Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Evaluation


Throughout this module I have gained valuable skills in audio manipulation with audition and the equipment used for capturing audio. The overall outcome of the audio I processed for my final game, I feel has come out to a high level and give a good atmosphere for my game. I captured audio for my game which I had to edit in order to gain the effect I wanted. As my final game was almost similar to a horror game, I wanted to create audio which had a strong impact on the actions in the game.
I captured many different pieces of audio to give me the opportunity to develop audio for my game and to give me the opportunity to explore audio creation with different sounds. The sounds that are used in my final game are; footsteps, character voice, character impact, enemy hit, enemy alert and background audio.

The footsteps used in my final game work were recorded in my house. The audio would have been perfect as they audio matched the visuals of what the character walked on. The problem I encountered was a slight buzzing noise from the fridge. Whilst editing this piece of audio, I had to sync the audio with the visuals. Once I synced the audio, I attempted to edit the audio as it had some background noise which did not sound good. I could not eradicate this from the audio so the idle to walk in game goes from no audio, to audio. If I could go redo this piece of audio, I would want to gain the same audio for the footstep without the background audio which doesn’t help the audio clip in the final game.

This is a problem but is helped with the introduction of backing music. The backing music was downloaded from a royalty free audio website which really gave the game and eerie feeling theme that I wanted.

The character voice was recorded by myself which was used for when the character is hit by an enemy. To create variety, I adjusted the pitch to the original audio piece and carried this out on two more occasions.

I also adjusted the pitch on three occasions from the original audio file with the character hit. The character hit is used when the main character is hit by an enemy. To gain the natural sound I hit myself and edited it accordingly.

The audio I created for my enemies were both created with my mouth. The enemy alert is a simple ‘hiss’ noise and the enemy hit was a simple noise made with my mouth. The alert is used when the character is in the line of sight with the enemy and the hit sound is used when the character is hit by the enemy which is a slashing sound. I adjusted the audio slightly as both the original files were a bit too simple.

The audio used for the gun was created through experimentation and development of different techniques. I originally gathered audio with multiple found objects. I used objects such as clipping a pen, dropping a pen, popping a bag and hitting a radiator. I compiled these audio files together as a multi-track mixdown with each audio file having an effect which helps the overall outcome for a gun sound. Despite the outcome being successful, I felt it could be better as it didn’t have an effect of a gun.

I knew of another way to create a gun sound which was through using 3 layers of pink noise with different frequency edits and having an amplification effect applied to each. The overall outcome of this edit had a greater effect and had a feel of an 8-bit sound. This works well with my character as when he is hit, he flashes which is similar to older games.

I feel throughout the process of development of the audio for my game, I have learnt new things and have given my game a great atmosphere. I feel that it immerses the player successfully with the realistic and different style of audio pieces used.


I have learnt a lot throughout and I have enjoyed gaining these new skills as I have been able to go and create and edit what I want for my game. I have enjoyed the freedom to create unique audio pieces with the integration of creating a 2D game. 

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Digital board game

Audio List

Character Walk

Record myself walking.
Record myself tapping on table.

Bullet Shot

bag pop for initial bang.
pen click for sudden impact sound.
dropping something to get a natural impact sound.

Enemy

Create audio with found objects or by making sound with my mouth.
hissing sound when enemy is alerted to character.
slash when enemy hit character.

Character

Voice of character when hit made by myself.
Sound for when character is hit, impact sound. Hit object or hit self to gather natural sounds.

Background Audio

background theme music which has an eerie feeling to imerse the player into the game of feeling of slight fear as to when the enemies will attack next as you go around the next corner.

