almost 5 years ago - PlayWarframe - Direct link

Transcript (by Youtube)


0s hello there and welcome back to episode
2s 4 of deconstructing this month we're
5s going to do something a little bit
6s different that we're actually doing a
8s part two of sound design and production
9s of warframe community manager Megan
12s Everett sits back down with audio
13s director George Spanos and seniors sound
15s designer Eric Preston to give you some
17s more behind-the-scenes intel as to how
19s the sounds of warframe are made grab a
21s hot cup of tea
22s or some lemonade and enjoy
25s [Music]
41s so George you've been here for 13 years
43s how has the sound design process changed
46s since you've started it's changed a lot
48s I mean you know the tools that we use to
51s put sounds in the game have changed so
54s you know plugins change all your
56s processing changes even a software we
59s use changes and the game engine that we
61s use has changed a lot you know I
63s remember when I first started here
64s weapons for example would just use three
67s sounds for each weapon and now it's
70s probably what there's three six nine
74s twenty ten or twelve sounds playing at
78s one time for each weapon type of thing
80s to give it different layers and and make
82s it feel more realistic and so there's
84s been a lot of improvements that way
87s music is another good example we should
90s just put loops of music in so a
92s two-minute piece of music we just get
94s put into the game and it would just loop
96s indefinitely and now we have a whole
98s dynamic system so that's gotten better
100s and there's tons of other stuff that's
103s just improved and we kind of we kind of
105s take pride in in trying to to to keep
108s the engine up to date and keep it fresh
112s and keep it with all the latest sort of
114s bells and whistles that that that we
117s hear about that other games are doing so
118s yeah there's been there's been a lot of
120s change that way yeah
122s just speaking about the bells and
123s whistles and the kind of the tech side
125s of it if there was no kind of boundaries
127s or restraints on any of that what is a
130s sound that you wish you could put into
132s warframe yeah I know it's a tough
134s question I mean I think I think for us
136s the biggest thing is always sort of
138s memory constraints and so we always want
141s to get the highest fidelity sounds into
143s the game and we're still not quite there
146s yet you know technology is still not at
148s the point where we can just put
150s uncompressed audio in the engine or play
152s as many sounds at a time as we want kind
155s of a thing so that's definitely
156s something that that we keep kind of
158s working towards and we keep we keep
161s trying to make better so but yeah I mean
165s I think we kind of we each put what we
168s want into the engine
169s the game you know like we're always
171s challenging ourselves every new warframe
173s every new weapon every new tileset
175s always try to put things into the game
178s that we haven't put in there before you
181s know always trying to push ourselves
183s like Eric was saying go into a pool and
185s recording stuff and we went to a sewage
187s treatment plant as well that when I
189s started to and so it's always that's the
193s thing for us is always like what can we
194s do that's different that we didn't do
196s last time and that makes me think of the
198s whole synth board stuff that you guys
200s have going on that blows my mind I don't
202s know what the heck is do it
204s yeah like the modular stuff to you was a
206s another great example a couple of years
208s ago one of the sound designers on the
210s team Karl said to us he's like hey have
212s you guys ever explored modular and we're
214s like wow yeah why do you if you can do
217s it all in the computer why do you need
219s hardware and then and then I think was I
222s know you were the first to buy we got
225s our order together yeah there first and
229s then and then it was just we became
232s addicted to it and it's like it's so
234s much fun and it's an expensive hobby but
237s man is it fun but for people who are
240s interested in sound is like it's the
242s Holy Grail it's it's so much fun it's
245s some such a combination of interesting
247s new unique tones but also just the
250s playfulness of it all just being able to
252s really enjoy making these weird sounds
255s and not thinking too much about it
257s because usually when you're using
258s software there's a tendency to sort of
261s like overthink what you're doing when
263s real when you were creating audio a lot
265s of the time you just want to harness a
266s feeling and if you're not thinking too
269s much about your input or what you're
270s doing you can kind of like get in touch
273s with your emotions a little bit better
274s now it sounds weird but modular really
277s lets you do that because it's just it's
279s all knobs you just turn yeah I think
280s that's what goes on mind the most is you
282s there's how many knobs and buttons on
285s that thing like yes and so much and it's
287s like the combinations are probably
289s infinite if you calculate it and that's
291s part of the fun is it's like you'll
293s never hear that exact same sound the
295s same way your prints are all yeah and
298s that's
298s that's such a beautiful thing about it
300s because you know
