Ardacraft Rendered Intro

Good Evening.
Although our resident Blender expert Phe has already made us a beautiful rendered intro, I was considering commissioning a more complex and higher res one from a professional. It should only cost 20-30 quid, and i’m happy to pay for it.

The question is, what should it be? If you guys can pitch me some ideas and we can come to a consensus in the next week that would be fantastic. I don’t know how long the commission will take, but i’d like to start it asap.

Here’s one idea off the bat:

For those interested, this is the guy I was thinking of commissioning: https://www.youtube.com/user/AxisDesignerGFX/videos
He mainly does modern stuff, but I think he’s probably skilled enough to make something a bit more fantasy for us.

He’s also skilled with Worldmachine and can do landscapes and natural stuff:


Don’t go overboard with the requests tho, try to keep the ideas relatively simple.

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If you want to do something a bit interactive and minimal effort we could have it so every video starts with the map of middle earth. The camera zooms in and goes through clouds before panning up and settling infront of a scene depending where we are working. So say the grey heavens, our logo appears in the mid center of the screen above frodos boat leaving middle earth. Or for Minas tirith it pans from a head view of the city down to just infront of the wall where the logo would appear.

If you want something simple and effective have the logo appear in rivendell but have all the writing fade in kinda like on the ring. Something simple and effective.

Something with dubstep.

Personally, I tend to find intro videos a bit tedious and forgettable.
I think it might be a bit classier to have the logo or whatever show up at the end - put the content at the forefront and let it ‘wow’ the viewer into wanting to know more about who made it first.

Not sure how effective a strategy that is. I guess it’s a bit like how movie trailers advertise.
Also don’t know if that affects the type of render you’d go with.

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Maybe have a very breef intro, like something that appears on the screen over the recording, and at the end have a cinematic outro?

I think I agree with you here. I’m always slightly annoyed by intros too.

Maybe what R3 did for his video of the Shire would be ideal as an intro (so that it’s almost part of the video). A cinematic outro (as @hoppingharry) suggested could be cool, but only if it works as an outro.

Perhaps every video could fade to black at the end, then that black becomes the ink of the words on a page of LotR, the camera pulls back to reveal the pages and the book is closed? Sort of like a reverse of the LotR DVD menu that @Glov posted.

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I like the idea of using something as an outro rather than an intro. And i’m fine with keeping it to something simple, maybe similar to what Phe made, I just thought you guys may want to try something different. I’ll ask the guy if he has any input/ideas as well seeing as he’ll be making it. I also kind of like Fornad’s idea. It’s a bit cliche but I think it’s nice.

One thing Harry suggested, and which is another option, is we could use any of our current builds as an asset in the render. This guy uses C4D, and it wouldn’t be too hard for fresh to produce an OBJ for him to use somewhere in the render. Just food for thought.

I just contacted him and gave him a copy of our logo and a description of our project, I also asked him if he had any input. He should respond within the next couple of days.

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I think using some content we have created In the intro would greatly help with keeping interactive with the viewer. It would be exciting to see a different background when an area is complete every few videos. That way the viewer can see our progression in the intro/outro alone. It keeps it fresh and boosts moral for a project. It lets the fewer see “hey this is done, we are working on another section now and making progress!” While still seeming professional.

we could use any of our current builds as an asset in the render

Wouldn’t it be better to have a generic outro that fits any video? I think it would be odd if we had a video for Rivendell and the outro was Bag End, for example.

a different background when an area is complete every few videos

This would cost money every time. It’s not feasible.

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Obviously a different location every video wouldn’t work, but you could use something more iconic like bag-end as a backdrop. Just an idea.

I liked what Glov did in his Shire showcase I think it was, at the end it was just a video of some of us acting on one of the suitable areas, perhaps we don’t even need to pay for an intro/outro and we just make it seem more organic.

Scratch some of that, he was thinking of doing something entirely different than I was. He would’ve charged a lot more for making assets.

He still has a few ideas for a more simplistic approach, similar to what Phe did, but a good deal prettier and more professional. I’m also showing him some of our builds in case he feels like using an Obj of Mithlond or something.
I know something really simple like a text overlay on videos may be nice, but I’ve already paid him and I’d like to see what he could produce for us. I think he could make something not too flashy, but nice enough to add a wow factor to our videos.

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Honestly if you’ve already paid him, just see what he comes up with. No offence to Phe but I’m sure it’ll be better.