Edited Audio

Enemy Sound

The is the original enemy sound which was made by me just making a sound with my mouth.
https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/enemy-sound


This is the edited version which hasn't seen much change as the original was good enough, all that required was that it needed to increase in decibels and I added a small amount of distortion to it. This piece of edited audio progressed slightly as it has a slightly harsher impact of audio to make the enemy sound ever so increasingly harsh.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/enemy-hiss

Enemy Slash

The slashing audio that I have recorded isn't very different from my edited audio as the original file worked well, I added some distortion and increased the decibels. Editing the original slightly adds the effect of impact which matches what I was aiming to create. It is a more harsher sounding piece of audio which works to give the impression that the main character has been hit.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/slashing


https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/edited-slashing

Gun Edits

The gun sound audio I created was made from three clips of pink noise which is generated noise from Adobe audition. I had to cut down each piece of audio and add effects to them. I cut frequency away from most of the audio clips and I added an amplify effect to give the audio a harsh impact sound which makes it sound like a gun.


https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/gun-sound-fx

I intended to create a gun piece of audio by using audio I collected myself. the audio clips were a pen clicking, dropping a pen on the floor, two different audio clips of a bag popping and hitting my hand on a radiator. I added amplifications to all of these audio clips at different ranges to achieve the final audio file. Although I tried this process and worked to get this piece of audio to work, I didn't think that the audio that I created, was strong enough to be implemented into my game.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/audio-compilation-mixdown

First audio clip: Bag pop
Second audio clip: Bag pop
Third audio clip: Dropping a pen
Fourth audio clip: Clicking a pen
Fifth audio clip: Hitting a radiator


https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/gun-sound-fx-pt2

Character Walk

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/original-walk

In order to gather the audio needed for my characters walk animation, I needed a harder surface to walk on to gather the appropriate audio. I walked in my utility which has a fridge running so there is a lot of background audio.

This was a problem when I edited it because I couldn't lose the background noise without ruining the footstep audio that I needed. As I could not edit this piece of audio, I could only cut the audio to  match the animation of my characters walk.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/character-walk

Character Hit

The sounds used for when the character is hit by the enemy was created by me hitting myself to gain a realistic sound of impact.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/original-impact

To achieve different sounds for the game, I found the right piece of audio needed and I then edited each audio clip by adjusting the pitch of each of these so the game had variety in the audio.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/impact-sound-1

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/impact-sound-2

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/impact-sound-3

Character Voice

Here is the original audio clip which I recorded by making noises as if I was being hit. I did deepen my voice as I wanted my character to not sound like myself for the final game. Although I could have edited it in Adobe Audition, I found it easier to work with a piece of audio which was closer to my intended final outcome.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/original-character-voice

In order to have a variety of sounds for my game, I picked out the best piece of audio piece to work with and I then edited each audio clip by adjusting the pitch of each individual audio clip so the game didn't have the same piece of audio looping when the character lost life because of being hit.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/character-voice-1

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/character-voice-2

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/character-voice-3

Background Audio

The background music used in my game was from a royalty free website. the piece of audio used is called 'Ice Demon'. I decided to use this piece because it had a calm but eerie sound to it which I wanted to achieve for my final outcome.


http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?feels%5B%5D=Eerie&page=1

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Team game

Sound games

Before starting development into our team game, I looked at other games which heavily use or rely on audio as the game or to benefit it.

Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero is a game which uses audio as the game in which players have to match the notes shown on the screen to collect points and complete the song. Players are given a fake guitar where they play it as it is a real guitar to immerse the player into the game. To gain the highest score possible, the player must hit the notes on the guitar at the same time as they appear on the screen and in time with the song.


Rock Band

Rock Band is similar to Guitar Hero because you have to hit the notes on the guitar, drum, bass and mic at the same time as they appear on the screen and in time with the song in order to gain the highest score possible.

rhythm racer

Rhythm Racer is a futuristic style game where the playera is in control of a space ship racer and they have to go through a level and hit as many of the spheres as possible to play the song and get the highest score possible.


Audio Surf

Audio Surf is another game where the player controls a space ship in futuristic setting. The players have to complete a song by hitting the notes to get a high score much like Rhythm Racer.


