Prototype 1 video

Heylo

Here is the first Prototype of the basic 33 second animation which Im testing does the amount of Sound effects change the narrative. Now I am not very good at choosing the right specific sounds to use in order to put across a good narrative with only a few sound effects so I just focused on one object, which was the skin.

I could have chosen the transformations like a sound for coming out of the wall other than ripping like coming out of liquid perhaps or other wise but the point is there are many ways to take this.



Enjoy :)

have a great night

Prototype 01 done

Heylo

Did the first Protoype today only using sound effects on the skin ripping and stretching, will have a htink of what else I could put in to make it a feasably moderate animation, then work on making it a little over the top and hence completing my prototype creation and then onto testing :)

One gripe that happened was that the sounds werent as clear the first time I boucned it but realised I had left the high pass gate on - I use it to reduce laptop fan noise and outside upheaval :P

but fixed now - bumping the final bit down now and then we will see about putting it up here :)

have a great night

So far so good

Heylo

Going well so far cutting up the audio got a nice juicy :P bit of audio for you to hear, this is for the humanoid stretching out of a wall and ripping of their skin :)

AUDIO CLIP enjoy :D

have a great night

Dry done

Heylo

Dry recordings done for the skin and stretching material sound effects done so far that I can think of, possibly look for other things to rip apart and to test once I get money :)

Will edit them tonight - all I hope but its a good amount so could be hear all night :P

Have a great night

got some visuals for you

Heylo

Me and my girlfriend have been sketchign lately and like the human body coming out of things stretchign skin, being part of life - check Origin 2008 artwork and so ive decided to have a background on my website :) here are the trace and trace with the original in the background :) not done just concept sketches of course

So heres stuff to look at and check out my site for audio :) geokda.co.uk

have a great day

Protoype

Heylo

after being unable to do anything after work yesterday and collapsing on the bed I didnt get to do the prototype recordings for the sound effects yesterday so will try tonight, also the artist has informed me they will be doing a more clearer version so i opted to have that sent to me aswell :)

Slowly working on the literature review, going to be a long few weeks pulling together all the information I have collected and read throught them all to get what I need - if anything.

Recently under a lot of work load and time management but will try to have regular updates daily if possible of the work done. now onto recording :)

have a great night

catching up

Heylo

Been ready tired from work lately however i have managed to track down a film student I gave music too last year, going to try and see if I can use one of his films :)

As for the prototype I could not get out of bed cause of my back and hence fell asleep in it :( the mics and sound effects kit is still set up ready to be recorded but I only have time to check emails before heading off to work again.

As for any other progress I have been writing up my research proposals litrerature review having done the intro and will hopefully get my feedback shortly on all my recent work. Then move onto Pre Production essay, which Ive written a methodology for it.

Hope you have a great Sunday

Film leg work

Heylo

Today at the Light Night Festival in Dundee I Colette and Odi did some filming :) we went round some of the events like the skate park, st pauls cathedral, the drum circle outside wellgate and lots of other things :) hectic night with all the running around trying to get footage of it all though.

But got some experience with a camera and at night with very bright lights aswell.

Its at the back of my mind to just make the film myself and have a basic narrative little or no vocals and just have basic foley possible music and then adapt the sound effects to it - however with little of 4 weeks left its not looking possible and around 6 other projects to do.

So got a lot to thing about and hope I will eventually get time to sit down and just do some more work ont he honours project beside writing.

have a great winter light night

The prototype

Heylo

Just looking through the aquired animation it doesnt have a clear narrative and that worries me that it wont be a good test case then, its quite abstract.

So im getting another animation from the same artist but with some continuity about it :) still abstract but the story has a protagonist this time :D

Also before class today I drew up some scene sketches i had in head for a while, one of a flowing shot of the seatign area at the back of the overgate and try to build some narrative through some sound effects and also a drama scene in which a person is at the bedroom window lookign out and then sits on their bed and has a physical and mental contemplation period until they look ver to their keys on the bedside drawers.

so here are the (bad) sketches :P They help me get my ideas out even though Im an audio artist it helps to have visuals :) plus I like to mix the two arts.

have a great day

I had to laugh a little :)

Heylo

Say the Aberplay interview for nextleveldundee at Neon and realised there was 3 creative contents their I did audio for :P Ginork, the nextlevel showcase screen and the Aberplay music :D

I should spend some money on more audio equipment to broaden my range as I don't want to have a particular style that people will go, "oh yeah thats SGW". Need variety, diversity and innovation to pull my music/aduio across the media fields :) so if I get noticed that way, thats how i would like it, because Im diverse not because I have one style.

