Futureworks Game & Interactive Audio Tutor

I am delighted to say that I have started a new role as a tutor at Futureworks!

As part of Futureworks’ school of Sound & Music, I am teaching the Interactive Mixing and Engines and Middleware 2 & 3 modules of the Game & Interactive Audio degree course.

It truly means a lot to me that I have been asked to be part of Futurework’s teaching staff and help guide new and upcoming sound designers through the course. I thoroughly enjoyed my time studying game audio at Futureworks as a student, so to be able to contribute to the learning experiences of current students as a module tutor is a big personal honour.

Futureworks Industry & Graduate Network Panel - Tuesday 23rd February

Delighted to say that I’ve been asked to be a part of the upcoming Futureworks Industry & Graduate panel, which is taking place on Tuesday 23rd February!⠀
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I really enjoyed my time studying at Futureworks (how time flies eh?) so it’s a big honour to get the chance to speak to current students about their projects. Hopefully I can pass on a few useful game audio tips and tricks here and there!⠀
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I’m also really looking forward to catching up with my fellow panellists to learn more about what sort of cool projects they’ve been working on recently, and to get a greater insight into their own unique creative journeys.

The Spooky Jar - Kirsten McDowell

Boo!

I recently finished up some sound design work for my good friend and environment artist Kirsten McDowell on her Spooky Jar project, so here’s a quick post now that the project’s wrapped.

The Spooky Jar is an environment art scene that Kirsten made for her final year honours project at Futureworks. The bar’s design is inspired by the The Whiskey Jar, a whiskey bar (who’d have guessed?) in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Unlike the Whiskey Jar however, The Spooky Jar is home to some cheeky ghosts and ghoulies who have come out to play, and presumably neck a few drinks along the way!

You can see the scene in full detail and get more info on the design process by heading over to Kirsten’s ArtStation page to check out the bar and its 3D-modelled props in all their glory. Plus, while you’re in a link-clicking mood, you should also follow her on Twitter too so you can keep up with the rest of her environment and game design work as well!

Here’s a flythrough video showcase of the scene:

I worked on the sound design for this video showcase, which was a lot of fun! The brief was to create a spooky yet cosy vibe for the piece through area (non-positional) and source (positional) ambience sounds.

Most of the sounds I designed were sourced from my sound effects library, but I did get chance to do some field recording for a few choice elements in the scene. For example, to record the ouija board glass movement sounds, I grabbed my trusty (but hissy) H4n recorder, a wooden chopping board and a nice, weighty glass tumbler and had a good ol’ scrape about! After chucking the recordings into Reaper and applying a bit of EQ and Brusfri to remove top-end hiss and room tone, I had this:

I also recorded this creaky, crackly book which I intended to try and use for some of the dusty paper menus and posters in the scene.

However, although these crunchy book sounds were cool, I felt they didn’t work too well with my audio direction for the scene, and that they sounded a bit too over the top and out of place for the I overall mood I was aiming for, so I took them out. Not to worry though - I’ll no doubt go back to this recording for the next project that needs some extra crunchy ice sound design I think!

As I was mixing my sounds to a linear piece of media, and not implementing them directly into the UE4 project, I decided to replicate the feel of the audio being played back by the game engine by keeping a lot of the positional source sounds (door creaks, neon sign buzzes etc.) mono. This way, I could pan them around the environment according to the position of the camera, to give the feel the player is actively moving around the scene in engine in real-time.

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Here’s a shot from my Reaper session where I’ve used track panning to position diegetic source sounds in the scene in relation to the position of the camera. In this sequence of shots (02:15 - 02:28) the camera gradually moves from left to right through the environment, so I positioned the creaks and closing sounds of the door in this shot according to where an in-game listener on the camera would likely pick them up.

Anyway, it’s coming up to closing time on this post, so thanks for having a look and listen to the sounds of The Spooky Jar - it was a short but sweet project that was great to work on! Stay safe out there folks! :)

Futureworks Graduation - 14/10/19

This week I attended the Futureworks graduation ceremony - the second part of my graduation process if you will! The UCLan graduation back in June was fantastic, exactly the sort of big, loud and fancy hat and gown affair you’d want from an academic institution at the culmination of your studies. However, it did feel a little strange celebrating on an alien campus that I’d never visited before, and a bit incomplete without the company of the diligent tutors who have helped guide me and my peers through our higher education journey.

Thankfully, those feelings of incompleteness were soon alleviated when this second graduation ceremony rolled around! The Futureworks graduation ceremony at the Royal Northern College of Music was more of a personal and homely event where me and my fellow graduates could catch up with our tutors and celebrate everyone’s hard work over the past three years.

Just typing that out last sentence feels really weird, can’t believe things have flown by that quickly! Time really does fly when you’re having fun and studying alongside awesome folks working on the coolest projects!

It was really fantastic to see all the various films, albums, animations and games my fellow students have produced during our time at Futureworks, and it felt great to celebrate their effort, grit and determination and see their hard work displayed up on the big cinema screen of the RNCM!

I was also incredibly honoured to be presented with an award for Best Student on the BSc Game & Interactive Audio course!

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My certificates and award for Best Student on the Game & Interactive Audio course! I was absolutely over the moon when I got called up to the stage to receive it!

Congratulations and all the best to the Futureworks class of ‘19!

UCLAN Graduation - 16/07/19

The big day has arrived. I’ve finally achieved my honours degree in Game and Interactive Audio!

Yesterday, I attended the UCLan graduation event in Preston, where after three years of hard work and study, I’m extremely pleased to say that I graduated from Futureworks and UCLan with a first-class honours degree. Get in!

My on-stage appearance is at 59:07!

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