300s a world of people using loops for things
302s and using just pulling sound effects
304s from libraries it's so nice and
306s refreshing to be able to put your own
308s stamp on it and that's why we try to
310s record as much of our own stuff as
312s possible to put into the game and I
314s think that's why a lot of the stuff that
316s we do sounds unique you know because you
319s chances already won't hear it in another
321s game absolutely do you recall the first
324s sound that was from that synth board
326s that we used I do yeah yeah it would
330s have been the hunt how a boss fight Oh
332s would you sounds out to the Octavia
334s quest right yeah I used a lot of a lot
337s of those sounds in that in that boss
339s fight that's right yeah yeah and now
342s it's like yeah yeah cuz it's like you
344s can always find something new with it
347s which is super exciting that's the thing
350s you have to keep it interesting you have
351s to keep it exciting right like you can't
353s just do the same thing every day because
356s it's kind of boring you know to do that
357s warping is going in a weird direction so
362s we're gonna go to the saw seven route
364s and yeah so without trying to spoil
371s anything that's coming up as we all know
373s what's happening at work right
375s what realized sound elements are you
377s going to pull for the next potential
379s open world or rail jack everyone knows
381s rail Jack's coming so what kind of
383s sounds are you working on now yeah rail
386s jack actually it's gonna be a lot of
390s different combinations of sounds I don't
392s know we don't have anything immediately
395s planned to go record for it I'd like to
398s go out and record like like gears and
401s and mechanisms and that kind of thing
403s like find some old factory or something
405s I've been wanting to do that for a while
407s just to have a library of that kind of
410s stuff but what will a lot of times do is
414s will will go out and record you know an
417s opportunity to present itself like a few
419s years ago I recorded my snow blower cuz
420s I'm like oh the snow blower makes an
422s interesting sounds I should record it so
423s I have a library of lower sounds that
425s you never know you might use them for
426s something and I've probably use them in
428s weapons and that kind
429s thing so it's a lot of that too it's a
432s lot of like oh yeah remember that
433s session that we did yeah I wonder what
435s was in there if I could use something
437s from there and bring it into this world
439s but there probably will be a bunch of
442s recording sessions for Rail Jack just
444s haven't figured that out yet I think
446s well one of the one of the things that I
449s remember Jeff posted a couple maybe a
452s week or so ago he just grabbed some
454s clips with like little RC cars and then
456s he pitched them way down right and we
459s kind of went whoa this could be really
461s cool for rail Jack ships because we're
463s gonna have lots of enemy ships so we
466s might be doing a little RC session and
468s they have these microphones called
471s extended frequency microphones so they
473s go way above human hearing and what you
476s can do with those is when you record
477s with those you can pitch them down
479s several octaves and it exposes all of
482s this interesting sonic information that
485s you previously could not hear so when we
489s record with those microphones that
490s allows you to get some really unexpected
492s results so there might be a little bit
494s of RC car action yeah that is a really
497s cool thing you want to think about right
499s because right now in the room we're
502s sitting in there's probably a whole
503s bunch of sound above human hearing that
505s we just can't hear and it's like what is
507s what's in there and so it's a cool
509s technique to use to as a sound design
511s tool to see what you can capture
514s expensive or grand support our
521s microphone we should start a Kickstarter
523s maybe help the de sound team by an
526s extent he would bats here yeah come on
533s guys dog whistles you want to was like
541s the grandfather of that like I remember
544s listening to Star Wars early on and
546s analyzing some of the the sounds and I
548s was listening to some of the ship sounds
550s and when I actually just closed my eyes
553s and listened I was like that's a
555s motorcycle like a hundred percent all it
557s is is a recording of a motorcycle that's
559s made me maybe pitch down six semitones
561s or not
562s but when you put it up against the
563s visuals making the decision to make that
566s match that's where a lot of sound design
568s comes in because it's like oh when you
570s take it out of out of the context of the
572s real world and put it in the context of
574s that spaceship it works perfectly and
575s Ben Burtt was so good at that I think I
578s yeah I try to strive for that sometimes
580s so there again it's like so something
582s that is really high tech that's in a
584s future world you're like oh I must use
587s since I have to use modular I have to
588s use whatever no you don't and that proof
592s of that is that a lot of current day or
595s older type of sounds can work for the
598s future if you just kind of let your mind
600s go to that place you know so do you find
604s yourself doing that a lot where you
