Project & Portfolio II
Portfolio Project II: Soundscapes
From the outset, this project was intended and designed to act as an educational step ladder. Building upon the principles and techniques learned in the previous course Sound Design for Games. Each rung, or, in this case, week, would serve as a means to not only enhance my knowledge and skills but, also incrementally empower me with the tools required to develop what would be the final demo reel project for this course.
The Forest
Take a relaxing walk deep in the forest, filled with the sound of various little birds singing happily. While a cool breeze blows gently through the trees. The perfect environment and the first step for this project. Aimed at continuing basic asset editing and expanding Wwise implementation skills. This was accomplished by first utilizing the concepts and techniques learned in Sound Design for Games, by either capturing audio with personal recording equipment or, identifying specific assets with the available sound library, to create an immersive outdoor atmosphere for the end-user. Additionally, by building on top of the introductory Wwise software skills learned in the previous course. Using proximity controls to automatically adjust volume and position panning controls. This environment would dive deeper into the process of audio asset implementation in order to enhance the user’s experience. Strengthening my overall knowledge about the inner workings of Wwise’s software architecture.
The Graveyard
Welcome to the Graveyard. Between ghostly whispers or an owl’s call that pierces through the night. This atmosphere is filled with sounds that would send chills down the spine of any normal person. This environment, and the next step up the ladder, presented itself with a fresh new set of challenges. Designed to build upon the audio editing, as well as, the Wwise implementation skills acquired from the Forest environment but, with the addition of asset sound design. With the help of ProTools, a little imagination, and by layering different sounds to create a single asset, as well as, using delays with random timing, between play events, for asset containers within Wwise. I was able to create a cold dark goosebumps-inducing environment.
The Sci-Fi Facility
ALERT! ALERT! The worst has happened and it is a race against time. As your space station suffers a catastrophic failure. You and your crew are left with only minutes, maybe even seconds, to get to the shuttles and abandon ship. As the final environment of this project, all of the skills and techniques learned over the recent weeks are all brought together. While also inspiring creativity and building onto our sound design skills. Putting the concept of “worldizing” to work. Using convolution reverb and the impulse responses of the spaces around us or, by using a digital reverb from the audio suite found in ProTools. We are able to add life and an element of space to our assets. Additionally, user experience is further enhanced by using the speaker panner window, found on the positioning tab of the sound property editor, specific assets were assigned a specific position within the stereo field. Creating the effect that events are occurring, not only at random times but, at random places within the environment.
