Chapter 4: Trailer Shot Checklists

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

Trailer Shot Checklists for Character Concept Artists — Poses, Renders & Print

Audience: character concept artists on both the concepting and production sides.

Trailers are not simply moving advertisements; they are the compressed thesis of your world, your cast, and your promise to players. Because trailers are often prepared months before final in‑game assets are locked, character concept artists have an outsized role in protecting readability, mood, and brand consistency while enabling downstream teams—animation, lighting, capture, marketing, and merchandise—to do their best work. The following checklists are written as narrative paragraphs so they can be pasted into briefs or kickoff docs without feeling like a technical spec. They revolve around three anchors—poses, renders, and print—so that every shot you shepherd contributes to key art and figurine readiness rather than becoming a disposable one‑off.

1) Shot Intent: what the frame has to say

Before debating camera moves or shaders, confirm the shot’s narrative verb. Is the frame introducing, proving, or promising? An introduce frame prioritizes iconic silhouette and recognizability; you’re designing a pose that states species, class, or role in half a second. A prove frame demonstrates a specific mechanic, material behavior, or costume feature under motion; your pose must be functional, joint‑safe, and readable under motion blur. A promise frame teases aspiration—a transformation, ultimate, or relationship dynamic; the pose holds emotional charge and merch appeal. When you know the verb, you can select clothing states, props, FX, and camera projection that will survive both editorial pacing and still‑frame extraction for press kits.

2) Pose Design for Trailer Readability and Merchability

Design trailer poses as if each frame could be turned into a statue. Begin with a primary read (whole‑body shape and gesture), a secondary read (major negative spaces around limbs and gear), and tertiary read (micro tilts of head, wrist angle, cape curl). Avoid self‑occlusion that hides class‑defining features—heal staff, shield face, jetpack profile—especially in three‑quarter angles where limbs can collapse. For production artists, validate joint arcs and cloth seams against the rig’s limits so the pose the director loves will not tear normals or break skin weights. For concepting artists, sketch pose stacks: A‑pose to action‑pose to hold‑pose, noting which beats will translate to the figurine’s contact points, so the eventual physical base can support the center of gravity you design now.

3) Silhouette, Lens, and Scale Discipline

Silhouette survives everything: distance, motion blur, and montage. Keep heads, hands, and hero props on separate read planes; if two essentials must overlap, bias contrast and specular so the foreground element leads. Select lensing that flatters the character’s proportions and trailer tempo. A 35–50 mm equivalent keeps faces heroic without distorting helmets or pauldrons, while 85–100 mm compresses props against the torso for catalog‑like merch reads. For swarm or squad shots, reserve one silhouette tier for the protagonist—bigger shapes, slower beats—so the viewer’s eye anchors even when editorial cuts fast. Always frame with sticker logic in mind: would this cutout read on a laptop lid? If yes, the silhouette will also support print crops and small on‑screen lower‑thirds.

4) Costume States and Damage Layers that Travel Across Media

A good trailer shot establishes a stateful wardrobe the audience can track: pristine → travel‑worn → battle‑scarred → ascended. Concepting artists should provide a short paragraph per state describing fabric hand, edge wear, and shader intents (chalky leather vs. oiled; satin vs. taffeta; brushed metal vs. ceramic). Production artists should ensure masks and ID maps can be toggled between states without re‑authoring everything. That way, marketing can lift any frame into key art variants, and figurine sculptors can choose the “moment in time” to enshrine without guesswork about what that gouge or carbon‑scorch should look like.

5) Material and Lighting Plans for Capture and Print Extraction

Treat the trailer lighting plan as a portable lighting recipe. Provide a concept lighting note per character—key direction, fill ratio, rim intensity, plausible diegetic sources—and a short rationale for skin and eye response. For production, deliver render IDs: albedo, roughness, metalness, SSS amount for skin, cloak sheen for fabric, emissive masks for power sources. This lets capture artists maintain continuity across levels and gives print teams clean channels to recomposite for posters. Aim for material choices that survive HDR grading and SDR web compression; avoid looks that only read at 4K. If a material’s read relies on subtle anisotropy, include a specular roll highlight test frame to prove it survives YouTube’s bitrate.

6) Emotes, Micro‑Acting, and the “Poster Pause”

Every trailer needs one to three poster pauses—micro‑beats where motion settles just long enough to extract a pristine still. Design poses with a one‑frame “click” in mind: head turned into the light, emblem unoccluded, FX on the accent beat rather than at full bloom. Concepting artists should storyboard the facial FACS landmarks that matter—inner brow raise for concern, lip corner press for resolve—so animation can land them precisely at the pause. Production artists should confirm facial rig fidelity under the chosen lens; nothing kills a poster frame faster than eye highlights drifting to the sclera because the capture camera faked depth of field.

7) FX, Powers, and Safe Legibility Under Motion

Power cues are both branding and UI. Establish a power language per element or class—glyphs, particle size, color temperature, cadence—and note the low‑saturation or greyscale fallback that remains readable for color‑blind viewers. For trailers, bake two versions of the FX: a hero density for close shots and an editorially thinned version for wide or fast‑cut shots so the subject doesn’t disappear in a bloom cloud. Provide FX mattes in renders so print can dial intensities without repainting. For figurines, design the “frozen physics” justification: ribbons twist with torque, particles spiral with implied wind; give sculptors line‑of‑action diagrams so the resin supports match your force flow.

