Monday 17 March 2014

Game Art and Machinima: Audio Consideration

By Meg Sugden
When thinking about what audio we wanted to go with we has a lot of different options out there, but we wanted to look at the big and epic soundtracks that came with the large AAA games as we knew that we were getting our sound created for us by Tim (the same man who composed the sound for our last project as well). But in order for him to know what sound to create we had to look at some to get inspiration from and I went through a few and picked out some of my favourite ones that are all possible tracks that could be played over the top/ in the background of our video.

The Last of Us
The Last of Us uses a soundtrack which has almost a western tone to it in the beginning as it begins very slowly, during the scene where we learn about what is happening in the game world and this draws you in, creating a very soft atmosphere. But this is perhaps not the part of the music that we need to look at. What we want for music is a slow introduction like this but then building to something better as the Platypus finds out that his food has been stolen. So I went to the end of the soundtrack where the music begins to crescendo and get more powerful, especially as it enters the final scenes of the game, and around 53 minutes in the track becomes a bit more sinister, as if something is happening to the characters and this could definitely influence the idea that were going for. We want the music to sound similar to this, making the audience feel tense as they don't know what the Platypus is about to find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBQ8FBfhvsE 



Red Dead Redemption
Now similarly, Red Dead Redemption also has an interesting soundtrack and especially towards the beginning as it includes the tone of the music but then also a whistling over the top, as if it was a cowboy on a journey. Now in the beginning of our cut scene we introduce the character as I imagine this kind of music to be playing as the Wild West is not all that different from the Australian Outback. We want the music to almost convey the vast open spaces, which this piece of music does as every note, especially the whistling, has a slight echo after it, creating that illusion that there isn't hardly anything around. The music then turns a little bit more dramatic, as if to introduce a stand off; again something that we kind of want to include as we see the Platypus approach the Raccoon and appear to be about to start a fight. This music then continues with more of a Western theme that is a bit too Wild West for our liking but then opening could definitely be used as an influence as it peaks just at the right time and has that pause, which in our video, could be seen where the Platypus is sniffing around for clues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6tcs0_NAUI 


L.A Noire
I then took a slightly different approach by looking at the L.A Noire soundtrack. Now the reasoning behind this is due to the detective nature of the Platypus and the challenges that he has to go through to find out who has stolen the food. The music is very 1940s and sticks with a very film noir feel that could work for our video if it was given a slightly different theme and based upon the Outback instead with instead of the trumpets, more didgeridoos. But the music itself is very soft and would work well, especially as it starts off like this and then at around 7 minutes at the beginning of the track already builds up as if the player has found something, but this could be used as the Platypus finds the raccoon as the music builds and then absolutely cuts, as if the player has found everything they need to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbrhuUFjCII


Skyrim
The last music that I wanted to look at was Skyrim as this is just a beautiful piece of music and maybe doesn't seem like the likely choice to look at for this module. The track begins with shouting in a very tribal manner and then chanting begins. Something that may not fit but maybe if made into tribal noises from the family that the Platypus lives with or could be animal noises that are encouraging the Platypus along to find the food thief. But this may seem a little bit too dramatic and unnecessary for this type of cut scene. As the music progresses it does become a little quieter and more background music which I like as well, and something like this could be used in the background as we first meet the platypus and then as he is looking for clues later on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atM3ZhF8MVs 


Out of the four 'epic' music pieces that I looked at, it seems like the most obvious choice and the most relevant one to use would be the Red Dead Redemption one to take the most influence from. It seems to have the right kind of timing in the beginning and fits well with the overall theme even though they are worlds apart and not actually the right location, but this could be altered. At this time this is the piece that we want to send to Tim so that he can use this for influence, and we also will ask him to look at other Western's as they do still provide influence and then any films set in the outback, like Australia as that gives the Australian influence back into it.

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