Oh and I dont put up all the music I make on the website to be clear :)

Have a great night :)

Tiny update

Heylo

Currently prepairing my methology paper, my research roposal, masters games students audio and magicode-games audio. Think ive finally got a decent starting line for the research proposal after reading some of last years - which might have been a problem from the get off not reading them enough.

Lots of spot effects, foley created through all the projects I have done ready for use in the film and Animation prototype - when I get it working with pro tools, some mbox issues at the moment.

However progressing nicely and looking forward to Fridays festival which I will be filming so check me out if you see some guys with cameras I am one :P

have a great night

pass the student

Howdy

seems as tho these companies know less about each other than I do, today I got a reply from UK Film Council, which do not have anything to do with film testing and have therefore given me other websites to look at - somehow Im not sure this is going to get a clear picture of how to screen test anytime soon.

so patience is running thin as I have a lot of work going on and cant afford to waste it with these declined responses from companies who should know , I think, a little bit more than they do.

have a great day

Here is something someone else has done :)

Howdy

HERE is a link to a movie trailer with the sounds all done by student, which is similar to what i would like to do. Its nothing special just showing something similar and also criticing it.

Voice overs are repeated for mulitple characters with same or even different voices sometimes, music matches fine, believability doesn't quite match up and could have emphisised a few narrative bits mroe with key sound effects :)

Have a great day

getting there - I hope

Howdy

Got redirected byt he UK screen Association to The UK Film Council
in which I have sent a similar email asking about tested film
screenign methods and how to get in touch with film makers and use
of there films :)

fingers crossed

Also doen some vocal recordigns for magicode-games today, always
fun :P hope to do some for trigger finger soon.

Have a great day

Something similar to what Im researching

Howdy

How narratives are changed with visual and audio cues :) not specific to the amount on one particular scene but has a nice table for reference just like I would like to create.

HERE it is, theres a lot more in there I want to post but its just too much :P

Shifts in narrative point-of-view and time have several effects:

* delaying of information disclosure builds tension in an effort to manipulate the audience directly;

* empathy for characters shifts throughout the film with the shifts in point of view;

* power relations between characters change with the shifting of point of view, since story knowledge and interpretive power are so intimately related.

The techniques that are used within films by filmmakers can be seen as having a desired effect. This effect, though having intention can of course be interpreted in different ways from that intention. The table below draws out some techniques and their desired effects on the audience.

Technique ‘Effect’
Flashback,Flashforward,Present The information revealed in one time frame will alter the understanding that the audience has of another time frame, e.g. Saving Private Ryan, Citizen Caine

Repetition Information can be revealed by increasing the duration of a repeated incident or by changing the narrative point-of-view of the incident, e.g. Memento

Dream Dreams can be used to mislead the audience by making them believe that some events are actually taking place but in reality are only dreams e.g. Mulholland Drive, Jacob’s Ladder

Hallucinations Again, hallucinations can mislead the audience and situates them with the character in terms of their knowledge, e.g. A Beautiful Mind

Premonitions Premonitions set up expectations about what is to occur in the narrative, but these expectations can be subverted, e.g. Don’t Look Now

Voice-over Voice-over discrepancies can create humour or be used to show deceit between characters. Further they delimit the terms of narrative disclosure between the characters.

This is what I want to create but with the variety of sounds used = narrative change, in relation to a particular event/scene in the film.

Im getting closer to finding case studies that are simialr to my own study :)

have a great day

how to get what answers i want

Howdy

Basically im wanting to ask a question to get the information that
will inform me of narrative change and atm i can only think of;

"what do you think was going on in this film?" or " what do you
thinkthe main characters motiv / reason for doing / stance on
... etc?"

which would show change in narative if the answers varied in the
other films :D its pretty general and wide enough to make the
viewer react and say exactly what they thought was going on in
the scenes in the film.

Also I need to think of a lead, Colin Cartiwright describes it
as the type of questionaire that "makes" the subject answer no
until they come across a question that they will likely say yes
to because they feel they have answered no for so many qestions
:) which might tie into the second question variety :D.

I need to avoid the question

"what do you think of this film?" which is too general and will
therefore get a basic answer - which was a result from my last
years test and I would have the results if Abertay wuld let me
have my research back :S

have a great day

SOS Forum

Howdy

been trying to get some help on the online communities and by
which I mean sound and film forums, most of which have not been
handy. This one albiet has mostly junk replies lead me to Vimeo
:) which was awesome to find out, the rest was conjuncture based
on first glance judgements and taking me for a lazy worker, which
anyone who knows me will laugh.

HERE is the SOS forum which I attempted to get help from, all I
asked was a point in the right direction and they flame me when I
say its study related.