8) Camera, Blocking, and the Avoidance of Occlusion Traps

Block with occlusion maps in mind: note where hair, capes, backpacks, or long weapons can eclipse faces or faction crests. In beats featuring partners or squads, assign depth lanes—front, mid, back—and keep each lane’s motion vector distinct so motion blur comp doesn’t smear them into a single tone. For production, verify that camera paths respect rig limits and collision proxies; hands clipping belts or scabbards in capture will ruin still extractions. For concepting, provide alt‑poses for the same idea (upright, crouched, leaping) to give editorial options when a set location is cramped or when UI overlays force a crop.

9) Color Strategy that Works for Video and Print

Trailer grading often lifts blacks and compresses saturation; print art often deepens blacks and pumps contrast. To survive both, choose a palette with two forms of separation: hue contrast (teal cloak vs. brass armor) and value contrast (light skin vs. dark pauldron). Provide a neutral “press kit” LUT recommendation along with your dramatic show LUT so extracted frames aren’t tied to the most stylized grade. For production, confirm that your albedo values sit in printable ranges; crushed near‑black fabrics that look moody in motion can become indistinct blobs on a poster or figurine paint guide. Include a short CMYK note for key hues that routinely shift in print (cyans and purples) and propose a spot color if the IP color must be exact.

10) Renders as Multi‑Use Assets: passes, IDs, and scale cues

When trailers double as sources for key art, render with upstream separation in mind. Provide beauty, diffuse, specular, SSS, emissive, and shadow passes as needed, plus material and object ID masks. Add a non‑destructive scale witness—a 10 cm checker or ruler tucked outside final crop—so figurine sculptors and packaging artists can infer proportions correctly even if the shot is punched in later. For concept artists, include a shaded greyscale and a flat‑color paintover; the greyscale proves forms under print contrast, the flat‑color version makes vector posterization easier if marketing wants a graphic treatment.

11) Print‑Ready Stills: composition, bleed, and negative space

Design trailer frames with print crops in mind. Keep a safe logo zone in the lower third and protect 3–5% bleed on all sides for posters or box fronts. Avoid “tangent traps” where the character’s silhouette kisses the crop; either commit to a confident crop through a limb or give it breathing room. Anticipate postcard, vertical mobile, and square social crops; ensure that emblem, face, and hero prop remain within a central diamond for universal reuse. Provide type‑aware space in at least one hero frame where a masthead or tagline can sit without covering anatomy landmarks or brand marks.

12) Figurine and SKU Variant Readiness from Day One

Every shot should tell a base‑and‑variants story. Identify the neutral pose that can become the base figurine: feet triangle for stability, one or two strong contact points, cape or weapon arcs that can double as load‑bearing elements. Then tag two variant beats the trailer will also show—winter cloak, battle‑damaged helm, powered‑up gauntlet—so merchandising can plan SKU A (standard), SKU B (event/seasonal), SKU C (ultimate/ascended). For production artists, maintain paint map continuity across states; for concept artists, annotate micro‑finishes in words a factory can act on (matte black 2/10 gloss, satin 5/10, gloss 8/10; metallic flake size; edge‑drybrush intent). Trailer exposure becomes a literal bill of materials.

13) Cross‑Team Handoff: capture kits and communication

Provide a compact capture kit: a one‑pager per hero with approved angles, pose sketches, lens ranges, lighting recipe, and “do nots” (no Dutch tilt on this paladin; no top‑down on this mech). Include a link to render passes, LUTs, font and logo packs, and a small PSD with labeled groups that shows how you expect speculars and emissives to balance in print. Production artists should version files predictably, suffixing with date and shot code so editorial can request alternates without confusion. Concepting artists should keep an open backchannel with capture: if an environment set fights your silhouette, volunteer a pose variant that preserves the shot verb rather than letting the frame go generic.

14) Quality Control: what to check before lock

Before a trailer cut locks, run a readability and merch sweep. Scrub at 0.25× speed and examine frames as stills: do face, faction mark, and hero prop all read at least once at full clarity? Flip to greyscale: does the silhouette survive? Toggle your neutral LUT: are skin tonality and key brand hues stable? Zoom to 300%: are there aliasing or shader crawl issues that will explode when printed at 24×36 inches? Check color‑blind simulations: can the power cue be distinguished by shape and cadence alone? For figurines, verify that the chosen poster frame has a believable physical base, and that no essential detail lives on a floating plane that will be impossible to support in resin.

15) Ethics, Accuracy, and Expectation Management

Trailers should inspire, not mislead. If a costume element or transformation is aspirational, label it as such in internal documentation so merch and community teams do not promise what gameplay will not deliver. For historical or culture‑inspired costumes, include your research notes so marketing copy and packaging art remain respectful and accurate. For both concepting and production artists, protect performer dignity and accessibility: avoid poses that sexualize unintentionally, and keep mobility devices, prosthetics, or unique body types framed with the same heroic care as any other character so inclusivity extends from trailer to shelf.

16) A Practical Flow You Can Repeat on Every Shot

Start with a written shot intent and a thumbnail of the primary silhouette. Design the pose for merchability, reserving a poster pause. Lock a lighting recipe that survives both video and print, and establish FX density tiers. Render with passes and IDs, and keep scale witnesses. Compose with future crops and type zones in mind. Tag the figurine base and two SKU‑variant states. Hand off a compact capture kit. QC for readability, ethics, and color stability. If you repeat this flow, your trailer shots will stop being single‑use frames and become a coherent, multi‑format asset ecosystem—ready for key art, retail boxes, and the figurines fans bring home.

Outcome: when both concepting and production character artists work this way, every trailer shot becomes an intentional pose, a robust render, and a print‑ready asset. It markets clearly, extracts cleanly, and scales to figurines without guesswork—turning trailer time into durable brand equity rather than a collection of pretty but fragile moments.