Tuesday 17 November 2009

It Happens Slowly At First...

You forget to make one post and it snowballs. So we've a bit of catching up to do here.

First of all, after the last post, a number of things have happened, both good and bad. the bad first, as always...

The Master's project is out the window. I don't have the time to work on a library this semester, or the academic backing to follow it through. With the size of the teams changing for each of the games involved in the project, a comparativve analysis would be next to impossible, and certainly not feasible to continue working on.

So we're moving on then. A couple of week in the lurch without knowing what was going on or where I could take this already failing year.

Along comes a saviour.

Joe Lyske, the man with the plan.

Our new part-time lecturer, Joe, who lead my crit session last week revealed an astounding revelation to all present. He play's Wow. And he's pretty good at it too, from what I could gather. So, after the obligatory chat about servers and classes and specs, we managed to get back on track and my project became clear as day. now, I'm going to be using WoW as a staging ground for a number of tests with LUA-based Add On programs to test how interactive audio can be better used in the game environment, and how Interactive audio differes from Adaptive audio in this state.

All this was dumped into a 10-page document, which is also posted on this blog, above. We figured it out on Tuesday, I handed it in on Thursday. My next post will update on what i'm doing in regards to the response I receive. As it stands, however, I amd working on my ethical approval, which means working out what I'm going to do in way of testing and analysis. more to come.

Sunday 8 November 2009

The Wheel's Always Turning

And you'd think that'd only matter to the people on the Rim. But, no.

Do me a favour, before you read this post, go back a few pages and read the earliest dates on each year. Bet it'll say something like "I really want to work hard this year." Then, there's generally a 4 month gap until the next post, which will say "Oops, didn't work for 4 months!" or thereabouts. What a surprise.

Oh well. Would you look at that, it's panic stations again, with weeks 1-7 flying by me, and we're 2/3rds of the way through the first semester. I have a crit session on Tuesday and a paper to hand in on Thursday, neither of which I'm prepared for (or even started to work on). I do, however, have on elife line. Though I've not read any of them, I've built up a collection of journals and articles on sound design in its many fashions that I'm interested in (the grammer there is awful, but I'm tired so deal with it), so at least I'll have something to go on when I do, eventually, get my finger out of my latest slide into lethargy and get on with it.

I do have a few ideas though for a change. More on them tomorrow though, and an update on the third year I'm 'mentoring' and what that even means too.

Thursday 24 September 2009

Wait... what?

It's that time again? Already? I thought I had a summer holiday or something, but apparently not. Here I am, once again, sitting in Whitespace and ready to rock. Only this time, it's bigger, it's badder and it's... well. It's 4th year.

Ah.

Good news though. I actually want to do this for a change. Why? Because it's all my work, not some buggering great load of work given to me by someone else to fill in the gaps and connect the dots. Nah, this time it's all me. Well, most of it.

Although there are 5 modules this year, there is only one target - the Dissertation and Honours Artefact. I love that; artefact. I feel like a digital archaeologist. Anyway, at the end of this year, I’ll have a big ol’ document full of information and awesomesauce, as well as my physical object (which isn’t really physical, it’s digital, but it’s… well you get it in the form of my soundtrack or sound library or whatever. Still some tweaks to do on that.

Narrowed my question down to two phrases now;

[i]to determine how traditional narrative devices in film sound can enhance gameplay.[/i]

[i]to determine ways in which film sound design techniques can enhance/help in the creation of ‘cinematic’ games.[/i]

Bits and pieces of these questions are both nice, but I don’t like the language I’ve used. It’s supposed to be technical and academic, but it just seems stuffy. So, here goes; I’m going to re-write it now and run with it until someone comes along and changes it for me.

[i]The aim of this project is to determine ways in which film sound design techniques can be used to enhance the game sound process.[/i]

Urgh. Still not really happy with that, but hell, I’ll throw it at a lecturer next week and get it set it stone by next Wednesday.

The practical application of this, the evidence, will be in the form of a game score and sound library which I will be producing for 3 game prototypes. I’m working with a couple of Master’s students on this, so it’ll be great fun, a massive learning curve, not to mention a real incentive to work hard for a change. I find it so much easier when I’m working to someone else’s deadlines and schedule.

The first game, due for Christmas, is going to be a point-and-click game, such as Monkey Island, Professor Layton etc. and will be in the form of steampunk. I cannot express to you how excited I am at the prospect of writing music to fit a steampunk world. Not to mention all the sound effects, the steam pistons, explosions and backfire’s. It’ll be great. Hard, but great. So enough of this chat. It’s time to research!

Next update on Monday, along with a music review of the new Muse album, ‘The Resistance.’

M_x

Monday 23 March 2009

For the Sweet love of the Gods.

REJOICE! For it has come to pass.

Battlestar Galactica has finally finished.

