Learning Journey Thoughts

So I've recently put together A learning Journey presentation and despite that it's pretty much a load of bullets points I found it really hard to think of prompts. The questions run quite deep and really get you to think about who and what you are as a creative practitioner and I guess I found it difficult because I don't feel i'm at a stage where I know for sure.

At this moment in time I'm unsure what to brand myself but I can recognise my skills and areas of interest which for me is a gods send because I have a clear route I can take. I think as a student I feel lost in a sense that everyone around me has a better idea of what they want and i'm still very unsure and it makes me feel quite unsettled. For most of my course it's been more of a journey of discovery and even now i'm still trying things out and trying to find an identity.

For a portfolio and showreel I don't feel I have anything that really represents me well as a creative practitioner therefore haven't put anything together. I think that it's really important for my work to show my interest and to reflect me as a person and i'm hoping to build up a body of work that fits those categories next year.

For improvements I feel there's a lot I could do to further help me with my college work. Basic things such as reading and writing would make so much of a difference because I find it really hard to do. I think for blogging I'm going to strongly consider doing vlogs next year because i'm a much better talker than I am a writer but at the same time I'm never going to be able to improve by avoiding the problem. Going toto more creative skills I really want to get more involved with the world of sound starting with research into software and terminology.

Overall I think i've still got a long way to go but I really am hoping to find my feet next year.

Eternal Sonata OST

I absolutely love this game and it deserves another replay. Again back to another title that my favourite composer has worked on. I adore the original sound tracks for this game. They're so emotional and moving~ This track is one of my favourites because there's a really noticeable journey it takes you on. It starts slow with some beautiful vocals and builds up into quite a dramatic piece. Every now and then it will drop out to a piano solo and those are my favourite parts. If you are familiar with Motoi Sakuraba's work you will notice that this OST in particular shares some similarities to that of Baten Kaitos.

As an aspiring sound designer, I'd really like to reach this kind of standard one day. I love the emotional journey that Sakuraba takes you on through all of his music and he is definitely one of my key inspirations.

Among the music composed for the game the story actually revolves around the musician Frederic Chopin so his music is also frequently played throughout the game. I really enjoy Chopin's music because i'm a big fan of the piano. I think classical music is something that should be more appreciated and I commend this game for creating a concept around such an inspirational musician. Lang Lang is another musician that I like that has the utmost appreciation for Chopin's music and brings it back to life in his own renditions.

Script Writer

Susan Everett is a script writer who came in to do a talk with us and share her experiences of the industry. The short film she showed us that was a real big hit in America was really impressive. I really enjoyed the story line and concept of the whole thing. It was based around adoption because she Susan being an adopted child herself was fascinated in the whole adoption precess. For this and many other areas of the movie she did a lot of primary research such as how to track down your real parents and how the letters get sorted in the postoffice. I think this goes to show how important research is because the more you understand about a certain are the better you can execute that in your own work whether I be writing or films. This was the main thing that I found interesting about what she had to share with us because as an individual, i'm not really interested in the writing side of things. I do however think that this point is a really helpful thing for all of us as fellow creatives. To replicate the real world through other mediums, you need to really know your stuff about whatever it is you want to talk about and through doing this course the fact reference is key is a reoccurring point.

Susan also mentioned how her journey wasn't very straight forward and sort of explained how it's okay to take a chance and try different things out because it's a natural process you take through life to discover who you are and what you enjoy doing. This was a comforting thing to hear because my journey in just my college years has been all over the place and I still don't feel as if i've found my place as a creative practitioner yet.

Audiosurf

Audio Surf is another game that demonstrates music that informs gameplay. It's a "music-adapting puzzle racer" where your own music library determines the level. The format is very similar to games like Guitar Hero where you collect coloured blocks that are triggered by the beats of the song. You collect them to rack up a high score and your music influences the speed of the level or highway.



These kind of interactive music games could be something I could cover in my dissertation next year so doing some research about them and seeing what's out there could be beneficial. I'm unsure if this is a solid area of interest yet but there are so many other things that I need to look into. I am intrigued about how they achieve the synchronization because it always seems to perfect.

Final thoughts

I've really enjoyed doing this brief because of the freedom it offered. I also found this module a lot more relaxing than some of the past projects I've worked on.

