identyties - Tumblr blog

[identyties]

Design Blog Week 1 and 2

Reflection: Overall I think this subject is going to be challenging for me. I want to do well and improve my sound design skill, but after looking at the others from the class and how proficient they are, it is just a high bar that I have to try to reach for. I know I don't have to compare my works to theirs, however I think their work is the standard that I should try to aspire and hold myself to. I know that I am not as good because I haven't had as long specifically working on music and sound design specifically, even had much less familiarity with programs that are 'easier' to use, which is why I am using reaper. As a specific reflection to my first project, I think it was an interesting idea to try something different, but I should stick to what I know in the more serene and dreamlike creations. The feedback I received was all mostly valid, even if I had tried the suggestions in previous iterations and didn't work that well. The big takeaway was that LOOK AT WHEN THINGS ARE DUE. Don't just think what you heard was what it was. Dummy. For the video I didn't do for this class and asked for feedback for, I believe it was also useful to understand others perspectives on it. I will admit it did hurt a little to see how many mistakes there were and were pointed out as I spent a lot of time on it, but thats just me needing to learn to take feedback better. There were a few takeaways from that I think I need to focus on. Not having a speaker setup is a detriment, however the ability to use the room next to where we are is something I will be strongly considering using just to mix speakers not headphones, as a lot of the nuance I had in this one was lost to bad mixing. The second is bring the overall volume up, I have a big habit of just making sure that I take the entire mix down in volume. I assume it is just because I am not confident in what I make ever, so the mixing just stay at negative 20 decibels by default. Research: For the technical research aspect, these weeks were spent looking into how to properly utilize my DAW of choice, Reaper. Specifically parts that I am not that familiar with. The main focus was on panning audio and I found out how to quite quickly through this informative video, however I never found anything that told me exactly how to dynamically change the pan throughout the song, so I will experiment and figure out how I will do it on my own.

As an extension of my technical research, for my Academic I also looked into an article by Francis Rumsey on how underutilized Binaural Audio is and how in these more modern times it is becoming more widespread and useful. The applications mentioned were interesting but I disagree with him on how 'little' it was used in the last 10 years. Plenty of different artists and creators were using it, they just weren't as prominent and flew under the radar.

Also my professional practice research I decided to look into creation of Foley this week. This article by Joanna Fang delves into how foley initially came to be and how it has evolved over time to be what it is today, an extension of sound design that makes sounds sound more like what we perceive that they sound like. After this I looked into surreal art pieces as that was what I was going to make my Gina Moore and then found this video which is surreal, but I found it more funny than anything and was curious why. I then found two articles by Giovanni Sabato and Alex Borgella on why we laugh, which I mostly found interesting, and informed how I made the project later, but neithers theoretical approach to comedy lined up with why I found the surrealist video funny. So I decided to use that same level of random = funny that I saw in the video and implement it into the flowing whippets I chose. Whatever came to mind I decided to make it first then see if it was funny second. Progress:

Through the multiple iterations of my Gina Moore, I realised that it was going to seem unfinished. Not because it was, but because that was what made me laugh in that research I did. In seeing things that were random or didn't make sense, I found humour, and so if I made something that seemed wrong like the whippets saying whippet, it would induce that same feeling. The multiple iterations of different words initially, then falling on just whippets, then balancing being able to hear what they are saying and just sounding like I did nothing, I don't think my final product hit that but it was an interesting trial to see how I would fare straying away from my usual style. I have been looking through new pads on Spitfire Labs and working on using the older ones I used for other projects in different ways so I could have a better repertoire for if I get approached by someone. If I do I hope I can try to provide a good piece for them, because I would like to do that, however I am acutely aware that my skill level isn't at what I need it to be, so if it doesn't work out then thats okay, I can just hone my own practice and improve. Bibliography: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osqf4oIK0E8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4ovPZpf6RM https://blog.prosoundeffects.com/the-other-f-word-what-is-foley-in-the-21st-century https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-so-funny-the-science-of-why-we-laugh/ https://theconversation.com/science-deconstructs-humor-what-makes-some-things-funny-64414

