Demo Reel

The Challenge: Projects always have time crunches. Complete the design in 72 hours. Omit music scoring but must find pre-scored music and edit to fit.

My approach was to produce in order of ambience, environmental SFX, character audio (SFX, Foley, and VO,) HUD/UI sounds, and finally score. Post the rough edit, my second pass was directed towards channel FX, volume and pan mixing, and fades. The third pass was to focus on controlling the audio mix nuances between the Pro Tools movie playback and the QuickTime movie bounces. The final pass was to make adjustments to have the mix playback as evenly as possible across various speaker types (pro audio monitors, computer 2.1 systems, headphones, earbuds, home theaters, TV speakers, etc.)

Ambience:

As water is a constant theme, I edited water ambience for the jungle, cave, and waterfall rapids. Caves were accentuated with low frequency wind and rumble with water turbulence. The jungle was accentuated with tropical ambient loops containing primarily animals.

Environmental SFX:

Sounds were edited for objects resulting from character interaction with the environment such as rock crushing, water splashing and “cartoon style” bouncing.

Character Audio:

In this clip, we have Carl, Russell, the anaconda, and the eels. For Carl and Russell, we have minimal Foley for water, footsteps, and rope, and playful voice over. The anaconda sounds used the same water Foley as Carl and Russell, but pitched down and filtered. The hissing sounds were edited from water and air recordings distorted and dithered mixed with some field recordings of snake hissing. The eel sounds were edited from a recording of a neon sign.

HUD/UI Audio:

Due to the intense action in this clip, there was lots of resulting HUD activity. Between coin-ups, special coins, balloon coins, health damage/regeneration, quick tips, and character swap, a variety of sounds had to be created with enough efficiency to separate and stand independently while being bound by a common theme. I decided on air.

Coin-ups and special coin sounds were edited from airy coin flips with a little extra flare from an Indian gong. Balloon coin sounds used the coin-up audio with balloon popping added. Health damage/regeneration sounds were edited from distorting blowing air in glass bottles. Quick tips sounds were edited from air whoosh recordings. Finally, the character swap sound was edited from a rapid air release from a party balloon followed by a balloon pop.

Score:

For a temp score, I wanted to find classical movie soundtrack music that was themed for a tropical or forest environmental setting. I decided on Jurassic Park and Star Wars: Return of The Jedi. I was able to edit out three songs that fit the tempo and feel of the clip very nicely. In addition, the key signature of the songs used between the waterfall sighting of the anaconda and the game play that ensued fit very nicely.

In closing,  this challenge was exciting, fun, and inspired me to be as creative as the amazing story told by the folks at Pixar, and the game developers who created its reflection.

The Challenge: As an individual in a team, design focused elements of a video clip. Team members elements to be combined, final mixed, and reviewed. My focus is to design Mech and Beast Foley. Omit ambience, music, dialogue, beast rider and mech pilot Foley. 

In post-production, rarely do you design without constraints, whether it be time, production process, or optimization. This is a test of restraint while still demonstrating your talents. Be mindful of segment balance for an efficient and cohesive team final mix process.

To begin, I would like to explain my technical design philosophy. I relate it to a pyramid. With this clip, my base layer is mech and beast footfalls. Layer 2 is mech and beast moves meaning anything above the character's feet. There is a tremendous amount of detail in foley work, and it can make or break a mix. Layer 3 is melee contact between the mech and beast. Layer 4 was beast vocalizations. Layer 5 was Mech weapons. Layer 6 was foliage, intentionally saved this for last because I didn’t want to mask all the detail work, and it's easy to do especially with foliage fill. My selection of sounds avoided all designed assets in libraries. 

I had a desire for the mech to feel blue collar and like the Guardians of the Galaxy Ravagers, not clean and clinical like Star Trek. The footfalls are all an old car door opening and closing from different perspectives. The mech moves are all heavy industrial servos and hydraulic pumps that I automated pitch on with Waves SoundShifter. The melee impacts are all various heavy metal impacts. 

