Sound for games

When you play a game, watch a film or absorb most types of media the thing that you come away with is normally, A story, great game play, Compelling characters or stunning visuals. But something that is hardly ever mentioned is sound. Which I find strange really as it can make so much difference to how everything else is interpreted.
You might not know this but I did a short (I mean very short) qualification in music or sound or something like that, only a few modules it was mostly pointless. However I did take a few things away from it.
I remember on day one we watched several game play and theatrical trailers and wrote down what the music/sound made us feel and what it suggested. It was typically two completely contrasting games which were Borderlands and Dantes Inferno. In both examples the music reflected the topic and mood of the game so it could be viewed as well chosen (although the Damte's Inferno one gives me a headache). However Imagine the two pieces swapped over, completely different yes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai7pMPCDHpo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUOZRRU_Dyg
In each case the sound adds to the experience and tells us something additional about the scene. The Dante's inferno music creates drama and a sense of grandiose. The music in the borderlands trailer gives the player a sense of attitude and mood for the characters being introduced. You can tell from the comments underneath that the music for this was particularly well chosen.This might be a ridiculous example but I think the point is proven.
Another thing is that as human beings we are rather respondent to sound. Music for example evokes emotions in everyone and people attach themselves to it. I don't think I know a single human being that doesn't like music. Some music can even cause deep emotions in us in and good sound directors and composers will use this to complement and if they are good make the scene.
One particular example sits in my mind and that was the original release trailer for Dead Island. The visuals are definitely stunning but its the music that really sets it off and makes it emotional. I remember viewing this for the first time in a lesson with all my classmates and when it had finished we all just said there in silence. Its still an amazing trailer two years later, shame the game was a steaming pile of crap. Try watching it without the sound or a different song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZqrG1bdGtg
Although all I have mentioned up to now is trailers; sound and sound effect play a vital role in game play as well as cut scenes. A great example of this is Silent Hill. I have played these games since I was a child and the sound has been so well embedded in my mind that as soon as hear static from a radio or an air raid siren my hair stands up on end. The composer of the majority of the silent Hill games is greatly applauded in both his field and by fans. When Silent Hill downpour was released the new composer was celebrated for his ability to recreate the much loved composers work

Survival horror as a genre heavily relies on sounds to portray fear even if that sound is just silence. Why do you think that some peoples reaction to a scary movie or game is to cover their ears? I think its because sound can give something a sense of realism of three dimensionality. The more senses a game or film can address the more it can immerse the player or viewer. Many "4D" cinema experience have popped up all over the globe in theme parks and have proven to be rather popular. Although I have no idea how they could reproduce the experience for a player at home.

I think as artist we tend to believe that visuals are the most important aspect of anything. However human beings as a whole tend to be excited by things that are as close to reality as possible (with a bit of excitement of course) something we can feel and believe in. Sound is a very important part of that as it is a strong medium to communicate to people in. (How many time have you heard "it's not what you said its the way that you said it) People are very sensitive to sound and can react to it emotionally and out of impulse. It can be used to create atmosphere ambiance, it can be used to determine pace or tell you something you can't see, it reaches out to the player on another level. Sound can be such a subtle and powerful tool depending on how you wield it. Therefore it should never be underestimated or taken for granted as it can make or break a game.

Lovely encouraging words :)

Somebody posted this on farcebook, I know its not work related but I thought it was a nice thought, probably completely made up but hey :)
Good words for first and third years alike, we all have worries.


A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." She continued, "The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything."

It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down!

Solitary Confinement more or less

So This week I have really been doing my best to get through the workload ahead and really putting the hours I should be. The group project has started and I am kind of enjoying it although I am aware if the  weight on my shoulders as team leader. I have been rather organised so far and we have had 2/3 meetings a week and we seem to be making some good progress. I am rather pleased with it at the moment, although I have some anxiety about the presentation next week. I have prepared a presentation and assigned various areas to most member in encourage them to speak but I hope they can deal with it. I have every belief that they can do it superbly I just hope they believe in themselves and their abilities. Wow that sounded deep.
Whenever I have time to myself at the moment I am working on other stuff catching up or improving stuff (hence the title). At the moment my friends are in disbelief in about the workload of the course but I'm pushing through. It irritates me that people think art students don't do any work... pfft.
Either way here's this weeks speedy, sticking with the still life objects I painted two coffee cups. I struggled with these at first as I find rendering high shine objects rather difficult in my style. However the more I worked into it the more convincing it got. I think with more time and pratice I will get the hang of it. In total this probably took 45 mins give or take. Not really sure if its an improvement since last week or not.. what do you think?

