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- SOUND AND ACITON -
introduction
In this module the main goal is the exploration of environment audio, developing skills for presenting the best work created throughout the years of studying Game Design and Animation and Dynamic Audio implementing.
The main point of focusing is the audio part as we have been learning in depth about the virtual reality, visualisation, 3D space and believable model creating. The three main exercises are - Exercise 1 - Environment Audio; Exersice 2 - Show-Reel; Exercise 3 - Dynamic Audio.
The Exersice I will be focusing on:
I will focus and expand Exercise 2 - Show-Reel because I feel this is my strongest development. I have been working on improving my skills and constantly learning 3D Software and Composition Software.
As an artist and photography hobbyist, I have a strong connection with video editing and it has always been something I am putting a lot of attention in detail, as I think the more attention to the small details and polishing a person is having, the better the outcome.
- EXERCISE 3 -
DYNAMIC AUDIO
Introduction to the Game Project
To begin with, this is the third exercise for the Module itself. This time the task is to work with a suitable audio software that helps designing sounds for games and their levels - it is called FMOD. It is completely free and for the purpose, to work with Unreal it needs to be integrated with it, a project from FMOD to be linked with Unreal Project. I will be using FMOD for basic designing of sounds and put them in an Open World level in Unreal Engine to demostrate that I am capable of doing it.
To be honest, I feel not really confident with sound design and working with sound in general, that is why I will be using the open world nature example level that I took from the Unreal Engine Marketplace for free and will try to recreate the basic sounds of nature, water, footsteps, climbing and more additional things. As I said, I have never worked with FMOD but I am really curious to see if I can play around and create something cool inside a level because this will help me a lot in the future with my Unreal Projects and simulations.
The Unreal Marketplace Environmental Pack:
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Overview of the Pack
The first thing I did was to import the pack in the Dynamic Audio Project in Unreal Engine and to open the Open World example map, and press play. The Environment itself looks incredible and realistic, it is one big forest that helped me a lot to identify that kind of sound I actually need in this level. There is a space with a lake, so it will be preferable to have sound of water and walking in water because of the environment. On the other hand, the world is sunny, the weather gives good vibe, that means I can put whitenoice ( an ambient sound) of birds and nature in general, little wind maybe. While walking around, I saw that there are big bolder rocks that the player can climb, which is great, I fan put some climbing sounds and while the player is walking on rocks, it can have other walking sound that is different from the ordinary and the watery one.
I think it is best to keep this simple because I can focus on the details more and create this level for exploration rather than real gameplay. Again, we are working with Unreal Engine 4.26.2 and have integrated plugin inside Unreal for FMOD. When we work on the sound project in FMOD, everything will be automatically transferred in a folder inside the Unreal Project.
Recording of the environmental area I will be working on:
Sound Research and Ideas
I had some nature sound effects from the Environmental Audio Exersice, so I creaded a folder on my PC and added them, all they are wav files, so it is fine. After I went through the level, I made a note with the sounds I need for this level. They are birds, nature sound surrounding, running water, calm water, footsteps in water, slimbing sounds, ordinary footsteps in forest.
I researched for sounds in Freesound - Freesound (freesounds.org)
I also looked at some YouTube videos that can give me tips about my project:
Also, I used ambient realxig background music by the artist Punch Deck called ''Ethereal'', you can find here:
The sounds I chose for implementing in the level ( two of them are too big and cannot be uploaded):
water lakeArtist Name
00:00 / 00:23
footstep in waterArtist Name
00:00 / 00:01
whitenoise waterArtist Name
00:00 / 00:36
whitenoise wind 2Artist Name
00:00 / 00:32
walking in grassArtist Name
00:00 / 00:08
whitenoise windArtist Name
00:00 / 01:20
men walkingArtist Name
00:00 / 00:42
ambient forest windArtist Name
00:00 / 00:55
489946__falcospizaetus__slowstepsonrock03Artist Name
00:00 / 00:10
FMOD
To begin with, I created a project in FMOD and integrated it with Unreal Engine 4 project, so both projects are linked and the information and material from FMOD to be automatically transferred in the Unreal Engine 4. As FMOD is bein installed correctly, in Unreal Engine we can clearly see there are indicators for it as it is an installed Plugin. The output format of my project is standard in both Unreal and FMOD.
