Aims & Objectives

April 24, 2017Ben Ward No Comments

Project Reflection #2

Aims – The aim of this project is to work alongside Colossal Creations to create sound design for their 3D Environment/Games level based off of H.P Lovecraft’s Cthulhu.

At the start of Audio Project #2 I set this as my aim. This has ultimately been achieved by working closely alongside the client and finding out their needs and meeting their expectations a professional level. The client is pleased with the result of the end product and has no negatives to be said after any flaws they found were ironed out.

Objectives –

For the objectives I will write a short paragraph following each bullet point.

Liaise with client to clearly understand their vision. – This has been achieved with the final product. The client explained their needs for the project and through careful questioning I was able to pinpoint their vision and deliver a professional final product.
Record a wide range of audio and create sound effects for the clients environment but also building my own sound library for future projects. – This ojective wasn’t achieved for this project, however, through further conversations with both the client and individuals working within the Game Audio industry, as well as discussions had with David in tutorial sessions, I found that the need to record and create a sound library for a project such as the one taken on wasn’t hugely necessary. Individuals such as Barney Oram, Suddi Raval and Nick Dixon explained that within the industry you’re access to sound libraries overtakes the need to record your own – especially when working to a deadline. I would have enjoyed to create a sound library an have the experience of doing so, however liaising with the client drove the project into a different direction.
Compose music working to clients vision; getting feedback from client throughout the process. – As the project went on, composing a soundtrack to work with the clients vision became the main focus. The client gave examples of how they imagined the level would sound in terms of referencing games such as the Uncharted series or the Tomb Raider series. This set a foundation for myself to build upon. After sending the final mix over to the client I got the feedback that it matched their vision and sounded like a “more sinister version of the Tomb Raider 2 menu theme song”, which is a reference track I hadn’t listened to. However instantly recognized from our childhood.
Build sound to picture on a linear timeline using Pro-Tools. – For this project I didn’t use Pro-Tools. I found that my workflow naturally took to using FL Studio for the majority of work and only a few sound effects were added into a timeline whilst editing the visuals and audio together in Adobe Premiere Pro. This didn’t make any difference to the final product. However using Pro-Tools and gaining a further insight into industry standard software could have proven helpful when looking for employment.
To create a finished piece of work which can be discussed and explored further into my personal portfolio. – This has been achieved and now all work from Audio Project #1 and #2 are currently hosted on my website; which can be found at http://benward94.wixsite.com/benwvrd

Learning Outcomes –

To improve skills with working to a client project at a professional standard for the real world industry.
To understand the standard work flow and job role of a Sound Designer within the games industry.
To have researched sound design techniques & sound designers that can aid my personal development in reaching the games industry.
To identify the key skills needed for a graduate needed to enter the games industry.

For my learning outcomes I feel like all four have been achieved and documented throughout my research blog. I am now a lot more confident with my knowledge within the game audio industry and community. As well I have found myself enjoying the creative freedom that comes with composing music for video games. I am going to continue working on projects such as this over the next year to create a professional portfolio of work and be able to create my own unique style, which will hopefully lead into a career path in this industry.

April 24, 2017Ben Ward No Comments

Project reflection #1

This project has been technically challenging but extremely rewarding. Working towards a client project is something I haven’t really experienced before so I felt like I was thrown into the deep end with it. However, I found myself thinking of my client as a regular customer at work which helped the experience.

Building a rapport wasn’t 100% necessary for this project as I was working for my older brother, so we were already on the same page and both really excited to finally be able to work together. I found it really important to approach questions, that either myself or Nick had, differently depending on the information that I needed to be able to gain, this is something that I have already reflected upon in my blog. Being able to match Nick’s needs for the project was a steep learning curve for myself; I wanted to be able to create the piece of music that I had in mind but as I am still learning how to utilize orchestral instruments within a virtual environment I had a lot of work to put in. David pointed me in the direction of Spitfire Audio and specifically the video LCO Strings – How To Blend Dry & Ambient Libraries Together which discusses the technique of mixing and automating VST orchestral instruments together. Videos such as this combined with producers such as Varien and his videos on creating virtual orchestral music made a huge diffrence in how I have thought about approaching my mix and hopefully has transferred into the end product.

Throughout the entire process I have been sending Nick various arrangements and mixes back and forth to get his opinion and tailor the sound to his needs. He has been relatively happy and in the instances that he wasn’t, he sent me reference tracks to keep the project on track. An example would be when discussing the strings sections, Nick couldn’t explain musically what he was expecting, so he referred me to the Menu Theme of Tomb Raider 2. This worked really well in being able to communicate ideas back and forth in a language we could both understand.

Learning how to extract information from a client has been one of the biggest benefits I’ve had from doing the project. It is a skill which I have found incredibly useful and is something that will be used in any client based work I do in the future.

March 13, 2017Ben Ward No Comments

Guest Lecture – Suddi Raval – 13/03/17

Today we had a guest lecture from Suddi Raval, who is the Audio Manager at TT Games; who are a part of Warner Bro’s, acquired in 2007. Suddi’s lecture talked about his history within the audio industry and then his breakthrough into the games industry and all the other little projects he’s had the pleasure to take part in.

5 years in the music industry
22 years in video games
2 years as a teacher 2007-09
Short films
Motion graphics
Interactive toys
Various bands
Radio show
Monthly magazine column

Suddi first began in the games industry after being approached by the Art Director of Software Creations to work on the Spiderman Separation Anxiety for the SNES. Suddi said that although it was his first time working within that industry, he found the work really exciting as it “felt like [he] was working on an album”. Initially he thought it would be a “cool” project to have as part of his CV, along side his music career, however ended up falling into it as a full time career and has been a part of that industry for 22 years.