I found that using the audio samples gave me a good insight to arranging music but it also gave me a lot of restrictions because, I found it hard to find other audio samples that complimented each other. In the end I feel that this limited my creativity and it was hard to get a piece that fully showed the emotional journey I wanted to get across to my audience  I did get good feedback from my peers during the crit sessions though so I'm happy that I did manage to achieve some things I set out to.

Hopefully next year I will go on to create and capture my own samples. Because I didn't manage to do it this time, I really want to have a go at creating my own sound effects and building up a library. 

Tom's Tips for getting ahead of the digital industry

These are just some notes of some of the things that Tom Evans said during a talk he did with us about a week ago. A lot of it is very interesting and I added some of my own thoughts into the mix with these notes just to expand on some points.

No experience is bad experience.

Specialise. Easy to sell yourself if you can summaries your skills in a sentence.

More time to dedicate to your practice.

Diversity. Don't specialise TOO much. Other skills are still valuable and makes you more flexible in terms of jobs. Re-target your portfolio for different companies.

Don't expect to get a job instantly. Work experience and voluntary work is really important to help get your foot in the door. Making new contacts along the way is also important in order to get good references or possible be offered rare opportunities and work. Work experience also aids you in finding what kind of job suits you. Try a variety of different positions and companies.

Make an effort. You only get out what you put in. It's important to make a good impression, as your chances of a job offer is more likely.

Don't expect your first job to be glamourous. Everyone has to start somewhere and everything is learning curve. Take the first job as a test and show everyone what you can do. Remembering names of staff and taking on extra responsibilities gives off a good impression to the company.

Practice being fast. You need to be autonomous and be able to hold your own. Deadlines are extremely important to keep up with as well as the people you're working with. The more you push yourself the more you learn.

Keep learning. Just because you've got there doesn't mean you should stop learning. Be a sponge and learn from those around you by simply conversing and taking an interest in what others do. The better you know your field of work and the industry the more valuable you are as an asset to the company/team.

Think about what you want. Discover new roles and do research into what's available. Don't be afraid to take a step back and or try different things.

There are more roles than you know. Think about your strengths and weaknesses and this will help narrow down different job titles. Look into "user experience".

Learn to talk. You need to be able to communicate your ideas and share work with others.

Learn to write and know your audience. Before contacting an agency, research into that company and tailor your portfolio/showreel and email to that company. Talk about how you would be a great asset for the company.

Recruitment agencies. They can be effective but it's also difficult to know what they're saying on your behalf.

Be proactive. Do things in your own spare time because anything you do off your own back looks good in a portfolio.

Meet interesting people. The majority of job offers come from the people you've met through your travels.

Enjoy yourself and what you do. Find something you love and go for it. Anything is possible and the sky is the limit.

Concept art: Samien

So I talked to one of my peers a few weeks back about perhaps doing some concept art for me and she kindly accepted the job. With this in mind I wanted to get some stuff together so I could give her the best image of my character as possible so I created a Character Sheet that goes through, in detail, his personality, background and various other traits. I also did a quick sketch of my character because although I asked Sophie to do the official concept art for me I wanted to use one of my own designs because character design is another love of mine. 

This is the rough drawing I did for her. More than anything it's just the outfit design but, together with my character sheet all his other features are well explained.

[Insert my drawing]

I handed these over to Sophie and she kindly went away and drew this for me over the weekend. We were also in contact with each other over the phone discussing what poses I had in mind for the concept art. I did originally want to have just dynamic poses but I decided to go with the t-pose because, that makes him more accessible as a character in terms of transmedia. 

I'm really happy with the way she's executed my character. The glasses are a new feature she added as a finishing touch to reflect his personality in conjunction to what I had written. 

I'm glad that the colours gave her no problems because, I understand it's hard to find a digital alternative to the marker colours but they seem to have come out fine. The blue's are nicely blended together and the highlights have a nice glow about them. 

In terms of poses I really love his dynamic pose because it's just the way I envisioned him, with his face in a book. His expression also looks endearing and he has an approachable feel about him which fits in well with some of his traits. 