Rumsey, Francis. “Spatial Audio: Binaural Challenges.” Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 62.11 (2014): 798–802. Print. https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/?sortBy=prod_products_labs_latest

[identyties]

Week 1 and 2 Post

Reflection: Overall I think this subject is going to be challenging for me. I want to do well and improve my sound design skill, but after looking at the others from the class and how proficient they are, it is just a high bar that I have to try to reach for. I know I don't have to compare my works to theirs, however I think their work is the standard that I should try to aspire and hold myself to. I know that I am not as good because I haven't had as long specifically working on music and sound design specifically, even had much less familiarity with programs that are 'easier' to use, which is why I am using reaper. As a specific reflection to my first project, I think it was an interesting idea to try something different, but I should stick to what I know in the more serene and dreamlike creations. The feedback I received was all mostly valid, even if I had tried the suggestions in previous iterations and didn't work that well. The big takeaway was that LOOK AT WHEN THINGS ARE DUE. Don't just think what you heard was what it was. Dummy. For the video I didn't do for this class and asked for feedback for, I believe it was also useful to understand others perspectives on it. I will admit it did hurt a little to see how many mistakes there were and were pointed out as I spent a lot of time on it, but thats just me needing to learn to take feedback better. There were a few takeaways from that I think I need to focus on. Not having a speaker setup is a detriment, however the ability to use the room next to where we are is something I will be strongly considering using just to mix speakers not headphones, as a lot of the nuance I had in this one was lost to bad mixing. The second is bring the overall volume up, I have a big habit of just making sure that I take the entire mix down in volume. I assume it is just because I am not confident in what I make ever, so the mixing just stay at negative 20 decibels by default. Research: For the research of the For my professional practice research I decided to look into creation of Foley this week. Progress:

[identyties]

Design Blog 12

Reflection I showed off my progress with my studies and the main project at the time to get feedback on what I had done since the last session. What I showed was the water droplets with synth and the sunrise with both blur and the darkness reduced. I had my own suspicions confirmed and the water was too dark and moved too much. Over the past 12-13 weeks I struggled to make something I though truly embodied Serenity. Over and over I had an idea, tried to work on it and it didn't work, pictured below. Multiple nights where I didn't sleep to get the footage only for me to do multiple experiments on it but not work and have to get more. But I think it ended up being worth it, all of these "failures" were really just stepping stones. Even if I didn't do the final one that Shaun helped give the idea of, the end product I came up with was the combination of what I learned that didn't work from the others, and combine it into one that does with the last one. I'm actually quite proud of how it turned out despite other things happening during the semester that effected me in other ways, and I don't usually say I'm proud of my works.

Research Due to the feedback and help during the Tuesday session, I got to ask for assistance from Shaun Wilson. He suggested that I try to pick apart the good pieces of the footage and make it better as a whole by doing so. I looked into creation with after effects to not much success as my computer was struggling to handle the program and there wasn't much online I could find that was exactly what Shaun told me to do. (Also the image below was hard to understand exactly what he meant and what I was meant to search up to get help with it.)

Progress After all of the research I did on the techniques and how to use AfterEffects, I came up with something that I had an idea for weeks ago. Due to the time contraints and my lack of skill I couldn't make that final big project, but the one I did come up with I think still works really well for serene. I took the top half of my water footage that was sped up, masked out the clouds and the middle with a gaussian blur, and then flip and reversed it on the other side, creating an effect that just isn't exactly mirrored because the horison wasn't 50% in the middle it was 46%, so it just slightly looks different on each side, which actually boosts engagement without ruining the serenity. The sound was also something I wanted to do more with, as I have become much more proficient since I first started the course at making sounds and music, however due to the feedback I got in previous weeks I ended up only having one instrument and try and make it low key, relaxing, only syncing when the birds came across the screen with chords.