For the beast, I keyed into horror. I played some Last of Us 2, God of War, and Dead Space to generate ideas. The Last of Us really keyed me into caring about the character through narration. God of War keyed me into modding some large cat sounds. The sounds I used for the beast in this demo are all wildcat and snake that were dosed with Waves Doubler and a couple Waves Enigmas. Since there is no narration for the beast, I wanted to show the frustration, anger, and sadness of the beast via vocalizations through the battle, and still make the beast sound ominous. The snake hiss and rattles were inspired by the Clickers from The Last of Us. The beast also had those tentacles on its head that would flare and it made me think “reptilian”.

My focus mix came down to a total of about 80 audio tracks, 8 sub mixes, and 4 effects auxes. I used Waves R Bass on a couple key submix auxes to add weight to things like the creature impacts and knife stabs and Avid EQ 7’s to pull low mid bulk where needed. There are 2 Waves IR Convo Reverbs for indoor and outdoor. Mastering was achieved using Waves Linear Phase EQ, Ozone 9 Maximizer, Ozone 9 Dynamic EQ, and Waves PAZ analyzer. 

From a story arc stand point, my philosophy is that good sound design supports and enhances the emotional impact and experience of the story. It helps the world building become immersive, vivid, and real. I believe in the importance of making intelligent choices that add to the whole. In this example I consciously chose to make the mech sound close to real world mechanical devices, such that it sounded sci-fi, yet familiar. I wanted it to feel as if it could exist, and function if it were right in front of you. Similarly, I based the beast on real world sounds that, while modulated for an alien effect, still gave the feeling of being a very real, powerful, and dangerous beast. To add to the immersion, I paid attention to how sound would behave in real physics. For example, when the beast is thrown over the mech and hits the ground, I increased low frequencies to portray the deeper thud that a hard impact would generate in real world physics. From start to finish, the mech and it’s weapons are cold and metallic, whereas the beast and the environment are warm and organic. The juxtaposition of the sound qualities, adds to, and enhances, the story elements. Overall, my goal is to make the end recipient, the audience, become completely mesmerized and immersed in the experience, with good audio doing its part to help that happen.

The Challenge: Projects always have time crunches. Complete the sound effects design in 7 days. Omit music and dialogue. 

A brief run-through of this scene makes it evident why this is a 7 day challenge. There is a vehicle chase scene with collisions, ballistic impacts, small and large mass impacts that leads to a post crash scene swaying between quiet and loud dynamics. 

For starters I skipped the first 30 seconds and went straight to the interior truck scene to start design. I split the design passes into two dynamic layers based on what I felt was quieter and louder... Layer 1 focused on seat Foley, seat belts, door glass, clothing Foley, footsteps, etc. I worked that layer for a 30 second block and started Layer 2 with focus on passenger truck door, truck and fridge combat grabs/slaps/shoves/punches/bodyfalls, fridge impact effects, etc.

The next 30 seconds followed the same procedure. I split the design into two logical dynamic sections in order of loudness. This also allows for a pre-mix. Layer 1 focused on clothing Foley and footsteps, bag Foley, hand scrubs and taps on surfaces, etc. Layer 2 focused on table combat grabs/slaps/shoves/punches/bodyfalls, weapon fire, ballistics and impacts. 

The initial 30 seconds were approached differently. Everything is dynamically loud so looking for a design element that is chronologically linear from scene open to the crash was the best option for a base layer. The hero vehicle engine and tires fit that mold. From there I worked in a linear fashion on hero vehicle impacts and collisions. Then I finished with background NPC's. 

Next up are transitions. In this scene we have three. The hero vehicle crash blackout, the fridge controller button interaction, The blackout scene lent itself to tinnitus and a rushing heartbeat. The other transitions were designed using a mix of low pass filter automation, musical sound effects, and/or whooshes.

The final design element I added was an ambient backing for the store interior. I waited on this because I didn't want to build around it. This piece is all about the hero interaction. I added a simple low wind bleed with a light howl to give the feeling of abandoned space. 

The mix totaled 163 audio tracks, 3 effect busses, and 3 sub mixes. Plugins used are Avid EQ3, Waves RVox, RBass, SoundShifter, L1, L3, and IR-L. 

My philosophy with this piece was to allow it to breathe. There were opportunities to demonstrate power juxtaposed with subtle details interweaved with intriguing builds and transitions. It was challenging and fun to complete!