Big thanks to Sophie for doing my concept art~

Nier

After getting some feedback from the group tutorials, I was given a suggestion to create different versions of the same song to fit different scenes within the characters story. This is also something that came to mind when trying to inform my music using Joseph Campbell's Monomyth. However, this is something I found hard to apply to the theme I have already created because just using samples alone it would be hard to achieve a different emotion because I'm stuck in the same key and I found it difficult enough to achieve what I wanted due to the limitations of using pre-made audio. So, what I'm hoping to do is apply this to my work in the following year because I hope to create my own audio samples.

These tracks are some of my favourites from the Nier OST and they demonstrate how you can create different arrangements of the same song. They are obviously used in different stages of the story following two characters who are sisters. They both have different versions of the song of ancients in which they sing separately and then together. The song is definitely what I would class as their themes because it is, as mentioned previously, a re-occurring tune that plays at different stages of the game following the two characters.

Tales of Symphonia

Despite the fact I love this game as an entirety, for this post i'm going to be focussing on the character theme tunes.



Presea's theme tune tells a beautiful yet sad story which is the kind of thing I'm aiming for when I put together my own character theme. Presea's song is very soothing yet has very sad undertones to it. The song takes you on an emotional journey reflecting that of her own. The instruments used are beautifully arranged and harp carries a sense of beauty, sorrow and innocence which fits her character perfectly. The majority of the different elements that have been put into this tune are the kind of things that I want to aim for myself.

For my own theme tune I really want to take the audience on an emotional journey with hints of mystery and magic. All these elements suit both my character and the world in which he's grown up in a well as his own abilities and qualities.

Fruity Loops Studio

Fruity Loops, otherwise known as FL Studio, is a program that I've only just been introduced to and isn't the software I'm using to create my finished music piece. I am however dedicating some time to get to know the program because I'm really attracted to the work flow that you go through using this software. It seems very intricate program and I like the control you have in terms of inputting your own beats and such because it's easy to create something despite the lack of musical experience. 

I like to think I have some musicality being a singer but I'm finding it difficult to transfer that to inform my work. This is definitely something I'd like to carry on working with and hopefully be in a position to utilise everything I've learned over the summer for my third year as I am still interested in working with sound.

Partitura - Sonate for Viola Solo

Just another random thing I found quite interesting. Another audio responsive piece to a violin that was performed live so I imagine they used another real-time program to create the visuals on the spot. The composer was a famous hungarian by that goes by the name of György Ligeti. He formed a team with Quayola and abstract birds to create this divine piece. 

Not sure why I'm so fascinated with motion graphics at the moment but it's so hard to get bored of them. They're ever-changing an create some of the most beautiful shapes and displays that are bursting with colour. 

Soundtrack Pro

This is the first time I used soundtrack pro properly, because I did experiment with it before. I've become accustomed to the layout and where to find the necessary settings and tools.  In terms of features I really like the volume control you find by swivelling down the tabs on the tracks. It's a nice and easy way to have control over volume and fade-ins and fade-outs for each individual track. 

For this project I'm using audio samples instead of creating my own assets and for this reason I haven't fully explored the program. Prior to this, I'd like to experiment further with the program but as this is my adventure into sound design there are also other programs I could use. During the summer I plan to have a play around with FL Studio, Reason, Logic, Garage band and Soundtrack Pro. Next year I'd like to be at a stage where I have a designated program I use that suits the way I work and can deliver everything I'd want out of a music software. 

Symphony the game

I have to thank my sister for introducing this game to me. Symphony is basically a PC game that randomly generates unique levels based on the songs in your library. You basically battle through each levels as the music creates enemies and bosses which you must eliminate. 

The visuals are very eye-catching and beautiful in effects and colour. The gradual change in colour and the glowing effects look really influenced by the audio spectrum/equaliser which I think, is a nice touch. 

On their official website, they state that the two initial concepts for creating this game are... 

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"Your music creates the game"

"Every song has a unique emotion, sound and rhythm, and we wanted the gameplay to capture that as fully as possible. When your music gets intense or calmer, so does the gameplay. Enemies appear and shoot on the beat of the music. Some weapons are music-driven. Each song has its personality and it directly translates into gameplay."

"Replayability"

"In Symphony, each song in your collection not only becomes a unique level, but also provides you with an item you can equip and challenges you with score targets to reach. As you progress through the game, you unlock new difficulty levels, new items and abilities! This means you have many reasons to play your favorite song over and over."