[identyties]

Design Blog 11

Reflection This week was a turning point for the project. Before this I was just trying to find one definitive project that exemplified serene. After showing what I had created in previous weeks I was told that I could submit them all but have one be the focus and the others be "studies" so I decided to do that! Research I looked into how I could create motion blur on the water, as one of the main bits of feedback was that it was just too active. The motion blur masks that I could put on, specifically the Gaussian blur. I was also told that the water droplets one should be a couple of octaves higher so I transposed it upwards and it seemed more pleasant. Progress

I tried different things with the footage like I was suggested to and stuff like trying to remove the blackness from the water and possibly blurring the entire water were ideas that were made as shown. I don't think they work all that well so I will be getting feedback and assistance next week to perfect.

[identyties]

Design Blog 10

Reflection This week was spent working on the projects rather than going in for feedback. I utilized the time it would have taken to go to and from uni better at home rather than spending hours on public transport to work at uni. Research After getting the footage from the previous week I tried to make it work in a serene way, and the footage itself was serene. However the problem was the timeframe the footage was in. Speeding the whole thing up required it to be over 1300% which made the water and everything on it was way too fast and took me out of the experience. I looked into keyframing specific parts to ramp or not, and tried to find ways to make the footage but it just didn't seem it would ever be serene. Even slowing down only the portion of the footage that was the direct sunrise was too much speed. I also wasn't happy with the alignment of the sunrise itself in the footage so I decided I would go back to my previous footage instead as there was less movement that could be used to take the audience away when sped up or at least try to. Progress

[identyties]

Design Blog 9

Reflection This week was rough on my mental health and sleep schedule. Much of what was done was re filming the last shots I got in previous weeks but better. They at least were better than previous works but was not sleeping 3 out of the 7 days worth it? Probably yeah. Research After filming these I experimented with speed ups, colour grading and creating music for them. I had to learn how to properly colour grade works to make them look like they were more natural, and make the sunsets look less intense but more aesthetic. I looked for and found different virtual instruments that I could use to make different types of experiences. Progress

I completed many different trials with the different footage and am not sure which works the best so when I next see others, I'll get their opinions.

[identyties]

Design Blog 8

Reflection

I came in and it was a conference meeting with the lecturers for feedback. I showed the Carlton Gardens footage and how certain parts were much more interesting and worthy of exploring and that was recommended to be the path forward. I got feedback on the wind idea and got given the idea of smaller handheld fans that could be placed on to the tables and hopefully would be much less loud, therefore more immersion and serenity. So I will be looking into that as a solution.

Research I decided to look into the idea I had came up with last week, the sunrise/sunset. I looked and found a location that was going to have a sunrise on top of a paddock nearby my house, then a tower a little further away I could get the sunset. After finding these places, I looked into how to make the exposure to direct light not fry my older camera and figured out how to film for extended periods of time.

Progress

These were a couple of the potential areas I took photos, the footage was difficult to get and was interesting. I initially filmed the sunrise incorrectly, and had to go back the next morning to get a more consistent shot. The footage turned out nicely but its not exactly what I wanted so I will see if I have to use that different idea.

When editing however the sunset itself looked nice when sped up, the over an hour turning into minutes, but the birds flying past kind of ruined it so I'd like some feedback on how I could fix it. An idea I had after the shots were taken was to go down to the beach bright and early and get the sunrise there on the pier as it would be even more immersive as the wind would act as the subtle sea breeze. But we will see how the others seem to enjoy my current footage.

Audio stuff will come later once I have fully decided on the specific parts that I have fully decided on, and the wind stuff will be experimented with multiple hand fans from officeworks to see if they will function better and have less noise emanating from them.

[identyties]

Design Blog 7

Reflection I was unfortunately unable to make it to one of the sessions but I was told it was again mostly self-directed work with a multitude of feedback that was able to be given off of a bunch of different trials.

The session I made it to however was one where I asked and was allowed to go film in the Carlton Gardens where I got some nice footage. Research Over the break I did my own research into my wind and how it would effect my audience. I experimented on my brother and parents with these fan and heater below.

I tried having them having the fan or heater right next to them, 0.5m, 1m, 1.5m and 2m away due to space constraints and found that it was entirely variable depending on the person. My brother was not able to get past the wind and sound from both, he disliked it apart from when it was 2m away where he was okay with it. My parents said the wind was nice from 1.5-2m away but was too loud to be truly immersive. They liked the wind and said it would be better though. Progress

The footage that I got within the first session of the week at the Carlton Gardens is very useful. I looked it over and found some nice stuff that I might potentially look to use for the final footage. One video had obvious wind coming from a specific direction, and another had a lighting change that honestly looked edited but these gave me ideas. I wanted to film the lighting changing naturally so I decided I'm going to film either the sunrise or sunset depending on what looks better.

