1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.
2. What are the main points of the essay?
3. Did the article convince you one way or the other about the feasibility of a career in this field? Please explain.
Choose one from the following (and please don't pick the same article you wrote about last week!):
Bridgett, Rob. "The Role of an Audio Director in Video Games."
Spanos, George. "Silence in Sound Design."
Bridgett, Rob. "Getting Game Audio Right: The Big Picture."
Bridgett, Rob. "In the Loop: Planning for Feedback in Video Game Audio Production."
Brandon, Alexander. "Let's Play Peek-a-Boo: An Interview with George "Fatman" Sanger."
Brandon, Alexander. "The Importance of Being Earnest."
U.C. "Sharing Your Skills in Game Audio."
Spanos, George. "What Makes Great Game Sound?"
Spanos, George. "Breaking into the Game Industry."
Harlin, Jesse. "The Three Rs of Audio Leadership."
McDonald, Glenn. "A Brief Timeline of Video Game Music."
Randy Thom discussing the Sound Design for Scarface video game.
Sound Design for Harry Potter video game.
Sound Design for Gears of War video game.
BoingBoing Music for Video Games Part 1 and Part 2.
Post as a comment to this post (click "comments" link below). Due by the beginning of class Week 6.
Gerardo Valadez
ReplyDelete08/16/10
Reading Reflection #5
1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.
In The Loop: Planning for Feedback in Video Game Audio Production
by Rob Bridgett
I chose this article because in the future I have to look forward to criticism from Critics and others point of views.
2. What are the main points of the essay?
Oversaturation, working on a single project for years and working on the project for 8 straight hours can be pretty tough and is mostly why those then become freelancers because that way instead of working in-home, they can do multiple projects instead. Creative Fatigue, if it is a pretty crazy project to take frequent break and do something else completely from what you normally do so that your mind rests, or by even getting those to ask for some feedback about your projects. Client Feedback, getting prepared to hear and get lot's of "This needs that" and "This is not good, do it over" kinds of stuff. When it comes to feedback, its best to communicate face-to-face rather than through Email or on the phone as well.
3. Did the article convince you one way or the other about the feasibility of a career in this field? Please explain.
Yes, because it can be pretty challenging in the Audio Production, Gaming Field. But you always want a pretty good client from the Industry who's been doing this for a long time and is also pretty well known for being the best. So Learning from the Best of the Best is always good so I would really love doing this for a living as a career.
1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it. Silence In Sound Design by G Spanos. I chose this article because sound is all around. But in video games, ones with allot of noise with gunshots and screams. I would have never considered silence in videos games a sound.
ReplyDelete2. What are the main points of the essay?
Some of the main points in the article are considering silence a sound. For example to bring out a detail in video game/or a point that is crucial silence will happen so the player can pay attention to details concerning his/her journey through the game. Another point is that loudness in games is repetition and it being used so much it becomes more desensitizing. Silence is golden in gaming because it brings more emotion and suspense .
3. Did the article convince you one way or the other about the feasibility of a career in this field? Please explain.
Yes, because adding detail to a game by silence is unheard of while playing a video game. i thought the more sound the better. Now I understand the writer the article. Silence can add detail. You are able to pay attention to surroundings and crucial info concerning the journey through the video game.
Alfredo Zuniga
ReplyDeleteReading Reflection
Sharing Your Skills In Game Audio
I chose the article by U.C. called “Sharing Your Skills In Game Audio” This article interested me because I play a lot of video games and have an interest in this field of audio.
The main point of the article is networking. There are many places you can go to and meet other people that work in the video games. Places like the Game Developer's Conference and AES are the best places to go to and share your ideas and interests. It is best to share your successes and failures to get help and solve problems you have or to help others from making the same mistakes.
This article did make me interested in this career. Like I said I have an interest in video games in playing them. I like to hear about how they are made, so hearing other peoples stories about their time in the industry would be very interesting.
Chung, Erick
ReplyDeleteAugust 12, 2010
Reading Reflection week 6
Movie Sounds Made From Scratch
In the article, “Wicked Wind” by Ben McGrath, He talks about the process that a Sound Designer, Rickard King, of the movie, “Master and Commander” did in order to create all the sound for the movie. Mr. McGrath especially talks about the battle scenes in the movie due to high caliber of sound it produced while the movie was created due to the lack of sound effects available in the movie sound library telling the reader that it was like causing what he quotes, “a coming dissolution of all natural bonds, an apocalyptic upheaval, a right dirty night.”
Mr. King, the sound designer, and his crew had to take some extreme steps to create the battle scenes for the movie. For example, instead of going to the sea and trying to create the ‘wind’ sound like the way is portrayed, he decided that it wasn’t enough, so he went to the Mojave Dessert where he was able to create the ‘wind’ and ‘sea’ sound for the movie where he states, “We got some sails off a big square-rigger and took them out to the desert and built a giant framework—a mast, essentially—and rigged the sails so we could get them to flap at various intensities.” Basically put, the author felt that in his experience, he never knew that such intensity of sound can be created by different aspect of sound creation through different environment source like the Mojave Dessert for marine related sound.
Mr. King also took additional steps to create the battle scenes for the movie, which he felt that it was typically longer and more ‘boomier’ than many war movies he had seen. He felt that there wasn’t enough sounds in the database in the library to fill up the empty sides of firearms which required additional boom sound from the modern and past artillery. He says, “Something O’Brian refers to a lot is the screaming of shot flying overhead. So he found a group of artillery collectors in northern Michigan who had cannons that were capable of firing vintage ammunition, and set to work re-creating the types of shot,” What the author is stating is that Mr. King had to take the extend of finding additional fire sounds to the movie by gathering group of fire arm collectors in the United States, gather them in a huge field, and let them fire off their artillery until he was able to get all the sounds he wanted.
