While waiting to make a formal update to Hydropic’s website and blog I thought I could just post some of the work I did on sound for my Team installation project that was on display at Imagine RIT
While our time alocated for sound was very slim I was able to get some great sounds together for a background track and some key sound effects for our piece. For all the sound I used Audacity with GarageBand, mostly because it’s what I am most familiar with and I knew that I would have to use some MIDI instrument tracks. Audacity was used to reverse certain loops and then to re import those back into Garageband. The cool thing about XNA + Sound is that I was able to throw in the angle of where the sound was originated in-game to give is a more immersive and realistic feel.
The background track was the most crucial. One: how do I create something that wouldn’t drive us or our users insane? Two: how did we want to convey our game? All of our reference had been on RTS pc games which used a very industrial sound to convey urgency and science fiction. Our game was more light-hearted and would be displayed to all age groups. For inspiration I mainly pulled from Command + Conquer II sound track and Katamari Damacy. The happiness of Katamari proved a good counterpoint to the harshness or Command + Conquer II. I also listened to some of the DJ’s I admire for their music tracks mainly: Deadmau5.
Have a listen: Background Music Track
For sound effects these were slightly more fun having only a few seconds to play with to really convey something that didn’t sound like a garageband preset.
The user’s character had an electrical attack that was triggered in game, I wanted to include a surging, the aftershock, and also the cry of the enemy in relation to the shock.
Have a listen: Avatar Attack
Avatar Die
When the user’s character dies it does this sort of unravel and then explosion of parts. I tried to combine as many bone-breaks, body hits, and other shatters I could along the build up before it resolves with a nice low concussion blow.
Have a listen: Avatar Die
Shield Powerup!
The user’s avatar was able to temporarily gain special power in-game. In addition to changing the avatars physical appearence sound was of great help. In this sound I wanted a build-up that was somewhat dissonant with a sharp resolution and echo to follow.
Have a listen: Shield Powerup
Speed Boost!
The user’s avatar could also gain a short temporary speed boost. I wanted something similar to the Doppler effect when a car drives by: quick abrupt build and a sudden resolution accompanied with an echo.
Have a listen: Speed Powerup
I am by no means an expert, but I did have some fun making these together for our installation and the feedback was good from both other presenters and the team as a whole.
I had been meaning to upload some of my experiments in photography I’ve just been a little tied up learning XNA and HLSL shader languages. But no more excuses!
Visualizing Ideas
Photo Montage
For this picture I combined cubism with photography. I extruded the cubes of each of their portraits based on their relative distance to the camera: accentuating the z-depth. The subjects of this photo were my two band mates Roger Lane and Seppi and we had a blast shooting all sorts of ridiculous poses before coming up with some usable shots.
Panoramas
Every Year New Media Club has an annual apple picking event at a local apple orchard. The owner let me come onto the grounds before opening so I could get some nice unobstructed shots. Shooting at around 5:30AM also gave some great effects with light rays breaking on branches and the dew-drops still on the leaves.
This road panorama was also taken at the orchard. In retrospect the scene was in the shade and a bit darker than I would have wanted. Taking the panorama in the sun and positioning myself so that they entire road across the image would have made this more successful.
I am by no means a photographer, but after playing with it a little more I think I’ll invest in a camera in the near future hopefully something that records HD video too.
Well the summer is over now, and I had a truly exceptional experience at Fantasy Interactive – New York. I learned so much from the developers and designers around me, and will continue to instill FI quality in all my future work.
Check out the full article of me on FI’s Blog at:
http://www.kontain.com/fi/entries/41358/summer-lovin-comes-to-an-end/
I’ll be in NYC for the summer working as an interactive intern for Fantasy Interactive. After my first day there, I’m really pumped about my team members I’m working with, the project I get to work on, and taking in all NYC and FI has to offer.