Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Trailer

Thanks for trusting us with your baby, Paizo!

There's so much great Pathfinder art out there. It was both difficult and a pleasure to choose which ones to include.

Looking forward to reading what people think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMaYzBrbqaM

I think at one point there was art from the mythic rulebook.

Question. The picture of the Aztec looking temples at around :23 sec. Where is that from? I love it!

Really adored the effects in some of the picures! Very cool effects! Very well done! *jealous on your skills* :-p

Really adored the effects in some of the picures!

Thanks!

Not the music I would have chosen, to be honest. ^^

Yep I agree the music missed the mark for me. I actually liked the track itself, but it totally missed the mark of evoking a sense of Golarion for me.

Question. The picture of the Aztec looking temples at around :23 sec. Where is that from? I love it!

One of the Serpent's Skull covers.

Edit: City of Seven Spears to be exact.

And like others, I enjoyed the trailer, but wasn't entirely sold on the music (I think I'd want something a bit more bombastic or, failing that, quirky.)

Make a video with music of your choosing! :)

Ha! Awesome guys. Nicely done!

Great job! Love the music as well :)

Make a video with music of your choosing! :)

But that would involve making an effort! ;)

Make a video with music of your choosing! :)

Made one a while back... not on YouTube, so have to download it.

You know guys, this is really nice and all, but nothing compares to the pure insanseawesome of GRIFFIN ISLAND.

Perfect timing as my older kids are setting down to play their first session of Pathfinder Beginner!

You know guys, this is really nice and all, but nothing compares to the pure insanseawesome of GRIFFIN ISLAND.

My Anime+RPG Otaku Gene just exploded!

Jenny Bendel wrote:

Make a video with music of your choosing! :)

Made one a while back... not on YouTube, so have to download it.

** spoiler omitted **

And now I want Butch Vig and Shirley Manson look-a-like NPCs as soon as possible...

Good one. :)

You know guys, this is really nice and all, but nothing compares to the pure insanseawesome of GRIFFIN ISLAND.

That's a classic! :)

-Lisa

Jenny Bendel wrote:

Make a video with music of your choosing! :)

But that would involve making an effort! ;)

Or knowing in the first place how to use video editing software.

That noise was sickening. If I wasn't already a Pathfinder fan and Gamer I would have just ignored it completely. It soiled a perfectly good collection of art with decent effects, with noise that sounds like crap. Can we get something a lil bit more genre appropriate? Damm sick.

Yep I agree the music missed the mark for me. I actually liked the track itself, but it totally missed the mark of evoking a sense of Golarion for me.

+1.

Some honest constructive criticism for the creators...

I gotta say, the music was absolutely awful. It really didn't match with the art and themes of Pathfinder at all, nor did it seem to relate to the video in any particular way. It felt amateurish.

Some of the animation effects were quite off-putting as well (the goblin's mouth moving and the gnoll's sword attack stand-out in memory). I think only one thing moving in images looks incredibly, incredibly awkward and unnatural.

If you're going to animate a still image, at LEAST animate some of the other parts of the image so it doesn't look totally unnatural. Arms move quite differently to just flipping the art already there. Not to mention, it's very hard to move a limb without moving other parts of your body as well, especially in combat. That person is going to be breathing, twisting, and turning; other muscles will be moving in tandem to the ones in the arm.

Choose what you animate carefully. Pick things like clothes, or sparkly light effects, or smoke, or hair, more than actual limbs, which are incredibly difficult to pull off unless you're going to redraw a lot.

Some of the effects were done quite well though - the one with Seoni hovering with the smoke and some of the other sword/etc effects, too. But, ugh, those mouth/arm movements...

Check out the League of Legends logon screens for examples of what I think are effects on 2D art done right. Now, I realise you don't exactly have the budget of Riot's art team... :) But it might be some inspiration for you.

I didn't hear the music till now cuz I watched the movie without sound the first time.

But I agree with the music style, it doesn't suit Pathfinder.

And why every fantasy youtube movie these days needs that hard metal music anyway? I can't see what Metal has to do with fantasy and monsters?

Anyway the clip is still very awesome, just change the song if possible!

I'll have to agree with Alice Margatroid for the visual quality. The source art is of course magnificent, but the post-work was sometimes making the whole thing look silly.