[identyties]

Design Blog 6

Reflection This week was tough for me and I didn't write notes for it, it was mostly self directed learning but the things I got done in the time were interesting experiments, if not useful just to know what not to do for the final one. Stuff like making the footage slower by a lot and editing at all meant immersion was lost immediately. Research

Sound design ideation

Have one or two natural sounds that I then morph and meld into the backing, very sparingly introducing new elements to not take the audience out of that transcendant feeling. I looked into how to keep music specifically could create and retain immersion and possibly reduce hearing fatigue. https://www.asoundeffect.com/game-audio-immersion/ Within this great article it focuses on game sound effects, but the theory behind why they did everything checks out and works well.

Progress I tried people within the footage when slowed down and found they don't work. We know what they look like when moving so any sort of variation makes it so it's immersion breaking. Any footage I slowed down past .8 would start to feel wrong even if it was natural, but that was most likely due to the frame rate, as when it went lower the lights began to flicked and the footage began to shutter. So for the newer footage I intend to film the sunrise/sunset with some wind coming from either left, right or behind

[identyties]

Design Blog 5

During this week it was mostly just sessions that were self-directed and idea driven discussion. Research These are artists I was told to look into because of their similarity to my adjective and the inspirations I showed to the others. They have a certain vibe to their mises that give off that mindless sound that you can just become serene to.

Roger Eno - Mixing Colours Brian Eno - first afternoon Thomas Koner

I've learned that 4-5 mins is the way to go for this type of an effect as any more and it runs the risk of being boring but any less and serenity doesn't have enough time to form, it needs to just sit for a while before it forms. Progress I have trialed stretching footage out and making it longer but it doesn't seem to work that well. Long sustained notes that stick and slowly slide in, subtlety was what I was going for but it didn't seem like it worked to be honest. Infinite reverbs, texture and playing with the EQ were also effective tests that worked but it didn't fit the footage.

Ideas

Slowed down footage - Possible if it was one shot Slowed down traffic at sunset - Could be interesting but would be hard to get footage of that worked. Acknowledge the effect, then enjoy the effect then have 2 things sit next but not have them directly connect or the opposite have then visuals directly effect the musical elements

My test statements

Anything below 75% out of 100% is too low with speed and duration because it makes it look unrealistic, I'm not sure why but it doesn't look right. Synthpad 5 has a good ability to later multiple over each other and fade out naturally so could be useful for responding to the visuals

4 chords generally are too intrusive, its too much so I need to tone it down.

[identyties]

Design Blog 4

Reflection I received good feedback from the others on my presentation. The animated idea was a bust because it would take someone much more experienced than me to make it and despite my best efforts I am not experienced in that area. The natural idea was a success and the air idea was really liked, however it will need to be subtle enough to not set off or take out the audience from the experience, which is something I will need to look into. I was also told that the mni vests might be a bit too much for the project, so I am scrapping them. I must say, I'm glad that that I didn't learn the complicated Research I decided to look into a lot of calming pieces to me and see what was going to go well with a light wind and natural footage. I found that classical music pieces made me relaxed and more prone to serenity so found a list of ones that I was told would be relaxing. https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/relaxing-pieces-classical-music/ For the mostpart they were okay, but not the vibe I was looking to create, so I looked more abstract, to Soil Festivities by Vangelis, a very down to the earth synth album that made me very nicely spaced out, which under the right conditions could be serenity so I looked towards trying to replicate it. Progress Despite not being able to post them on the blog post because they are too large, the trials that I did for both audios screenshots are both pictured below.

The synths are long and drawn out with small additions similar to the inspirations that I researched above, and despite it being a bit sci-fi is a good starting point.

I used adobe stock footage to check what it would look like if I edited liveaction footage like planned. Colour correction would be alright but once the speed up or slow down comes in it starts messing with the footage in a way that takes me out of the footage.

