back case study // gauntlet match
the gauntlettrailers · opening credits · brand

World of Darkness, et al

A gauntlet match, booked across the tabletop world. Seven shows, a handful of clients, and one job each time: open the series with enough weight that people stop scrolling and stay. Trailers, opening credits, broadcast graphics and brand identities for vampires, hunters, folk-horror investigators and a few things best left unnamed.

roletrailer &
motion design
disciplinesbranding
motion · promo
on the card07 shows
game worlds05 systems
01
the title shot

Hunter: Garagefor World of Darkness, with Outstar

Hunter: The Reckoning 5e published by World of Darkness

World of Darkness came to me after seeing what I’d built for a run of creators working in Vampire: The Masquerade. They wanted a trailer and opening credits with real weight behind them for Hunter: Garage, with Outstar in the Storyteller’s chair.

This was the first show on their slate to run a brand new system, so it mattered that as many eyes as possible landed on it. World of Darkness needed an open that felt like an arrival. I built one that announces the show on its own terms.

traileropening creditstitle design
02
the full package

Dark Tide: Rising Watersfor AdventureTavern

Vaesen published by Free League

I worked with AdventureTavern to build a full package for Dark Tide: Rising Waters, their series set in Free League’s Vaesen. That meant the overall brand, the live broadcast graphics and animations, and the opening credits and trailer all pulling in the same direction.

I worked closely with the production team to craft an open that set the tone for the whole series, built around Michael Vignola’s haunting compositions to carry a real sense of despair and unease. Vaesen is Nordic folk horror: cold, quiet, watching. The open had to feel like the water rising long before anyone thinks to look down.

brandbroadcast graphicsopening creditstrailer
03
the hometown bout

Legacy of Bullsfor LilytheGM

Vampire: The Masquerade V5 published by World of Darkness

This is still one of my favourite videos to date. Set in Birmingham, Legacy of Bulls needed a trailer that felt like the city itself while still carrying the aesthetic people expect from a Vampire: The Masquerade actual play.

I leaned into both at once: the grit and character of Birmingham, pulled through a classic Masquerade lens, built to hand a brand new show instant credibility. I also took on the branding and the on-screen overlays so the trailer, the identity and the broadcast all read as one piece rather than three.

trailerbrandingon-screen overlays
04
the rule-breaker

ATL by Nightfor Gehenna Gaming

Vampire: The Masquerade V5 published by World of Darkness

A stark contrast to Legacy of Bulls. ATL by Night is also set in Vampire: The Masquerade, but this time in Atlanta, Georgia, and it arrived with an established fanbase and an ongoing story already in motion.

So I steered the trailer away from the usual classical aesthetic toward something that belonged to the city, centred the whole thing on a powerful hip-hop track, and cut the animations to the beat. It is by far my most appreciated trailer to date, and I think it gave the show a far stronger identity. I closed it out by unveiling a new brand I’d built for them: a bolder look that finally matched the energy of the series.

trailerbrand identitybeat-synced animation
05
the ensemble

Daybreak City Nightsfor AdventureTavern

Dungeons & Dragons 5E published by Wizards of the Coast

Back with AdventureTavern, this time on their 5E series, with a brief to land a strong neon 90s aesthetic across the trailer and opening.

The real challenge was the cast. This was a much larger ensemble than usual, and every single one of them needed enough room to feel respected and properly introduced. So I built the open around exactly that: giving each character their moment without losing the pace, or the neon-soaked tone holding the whole thing together.

traileropening creditsneon aesthetic
06
the needle drop

VtM: New Bloodfor VancouverbyNight

Vampire: The Masquerade V5 published by World of Darkness

I’m a big fan of Ardie Son’s compositions, so when VancouverbyNight got in touch about their new series I already had the perfect track in mind.

I designed the opening credits and the trailer, and built the brand identity for the series around that same mood. Sometimes the music comes first and everything else falls into place behind it.

opening creditstrailerbrand identity
07
the main event · intro & outro

Masks of Nyarlathotepfor Gehenna Gaming

Call of Cthulhu 7e published by Chaosium

This one, or I suppose these two, are among my favourite work to date, because I was handed free rein to bring a full creative vision to life. Working with Gehenna Gaming on their cinematic take on Call of Cthulhu’s globe-trotting Masks of Nyarlathotep, I produced the intro trailer, the opening graphics, and a complete outro credit sequence.

The intro sets a darker tone as viewers head into the series. The outro exists to shatter that feeling entirely: something disjointed and wrong, built to leave people uneasy as the screen goes black. I think both did their jobs, and they remain one (or, I guess, two) of the productions I’m proudest of.

intro traileropening graphicsoutro sequence
two cuts. play both.
the intro · sets the tone Masks of Nyarlathotep intro
the outro · breaks it again Masks of Nyarlathotep outro
the tale of the tape

One corner. A whole genre.

This run put me in the corner of some of the strongest names in tabletop actual play, across vampires, hunters, folk horror and cosmic dread. Different cities, different systems, the same job every time: find the angle, set the tone, and make the crowd show up. And this is far from the full card: it’s a slice of the work I’ve done in the TTRPG space, not the whole of it.

19shows opened to date
07clients in the corner
10game worlds, all told
step in the ring

got a show that needs an entrance?