Star Raiders was a contracted music and sound design project I completed at the end of 2010. The development team attempted to update the Atari classic and added some depth to the story and game mechanics.
I spent a great deal of time creating all new weapon, impact, and explosion sounds and I have presented all of the raw materials here. Not all of the weapon sounds ended up being used, as I chose from among the variations that best fit the look and feel of the weaponry.
I processed all of the explosions for maximum impact and low end rumble in attempt to put the player at the heart of the action.
Science fiction games allow me to really get creative and I had fun experimenting with all types of interesting effects in generating the sounds for this game.
We used almost all of the orignal cast actors for the VO sessions and since they were spread all across the country I had to patch in remotely for each session. At the end of the day I received the raw audio and began editing and processing the lines for the game.
The cutscenes are where the story, art, and sound really come together so I linked six of my favorite scenes from the game here. I worked on the scenes in conjunction with Pixar and we came down to the wire getting everything approved and into the game just before the deadline.
Aside from the cutscenes, I was responsible for directing all of the sound effects and environments along with recording and processing vehicle, impact, and VO sounds.
With great characters and new envionments I had a really fun time working on this game. It was also interesting to visit Pixar and get a first hand view of how they put their franchises together.
I enjoy working on projects like Globs of Doom because you can really have fun with the sound design.. The majority of the titles I work on are fairly serious, so making cartoony and comical sounds is a nice departure.
While you can hear my sound design throughout the entire game, I chose to reeference six of the cutscenes since I got the some enjoyment out of doing them.
We used all of the original cast actors and recorded all of the lines in ProTools at a VO studio in Santa Monica. I edited and implemented all of the lines over the course of several months.
The CGI scenes came very late in the development cycle but I was able to do the majority of the sound effects and music to animatic and WIP temp tracks.
Since I was also the Senior Producer on this project I spent many late nights and weekends keeping up with the audio tasks. While it was a tough schedule, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Nickelodeon.
I spent three years creating and implementing music and sound for Vanguard: saga of Heroes.
I recorded, edited and processed every sound in the game and have presented a very small cross section of those sounds here.
The first few files are weapon and impact sounds broken out by category with impacts for several different surface types.
The next section cover the thirteen different schools of magic in the game. I strung together a few sounds in each category and presented them in series.
After the magic sounds I listed six custom environments. I created a system that randomized the one-shot sounds against the wind and insect backgrounds creating a dynamic environment that changed every time the player entered a region.
Finally I chose five creatures from across the game world. A more comprehensive selection is listed on the Creatures page.
As you might expect with a MMOG, Vanguard was by far the largest project I have ever worked on.
Combat sounds not only provide feedback to the player, but they help relay a strong sense of 'feel' that engages the player's senses.
Combat sounds can be the most important sounds in the game, so great care must be taken to make sure they are recorded and implemented correctly.
I have presented a wide array of sounds that I have recorded, edited, and collected over the course of my career. I tried to cover basic areas such as melee weapons of all shapes and sizes striking many different surfaces. Each melee weapon can be heard striking flesh, bone, wood, metal, leather, chain, chitin, and goo.
For firearm weapons I included small arms fire up to massive cannons and howitzers. I included a wide variety of each weapon type in each category.
This only scratches the surface of combat sounds, but it should provide the listener with a level of quality and variety I strive for.
Creating monster and creature sounds is one of the more interesting aspects of sound design.
I have created hundreds of creatures over the years and compiled a collection of 45 here that show a wide range of sound design techniques. I've taken various samples for each monster and linked them in series to present a quick snapshot for every beast. I tried to use attack, hurt, idle. and death variations for Every creature.
I use many different techniques for creating creature sounds. Many start with raw footage from a library or from sounds I've recorded over the years. I use several tools to process and edit sounds including Avox. Reaktor. Speakerphone, and a series of effects plug-ins. Some of these sounds were also generated with just a microphone and my loud mouth.
Background ambiences are integral to creating realistic environments and scenarios. Here are a series of ambiences I have put together from my personal library.
These are all natural ambiences that I built by layering in each individual element one at a time before mixing them down.
I have had the opportunity to work with many of Hollywood's top voice actors in film and television animation over the past decade.
Ove the script and in-game VO is complete and approved we move forward with casting, recording, editing, and implementing.
When feasible, I sit in on every recording session and take notes on each take. I have many memorable moments from impromptu or improvisational lines for a character delivered by a voice actor. Sometimes we've changed entire script lines on the fly to suit the actor's delivery or mood.
It is always entertaining meeting new talent and watching them jump into the skin of a well known character. It also never ceases to amaze me how some actors can play multiple characters in a show or series that are so completely different from one another.
I have taken lines from twenty of my favorite sessions and presented them here. The first ten are Disney & Pixar characters, and the last ten are Nickelodeon characters.
The first track with the announcer demonstrates how I process the raw audio into an in-game asset by simulating a racetrack loudspeaker system. all of the other lines have been edited and processed as well.