The amount of effort, hard work, and time it was consumed by the sound designer is extremely impressive. I think the author took the time to write this article due to the fact that he felt Mr. King has so much passion for the work he does and he wanted to express in details on this article on some of the details he went through.
Mike Valadez
ReplyDeleteReading Reflection 5
1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.
The article I chose is called "What Makes Great Game Sound" for the main reason being the title. It says it all. I'd just like to know what makes great game sound in this article to see if I agree or disagree and if I knew it already or not and if it'll give me a good push in the right direction.
2. What are the main points of the essay?
The point of the article is to explain how/why games never get bad critiques on their game sound design and how they relate. It breaks it up into two different relations. One being the set up which is like a story. How sound sets you up for a suspense driven scene. Then it breaks that down with the sound it used. And that it's different from movies in which you have to apply the sounds to the engine, which should "trigger the appropriate sound for the appropriate action". Then he explains a tactic he uses called "heavy brushstrokes", which is a not too detailed but at it's best sound. And to quieten the events before the main event to make it seem more intense. And still that sound still struggles for every bit of ram it can get, regardless of the power of the new consoles. The main point of the article being that a theme is a requirement and that the "brushstrokes" are a necessity as well.
3. Did the article convince you one way or the other about the feasibility of a career in this field? Please explain.
The article did convince me and give me two new strategies with automation and the sound design tactics used in video games. Like the addition and removal of ambiance and the build up of sound and noise to the "main event". Very convincing and satisfying. Just makes me want to get into the career even more.
Jose Avelar
ReplyDeleteReading reflection
1. I chose to write about Sound Design for gears of war 2, because it was a very interesting video. I played the game before and i never realized the beuty of the soundtrack. After that video i went back to play the game and i was amazed by the loudness and crunchiness that the devolper was talking about in the video.
2. The main points of the essay are about the great quality of audio that the gears of war game has to offer. Throughout the whole game the sound is intense and loud to create an exciting feeling. The sound designers really went out of their way to make the audience feel like they are there experiencing the bad guys. A lot of games theses days are doing the same thing in order to make a great product. We are really seeing a game revolution coming about, compared to the old 8 bit games.
3. This industry has really grown and continues to grow due to the great improvement of technology. I would be glad to be able to work with this branch of the industry and create a piece of art. Although it isn't my main goal to make it in this industry, I can see myself working in this branch sometime in the near future. There is a lot of room for improvement and flexibility to what can be done.
1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.
ReplyDeleteSpanos, George. "Silence in Sound Design."
The topic is interesting to read for a orchestral musician or percussionist. Dynamic and expression is part of professionalism as an professional instrumentalist. You must play your louds-softs-and most importantly the rests(silence). Silence or near silence expresses the emotion need to be felt. It is the energy of the note being dynamically expressed before or after, carried forward. It also waits for its charge which can give or create an effect or stimulate an effect.
2. What are the main points of the essay?
Stopping the trend of “Loud” and incorporating fundamental sound back into games.
3. Did the article convince you one way or the other about the feasibility of a career in this field? Please explain.
The article didn’t convince about a career in this field. The main focus in games is not the sound, although it is important but graphic and scheme is more important. Plus the gamer isn’t there to be entertained, he is entertaining his own senses through interfacing.
Kevin Martin
ReplyDeleteSurvey Of The Audio Industry – Kevin Martin
Reading Reflection #5
“The Importance of Being Earnest”
I have to say that Alexander Brandon hit the nail right on the head with this one. I hate most CG heavy games, because the mouth movement isn't in sync or realistically animated when it comes to speech or voice over work.
I am a heavy gamer, and I thoroughly enjoy a particularly dramatic gaming experience. What sticks in my craw, however, is voice work. I was actually pleased with the generic 'open and closed mouth' animation of earlier work...because it kept me in a gaming/unrealistic experience, and I was content with that. When video game companies (SquareEnix's earlier catalog can be cited in this next example) started to try to match up the words with what people were saying...the earliest work was shoddy at best. But the gamers were SO happy to hear words on the screen, they didn't care about how the speech was being conveyed. I, on the other hand...was thoroughly disappointed with what we were being given...and asked to excuse and pass off as quality work. Don't try to sway me with the new and shiny 'vocal work'! I'm happy mashing buttons to get through the paragraphs of lines and read to my hearts content. But, the industry had spoken...and I was subject to the worst of the worst...and then I noticed something.
As the technology evolved...companies were falling into the 'kung fu movie' word to animation pit. SquareEnix can once again be cited for this...as they were putting out games...with the faces rendered with Japanese speaking movement...and English voice overs. That made me even angrier. Not only did they not match up the words with the facial movements, they just slapped English over the original rendering and called it a day. Now I know that making a game such as Final Fantasy is quite expensive...so I give them a little bit of leeway when it comes to the early work. Not much...just a little.
Now...in the present time, proper dialog rendering has gotten a LOT better...but it's still a little to 'fake' looking to really be taken serious. One game that passes the test to me is Resistance 2 for PlayStation 3. The lip movement and facial animation is spot on with the proper way to speak and convey speech. Other games, like God Of War 3 and the new StarCraft II also pull of a stellar performance...but I think that the animation can be a bit over the top...with speech looking 'too perfect'.
Bottom line is this...the voice over/speech technology is evolving...and is getting better with each iteration that is presented. We as gamers just have to give the industry time to catch up to our very rigorous standards...and not cringe with it looks like a character is getting a broom removed from their derier when they get mad and yell at another in-game character.