Recent Life Drawings

So its been a while since i updated this with much of my course related work, Sorry bout that but I've been a little rushed off my feet. Here is a sample of some of the life drawings from the past couple of weeks. None of them are particularly masterful but I like to use Life Drawing as a way to try out different techniques and equipment. I have found recently our life drawing time slots have changed we used to have a lot of long studies but recently its more about capturing the form quickly this is why I have changed my approach. So far this term I have tried colour pencils, graphite sticks, charcoal pencil, fine liner pen and various mixtures of them. I am hoping to try water colours and thick charcoal again soon as I have seen some good results with them in the past.

Getting Back On Track

sorta. I don’t know recently I have felt really pessimistic about my work and work habits. I’m going to probably relate this back to my recent personal problems. However today after a lot of battling I’ve managed to get back into a better work flow. I’m hoping to catch up on all the recent stuff that wasn’t up to scratch.
Talking about getting back into the habit here's this weeks speedy.
ON TIME.

This one was just under 40 mins, I decided to do some still life objects as it was something I was told I needed to improve on and after building up my confidence with portraits I though it was about time.
I am most pleased with the skull but this is mostly likely because i spent the most time on it. I went about painting this in a different way that usual. I actually started by planning out the objects on the table first, which shows I think. I used negative space to get a good feel for the silhouette and shapes too. and didn’t start painting til I felt relatively happy with the overall picture.
I am a little bit disappointed with the rendering techniques but I suppose this is because of the time limit I set myself and how I distributed my time. Although I didn’t enjoy this as much as my portraits I am going to continue doing still life for a couple of weeks in order to improve my rendering techniques. I will start to back up my speedies with prelim sketches too.

Previous work catch up- Week one, Abbey Park

This is going a bit back now but I thought it might be a good idea to post this years Visual Design work up by week to record where I’m up to considering feedback is coming up soon.
In our first week as second years we visited Abbey Park in leicester. Our task was to look at light and shadow and ironically the week we did this was overcast. Regardless here is my neatened up best bits of that week.
some skeches from on location






Some thumbs I worked into more as I found myself enjoying them more such as the geese (suprise suprise something organic). I think this is from when I used to draw and paint birds with my dad :)

This last one is meant to be my final however I don’t really like it that much. I have never hated rocks so much in my life! But in all seriousness I chose to do this dried up water fountain as I really like the orginally compostion and wanted to create a sense of grandure by having a high horzion line and so on but I lost enthusiasm at the end and I think it shows. I wish I could have captured it working as a fountain I think it could have been a good reason to pratice moving water, perhaps this is a subject I can pratice with my speed paints. I really wanted to challenge myself by doing something less iconic of abbey park but perhaps I should have stuck to the easier stuff like the gazebo. 

Opening Credits

I have always judged a televison programme by its opening credits and I suppose you could say thats as bad as judging a book by its cover. (just for the record I tend to do that too.) But because of this I have a certain graditude when they are done well and one that has recently caught my eye is the credits for Dexter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL3cJXD90SI

It was created by Eric S. Anderson of “Digital Kitchen” the same people responsible for the credits to “True Blood”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxINMuOgAu8 and “Six Feet Under” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6WATB9PFdE . Both of which are in the same style. Which I personally adore.
I find the opening to Dexter the most appealing because of the strong, suggestive imagery involved. I think the way in which the everyday morning routie can be made out to be some sort of sadistical ritual is rather compelling. (Which you find out in the series is Dexter’s sort of thing). I still sometimes find it hard to look at without wincing no matter how many times I see it. (and nothing speaks out to me as a strong piece more than being able to evoke an emotional response from the audience.) The idea was based on the idea of crime scence photography and moodboards were created of “normal things that seem violent under greater inspection.” It just goes to show what looking at things in a different perspective can achieve. I also find the juxtaposition of the rather clumsy music with such a sharp piece of film rather pleasing too.

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