Now for most, this would be a very sad event and, trust me, I've shed a good few tears in the past 24 hours over it but in retrospect, this raging ball of awesomeness could not have ended in a better fashion. Going out with a bang? You'd better believe it!

I'm not going to go into detail over the HOUR AND A HALF of epicness (episodes are usually 40 minutes long, and cram packed full of action and this was the final ever episode; you do the math) partly because it'd take me the better part of a week to collate my thoughts on the whole thing and partly because it'd take the rest of the week to write the review. Between the penultimate and final episodes they released a behind-the-scenes special on the journey that the production team, the actors and the audience have all gone on together, and there was one thing the writer/creator/god of the show said in there that struck me.

He said that in twenty years time, if the show holds up (which it will, there is no argument), people will understand it better than we do now. Now, this sounds a bit silly really; how can someone who wasn't there at the time know more about the show than I can, having watched religiously from the beginning?

I shall tell you a tale of woe in order to answer this. As with all great finale's, BSG sacrificed a number of main characters whom we loved like our own families. One of these characters has been dying for the better part of the last 2 seasons, of cancer. We knew it was coming, we knew she was going to die and we knew it was this episode that it would happen in. What we didn't know is that, due to the relationship we had built up with the character and when the moment finally came in the closing minutes of the show, it felt like someone you and known personally and very well had died, not just a fictional creation.

This hit home very, very hard.

Sitting watching this moment unfold, I suddenly found my face become very hot and uncomfortable and, would you believe it, I started crying. And not crying like the weeping tears you get when something very sad happens. I mean all out streaming, burning rivers of the shit, roaring their salty way down my cheeks. When the credits rolled and the episode finished, all that was left was the silence of the empty room and the quiet humming of the laptop.

Ten minutes passed.

Then I understood what Ronald D. Moore had meant when he said we wouldn't understand the show as well as someone in the future would. Because most of us would just turn it off and look for something new. I found myself meditating on the whole episode, the whole series, the whole godsdamned show and, for ten glorious minutes, I felt that connection to a universe that didn't exist.

But it does exist. And it will live on forever as one of the classic, untouchable, incomparable moments in television history.

And that's all I have to say.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Catching Up

Right, so as the last post pointed out, I'm written bugger all here for quite some time and, though that doesn't mean I've done nothing, it does mean that I've forgotted to document my progress. So here's a nice little list of everything I've done up 'til now, with dates and bells.

Well. Not bells. This is HTML. It can't have bells.

Shame though.





DING-A-LING-A-LING-A-... okay fair enough.


Ignore the bold type; it's to let me know what module I worked on easilly so I can write up my essays at the end of the year. Which is horrifyingly close.

12/1/09
Interactive Audio details are handed out, groups are made and we set about straining our tiny minds to come up with something that is both fun and passable as a radio show. We fail. This changes in about 3 weeks or so.

15/1/09
Audio Production Methods work starts. Wrote a bunch of notes on a lecture, first (and last) academic research I did all year up 'til today's date.

27/1/09
First of three Drama meeting with Kenny's group in the studio live room. Felt like a gas chamber. Came up with some neat new things to add to the story. In retrospect, this should actaully be finished now, it's not a lot of work and I'm weeks ahead of the rest of my year on this one, seeing as i seem to be one of about 5 people in the course who can read and did actually write the script in the format it was supposed to be in. Some guy just wrote an essay...

3/2/09
Pitch. Was late to this by a whole day, because I didn't read the email. That'll teach me for being presumptious. Still, walked through it again, thanks to my lecturuer being the ever patient and fairly awsome Karl Da Silva (you can tell how awesome he is, just by the name. it has a 'Da' in it. That's ace). Came up with a new question because, and I quote...

"I couldn't find enough research material on both game and film sound design to make a proper project on their differences." Myk Mulreany, February 2009.

Translation.

"I played Warcraft."

Started working on the Production Methods coursework, but really just filled a page with nonsense. Worked on this later in the semester and actually got results.

9/2/09
Started a new appraoch to working. Daily targets. I work better to these, and managed to catch up on quite a lot of work this year by doing just that. Built my Project essay structure and wrote my introduction quite by accident. Guess I still have some sort of flair left in me. Finished the radio proposal document for Interactive Audio.

10/2/09
Wrote the play's ending.

Then scrapped it.

This happened 3 times at least.

11/2/09
Sat and read some Project books. Not a lot done today.

16/2/09
Started to work on Production Methods animation and cue sheets, but Kenny told me to do the tutorial he had planned.

Oh yeah, this is pretty funny. I was working on this on the 3rd floor. Kenny came over and told people around me to clear out as he had a class. Just as I started to clear up he sat next to me and asked how I was getting on.

Turned out it was my class. I turned up to a tutorial by accident.

19/2/09
Got in touch with my voice actors and organised a preliminary reading. Wrote out the Interactive Audio script and booked the recording studio for the next Monday, in order to do some foley work for that accidental tutorial.

