AmbientSoundLoop: Experimental Recordings

I recorded these audio files with my phone while going home from North London.

PosterDesign Assignment – Task 4: Evaluation

So today i will be talking about what processes i went through while making my final posters and the drafts. When we first got the assignment i thought of a simple poster which would probably be some low detail building which would make the poster simplistic but appealing. But after some time i decided to go with a proper building which was the “Burj al Arab” building which is a hotel in Saudi Arabia, i’ve chosen this building for my final poster because it had nice simplistic shapes and complex construction which took more time to make than other more simple building would have taken to do. The programs i used to make the Final poster and the two alternatives was Photoshop and of course an internet browser “Google Chrome” for research of the existing buildings, I found quite a lot of overcomplicated buildings that were too hard to draw, but i’ve also found some more simple but nice looking architectures which i’ve draw as drafts for my 3 A3 size sheets that i needed for the assignment. The sketching was a bit harder than working with computer programs to make the images and posters but, i’ve used a HB and B pencils to highlight some small complicated areas and also draw the whole contour as well. While making the decision on which building to use for final i have chosen a lot of other buildings as i thought they would have make a good final poster. But as i’ve made my final decision i started creating it. I took the original picture of the building, i scaled it up so that it fits nicely into the A3 page, i then started creating folders for what i will be making, so i can find a layer which i need to change easily which is very important in projects like these because if for example i would be working for a company and they would like to change anything, because i did group everything i will quickly and easily find it. So after i did that i started marking areas with “Polygonal Lasso Tool” and i used it through the most of the project because it it a very handy tool as you can create a vast variety of shapes which includes circles but you need to do quite a lot of closely placed polygons and it would take much more time than simply using a shape tool. But there is of course some situations where you need it and it helps a lot. So it took long time to make all those layers as i needed to draw out every shadow and every piece of the structure which is tedious job. But after all i finished it and the time has come to choose the background. I’ve chosen that colour pallet because it represents the summer/beach mood the best as it is warm colours and it blends nicely with the colours of the building which makes the nice image in total. The sea colour i’ve chosen i a gradient and i made it darker at the top as it make you feel like its getting darker as it getting further and deeper and it gives the impression of deep sea. And the fonts that i’ve chosen add up to summer theme because it is bold and look really nice with the building above it. I also experimented with different fonts as i used a font on the numbers that was different to the one used in the letters.

Sound in Existing Games – Research

Okay, so for the game that i will be analyzing I’ve chosen Alien: Isolation, as it is by far, on of my most favorite games as it is very scary because of it’s atmosphere and the Alien AI which makes it very unpredictable, and of course the sound. SoundTracks and SoundEffects were highly rated because the sound was very high quality. Another thing is that if there wouldn’t have been good sound the game would have been ten times worse. So the audio was actually made as 3D sound, because as you were in space where “No one can hear you scream” and there is an alien which has a very interesting AI which makes the alien more dangerous as it is not just patrolling in the corridors and rooms, it’s actually looking for you and trying to kill you, the importance of the 3D sound in this game comes when you are hiding from the Alien, or these working Joe’s who are neutral at the beginning of the game but then they start killing everyone and so it gets scary. And so because of the 3D sound you’re able to accurately pin point where the alien is, or someone else is, and that way it might just saved you from getting eaten alive, and this is also very important because the game’s save system is not automatic and if you have went a very long way, you don’t want to start everything from the beginning just by mishearing where the alien is and just walking straight into it. As the alien is crawling in the vents and you can hear him crawling, the developers made it so that the alien is actually in the vents and when you hear him there. As you look at the developer view, you can see the alien wireframe in the vent above you and it really adds up to the effect of insecurity as you know that the alien isn’t gone, that he’s above you or even behind you. While talking about the alien, most of the sounds that he makes were taken from the original Alien movies as the developers had access to large database of 20th Century Fox: Alien movies, from which there is a lot of content in game itself, but because the original movie is so old, the developers of the game had to remake some of the sound and bring them to this age sound quality. So when the alien walked it sounded like a big robot, and it was actually made to sound like that because it was there to frighten you and to alert you if you’re about to be eaten as the alien only walks loudly when it can sense you and it starts running for you and also its loud when its running for other people people on the Sevastopol Station.  Sevastopol Space Station is where 4/5 action is happening, and the atmosphere of it is of course terrifying. When you go through the vents you can hear the ambience of crackling and something banging to the walls all the time, and because the Space Station is not being managed, it is slowly entering the gravitational field of Jupiter and because of that the sound of creaking is added to the ambience of the vents. And when you are in the vent, under a bed or a table, the developers made that when you are turning the main character arround for example when you’re crouching, you can hear the scrap and all the crafting materials just falling over each other because everything is just thrown into the backpack. So this adds another factor of awareness because if you don’t think that the sound of scrap won’t do anything wrong for you – You’re very wrong, it can attract the alien or even other people if they are near by. Also, when you’re crouching you can sometimes hear the jumpsuit pants shwiff, which makes you feel that the character you are controlling is alive and it is actually there, the main character (Amanda Ripley) also has has sneakers that squeak.  All these sound can be easily found in the vast majority of sound libraries that there is, but the sound developers wanted to make the game more original so because they didn’t find any good and applicable sounds for the game, they said “Why not make our own sounds? We have quit alot budget left as well”. And thats why the sound and squeaks and scraches sound so realistic up to the point where it makes the game very immersive. So, when you get out of those vents and wonder arround the rooms or stair  cases, you can sometimes hear a sound which is called “The Space Whale” And it is quite common sound. It was implemented into the game at the Main Menu when you just fire up the game and all through the game, the creators wanted to let the player know that they’re in for genuine “Alien” experience as this was authentic sound used in the Alien Film. And so when you walk down these corridors there is no such thing as dead silence as there will always be a humming in the background and from time to time you can hear something bang into the other side of the wall, and of course the creaking. As you play the game further, there will be moments where the whole space station will tremble for a moment, all the lights will go off for a moment. And there may be an alien behind you after that so it adds up to the terryfing atmosphere. There is also such things called “Fear Emmiters” which would be placed in various parts of the level and if you would to walk near it, the music would cross-fade into tension and if you moved away it would be less. Its often used technique in games as it is sometimes placed inside the enemies (As there was one inside the Monster of game called Amnesia and if it would walk near you, the screen would become blurry and the music would kick in). In this game if the alien walks near you, for example if you’re in a locker – Amanda’s breathing increases and you may even need to click a button to hold your breath because the alien sometimes suspects that you may be there and starts listen to the locker. And the last thig I wanted to talk about is the Motion Tracker, its actually a very unique and authentic thing to the Alien movies and adds up twice as much scariness to the game as you know that someone is coming, the sound of it turning on when you take it out reminds me of old TV’s that used to make simillar sound back in the day. The static interference is also a big thing as it makes you feel that the Motion Tracker is very old and it actually looks very old with that retro screen and side turn wheels.

All the audio is provided by Jody Macgregor