605s watch movies or shows and you just kind
608s of you hear as a sound designer you hear
611s what the sound actually is as you're
612s watching it is that happen a lot it's
614s funny like at one point for me it's all
617s I could do I couldn't enjoy the movie or
619s music or games for for what they were I
622s was always analyzing it but I've gotten
624s better at just being just trying to lose
626s myself in the wonderment of it and
628s there's something cool and interesting
630s happens then I'll kind of like go back
632s and try to listen to it again but I try
634s to kind of let myself go in that moment
636s but it's hard to do though it is sound
639s plays such as supporting it's so
641s important to support the visuals with
643s sound like as a sound designer I think
645s that's the number one goal
647s I'm never like oh I want to draw
649s people's attention to this sound it's
650s always know I want me I want to make
652s people believe what they're experiencing
655s and I feel like I don't necessarily pick
658s out cool sounds anymore in movies it's
660s more the opposite when a sound doesn't
662s work or when it pulls me out of what I'm
666s enjoying that's when I'll notice the
668s sounds now more so than the other way
670s around
670s it's a good way of thinking of it
671s actually if you're noticing a sound it's
674s probably not the right thing yeah you
675s know and it's like you can you can
677s notice the sound to be like oh that
678s sounded cool but if it takes you out of
680s the moment it's like the boom mic in the
682s shot in the movie oh this is a movie oh
685s yeah just breaks that dimension totally
687s breaks that wall and that's and I think
690s that's the mark of great sound design is
692s just when you don't notice it then
695s then it's doing what it should be doing
697s which is ironic but that is that is
700s that's kind of the mark of great audio I
703s think so outside of music and sound
706s creation what other passions or
708s interests do you guys have I yeah I
712s don't feel free to plug away here well
717s as some of you know like sound is a big
721s part of what I do and so I make
724s experimental music as threat machine I'm
727s on all of the streaming services or go
730s to start machine comm check it out it's
732s it's some pretty weird stuff that will
734s never make it into warframe because it's
735s too weird I think and then outside of
741s that I don't it's funny like I yeah I
745s mean I just I enjoy playing games
748s watching movies listening to music you
750s know a bit of reading long walks on the
752s beach you know campfires at night yeah
755s it's funny because it's like I don't
758s know like the time is so short that it's
760s like it's hard to have anything anything
762s else that you really you really do but
764s you know um yeah it's it's mainly sound
768s or music related for me I'm a father
773s have a daughter who's turning for
775s tomorrow happy birthday yeah
777s so I I spend a lot of time with her
779s these days but after she goes to bed and
784s yeah after she goes to bed I make I make
787s video games and I know it's so weird I
789s get here cool yeah I go home when I make
792s more video games yeah yeah I just work
794s on little solo independent projects such
797s as vault tomb of the king is what I'm
800s working on right now so yeah I just
802s enjoy I just really enjoy all aspects of
806s game creation so that's sort of the time
808s that I get to do programming and do art
810s and do game design and oddly enough I
813s always leave audio to last
817s but I'm carving my own game
821s yeah sound various that's actually
825s hilarious
826s I wish you hadn't told me that no reason
829s why is it just you're so engrossed in
831s like everything the other aspects of the
833s game that's exactly it yeah I I just I'm
836s just so fascinated with all of the other
838s disciplines that go into into game
840s making you know what as well as sound
843s and just like do the same thing you do
845s something different I do put a lot of
847s love into the sound eventually so if
854s anyone wants to find you guys on so
857s shows listened to you know your album
859s see things of your game where can they
862s find you so on Twitter I'm at game sound
865s design and on Instagram I'm at threat
867s machine don't ask why but they're just
871s they're both different because let's
872s keep it interesting my personal Twitter
875s is at what now Eric and the Twitter for
879s my game is at brave the vault anything
883s we didn't cover that you guys want to
885s talk about expand on no I mean I think
889s you know like I think for us you know
890s we're you know whenever people give us
893s feedback especially on Twitter a lot of
895s feedback on Twitter I you know we read
899s all of it and and I actually I love it
902s when when when players interact with us
905s and tell us if it's something they don't
907s like or it's something they like and
908s it's like it's great to know that you're
910s out there and you're playing the game
910s and and it's great to hear your feedback
913s on things so yeah let's just keep that
916s up and and you know I think that's one
919s of the unique things for me you know I
921s worked on a bunch of games of for
922s warframe and I never had that experience
924s you know cuz we release games and we
926s never really had contact with the people
