Portfolio VI Project
Sound Redesign
Olivia Savell
Sound Designer
Title Card:
I chose a pumpkin video from pexels.com as my sound logo because I enjoy halloween themes. I added my name and skill set using iMovie and made my sound design according to prerecorded visuals in Pro Tools. I processed a crackling wind and low rumble from soundideas.com, along with an eerie tone I created in Logic, to utilize as ambience. To represent the circulation of smoke behind the pumpkin and flame of the pumpkin extinguishing, I processed 2 different whooshy wind sounds from soundideas.com. The sound design for my name and skill set was made using the Xpand!2 instrument in Pro Tools. It's panned right since the words appear as a lower-third. Finally, I pitched down an evil laugh from soundideas.com and added a lot of reverb to the laugh.
This is a sound redesign reel of The Blacksmith game and cinematic.
Cinematic:
I started by finding sounds I couldn't record myself on soundideas.com, including ambience, stingers, a chair creak, a wood impact, and a wood creak to import into Pro Tools. I mostly used EQ, pitch, and Varispeed on each track, with a Fuzz-Wah filter on a few and reverb on the print master. I lowered the volume two decibels in all audio groups when the camera looks down on the player, Volund. Volume fades were placed on both ends of the volume automation so it wouldn't clip or pop. All groups, along with the print master, also have a ProLimiter.
Ambience
This cinematic's ambience consists of crows, a deep, low rumble, and drafty cargo bay wind. Each ambience clip was split into an interior and exterior section for inside and outside scenes, which have two frame fades where they meet. The only additional plugins for my ambience is a De-clip and De-crackle for the deep, low rumble, with a Fuzz-Wah filter on the crows.
Stingers
I mostly used AudioSuite plugins for my stingers since they were on a single track. My original first stinger was a recording of me making zombie noises but it didn't fit well with the video, so I found a baboon roar from soundideas.com and played with the pitch. The other two stingers, a mouse and a fox, also came from soundideas.com. I panned the mouse stinger from right to left so it sounds like it was startled by shards falling on the floor. The fox stinger is panned to the left and it sounds more like a crow screeching because I lowered the pitch and applied a slight EQ.
SFX
I created the sound of floating shards and magic releasing using Pro Tools's Xpand!2. The magic release includes two elements from the floating shards to make it easier to recognize the relation between the two sounds. The chair creak is actually a creaky table pitched down half an octave with drastic EQ. I recorded myself dropping silverware on a concrete slab for the sound of metal shards hitting stone. I took off the EQ and Fuzz-Wah filter I had on the recording at first and left the Pitch II plugin. The sound of a wood shield stressing and cracking was implemented as the door impact and the doors opening is a nice slow wood creak I found. Both of these clips share a Fuzz-Wah filter on their track.
Foley
All foley was recorded in a make-shift recording booth in my room. I used a leather coat for Volund's clothing, leather boots on a concrete slab as footsteps, and spoons wrapped together in a rubber band for his tool belt. I played the cinematic multiple times to get the motions right and fixed any timing issues I had.
Gameplay:
This gameplay contains assets from my cinematic, live recordings, and audio files from soundideas.com. All clips and recordings used were mixed using AudioSuite plugins in Pro Tools, including EQ, pitch, ProLimiter, compression, and Lo-fi.
Ambience & Stingers
Ambience from my cinematic was trimmed and looped into eighteen second clips. I implemented the fox stinger from my cinematic, along with a howling wolf and a thunder clap from soundideas.com for my game stingers. All stinger were placed into a random container in Wwise, so it's up to the program to choose which stinger to play.
Foley
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Player - Volund
The player's clothing and stone footstep foley is also from my cinematic, which are cut into one-shots. I designed his mud footsteps by downloading dirt and water footsteps from soundideas.com. I cut out three variations and layered them to make the design sound mushy and less watery. Leather impacts from soundideas.com was utilized as the sound of Volund taking a hit. -
Enemy - Draugr
Draugr's clothing looks like it's made from the same material as Voland's, so I downloaded two different leather chair audio files from soundideas.com. I layered and processed these audio files to sound different than Voland's clothing, but still keeping that leathery sound. I recorded myself stepping on a concrete slab barefooted, since Draugr doesn't wear shoes. The sound of Draugr getting hit are rubber impacts from soundideas.com. A recording of my leather coat hitting a concrete slab, layered with a rubber impact, was used as a body fall when Draugr dies.
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Dialogue
Draugr's pain and death cries are recordings of me making various raspy vocalizations while watching prerecorded gameplay. Male grunting noises from soundideas.com were implemented and processed as Volund's pain cries.
SFX
I created two different magical sounds for both weapons with Pro Tools's Xpand!2 and layered my designs with fire and ice audio files from soundideas.com. The fire whoosh was assigned to Volund's weapon and Draugr's weapon has crackling ice.
Contact Card:
Like the title card, the video for my contact card is also from pexels.com and I added my words using iMovie. I downloaded a medium wind, rumbly wind, and three different gas and candle fire audio files from soundideas.com, then cut out five second clips from various sections of each file. I lowered the medium wind's pitch and raised the rumbly wind's pitch. The three different fire audio files were layered and also pitched down a little. Using the Xpand!2 in Pro Tools, I created a new eerie ambience tone and a sound design for the words. I thought it would be nice to have some similarity between my intro and contact card, so I used the same evil laughing both. I lined the laugh clip between the 2 word sound designs, as to not drown out the beginning of each clip. Finally, I added a 1.5 second reverb to all tracks, except the evil laugh, to give the sound design space and make it sound like it takes place outside.