qiyizhao - Tumblr blog

[qiyizhao]

Weel 11

Reflection: This week, I spent most of my time adjusting the sound design of the animation and creating the electronic background music for the game. For the animation, I designed various forms of electronic music to create a horror atmosphere, based on C Major, with the piano sound as the core, designing different music melodies according to the scenes and actions of the animation.

For the game, after talking with Dezu, he hopes that I will spend more time on the sound design of the stop-motion animation. For the game, he only needs me to design four 3-minute electronic music pieces. The content of the electronic music needs to be rhythmically rich, so when he finishes designing the game, he can split the music content and put it where he wants.

Due to some difficulties encountered in the game part at present, the specific content cannot be completed, so Dezu hopes that I can help him design different background music. This not only provides him with music materials for the game, but also helps him gain more inspiration.

However, in terms of the current sound design for the animation, I am unclear about how to handle certain specific occasions, and there are some shortcomings in the placement and specific adjustment of the music. I think I should be able to get reliable insights from my classmates.

Research: Since I have basically completed the sound design for the animation, I've spent my research time on the creation of electronic music. I watched many interesting tutorial videos online to compare with the music I had already designed, to see where I might be lacking. After the investigation, I personally think that the two pieces of music I have already created don't have big issues in terms of melody and usability as game background music. However, I personally want to create some new music.

So, I purchased two video games, Katana ZERO and Cassette Beasts, both of which have pixelated components and excellent music design. I thought, if I spent some time playing them myself, it could help me think about how to design electronic game music from a player's perspective. This experience gave me a lot of inspiration.

Progress: After conducting the previous research, and personally going to Dezu's house to show him my production process, ideas, and some of the outcomes of material production, I was able to discuss with him face-to-face and find possible issues and areas that need to be modified. Also, we explored from different angles some thoughts and methods about the game background music and the sound design of the stop-motion animation. The work I have currently produced is close to completion, but I still hope to get insights from my classmates on Wednesday to consider directions for further improvement.

[qiyizhao]

Week 10

reflection

Reflection: Following the content of the professor's lecture in class, I believe that music that matches the visuals and can express emotions is very important. Therefore, I plan to focus on adjusting and designing the music this week. I will continue to adjust the two pieces of music that I designed last time. However, after repeatedly checking myself, I feel that the two pieces of music I designed might work well for the title, but as background music in the animation, it is too monotonous. If repeated, it can easily bore the audience and affect the viewing experience. I plan to read some books to understand the knowledge and some small tricks that should be known for the production of horror music.

Research

Books: 1. Terror tracks: Music, Sound and horror cinema

2. Music in the Horror Film: Listening to Fear

Movie：“The Shining”

In order to understand more about the creation and application of horror music, I went to the library and read these two books, and also watched the movie "The Shining". I think this movie's horror is primarily environmental, very close to the setting of Dezu's animation, and I can learn from its approach to music. Honestly, both books are a bit esoteric and difficult to understand for someone who has only done electronic music before - there's a lot of specialized vocabulary. But many of the perspectives in them have been very helpful to me.

According to "Music in the Horror Film: Listening to Fear," when we design music, we often do so based on music theory and common sense, but this doesn't work for horror music. In fact, creating horror music often involves discarding the music theory knowledge you've learned. In layman's terms, horror music tends to strive for strangeness, noise, and this kind of auditory perception. The more irrational a piece of horror music is, the more oppressive and tense the audience will feel. This kind of music is suitable for horror films. (Listening to Fear, p77)

Progress

After reading, I was given many ideas, and I decided to do some experiments on the music I designed. I made many adjustments to the pitch, modifying the scale while maintaining the use of C major. My goal was to try to design a creepy feeling of humming a nursery rhyme. After repeated experiments, I felt I achieved it. But this led to another problem: how to apply so many different pieces of music according to the screen reasonably. After a long time of thinking and trying, I cut the music into many parts and edited them into the animation. Although I managed to match the screen as much as possible, I feel like I've used some last-resort measures, and I can't think of a better idea at the moment. I plan to focus on the design and modification of dynamic sounds next week.