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I think these concepts are really inspirational and it's always interesting to see what different elements are what anchors down different game companies, in this case, it's mainly focused on gameplay and user interaction. 

This game is a perfect example of music that informs gameplay and it's rather exciting to see just how it was executed. 

Looperman

Looperman is a great site that I discovered when searching for free audio samples. Looperman just requires a username and password and after that you get access to some great samples to use for your own compositions. Another great things about Looperman is that it has tutorials for various music softwares and you can also upload your own audio loops. I do plan to add some of my own loops onto their library to share with others, assuming I can get to grips with some of the software and create something half decent as i'm only a beginner.

Following on from that, I think as a beginner starting with samples is a good start because I've no experience in how to put together a composition and I just want to get use to arranging music because at this stage, I think going out and recording my own stuff is a bit much. I do however, want to maybe go down that route come my third year but, I've still to discover if I actually enjoy creating music first, or at least attempting to.

Joseph Campbell: Monomyth

Joseph Cambell's Monomyth, also known as the "Heroes Journey" is a cycle of events which is commonly found in stories across different kinds of media.

The Monomyth is broken down into different sections in which certain events take place, willingly or reluctantly forcing the protagonist to fulfil the cycle. These events consist of other characters who help drive the story of the protagonist and an array of events that take place, leaving an imprint on the protagonist. 

This is a diagram showing the cycle on the heroes journey. As mentioned previously, along this cycle are different characters (archetypes) which can trigger or represent the different roles and events that help shape the story and guide or attempt to throw the hero from this path. 

Putting this into perspective for my character who is the mentor, he would probably be introduced at the "Call to Adventure" because the mentor is a character who offers guidance to the hero therefore laying out the path of this journey he or she has to undertake. He could also appear as a "Helper" and join the hero on his journey. Also the mentor is usually accustomed to give the hero some kind of gift that will help him or her on their journey. 

With this in mind, I might try to incorporate some of these characteristics into my character theme tune because I really want it to be a good reflection of my character  Although not the hero, I do want a sense of progression in the composition to show his journey as an individual.

3D Soundclash

While looking into audio responsive stuff for my latest project I bumped into this cool Red Bull Music Academy event in which they used an application that generated real-time motion graphics. This software was then handed over to some motion graphics designers to create the works showcased on the video below.

The sound-reactive visuals span 5 screens in line with the immersive sound setup. 3D shapes rendered in realtime, animated textures and shaders, and mouse-controlled camera motion allowed for a huge range of styles and endless flights through an abstract universe. With the same tool Thomas Traum designed the title sequences to announce each artist in the Soundclash.



Just found this pretty interesting because it's a really neat and creative way to hold and event. I also like the idea of projecting work across several screens and could be something to keep in mind in terms of different ways to present work for exhibitions. Being surrounded like that seems like it brings everyone together and there's a sense of better appreciation, awareness and interaction with the work because they almost seem engulfed by it.

Sound Engineering and VFX

Recently had a group tutorial a few weeks back where we all got together in small groups to discuss where we're heading and things to consider in terms of work and our third year of college. There were several questions that were asked that really got me thinking about what direction I want to take and to think seriously about what I want in terms of working within the industry.

At this moment in time I'm not sure what I would give myself in terms of a title or summary of skills but I am at a stage where I can recognise my key interests which are Sound engineering, UV mapping and VFX.

Despite the fact I haven't done much VFX work I am interesting in learning After Effects on a more professional level and producing title sequences and maybe motion graphics.

For sound I've yet to do a project that gives me a good opportunity to work with sound and with the upcoming responsive brief, I plan to do just that.

Also in terms of work I don't like the idea of freelancing because, for the kind of life I want to lead, I want a reliable and regular source of income and freelancing is very touch and go. I also don't see myself working as an individual. I'm very much a team member and like a sense of direction and control that would come from up high in a company. I'm also a fast learner and good at taking instruction which fits the outline of working for a company. Because of this, I'd sell myself as a team member and not an individual and talk about what benefits I would bring to a company if they considered hiring me. Despite the fact I prefer working as a team I would still highlight that I am able to work autonomously.

Overall, the group discussion really helped bring certain qualities I have to my attention and how I can go about using those skills to my advantage.