I asked Suddi about the different roles typically seen within the sound department of the Games Industry. His main answer was company specific to TT Games, however he said this is typically the format for most companies of this size. The main job roles/titles typically include;

Junior Sound Designer
Sound Designer
Composer
Voice Over Team
Front End (Titles, Credits etc)
User Interface
Audio Manager

Typically on a project, Suddi would get a ‘design spec’, which would typically include a level breakdown; number of levels, length of time of the project etc. From this information, Suddi looks at the team he has at hand and their skill sets and gives each member a level to work on throughout the year.

Suddi discussed on a project such as LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, each level normally had a group of sound designers working on it at once. The workload would be split between ‘In-game sounds (Spot effects, foley etc)’ and ‘Ambient sounds (Wildtracks, room/environment ambience)’. With both of these roles they would access the sounds from a sound library, CD’s, or they would create them from scratch with either field recordings or in their in house foley recording studio.

Other departments within the sound team such as the VO Team, Front End and UI team have their own specific roles within the game that are outside of the main levels. Within the games industry these are normally specialised roles that have their own dedicated workflow, again a timeline of work to hit certain milestones over the year would be distributed by the Audio Manager.

For myself, this lecture was incredibly interesting and really insightful into an industry that I want to get into. I asked Suddi the question of “What do you believe are the key skills needed for somebody to get into a role within game audio?”. Suddi’s answer confirmed what I already thought was the standard;

A core understanding of DAWs, show an applied understanding of how they work and also to show knowledge of a wide range of software.
To understand studio recording techniques (multi track recording, mic placement, different styles of microphones, polar patterns etc)
To show a keen interest and passion for Game Audio and/or the Games industry.
To have a demo show reel to showcase your potential; the show reel doesn’t neciserilly have to be a fully audio implemented playable demo. It could be a video of a movie or game play footage stripped down and replace all of the audio with your own work, which can prove your potential and creative drive.
And to show an understanding of different middleware that can be used within the games industry; essentially just ‘do your research’.

When AP2 is almost complete, I am going to email the video over to Suddi, who said he will be very critical and tear it apart, which is how TT Games work in their “post-mortem” of their games, once it is in the final stages of completion. This will give an honest, yet professional feedback on areas to improve my work.

March 12, 2017Ben Ward No Comments

Liaising with the client – Reflection

The contact that I have had with my client has been a back and forth in constant communication. However, I’ve found it to be a challenge with extract the right information to be able to create the work to the standard they are expecting. An example of this is the initial email that I had received from Nick, discussing what the project was and what they, as a company, were expecting. Within this email there is a section where Nick explains where the player would be within that environment.

“The environment is shown at a very significant part of the games narrative and therefore needs to have a meaningful score to go along with it to create a lasting impact on our players.”

The key word that I took from this that I didn’t truly understand was ‘meaningful’. After a Skype call with Nick, I found that what he meant by this was composing a piece of music that will support the visuals and create a sense of immersion for the player. He explained that he wanted to gain the feeling that he had felt with games such as Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft, where certain areas of the game still sit clearly in his mind purely because of the music.

I feel in a ‘real world’ situation, this is a key skill for working along side a client, as often the client can say one thing which can be quite vague but in their head they have a clear vision of where they want the project to be. It has been extremely useful for myself to clarify points such as this with my client, as it is starting to set the project into a clear direction by having specific goals to aim towards.

February 26, 2017Ben Ward No Comments

Email from Colossal Creations

I received an email from Nick at Colossal Creations in regards to the project that they are doing. CC have ‘designed and produced’ a jungle environment that explores a temple in reference to the work of H.P Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos. The email shows details what the company are looking for in regards to the sound design and composition for the music to work with the video provided. Colossal Creations are expecting a high level of work to a professional standard to showcase the environment; which is shown at a ‘very significant part of the game’s narrative’; the work has to be ‘meaningful’, which will be used to create a ‘lasting impact on [their] players’. Further conversations have been had over a Skype call with Nick at CC discussing what ‘meaningful’ meant to him and where he saw the composition go. For Nick, the music is all about being able to immerse yourself into that environment and to have a long standing ‘nostalgia’ factor. References were made to examples such as Nate‘s Theme from the Uncharted series (Composed by Greg Edmonson) and also the music throughout the Tomb Raider series, specifically on the PS4 (Composed by Jason Graves). Nick enjoyed the use of ‘traditional’ instruments, such as orchestral instruments, as that sound was typical within video games that he has grown up playing. However, he also wanted to add a ‘modern’ aspect into the mix, which is where I suggested the use of electronic elements to add more depth and layers within a composition. We have seen these techniques being used within games such as the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series (Composed by Stephen Barton). I showed Nick a video on YouTube by composer and producer ‘Varien’ a.k.a Nick Pittsinger, where he gives a tutorial on how electronic elements can be integrated within an orchestral setting. This is something that Nick is fully on board with, however wants to give me some creative space, so demo ideas will be bounced back and forth until we have found the sound that CC are looking for.

The email also covers the other elements of sound design that CC want to be heard within the finished product. These include atmospheric sounds as well as spot effects. Within this blog, there will be screenshots of different parts of the environment which will have more detail on my plans for these. In the Skype calls with Nick, he has been fairly relaxed as he has heard previous work and knows we both have the same outcome for the effects.

Sections of the video have been sent over to me, so I am able to get a feeling of how fast the camera is moving throughout the enviroment and also to begin planning of the sound that needs to be recorded over the next month.

To read the full email – Click below.