[identyties]

Design Blog 3

Reflection

I found that using the roof lights can be difficult to utilise, they are very bright and eye-catching and can take away from the experience. They can light up the room fully just by being on. The spirals in the roof really worked for the others projects.

The strobing works really well for engagement The colour combination of yellow orange and red works really nicely to simulate fire.

Reflection on Tony's lighting specifically. The background beeps of the musics melody were tied to the walls.

The asynchronous room, using the lights on each part of the wall for different parts of the song worked nicely. The light was so bright and the contrast between it to nothing worked well. All together a well put together piece and will be so much better when done. Research At the suggestion of the lecturers I researched how to avoid body fatigue with the Mni vests. The initial research showed that its mostly dependent on the person and their diet/amount they work out, but it was mostly telling me that it needs to be less intensive, so less use of the vest than you would think otherwise it would overwork the audience very quickly. Maxfor live and MaxMsp are the two softwares I will have to learn for the music not impossible vests. They dont seem very intuitive but I'll have to learn them as they are the only pieces of software they run off of.

I think I will make the presentation based on the two main ideas and ask which everyone thinks would be better to focus on, I think the live action one will probably be easier but better to execute but we will see what the opinion of the others will be. Progress

Music not impossible vests were interesting and so after I saw them in the lecture I looked into them. With the mni vests the music based scenes worked well, so just music and music related movie clips. But the more emotion and movie based versions of the experience worked but not the the same extent I feel.

[identyties]

Design Blog: Week 2

Reflection During this weeks lecture we went over multiple concepts. The talks about decorative vs meaningful when relating to the experiences were very interesting and useful to think about. Understanding the responses that people have to different stimuli and how to trigger specific emotions are really interesting and will be very useful in making sure my project is not tacky and doesn't fall into the traps of tropes. I found out that light is contextual, depending what is it being shined on it makes light have patterns in relations to sound. I should play with blackness, darkness and void, so contrast will work better. The darker colours can be used well for that. The difference between anxiety and fear was also interesting. Anxiety is moving towards something scary, whereas fear something 'scary' has already happened. Experiencing the word compared to the words conceptually and descriptively was also something I thought was really useful and something I should continue to consider throughout development.

Other notes I took on the lectures that can be looked back on just In case of later. Research For the first proper assessment I decided that my adjective I would choose would be serene. I had done works that could be considered serene in the past so I decided to continue my look into the adjective, making myself more familiar with what it looks like in a general sense, and how to evoke the feeling in a general audience.

To not rehash my entire tumblr my own definition of serenity was different to the textbook definition. "A state of serenity to me is when you are focusing on anything that is other than your thoughts, not being effected by other outside factors and are generally induced by something that is natural, but is not always the case."

Each of the images were picked out as they related to a statement that I found really interesting "Serenity comes from within when we are being, not doing." They all each individually induce that feeling of the serene when looking at them and would even more if you were in that place rather than just looking at an image, the thoughts they create, thoughts you would have if you were there or rather lack of thoughts because of specific aspects are interesting. Progress

Not much in terms of progress was made this week. I looked back at the previous project I made for Immersive Video and went over the feedback I received to see why it was considered serene when watching it. I found my framing of the natural elements were what gave off the feeling the most, the birdsong, flowing water and lack of other sounds really helped to just calm the other thoughts, then when combined with the more casual natural visuals that state of serenity can be achieved. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOTOOACiYFQ&ab_channel=Identyties What I've taken out of this however is that I need to have more than just a video and a soundscape to be able to effectively make someone feel serene, so the idea of using the music not impossible vest might be something I have to pursue soon.