[qiyizhao]

Week 9

reflection

After last week's lecture, I've come to understand the key points of game music design and how to create 8-bit music. Having made adjustments, the background music design for the game is now progressing well. I want to ride this momentum and design the background music for Dezu's horror animation. This time, my main focus is on thinking about how to design horror background music and how to make it oppressive. I need to understand the rhythm of horror music, the instruments used, and how to utilize them effectively. Additionally, I need to figure out how to match the music with the story's pacing in the animation.

Research

Horror Musical Instrument - The Apprehension Engine - YouTube

Capturing The Emotion Of Fear In Orchestral Music - FL Studio 20 Tutorial - YouTube

Horror Gurdy & The Apprehension Engine - YouTube

I've searched for a lot of information online about what horror music is like. Some of it isn't tutorials, but it still gives me many ideas and suggestions. It also helps me understand what kind of horror music is more suitable for different situations. I even watched the movie "Coraline" because it shares a similar mild horror theme and stop-motion animation style. The music design in the movie is outstanding, and I think that to create great music, the music itself should have some dramatic and narrative qualities.

Progress

In the early stages, I must admit that my music design attempts were quite unsatisfactory. However, after discussing with Dezu and learning more about the animation's context, the intended atmosphere, and the background, I revised my approach to better convey a sense of repression and wandering dreams.

Currently, I have created two distinct music pieces for the animation. One is used for the creator's self-introduction, and the other is for the animation's title. I plan to repeatedly use one of these pieces when the protagonist wakes up throughout the animation, syncing the music's rhythm with the visuals. I am concerned about the challenges of achieving a seamless match between the music and the animation.

[qiyizhao]

Week 8

This week, I learned.

The main focus was on students giving presentations to describe their collaborative partners' works and the designs they are currently involved in. The presentations by my classmates allowed me to discover the unique features of various works, and how these different works vary in difficulty when it comes to designing sound and music. It also made me wonder how my designs would be different if I were to create works. The sound and music my classmates designed for these works were outstanding, giving me many ideas.

This week's design progress.

In fact, I didn't make much progress this week. The main reason is that both my collaborator and I have busy internships to do. However, there has been a significant improvement in design collaboration this week. After receiving feedback from Dezu on my music, I tried different sounds and various musical expression techniques. Through research, I found that the music in games changes in rhythm and form depending on the situation in the game. So, I looped some of the tense and exciting parts of my music and made some adjustments in amplitude. After letting Dezu listen to it, he thought it was much more suitable than before. I want to make some more adjustments and let Dezu test it in the game so that we can find out what needs improvement and make further adjustments. Currently, I still need to think about how to modify my music to give it an 8-bit feel.

[qiyizhao]

Week7

What I learned today

The professor told us about the points to pay attention to when working with partners, the possible problems we might encounter, and how to avoid any communication issues. Additionally, we discussed the potential pressures we may face in the future. To be honest, hearing what the professor had to say made me a bit nervous. After all, I'm currently working with friends, so I don't feel too much pressure. However, in the future, I might encounter various problems when working with strangers. But after hearing what the professor said, I now understand that communication is key to solving problems.

What I've done in the past two weeks

Since the partner hasn't completed enough game content for me to see, I've temporarily relied on my own design experience and the cyberpunk and street fighting background they've told me about. Through my imagination, I've created two pieces of music using LIVE. One is primarily for a nighttime environment, and the other is designed with a fast-paced combat feel.

Communication with the partner

Last weekend, I showed the partner the two pieces of music I've designed so far. Overall, they didn't particularly like it, and they couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong. They felt that the music style didn't quite match their game. However, after some thought, I think the issue might be with the choice of sound sources. I can make some adjustments. Dezu also completed a rough design of the game over the weekend and sent me the specific design details to help me find inspiration and design the sound. The current issue is that I need to think carefully about what changes I should make to the music design.

