Sonic Design - Final Project

  MODULE VSA 60304: Sonic Design 

Tristan Vaughan Sleep - 0365120

Sonic Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Sonic Design - Project IV: Game Audio Design Project 

---

MODULE INSTRUCTIONS:

>

“SEPT 2025: VSA 64304 / SONIC DESIGN MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”

Sonic  Design: Game Audio Project (Weighted 40%)

Final Project: Students of the cohort are to look and pick one of the video-game gameplay and are expected to create/edit their own audio to match said video. Students will need to create and plan out their project and either use the recording sessions assigned to them or find other means to collect their audio. Additional tools such as recording devices are available if required. The final project should be a one-minute video with original audio and should be published to the students E-Portfolio/submitted as outlined by the MyTimes.

---

PARTICIPATED LECTURES:

WEEK XII: Collecting reference + Audio Storyboarding/listing

Game Selection: For the final project in this module, students are required to look at a series of short gameplay clips from video-games and pick one of them - with the intention to ‘dub’ in their own audio as required. For this task, I’d chosen to go with ‘Hollow Knight’ as it was the Game-Title I had the most experience with and hopefully would know what type of sounds I’d need for the project. To ensure that I had a more accurate sound to the game, I would reference this full video playthrough and reference encounters with the similar or environments make my sounds: 

“Video Reference: Hollow-Knight Full Play through”

Although I had the resources to start sampling and making the sounds myself, it was pointed out by the lecturer that students should develop an Audio Checklist + Storyboard to identify all the audio assets needed for the project. Furthermore, it would make the final compilation easier as you should know where sounds are expected to be. The original layout and design for this part of the project was inspired by our seniors students - another recommendation by the lecturer:

“Documentation: Audio Check-list”

Audio Check-List: This list serves as documentation for what sounds would be required during the final production, categorising them based on their subject and taking note of what the original sound should resemble. This list was simply achieved by creating a list of moments within the one-minute video and referencing the sounds with the full Gameplay Video. With a satisfactory list, this will make the accompanying Audio Storyboard easier to create as I know what I’m looking for and can just arrange them in a timely manner.

“Documentation: Audio Storyboarding”

Audio Storyboard: Continuing with the sound documentation, I used the identified sounds to create a sound-based timeline/storyboard. When designing the storyboard, I used separate colours to separate the sources of the noise as well as using different values of colours to identify if the sound source is closer or further away (simplifying the editing process.) This tool is not only useful for knowing when to place sounds but it is also useful when checking if I’ve put in all the necessary audio in each section.

From the audio list, I identified the presence of the particular sound effects based on the timeline. I applied color coding so that I could easily identify which sound effects should appear at which seconds. It also helped me to check if I missed out any sound effects when doing the audio syncing 

WEEK XIII: Creating + Editing  Original Sounds

Audio Recording: As required for this project, students need to create their own audio and edit it to fit into their pre-establish Audio Storyboards. This week I had chosen to focus on collecting the sounds and then editing the sounds for the final project. Due to the difficulty of trying to use/ bring equipment to the recording booth - I’d chosen to mainly record all the sounds at home and go through a longer editing process.

Before recording, I would need to prepare and re-arrange my recording area to make the sound quality a lot better and to minimise the smaller editing that would need to take place. For this, I used parts of my furniture as well as objects such as weighted pillows and duvets to make a make-shift recording booth with said furniture acting as materials to catch reflected sounds (allows for clean audio.) Furthermore, I’d have to turn off all electrical devices and would wait until later in the evening to minimise background sound which could muddy the captured sounds. In general, this practice was actually pretty useful and the sounds captured were clean and had little to no echo which meant that editing and stylising the audio would be simpler.

For the actual recording, I would have to use an arrangement of house-hold tools to help capture a similar sound to the ones found within the gameplay video - sometimes requiring to get creative with the items used. In total, I used percussive sounds such as my hands and arms to mimic the light walking of the characters + hitting enemies, a coat-hanger + reed of bamboo to make the swinging sounds, rubbing + clicking metal ring weights to mimic lightning crackles and coins, my wallet being struck + striking together rock-candies to make the sound of stone, a hat made from heavy fabrics to make the falling/jumping sounds, the fridge and the sink for ambience etc. For the smaller items, I was able to record these easily using my phone in the recording booth with little to no problems while larger objects (such as the bamboo + Coat-hanger) needed me to record in a silent room with furniture to catch the sound. With the correct items and ideas on what to do, I’d finish recording in an hour and could begin editing.

PDF1

“Collection of used objects for the audio”

Audio editing: When it came to editing, I imported all the files from my phone into Adobe Audition where I’d edit them individually using the smaller tools and features which cannot be used in Multi-Track mode. For the average edit, I would use the ‘Noise-reduction’ process to help mitigate any unwanted sound, achieved easily by leaving some ‘dead-air’ in the recording to make an accurate noise-print. However; in some cases, this would create a weird audio effect which sounded like reverb or an echo which was resolved mainly using the ‘De-reverber’ tool. Other major adjustments were done using the Parametric equaliser to help emphasise the main part of the sound.

PDF1

“General edits done in Adobe Audition”

For more specialised edits, these were mainly achieved using more unique tools such as the ‘chorus, flanger, phaser, reverb etc.’ to make different sounds. For instance, the crackling of electricity came from taking the original clinking of metal coins and putting it through a phaser and chorus to make it sound more dense and make it sound snappy. Further edits such as reverb would also be used to make the audio sound more 3Dimensional as if the effect is an area of sound, not a plane. Another notable edit was using additional tools like the ‘pitch shifter’ or ‘time-stretch’ to make the sound either satisfy the upper/lower range requirement or to make them sound intimidating (as seen with the walking enemy sound.) Overall, with the audio edited and correctly named - I would be able to begin placing them into the Multi-track and in sync with the original video. The goal from there will be to make any final edits more in line with video.

WEEK XiV: Final Product + Outcomes

Multi-Track Arrangement: For the final part of this project, I would need to port all the edited sounds into the Multi-track space as well as importing the Video-game clip. When working within the Multi-Track space, it is important to consider the naming + arranging the tracks to make it easier to read and accessible should anyone else wish to reference it. For the tracks, all were named in the same way as seen in the Check-list, being broken into its source - type + number (PC - swinging 1 for example.) To further organise the tracks, I would colour code them based on the source as well as using the bus tracks to separate each section. This way it would be easy to see where all the sounds are and makes it easier to reference when looking at the storyboard.

With everything completed, I would be able to begin placing the audio in sync with the Video-Game clip - this process proved to be a bit more time consuming as for some aspects. With all the sounds organised in the tracks, the final part of the assignment is to adjust the volume and panning of the tracks to better simulate a 3D environment to the audience as well as make the audio balanced to prefer more crucial sounds. Other final adjustments can be seen with the effects rack which mainly saw the addition of echo or reverb for some tracks to be more in line with the original game’s design. 

“Finalised Video”

With the final alterations made on the tracks and the final project is satisfactory and is in line with the original video. The project is finally completed and is ready for submission.