As for the music, while I liked it on its own, my very first thought when hearing it was "huh, that's so not the music I have in mind when I think 'Pathfinder'".

This made me wish, once again, for a Shadow over Mystara/Tower of Doom/Dragon's Crown style of Pathfinder action game.

And why every fantasy youtube movie these days needs that hard metal music anyway? I can't see what Metal has to do with fantasy and monsters

I blame Dragonforce for the recent trend. Going back further, I'm sure there is someone else to blame.

Count me on the side that the music doesn't fit Pathfinder. I like the music, but not for Pathfinder. Most of the effects were cool, especially the ones that were manipulating a light source.

I'll be the odd one out. I liked the song and think it works fine. It's the same kind of music I listen to when I'm GMing - well, that and video game (Final Fantasy, etc.) type music.

Great choice for using Three Inches of Blood (love the band). As a RPG loving metal head, I often play pathfinder with this type of music in mind. It was nice to see some of my fave things mashed up.

So, question. What artwork are we allowed to use if we decide to make our own video? The community use package is rather limiting for such a thing.

I watched this
then I asked myself
'would I show this to people to entice them to play pathfinder?'

I found myself answering 'no'

but I am also curious about the answer to Ivan Ruski's question

If you want to make your own music video, you're limited to the art that is available in the Community Use Package and what has been displayed in a blog (such as what's here).

To be honest I didn't like the video at all. Effects were distracting and the music was more annoying than inspiring. I can appreciate the intent... but don't think it hit it.

I would have preferred something more understated like this

Gancanagh wrote:

And why every fantasy youtube movie these days needs that hard metal music anyway? I can't see what Metal has to do with fantasy and monsters

I blame Dragonforce for the recent trend. Going back further, I'm sure there is someone else to blame.

Robert Plant, Ian Anderson, Marc Bolan, and Steve Peregrin Took.

I can't see what Metal has to do with fantasy and monsters?

Uhhhh.....wut?

In any case, 3 Inches of Blood put on a great show when I first saw them in 2007 at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ, supporting Cradle of Filth and some other great bands (RIP Divinity Destroyed). Glad they could show up in a Paizo promotional video.

I'm sure our infamously critical RPGer community will, real soon now, put its money where resides its mouth, and come up with something better. Maybe different "soundtracks", one for the metal crowd, one for classical enthusiasts, New Age/ambient, etc. ?

Gancanagh wrote:

I can't see what Metal has to do with fantasy and monsters?

Uhhhh.....wut?

In any case, 3 Inches of Blood put on a great show when I first saw them in 2007 at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ, supporting Cradle of Filth and some other great bands (RIP Divinity Destroyed). Glad they could show up in a Paizo promotional video.

I'm sure our infamously critical RPGer community will, real soon now, put its money where resides its mouth, and come up with something better. Maybe different "soundtracks", one for the metal crowd, one for classical enthusiasts, New Age/ambient, etc. ?

Exactly. On all three points. :)

(The videos at Gen Con don't actually run with audio.)

Gancanagh wrote:

I can't see what Metal has to do with fantasy and monsters?

Uhhhh.....wut?

In any case, 3 Inches of Blood put on a great show when I first saw them in 2007 at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ, supporting Cradle of Filth and some other great bands (RIP Divinity Destroyed). Glad they could show up in a Paizo promotional video.

I'm sure our infamously critical RPGer community will, real soon now, put its money where resides its mouth, and come up with something better. Maybe different "soundtracks", one for the metal crowd, one for classical enthusiasts, New Age/ambient, etc. ?

If I hear metal I don't think about beautiful fantasy worlds and pictures at all, more about horror and tons of blood and people eating chicken and bat heads on stage, yes maybe it suits a Lovecraft-based chapter very well. ;-)

I understand Rap and Metal are very popular in America, it ain't in Holland, so maybe that's why I try to figure out why (mostly) Americans love to put Metal under fantasy games trailers and clips...
Not just here, everywhere (mostly youtube of course) you see fantasy trailers you hear very loud and chaotic music on the background.

But that's just my opinion, I don't mind your taste as its just a question.

I'm sure our infamously critical RPGer community will, real soon now, put its money where resides its mouth, and come up with something better. Maybe different "soundtracks", one for the metal crowd, one for classical enthusiasts, New Age/ambient, etc. ?

