machine Design to do any future trailers?
Well, our new cycle of work begins now for E3 next year. We have projects underway already and are going to talk to clients in the gaming industry. Spots take an incredible amount of time to do. When a company wants to tease [a game], we have to get all the assets together rather quickly. Square Enix hasn’t said anything about any more projects, but as of right now they are a bit tied up with the new [games] coming out. Fox Reality hired us to do new award show called the Really Awards show, starring Lance Bass and Vivca Fox. They wanted a 15 second spot with images of Vivca Fox and Lance Bass, but there were things that had to be done first. It’s basically been a two-day turn-around!
Thank you so much for talking with me and best of luck on future projects!