Task

For this task, we were placed in teams where we had to create a game in which audio was involved. We decided to create a side scrolling game where the player had to avoid oncoming obstacles. Once we had decided on what kind of game we wanted to create, we each took on different roles where one person worked in Construct 2 making the game work, one was working in 3DS max to create some of the assets, another was creating the graphics in PhotoShop and I was creating and editing the audio for the game itself. 

Job list

Matteo - Audio creation
Corey - construct scripting
Elliot - 3D creations
Sarah - graphics creation 

As a team, we decided that the audio should be realistic with a possible cartoon feel to it. I had to create audio for the submarine, atmosphere noise (underwater effect), an explosion, bubbles popping, metal noises for when the submarine hit the rocks and some background music.

Steel drums


I recorded 3 notes on a website which has interactive instruments and I edited them together to create a tune to be used as background music. Although I created this to be used in the game, it was not used in the final product.



Propeller

I sourced a free audio file online of a classic plane idling and edited it to match something similar to a submarine propeller. I had to deepen the audio and slow it down so it sounded more like a boat/submarine propeller

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/propeller

Bubble pop

The bubble popping sounds which featured in the game were created by my making noises with my mouth. I picked one piece of audio and edited so there was variety in the game.

Impact noise

The noise when the submarine made contact with the rocks was made with a screw driver being scrapped across concrete do get the intial sound needed to imitate that kind of situation. I had to take it into the audition and edit it so it was deeper and sounded more as if it was under water.

Explosion

The explosion sound used in the game was made by me getting small food bags, filling them with air and popping them to get an explosion sound to work with. I did this many times to collect a variety in sounds. I had to then deepen the audio so it sounded as if it was underwater and seemed more realistic.

Here are all the sounds used in the game in a video which was made for our team by Corey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akqP8_PkdVs&feature=youtu.be

Game feedback

High score system is great.
Good fast pace when you get into the flow of the game, Nice ambient audio.
Could you add more controls in the future like a boost? 
Submarine is a bit sluggish when you try to move it.
Control overview?
Submarine is extremely cute and animation is smooth.
Controls were unclear, Sounds were well made.
No life counter or ways of telling how much health left.
Good graphics. 
Intense and fun as the game progresses and the submarine speeds up.





Tuesday, 11 November 2014

game clip audio creation


The game clip I am using is from Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor. I intend to re-create the audio pieces within the clip and possibly add to the video in an attempt to improve the video clip. I have chosen this piece of video becuase I want to re-create real world sounds into a piece of gameplay footage and create an eerie feeling with some background audio. This will be created using recordings I have done myself and edited to match the visual.

I am using from the clip from 04:18 - 04:36

Sounds that feature are rain, thunder, crawling of Gollum and footsteps - crouched running, walking & running in the rain on grass/mud.

04:18 - 04:20
Crouched walking in the rain on grass

04:20 - 04:23
Running in the rain on grass

04:23 - 04:26
Standing in the rain

04:26 - 04:28
Walking/running in the rain on grass with thunder

04:28 - 04:33
Crouched walking in the rain on grass

04:33 - 04:36
Crouched walking in the rain on grass with thunder

The clip will feature rain throughout and feature eerie background music.

04:18 - 04:36

Original video clip. Unedited.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1uCeX1sZEo&index=1&list=LLkZlLKDThUkUZ3NuqV0SwGA

FINAL EDITED PIECE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpztxx3Vyds

final piece presentation feedback
the feedback I received was very positive as many people said I created the audio well and that I had created something which was better then the original clip. Some of the comments I received was that I created a realistic delay between the lightning and the thunder, the footsteps was synced well with the visuals and that I created a great atmosphere with the rain and the music in the background.   


Background music

https://archive.org/details/EerieCreepyAndScaryMusicForYourScoresDvds

I found the music that I used for my video clip on this site. The piece of audio is called 'DVD Theme Music-Horror-Private Reflection'. This piece of audio works quite well as it isn't too intense but given you a feeling that something is near you.

