Sonic Design / Final Project & E-portfolio
Derin / 0354969 / Design in Creative Media
INSTRUCTIONS
Students will given a choice of game play video. They will then need to create the sound and bring the game to life. Students will have to plan and organize their studio recording session for Foley and voice recording. They will also have access to the portable recorder if required.
B) E-Portfolio - 10 %
Students describe and reflect on their social competencies within the design studio context, supported by evidence. Reflect on how to empathize with others within group settings, interact positively within a team and foster stable and harmonious relationships for productive teamwork. The reflective writing is part of the TGCP.
FINAL PROJECT
We were given multiple choices of game play videos by Mr. Razif. I chose
Hollow Knight as it's the game I'm most familiar of, and that it looks the
most doable in my opinion.
Fig 1.0 Hollow Knights game play with no audio
Audio Asset List
I started by creating an audio asset list with my friend since she als chose
Hollow Knight. We used an Excel sheet to record each timestamp for when a
sound effect could be applied to the gameplay. The columns are separated by
'Timestamp', 'Sound Description', 'Duration', and 'Notes'. Afterwards, I
categorized the sound effects into different categories such as 'Characters',
'Bugs', etc.
Fig 1.1 Excel Audio Sheet
Sound Recording
Sir advised us to try recording the sound effects at home first to determine which items would work well. I experimented with various household items, such as my leather shorts, glass, fork, plastic bag, wet tissue, and more.
Afterwards, I reached out to Mr. Razif and booked the studio along with my
friends to record the sounds. This is so that there's no white noise in the
audio recordings, and have a clear sound. Each of us brought our own objects
to create the sound effects. I brought the items that I had tried at home and
found to work well as sound effects. Me and my friends shared the audio
recordings we recorded together.
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Fig 1.2 Recording Studio |
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Fig 1.3 Final Audio Recordings |
I had decided to use some of the recordings I did at home, since there were background noise, I adjusted that first. using DeHummer and DeNoise.
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Fig 1.4 Background noise |
Audio Editing and Manipulation
Characters
I started with the ones in my list, the Character: Character walk, Character
jump, Character land, Character land on bug, Character clothes shift, and
Sword slice. I color coded them :3
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Fig 2.1 Timeline tracks |
I layer the character movements with some clothes rustling from my leather
shorts and played around with the Parametric Equalizer. I stretched some of
the clips to have the pace adjusted accordingly.
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Fig 2.2 Effects Rack for footsteps |
For the footsteps, I had cut off some of the audio that doesn't match the
overall sound and merge them together. Afterward, I played around with the
effects; I like using the Beefy Snare which is one of the presets in
Parametric Equalizer. I also lowered down the pitch of the sound effect.
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Fig 2.3 Beefy snare |
Bugs
As for the bugs, I did a LOT of experiments because none of the sounds I made
sounds like it's from a bug, especially for the buzzing sound. I had used
zippers and different surface materials but it couldn't replicate the sound of
a bug buzzing. That's when I tried to use the Chorus and Echo effect on the
bottle of pills being shaken, specifically the Robotic Bee Attack preset with
a bit of tweaking. I also added the bug spraying for the hissing.
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Fig 3.1 Bug Buzzing sound effect |
There's also the bug death sound effect, I used the sound from a wet tissue
being squeezed in order to create this sound. Afterwards, I used the Vocal
Enhancer preset to enhance the sound.
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| Fig 3.2 Bug death sound |
For the bug walking, I used the pills packaging and rummage it around. Since I
did this at home, I had to use DeHummer and DeNoise to remove the white noise.
I also did the same thing for the bug getting hit sound since it was recorded
at home using the squeezed wet tissue.
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Fig 3.3 Bug walking |
Items
Next for the items, it took a while to figure out to create the electricity. I
used the Flanger and Pitch Shifter for the effects for the pills in package
sound and layered the electricity sound effect together to have it
continuous.
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Fig 4.1 Electric Layering |
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Fig 4.2 Electric Effects |
For the other effects, such as the coin sounds, I created the collecting coin
sound by recording the sound of water droplets falling when I squeezed a wet
tissue. There was a tiny droplet sound, which I then enhanced using the Pitch
Shifter and Chorus - Tiny Pebble effects.
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Fig 4.3 Collecting Coin Effects |
For the uncollected coins, I used the Parametric Equalizer - Vocal Enhancer,
Reverb - Resonant Room Modes, Pitch Shifter, and the FFT filter - C Major
Triad.
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Fig 4.4 Uncollected Coins Effects |
Next, I layered together the scattering coin sounds to make them overlap and
create a continuous sound effect. I chose the parts where the thud isn't
really heard so that listeners could focus more on the coins.
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Fig 4.5 Scattering Coins layering |
As for the mining stone and breaking effect, I used the same effects.
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Fig 4.6 Mining Stone and Breaking Effects |
For the rest of the sounds, I didnt use effects on it. It is mostly layering
and trimming to to have them at the right time and pace.
Audio Syncing and Compilation
2. Walking, jumping, and landing doesn't sound good together
3. Need bug DMG effect
4. Sword slash sounds off
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Fig 5.0 Syncing the sound effects and fixing them accordingly |
Final Outcome
After the adjustments, the video is final, here is the result!
Fig 5.1 Final Outcome for Final Project
Audio Journal
Fig 5.2 Audio Journal
REFLECTION
In this project, I was pretty happy to work on Hollow Knight because I knew
the game well and felt confident it was doable. I never knew fun and
meticulous could ever go well together but I had a great time recording the
timestamps and descriptions for potential sound effects in the time-sheet,
categorizing them into groups like 'Characters' and 'Bugs' and whatever. It
was also fun to experiment the sounds at home with various household items,
such as leather shorts and wet tissues, to find the best sounds. It was also
exciting to record in a professional environment and avoid white noise. Each
of us brought our tried-and-tested items, and we shared our recordings.
Editing though was both challenging and rewarding as I worked on character,
bug, and item sounds. I had to redo them a lot and really it was all about
experimenting for this module. Finally, syncing the sound effects with the
game play in Premiere Pro and making adjustments brought everything
together. It was a fun journey and rewarding experience. I think I can see
myself using Audition willingly in the future for projects and stuff. Thanks
for the lesson!