My opinion has very little to do with not being part of "the metal crowd" and more to do with the fact that the music really doesn't match at all with the video. I don't know how to explain it more. Music either thematically matches or it doesn't. You could certainly make Pathfinder stuff match to a metal song, but it would probably be much more dynamic and violent/gory than this. For example: that image of the adventurers in the tavern? Completely out of place with a metal song. (Of course, the fact that metal is almost always going to be more 'divisive' than a more classical song makes it a questionable choice in general.)

The images are a mix of active combat and passive activities - so something that is as always "active" as metal isn't totally suitable.

Some examples of music I think would fit better (not necessarily over the top of THIS video, but in general for a video like this) - all from Incompetech royalty-free music as I'm not bothered to search too far right now:

Five Armies (probably my favourite)
Impact Allegro
Skye Cuillin
Take A Chance

If I hear metal I don't think about beautiful fantasy worlds and pictures at all, more about horror and tons of blood and people eating chicken and bat heads on stage, yes maybe it suits a Lovecraft-based chapter very well. ;-)

I understand Rap and Metal are very popular in America, it ain't in Holland, so maybe that's why I try to figure out why (mostly) Americans love to put Metal under fantasy games trailers and clips...
Not just here, everywhere (mostly youtube of course) you see fantasy trailers you hear very loud and chaotic music on the background.

But that's just my opinion, I don't mind your taste as its just a question.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzfZ5Wa7asc

^^^^
Also Metal. And from the Netherlands. ;p

Put me in the not liking it category. The artwork is great. The animations added to the artwork look very clumsy/cheesy.

I'm also good with hard rock and metal, but in this case it just felt incredibly over the top.

The overall feel, with the animated blood sprays and thrashing guitars just came across as trying way too hard to be "hardcore."

Hmm, in the rock-off between Paizo's blog and Paizo's Facebook, Facebook wins. They like the video, and the music, over there. ;)

Now quit complainin' and go make your own. ;)

Considering how many of the scenes were of combat and conflict, I thought the choice of heavy metal was quite appropriate.

Just to put some context to my "like or dislike" of this video clip (spoiler: I didn't like the music) I was commenting within the context of:

Paizo: Watch our new video clip it roxorz!
Me: Meh, thematically music doesn't work to my tastes
Internet: Well make your own video clip you hack or you don't get to comment

You will notice from my tags that I am a heavy subscriber to pretty much everything Paizo makes. This invests me in their world of course, but also as a paying customer I think also allows me to make my voice heard as to whether something they are doing works to my tastes or not. I COULD vote with my wallet, the traditional way to show a company dislike, but I like most of what Paizo does so I keep my subscription in place even for products that I am not 100% sure I want or will use. Instead I choose to say in a measured way (I hope) when something does not appeal to me in the hope that Paizo will learn that at least one person did not go for that idea, not so that I can get something off my chest or demand a product direction shift, but more so that Paizo as company can learn from the "misses" (there are very few) to make more "hits".

Thanks to Gamerati for putting this one together

Maybe I'm mistaken here, but being as the video was made by a geek blog, my understanding was that this was a fan/community-made video. Am I mistaken, or are the "customer feedback" responses being directed at Paizo a bit... misplaced?

"Stop complaining if you don't make your own stuff!" is possibly the worst argument ever, but...

*shrug* I did try to be constructive in my responses to the creators. I understand it's a fan-made thing, and I appreciate the effort (plus, as I said, some parts were done well) - but I don't think there's much point in art if you don't look critically at it in order to improve for your next work.

Hmm, in the rock-off between Paizo's blog and Paizo's Facebook, Facebook wins. They like the video, and the music, over there. ;)

Now quit complainin' and go make your own. ;)

Ummm - How about no?

I'm with Alice here... being dismissive of reasoned criticism and debate isn't particularly encouraging from a Marketing Director.

Calling it fan-made doesn't jive either with me... as you're showing it on Paizo's big screen. Hence it has the big badge of Paizo approved on it.

Yes I'm being grumpy cat, but the feedback is actually well intended.

Um, guys... you've noticed the smiley indicating that Jenny's joking, right?

Kajehase - the use of a smiley in that sentence doesn't make it right... or change it from what it is - a dismissive statement that our opinions don't matter because of either:
A) We aren't part of the Facebook majority.
B) We didn't make our own video.