Audio edits

Rain
The rain audio has renamed unchanged as I felt that the audio was working well as original. I reduced the volume and I faded it into and out of the clip.

Footsteps
The footstep audio has remained nearly unchanged as the original audio clip was good enough to go straight in. I had to try and sync the audio with the visuals as best I could so it didn't look or sound unprofessional. It was a really difficult task attempting to sync the audio of the footsteps with the visuals of the footsteps for the main character and gollum to make it work well. I adjusted the volume and faded it into and out of the clip.

Thunder
The thunder audio is something I am rather proud of as it is something that I didn't get original recordings of. I experimented with different objects like dropping rice onto a tray, I later had an idea of crumpling up a crisp packet and editing it. I was able to create the kind of audio I needed to match the visuals in my video clip.

Here are the edits I made to the crisp packet audio with descriptions of how they effected the audio in order to create the thunder audio.

Crisp packet audio (ORIGINAL)
https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/original-crisp-packet

Thunder audio (EDITED)
https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/thunder-audio

Stretch and pitch
Stretch Shortens or extends processed audio relative to existing audio. For example, to shrink audio to half its current duration, specify a Stretch value of 50%.
Pitch Shift Tonally shifts audio up or down. Each semitone equals one halfstep on a keyboard.

Amplify
The Amplitude and Compression > amplify effect boosts or attenuates an audio signal. Because the effect operates in real time, you can combine it with other effects in the Effects Rack.
Gain sliders Boost or attenuate individual audio channels.
Link Sliders Moves the channel sliders together.

Underwater speech

Convolution reverb
The Reverb > Convolution Reverb effect reproduces rooms ranging from coat closets to concert halls. Convolution-based reverbs use impulse files to simulate acoustic spaces. The results are incredibly realistic and life-like.

Generate noise – brown noise
‘Brown noise - has a spectral frequency of 1/f2, which means, in layman’s terms, that the noise has much more low-frequency content. Its sounds are thunder- and waterfall-like. Brown noise is so called because, when viewed, the wave follows a Brownian motion curve. That is, the next sample in the waveform is equal to the previous sample, plus a small random amount. When graphed, this waveform looks like a mountain range.’


Extra noise
There is a bass noise which was taken from the thunder audio. I copy and paste segments together in order to create a long enough piece to give some depth to the audio background.

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

audio distortion

Monster audio edit

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/monster-audio

We had to make noises and edit them to resemble a Monster. This was our opportunity to learn audition and experiment with the different effects. I experimented with different effects to help my audio piece advance to what it is.


Radio audio edit


https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/radio-audio

This is a screen shot of the audio where I distorted a recording of my voice. I transformed the original audio file so that it sounded like it was being broadcasted from a radio in a war. I opened the file in audition and began the editing by cutting out the unnecessary space on the audio file. I cut some static noises from the audio clip and added it to points in the audio file. I added a radio announcers voice effect onto the original audio file and I then added an AM radio effect which made the audio clip work better.

themed audio edit

I recorded 7 audio clips in order to create an audio piece. I recorded a draw opening and closing, spinning coin, TV remote battery cover opening and closing, turning a door knob, dropping a small tin, hitting a plastic card on a desk, scraping a piece of metal on a desk.

I took all of these audio clips together and edited them individually and selected the clips that worked well and combined them to form an audio piece. 

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/themed-audio-edit


Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Video game audio history, Induction & composers

Audio timeline

In 1972 Nolan Bushnell released the first ever game to feature sound. This game was Pong. It was based off the game created in 1958 by William Higinbotham. The game only featured a blip sound caused by the ball when hit to its opponent.


1978 saw the release of space invaders which featured basic shooting and explosion noises along with a tempo that increases in pace as the enemies become closer.

Pac man is one of the most well known and most popular games to have been released. The 1980 release featured sounds which are known well with many, the sound of collecting the dots as you move and the sound when you fail is too one of the most recognisable sounds within game audio history.