20/2/09
Meeting with Karl about the Project work. He's asked me to be more specific with my question, as the current phrasing was big enough to be a PHD proposal. So I narrowed it down to "sound effects" from "sound design" and to "FPS (First Person Shooter) games" from "games." That seemed to work well.

23/2/09
Met with Karl again to check the details of the Project. He's happy with it. Went into the audio studio and started foley work on the tutorial for Production Methods. Got half an hour of recordings to cut and edit now. Good though.

24/2/09
Drama meeting and Project research. Nothing fancy.

2/3/09
Crit. Same as pitch, only I showed up on time this time. Worked out what I'm going to get done for next week. So everything should be in hand.

3/3/09
Wrote a lot down to do today. Didn't actually do any of it. Can't remember why.

Oh, just checked. I wrote that the other day to do yesterday. So that's today's work. Cool.

4/3/09
Today. Wrote this... Uh...

Right, better do some work then, so I can write about it later I guess. Going to double check the Interactive Audio script, and then write out a schedule for Drama over the next 4 weeks. Also found out the exact dates for hand in. Need to email Kenny to find out about Interactive Audio - never did get a coursework sheet for that.

Hand In Dates
Int. sound - 1st April, hand in all documentation and recorded show.
Drama - 3rd April, hand in casting and rehearsal notes. 17th April, hand in production notes, critical evaluation and recorded performance.
Project - 3rd April, hand in practical piece, 29th April, hand in essay.
Prod. methods - 17th april, hand in animation with full soundtrack and written treatment of appraoch. Oh yeah, and a 4 PAGE ESSAY ON HOW ACOUSMATIC SOUND CAN BE USED AS A FILMIC TOOL WITH FULL RESEARCH DOCUMENTS. Fuck's sake.


My nicotine patch is itching. I've giving up smoking once and for all. 3rd attempt in 2 years, but the first time I've really meant it and been to see the Doctor etc.

Friday 20 February 2009

Back Attack

I miss my blog. It's like a wee home, all cosy and warm and unoccupied by strangers. So after the long and tiresome year that was 2nd year, I totally forgot I had this junkheap kicking about in the dark, unlit, endless corridors of the internet. Just happened to open the right door today and bam! Here we are.

Half way through the year already and I've not got a lot to say. Last semester was a joke, seeing as Wrath of the Lich King hit the stores and I spent a good 30 hours week on it at the very minimum. Got two (count 'em; TWO) characters to 80, one from 70 and one from 48. Also dragged a few mates in for the ride and leveled a paladin from 38 to 70 and a druid from 1 to 46. That's a lot of game time. So last semester was just that; gaming and then a two week panic attack at the end. Still managed to drag an A out of the pile though, so methinks I made a good decision, for a change, in coming on this course.

This semester has been different however. Now I've hit endgame with 2 characters, all that's left is to actually play the fun part of the game (would you believe a game is only fun when you've finished it?) and that means I can focus my attention on the work during the day-lit hours.

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot.

I went 4 weeks of last semester with my waking hours from 5pm-9am. I didn't see the Sun for 4 weeks. That kinda hit my health a little.

4 modules this year;

-Sound and Music for Interactive Media
I get to work with a group of 6 to write, monitor and record a live-to-air 10 minute radio show. I'm the desk monkey for this one, as well as script editor. So I rock. Weekly meetings on Fridays at 10am, with a few no-shows, which is kind of pissing me off. Ah well.

-Audio Production Techniques
Kenny's module, in which we get an animation stripped of sound and have to recreate it useing the production techniques we learn this year. Pretty good fun, making serious headway on the tutorials so far.

-Drama Production for Radio
Another of Kenny's modules, but with no classes this semester. Thrice-weekly (that's once every three weeks, not three times a week) meetings with Kenny to check on progress from last semester. Again, making headway, actors on board, need a few additional voices and rehearsals to start next week.

-Personal Project
The big one. Karl is my supervisor for this, which I'm well chuffed with; the guy's a hero. I'm studying the immersive effects of sound design and music in first-person-shooter games. Sounds great. It's pretty cool, but it's really just filler to lead up to next year's Honours Project, which will be a more in-depth version of this.

That's the update. I'll probably forget about this again, but no doubt Searra will kick me around a bit 'till I update seeing as she made me come on to do this. Damn you.

Yeah you.


Peace.x

Tuesday 18 March 2008

Booooriiiiing

Animation’s nearly finished. It just needs colouring, a little touching up around the keyframes and sound effects and then we’re done. Character sheet just needs created and that’ll take all of an hour to do. Should have this finished inside of a day.

3D is for Thursday. Lots to do for it.

For audio, I need to sit and watch the film I’m reviewing and I was hoping to have company, but no one was available, so I’ll be doing it alone. As usual.

Not a lot to say today.