[qiyizhao]

Week6

The content I learned this week: Through watching the animations played by the professor, I understood their style of sound design and the choices made based on the scenes. While watching, I also thought about how I would design the sound differently if it were up to me. What choices would I make? Would it be better or worse than the movie's sound design, and what improvements should I make in my design approach? From the teacher's animation, I realized that I am lacking in capturing the key points of the visuals. If I were to design the sound, I always think of designing the sound for every action in the scene. However, doing so would make it messy and unable to focus on the key points of the visuals.

2. Discuss with the collaborator: Before starting the design, I need to understand the type of game my collaborator is working on. After discussing with Dezu, the game will have an urban street background, incorporating some cyberpunk elements, and will be an action game with some fighting elements in the gameplay. After understanding this information, I decide to first focus on designing the background music and the music for battle scenes.

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qPfH95ry84&t=296s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5TM-IXR5Tc&t=17s

Start designing: Before starting to design the music, I watched many YouTube videos to get inspiration, learning about the rhythm choices and creative thought processes of other designers. Sometimes, I come across interesting videos that, although not all of them are useful, have helped me a lot in enhancing my creative ideas. I decide to use "Bass" as the main sound type in my design, as it has a modern feel and, if well-designed, can create a mesmerizing atmosphere. I am currently using the key of C major for composing, and I have tried various rhythms and tones. This is the rhythm and sound I am using now, but more time is needed for further improvement and refinement.

[qiyizhao]

Today, I tried to design some modern-style game battle music and background music. During the creative process, I deleted many MIDI files that I currently feel are not suitable and reconsidered the creative context to modify my music. In this creation, I focused more on creating the excitement and rebellious mood of shopping at night, with a certain sense of danger at the same time. I spent a lot of time revising this piece. Music creation is actually very challenging, as I often come up with great-sounding music in my head but don't know how to present it during a live performance or get influenced by other melodies and sounds. I think the main reason is that my understanding and use of sound are not in place. I always feel that every sound is suitable, but in reality, not all are good choices. Each sound has a more appropriate usage and combination, but my lack of experience often makes it difficult for me to decide. Music I created：https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A9ADRglctbGsEf7meT-hxMgbtVPb6bjl/view?usp=sharing

[qiyizhao]

I've been diving into the world of creating game audio recently, and I've been trying to incorporate techniques used in electronic music production. I've discovered that it's actually more challenging than I initially thought, especially since many game soundtracks tend to be fast-paced.

I've been attempting to design music for a cyberpunk-themed game, but it's been quite difficult to achieve the desired effect. One of the key aspects I need to focus on is maintaining an engaging rhythm while ensuring that the music doesn't become repetitive or boring to the listener. Additionally, I've been trying to figure out how to convey a sense of mist or fog through the music, which has proven to be an interesting challenge.

I know that I still have a lot of practicing and learning to do, but I'm determined to improve my skills. Currently, I'm planning on seeking out game developers to collaborate with and create captivating background music for their games. If any of you have experience in this area or would like to share some advice, I would really appreciate it!

[qiyizhao]

This week, I mainly practiced environmental sounds and read related materials. After many actual tests, I found that the production of ambient sound was more difficult than I imagined, and I had to test it many times during production and pay careful attention to the details of the picture. If the ambient sound is not handled properly, it will not only lead to a bad viewing experience, but also turn the ambient sound into noise.

[qiyizhao]

Tried a few different editing ideas today. The video selected this time has a lot of action and every part feels amazing. This production is a challenge for me. It is also the first time I have integrated the sound of ableton live into the editing. In this editing, I mainly studied how to match the picture and music together. And learned what music represents emotions, and what is the hierarchy of sound. After repeated tests, I finally achieved the effect I wanted in my heart. I am very satisfied with the work this time, and it must not be perfect, but this learning experience is very helpful for me to participate in editing work in the future.