The Nintendo entertainment system (NES) was available in 1985 and it came with an 8 bit system and it used a Motorola 6502 processor which was also used in the Atari 8-bit family, Apple II and Commodore 64.

Also in 1985, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros for the NES. Koji Kondo is a Japanese video game composer. Kondo has been praised for the audio produced. The audio tone changes to match the gameplay on screen, this creates a unique synchronisation between audio and visual. The audio created for this game meant that game audio was becoming a more vital part to the game itself.

Nintendo developed the next advancement in video game history with the Gameboy. The handheld games console featured four channels for sound where you were able to play the audio out of the left, to the right or both of the speakers.

Nintendo continued to release ever better products with the release of the 16-bit Super Famicom in 1991. It housed a dedicated 8-bit Sony SPC700 sound chip with eight separate channels.

1995 has significance as the Playstation was released with its 4-channel sound chip provides CD-quality stereo sound and has built-in support for digital effects such as reverb and looping.

1996 saw Nintendo release the 64. It had a cartridge-based 64-bit system which required a powerful CPU to be able to play the music and the sound effects.

The next step in development saw Sony release the Playstation 2 in 2000. The console featured a 128-bit Emotion engine CPU. It had 48 channels of sound and it also had 2MB of space specifically for the audio.

2001 saw Microsoft and Nintendo respond to the release of the Playstaion 2. The Xbox was Microsoft’s first console. It was said the Microsoft promised movie like audio and that the system would allow audio designer more power to enhance the gaming experience. The Xbox had a 64-voice I3DL2 audio processor, 64MB of unified memory and 200MHz bandwidth to the CPU.

Nintendo’s release was the Gamecube which was also to have said to be rather powerful. It had a 16-bit DSP sound processor powers 64 channels with a 48KHz sampling frequency.

Zoom recorder

We recived an induction on how to use the Zoom H4n recorder and microphones to capture audio. The Zoom recorder has two built in omni-directional microphones. These can be set to either 90 or 120 degrees angle depending on what you want to capture. this could be wide or narrow like the shotgun and rifle microphones.



Microphones

Rifle microphone
The rifle microphone has its name because it has a very narrow pick up and rejects sounds from other directions. Therefore, it is used when you want to capture a sound directly as it does not have much spread whilst capturing.

Shotgun microphone
The shotgun Microphone has its name because it has a wider spread on the audio pick up so it will pick up more audio that

SM58 Microphone
SM58 Is a professional microphone which is commonly used in live vocal applications. This microphone reduces pickup from the side and rear  which helps to avoid unwanted feedback with on-stage performances.

SM86 Microphone
The SM86 is widely used for a lead vocal artist as this is most suited for performances on-stage but is also equally as good at home for use in the studio.

Composers

Hans Zimmer and worked with Lorne Balfe on the music for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which was his first video game project. The music in this game for me has always been memorable to me whilst playing the game despite the game being released in 2009. The music in this game gives a great atmosphere whilst playing, whether it be tension or action, it makes you feel immersed in the game. Music created for this game has such an impact that it makes the player want to replay the game and experience it again with the storyline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXLY_5xaYFo#t=136

Hans Zimmer


Hans Zimmer has composed music for over 150 films, including film scores for The Lion King, The Last Samurai, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, 12 Years a Slave and Interstellar. He is also the head of the film music division at DreamWorks studios. He also works with other composers through the company that he founded, Remote Control Productions.


Through his career, he has picked up four Grammy Awards, three Classical BRIT Awards, two Golden Globes, and an Academy Award.

Lorne Balfe

Lorne Balfe is a Scottish composer and musc producer. He has provided music for some top video games which he has become best known for. He provided for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed III and Revelations, and the Skylanders franchise.
Balfe is currently working under Zimmer's company, Remote Control Productions and has collaborated with him on many projects. One of which being Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has some of my favourite music from a video game.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare audio creation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etId92Qk1nE