[identyties]

Design Blog: Week 1

Reflection The main focus of this first lectures, was to impart the different adjectives that we would be choosing from, the different ways we could use them and the different mediums we could use to cause them. Wissen vs Kennen was particularly interesting was an interesting concept, what is objectively true vs what is a personal experience, curiosity vs wonder, divergent music vs convergent coffee, all things that could be used to effect the audiences experience with a given project. One thing that was posed that I think could be interesting was the idea of Synchresis, having that audio and visual lock, will be very interesting if used well. The ideas I come up with all need to adhere to simple prinicples, what is it, how will it work and why do I think it will work. After that then I can begin to flesh it out. Research Academic: Due to being born in Germany, I wanted to look more into the intricacies of Wissen vs Kennen as I wanted to know more about how they were similar words but not the same way of thinking. I actually found out the it is Wissen, to know a fact or why, Kennen is to be familiar with, so a more broad and less specific term and können which is used specifically to express you know how to do something or are able to do something. Less broadly applicable than the first two, but interesting to consider. I also looked into the salience landscape theory, which has surprisingly little recorded on it, but was interested when it was brought up in the lecture. The actual landscape theory itself is related to how someone with autism will have a different response to stimuli than an individual without, however the more interesting information was with Salience on its own. Its the theory talking about how the brain makes certain things stand out, referring to how it typically arises from contrasts between "items and their neighborhood." This means that there is a order of things that will be noticed when shown, and certain people can be train or are wired differently than others. A giant red sign might be the most prominent thing for some, but the pulsing blue dot behind it will be the draw for others that are different. But very generally certain colours or shapes will draw the eye first, then going down the order based off of those factors and position in relation to the first, which is very useful when in the design field, being able to choose where an audience will look.

Creative Practice: The below video is one that was created in 1926 and was considered unnerving and uncanny even back then, and when considered with this more modern context, is just as, if not more creepy. The way that the noises feel otherworldly but somehow kind of match with the visuals sometimes, but other times feel that they could not have possibly came from that late. The older black and white limitation actually greatly benefits its feel of uncanny, so much so that it might be useful to utilize early camera film and its themes to make my own have that similar feel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXrjrr6ifME Technical: The first thing that popped into my head when I though of serene was nature, but the second was serenity being a sense of relaxation, calm, peaceful, unaffected by other things, whether they are wanting to or not. That thought process brought me to the sunken place scene from Jordan Peele's "Get Out". A forced sense of serenity. A calmness where you are unaffected by the outside world, a massive expanse or void that is surrounding you, muffled sounds and images are there but barely. Not focused on the world or thoughts just serene, if for a moment, before the existential dread sets in. So trying to replicate this scenes feeling would be extremely difficult but might be useful for another adjective, even if others don't see the serenity in it that I do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwVWrBk_uo Progress The progress for this week is having ideas for possible concept and relating them to the possible adjectives. Two possible ideas I made a little more fleshed out than the rest were for the adjectives Serene and Surreal. The first idea is related to Serene, with the colour palette being light blue, green and white all colours related to nature. Nature is almost always related to serenity so a sort of nature based routine that makes them think of anything else but their thoughts. So if there was a way to create an engaging video and soundtrack of something serene enough that other more chaotic elements of say lighting would still leave the serenity be the focus could be an interesting way of doing it. The difficult part of it would be making the chaos not be too distracting from the serenity and might be over-reaching, so the more nature based birdsong, water droplets could work well. Even within that nature idea, the water transitioning into a thunderstorm to keep up engagement while still being themed around the nature and serenity, and then bringing it back around to end with the serenity will mean the experience will end with the intended adjective and not be boring. The surreal idea is based off of the noise music we experienced within class. Having noise music, dispersed with no music cuts and the occasional bit of orchestral classic music as well just to really have a lot more chaos and throw off any sense of consistency that the brain tries to find. Intentionally trying to create a little bit of consistency to then take it away is something I think is a really effective way of making the audience try to engage with the experience, as it worked well on me when we watched a video in the lecture. I need to avoid a sense of tropeyness and also not have any resolution to a sense of meaning as it would lose the sense of being surreal, corporeal, otherworldly. I feel like the use of an old laughing track could really enhance it as well, as even normally, older laughing tracks can be unnerving, that coupled with changing visuals, noise music, occasional classical and the information that all of the people who have recorded that regular laugh that is still used today are dead will definitely give of a vibe I wish to pursue in some sense. This leads to its own problem of not being surreal and pushing towards terrifying, overwhelming or uncanny, but I can still work on it and thing about the possibilities.