The others have yet to yield anything.

have a great day - at least Im trying :)

Vimeo

Howdy

Signing up for a Vimeo which is a free hosting and sharing video
website, hopefully I can aquire a unique video to use for the
film tests that is relatively unseen in the Dundee Populace
in which I will be testing the film

which just makes me wonder if Dundee is bias in someway and maybe
I should plan for that saying that this is a Game / Media industry
heavy area and might be bias toward certain venacular and style?
hmm - need to contemplate that.

will hopefully get a corridor background ambient track down tonight
aswell as some more convincing gun shots and enemy footsteps as
Im not sure Trigger Finger are fully won over by my originals which
is fine :) more experience for me. Which I have been studyign for a
little while - Battlefield 2 :P very nice stuff, it is in pen spaced
zones but the engine can change the sounds to be as if they were
inside :)

anywho, have a great day

UK screen association

Heylo

Still on the hunt for testing methods on the films, so searched up UK
film associations, and got info@ukscreenassociation.co.uk :P close enough

and hence emailed them for advice :) fingers crossed this contact address
works this time.

have a great day

Walky Tests

Howdy

Working on a masters game with the Team Trigger Finger and so far got some background stuff spot effects etc which I cant show atm as its not finished however I can show the tests Im doing with the walky talky :P heard HERE

Enjoy

Have a good day

Student Films

Howdy

Just showing what Im looking at in terms of quality though this one itself is more a documentary, but the qaulity is sufficient :)

look at it HERE if you wish

have a great day

Idea

Howdy

Ive heard that Whitespace solutions get involved in a lot of filming so I wonder If i could get my hands on some film / animation ? as I did with the whitespace advert :D

will look into that later on today :)

Have a great day

inetfilm.org

Howdy

Today Im looking into the methodology of how I am going to do the project but also looking for where I can Aquire a film, inetfilm.org has been my first successful interest.

Ive tried to send the editor an email asking if its possible to use one of the films or hopefully they will head me in the right direction of where I can use an independant film for the honours project :) Howver the email address bounced back a negative response so will keep looking and hopefully I will find a film / film scene to work with.

have a great day

methodology help

Howdy

Today Ive wrote a little about the methodology involved in my project and I got the help from of course the lectures but also this website HERE theres a lot to read so havent read all of the parts and hope to back them up by further studies :)

have a great day

microphone tests

Howdy

As I was recording the wachine machine for the masters game project, i decided to used my C606 shure microphone, standard vocal /warm mid frequency response mic, and my B5 small diaphram condensor mic.

And I got some nice distinctions, no one better than the other however they both picked up different noises and a 15 sec clip can be heard HERE for B5 and HERE for C606

enjoy

have a great day

Woops

Howdy

Just realised I should be learning all the stuff i had planned to do in january as the star of my project - I should do that now ! :o damn, lost in translation there possibly due to the very confusing lectures?

But not too worry they can stay in the plan as the research for the Disertation > further reading into case studies and literature etc :)

But this means my very busy schedule is absolutely going to be packed - Documentary / Masters Games Audio / Honours Games Audio / Magicode Games / Honours project Tests / Other Documentarys and anything else that comes my way plus work

So I will need to be careful about where I place my time and not to overstretch myself in order for self improvement - although a PA would sort me right out ;)

Working on Masters Game Audio ATM :)

Have a great day

Layering +

Howdy

Worked on my bus reactor a little adding more too it :) hope to get more sound effects to really bring it too life soon - fingers crossed.

hope to have more to show soon

have a great day

Sound Effects

Howdy

Firstly I have been looking at my literary review and not been able to read through it all, been very busy with other projects, work etc :) however

I have been testing the layering techniques inspired from films like Alien, and games and created a few blood gouging sword attacks for magicode-games which were liked so far, (tick positive feedback box)

Also today I got my hands on the Whitespace advert which I plan to put some sound effects too, to change the narrative :D just 10-20 seconds should do - as well as the animation symposium.

However I have opted into the Masters game audio design program and will be on route shortly to do one or more teams audio in 2 weeks or less - this will be tough with other coursework needing to be done at a steady rate (and not left to the last minute which i detest - undue stress) but I will work on it and gain valuable experience from it :)

Al Pacino in Devils Advoacte " ...Underestimated from day one "

I can find some connection with that :)

Have a great day

Few things I might have missed

Howdy

In my schedule I think I may have missed out the bit of data that was ment to contain the time I would spend doing the dissertation and also other projects - it completely slipped my mind and now its too late as its handed in already :(

I think I should have a better organised notebook at this year its not been as organised as I would have liked so that would be the first issue to solve in regards to making sure Ive done everything mentioned in the classes, lesson learned.

have a great day :)

Print outs

Howdy

Getting the Project Proposal printed out and handing in today along with tree diagram and digital copies of the work :)

Soon after I hope to dive into some more literary review work to firm up my case and to get any relavent studies on my side or opposed so im not pro one way or the other.