Environmental sounds and Components (creating a multitrack ambience sound)
I started with, opening the Audio bin where I put all the sound material I needed. Then I created a folder in the Event graph called - Environment. There inside I created 2 new 2D events and 1 3D event (Twister Lake) for the environmental audio - Ambience, Prologue theme song and Twister Lake ( Ambience for the whole nature 2D surrounding sound, Twister Lake for the lake and Ambient track that is going to be playing with the Ambience). After that, I assigned them to the master bank because they will load in Unreal this way after building.
The Ambience I created an Audio Track and imported the file, then I created a new loop region to repeat the track and then created extra track called Wind Accents Birds and another track called Water. Both of them I created as Scatter Sounds and put all of them to be eaqual at duration play time. Then I added event Sound and created fade in and fade out with the help of Automation and with the help rig curves I did it. We can control all of this in the Ambient track too. Then in the Ambient sound I worked with the intervals of scatter and interval distances and work with timing. The min distance was 50 m and maximum was 200 m. And selected the scatter sound and applied the same max and min. It triggers more than one instances at a time. Then I saved and build the project and opened Unreal. The material from FMOD was in a folder in Unreal, so I randomly drag and dropped it inside the viewport and when I pressed Play, it sounded very well.
Video:
Screenshots:
Twister Lake
After creating the 3D Twister Lake Event and linked it to the bank - Masters, I imported the sound material in the slide and named it Lake Sound. Created a looping region and opened the 3D Pan settings. I set the min distance as 25 and max 90 m, this way when the player is near the lake it will hear a 3D surrounding sound and when goes away, it is fading away. Also, it can be heard in one ear depending on which side of the character it is at the moment, if the character is facing the lake, it will hear with both ears, that is why it is good to play with headphones. I dragged and dropped the event inside Unreal on the top of the lake and when I pressed play, I could hear the difference when the player is coming and going away from the lake.
Screenshots:
#
Theme Ambient Track
I created new 2D event in the same Environment folder and imported from the Audiobit the track I wanted inside. After linking with the bank - master, I created a loop and trimmed a bit the track to sound good while transitioning from end to begining again. I adjusted the volume a little and saved, built it. Then I drag and droped it in the world aqgain and it sounded very well with the ambience.
Screenshots:
Tree wind
I created again, audio track for the Tree wind as a 3D event and linked it with the Bank - Master Layer. I uploaded the track inside and then created a loop as I trimmed a little from the beginning and the end of the track. The volume is not a high, jsut when the player is near a tree to be able to hear leafs and wind.
Footsteps Terrain Audio Switch Trigger Volumes
First, I created a folder in FMOD called Footsteps for Character and inside I created 3 Audio Events for Grass Walk, Water Walk, Rock walk, all of them 3D events and linked them to the bank - Master Layer. Then I added Parameter with min 0 and Max 3 (User Parameter). Then, I uploaded all the 3 foot sounds each on it's timeline and the first started a 0, the second at 1 and the third at 2.
Unreal Engine
I opened the tab of the Character in Unreal and there I worked with blueprinting for assigning the footsteps. I created a variable called Terrain then made it be visible and put in in Integer type, saved and compiled. Then opened the Animation tab of the character and opened Third Person Run. Simply tracked where each foot is stepping and assigned new notify. for both legs. Opened blueprints and assigned AnimNotify_Footstep and linked it to ThirdPersonCharacter. To be honest I simply used blueprinting to assign the sound with the legs of the animation for the triggerbox. Then opened the viewport and drag and dropped Trigger Volume for the 3 terrains and ordered them by renaming them and putting them in Folder in the Outliner. I added event for each trigger volume - OnActorBeginOverlap (Concrete). Simply used blueprinting for each trigger volume box and assigned the sound and told the engine which sound is first, second and third from FMOD. Then compiled and saved, I was done. This tutorial video helped me a lot:
Screenshots:
Video recording:
Recording and Premiere Pro Editing
When I finished with FMOD, I rendered 2 introduction scenes of the environment and recorded my screen with OBS. I recorded material of the gameplay with full audio. Then, created a Premiere Pro Project and put all the material inside. I created simple introduction scenes with captions and the Unreal Engine 4 logo. Then, to make it more interesting, I cut thruogh the recording and made little video sections with captions about each sound detail (and captions explaining it), added some video and created final shot with Thank You For Watching. It was a simple edit as I wanted, that showed all the work I did.
FINAL DYNAMIC AUDIO VIDEO
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