Hoping it goes well just not having much luck finding the material on my own.

Hope you have a great day

Qualitative Research

Howdy

I now know that I will be doing Qualitative Research :) taking in words and reactions instead of numbers and representing them in appropriate ways :)

Also Found out today something I had completely missed; it matters in which order I show the films. So I might show 1,2,3 to one person then 2,1,3 to another etc, so it will take longer than one day I think to get all the different people at different times. We also covered questions today and I have some experience in that so not too worry too much on that area.

But lesson learned :D

Have a great day

Equipment Buy in

Howdy

Today I recieved my Behringer MS40 stereo pair studio monitors :D and testing them out now even tho my laptop has some dodgey connections its turning out to be a good purchase cause Im finding weak parts in my songs I never heard off the headphoens of laptop speakers so really this is challenging the method of if you can make it sound good on rubbish is better than making it ok on good monitors.

But the experience on the low quality laptop speakers should help me out a lot :) as Im now noticing my music has to be turned up more to be heard and some notes arent being as 'clear' as I intentionally ment them to be, the volume doesnt bother me as Im not a fan of full on compression to the max and ramp up everything to 0. the EQ of the notes I want more clear tho is of interest to me :D

So atm testing the monitors on American McGee's Alice and then a Movie and Anime :)

Thats all for now

Have a great day

Questionaire methods

Howdy

Just went to the Honours Student Support Session and learned about SPSS :) a program for statistics and information hadling so that is one method I could search into and would be considered a skill I will need to learn to use.

Also I can see Jim Kelly the student support lecturer who was there today is available for session booking on any help :) which I think I might on some points:

1. Questionaires construction help
2. Help with Litrature review forming - already know of the Triangle which helped a lot :)
3. SPSS the program for visually representing information and stats :) exactly what I wanted to do with one of the Tasks in my Tree Diagram
4. Formulation of Disseration sections like Results and Discussion section - done this before with my last project but will be good to get it for a reminder.

Also found out I have to make the Waiver myself and I should probably put it at the top of the questionaire instead of a separate sheet :D saving paper, saving the planet.

So yeah all good for that 20 min feedback session, worth going along to sort out the queries I had :) and 3rd year crit went good, gave feedback got some ideas churning and discussed theories and applications of audio :)

Also another Track - Hamid has suggested I make a title screen music track for Ginork- Gladly :D can't say no and I want the game to be as good as possible, he also mentioned the rotating tracks which I think will be fantastic as the music track thats in now gets on your nerves a little, some rotation would be fab.

Thats all for today

Have a great day

Symposium Animation

Howdy

Just showing my time line notes created for imagining the sound effects which will be used for Symposium.

(in seconds) | (notes)

0-4 | square shape breaks outwards in pieces that are like construction pieces

4-5 | the camera angles goes under the parts which forms long shaft shapes

5-7 | the parts fly upwards

7-8 | camera angle change again

8-16 | parts zoom towards the screen, wavey circlular blob appears

16-19 | blob goes to the left

19-22 | centres and jiggles

22-23 | shapes form in the blob

23-25 | shapes turn into the continents of the world, the blob becomes earth

25-29 | earth rotates in the correct motion

29-30 | zoom into one particular island

30-32 | zoom into the continent now just a shape

32-33 | the shafts are inside the shape and zoom towards the screen

33-45 | shapes come out of the white background taking black siluettes out

45-47 | black goes to white circle the to black dot

47-49 | camera zooms out, the dot turns into an outline of a face

49-50 | outline of face is comlplete

50-52 | face is surrounded by black

52-58 | face ages and becomes a skull

58-62 | end is still shot of last frame, the skull in darkness

Right, so thats what I will be working with to create sound effects as well of course as the animation this is just to shrink a linear art form into a basic still piece of information :)

I have a few ideas of basic effects to use and I will try to bring in some of my own metaphor or otherwise meanings into play - obviously with the consent of the artist :)

have a great day

Sound Layering

Howdy

Recorded some sounds today for Magicode-games :) and used a layering technique to get a MGS esk death as thats the style of game, but with ninjas! what I did was layer 4 sounds together at first that I recorded in Pro Tools;

a swish
a hit
an unsheath blade
a blade hit

and put them together :) sounded nice, edited in audacity

so then a used 5 others in separate channels to get a delay effect, I did it this way as I wanted more control over each individual repetition.

so made 3 HERE and HERE and HERE :)

So yeah posted to Maciej and hope it gets a thumbs up

have a great day

More on sound effects

Howdy

Going to attempt a case study soon with the animation I got from Sara Jozavi Torkmorad and see If I can create a version with competant sound effect design and implementation :)

look forward to it soon :P

have a great 5th of november :)

Small action plan

Howdy

Been watching a lot of movies, a few documentarys and playing some games to get a subconscious feel of what contemporary sound is like as the list is quite extensive I wont list everything here but a few are

*Alien
*American Beauty
*Apocalypse Now
*Daywatch
*Ginger snaps
*I love you man
*Irreversible
*Objectified Documentary
*Paprika
*Mesrine: Public enemie number 1
*Samurai Jack animated series (all)
*Stalker (book, movie and games :P)
*True Colours
*UP 3D

etc

- Ive also watched a few mid 1900's movies like Scars of Dracula (1970) Harvey (1950) Fantasia (1940) Gulivers travells (1939) and touched a little on MIDI game music as I like to work around a lot of media before using the knowledge for a single aim :)

So the plan is too Find the right Film short now this could take a while so I plan too look very soon, I have a few leads, my girlfriend who is a sculpture who also does animations, the BBC archive, students at Abertay and or Staff at Abertay, failing that I can see if Taking a few minutes from a DVD I have is fine or sourcing it somewhere else.

Now beside that the film will totally dictate which sounds obviously I will be using so thats very open at the moment until I refine it jsut a little more, I will use the combined knowledge of my research to determine cues for each sound, score if possible, voice overs etc and any artisitc style to be used within.

I have planned what equipment and software I will use and have tested putting music only to an animation From Sara Jozavi Torkmorad from ECA using protools which worked fine you can see it HERE

I also earlier put up a test recording of ambience to remix and layer - like many sound effects are made by this technique - and creatd a wierd mechanical sound from the bus mainly. Bus engine sounds are fantastic :P this is the relink HERE for original track and HERE for remix

What I intend to do is do some more mixes from different sound sources and using the layering technique of analysing the noises source from a video ive long forgotten the name of but they depicted all the sounds in a punch to someones face ie.

scenario:

attacker punches victim in face,

attackers knuckles would creak slightly as would his arm bones which would move his arm and therfore clothes on it.

victim would have had hand impact his face so you dont get a sound for just the skin impact you need all the layers as if the fist was hitting each one and then "layer" them together. This creates an effective sound effect methodology used in the industry this specific example was in a game but thats luckily where sound can lapse with film.

So more next time :)

have a great day

Guide on making sound effects

Howdy

Some peopel have kindly listed how to make certain sound effects which I will take into consideration and possibly attempt if I have time :) - I have tried a few of them before for the NextLevelDundee game and Magicode-games ones. The link HERE

Have a great day

Midi music :D

Howdy

Heres a link to some renditions of some classic games tunes :) HERE always nice to see the visual behind it so gives composers a look at where all those sounds come from - still a puzzle but it helps :)

Fav so far is the megaman one :) (1:03 onwards :P to jump straight in - but its all good listen to them all :D) kind of inspiration for which i came up with the Aberplay theme tune trial which you can hear HERE

Have a great day

Musical stairs :)

Howdy

Heres a Link from an Online Piano Teacher I Follows Blog about musical stairs :D

Here have a look HERE :) what can you do to make the enviroment more fun ?

In fact Im looking at all their stuff now like the very deep bin :P have a look the guys are Thefuntheory.com :D

have a great day

Not all Audio

Howdy

Just poping up a few sketches I did to express soem creative desire :P

So started with basics - hands etc jsut drawing my left hand then onto like cartoon faces etc :) last one started as the shaft for the "arm" then turned into that :S enjoy

Have a great day

Work pace is sinking in

Howdy

Jamming in the keyboard atm on my proposal 4 parts done and references building up - not so bad once you get going.

Watched Daywatch today got some nice film shots and some nice use of sound like when the ballbearings out in the open hit a building - sounds like a fire cracker :P but works I think - few cop outs tho like the creaky hinged door on that black truck when the bikes came out, a way over-used sound effect.

Listening to the Composer of the Film "The Descent" 2005 to broaden my audio intake :)

Composed 2 songs for neon festival and got a mindset for magicode-games now too which should hopefully all come together soon once I get my timetable solidified.

Also working on some sketches to put some creative thinking to use some hand sketches, eyes, noses, mouths and a few facial expressions coupled with a little creature drawing and a random looking thing that belongs in Devil May Cry.

have a great day