928s who are playing them and so it's it's so
930s great to have that I know it sounds a
932s bit ok whatever
934s cliche but it's so true and it's like it
937s just you know you read something on
938s Twitter and you're like cool man like it
940s gives you the strength to keep going and
942s it's like or someone appreciates
944s something and says something nice about
946s what we've done and
947s and letting the team know about that
949s it's it's really great to hear that it's
952s really great to have that feedback so
954s yeah keep that up yeah we listen and
957s read them as much as we can
959s yeah and that's the thing too like even
960s if you think we're not reading something
961s chances are we have everything on the
963s forums we read it's actually I what the
966s first thing I do in the mornings when I
967s walk in as i refresh the forum's and I
970s look at all the sound forums and I and I
972s read it all
973s so all those comments out there I know
975s I've probably read it yeah I think I'm
982s good yeah I think it was one question
984s about favorite sounds did we did we do
987s that or like our most yeah family our
994s favorite designer have worked on
995s possibly mister there's a lot here I
998s could say it yeah in warframe we presume
1001s you talk about any favorite sounds that
1005s you've created in warframe George you
1008s got any favorites so now you have to
1011s leave that whole preamble actually do
1018s actually the cuz I have to think about
1021s this so I still don't I still don't
1025s think I've made the perfect sound and I
1027s still don't think I've I've I've
1029s attained a sound that I can look back on
1033s and be like yep that's it that's that's
1035s the pinnacle of my career that's that
1037s was the height of it and now I can't do
1039s anything better than that
1040s it's obviously back here but go yeah
1042s back here yes it was great
1045s Valkyr was great I have to say I'm
1048s really proud of Octavia cuz we put a lot
1050s of work into her and it was something
1052s new for me
1053s you know programming sounds into a
1055s warframe and we basically made a
1057s software synthesizer which is pretty
1060s cool but I think for me it's like I'm
1063s still looking for that perfect sound I'm
1065s still looking to what's the next thing
1067s that I can work on that I can be proud
1068s of because as soon as you finish
1070s something it's kind of like okay what
1073s what's next then you want to keep rising
1075s and keep going and keep going from there
1077s so yeah that's
1080s that's my comments on it awesome now you
1082s can't say you have a favorite song I
1091s think like one of them like one of the
1093s more enjoyable experiences I had doing
1095s sound was working on the ambience for
1100s Cetus and the plains and also working on
1104s the sound for the terror list that was
1106s just a really terrible cool place to be
1110s mentally because I got to kind of like
1112s live in that environment for a very long
1115s time and fight the terror list every day
1117s yeah when I came to work so that was
1119s that was a really fun sound design
1122s experience for me the terror list ended
1123s up really cool as well and I'm not crazy
1126s oh yeah okay I don't know well I
1129s remember talking to people about it and
1134s trying to figure out what a good
1135s creature was that would resonate because
1138s I wanted something big but something
1140s gentle at the same time that you would
1141s feel bad hurting saying that D right
1150s actually that is cool I tried an
1151s elephant but elephants can sound pretty
1153s mean yeah but whales was just you know
1155s it's that that salt that like really
1157s somber yeah that's interesting that is a
1169s commentary on like how sound can make
1171s you feel right it's like so just that
1174s thought process behind it it's like we
1176s want to make you feel kind of a little
1178s bad for hurting it because it's it's
1179s kind of like maybe you shouldn't be
1181s doing this and so it's toying with your
1183s emotions in that way which is really
1185s interesting and cool I think yeah I
1187s remember getting that an early meeting
1189s with Steve and who loves one of his
1190s directions was we want to feel bad for
1193s for hurting this thing it was just a
1195s unique a unique spin on a boss fight his
1198s usually bosses are imposing and
1200s thereafter forgot to get you they want
1202s to hurt you but this was like he just
1204s wanted you to go away so he can kind of
1206s walk is there anything else in the game
1213s that's like don't hurt it kind of vibe
1215s they can think of I can't but maybe not
1219s off the top of my head don't hurt it I
1222s mean don't hurt the animal is he trying
1223s to conserve them we had a hard time
1230s actually with the feral the feral cats I
1232s think
1234s Jeff one of the somme designers on the
1236s team did the pets and made them sound
1238s really you know cute and lovable and I
1241s was like okay now we have to make like
1243s the wild ones I kind of like attack you
1244s like and it was hard to kind of have
1246s that okay how do we make it sound like
1248s it's the same kind of animal but a rabid
1250s version of it or whatever so that was
1253s that was interesting a side note from
1255s that jeff has a little video I think he
1257s used his dog he's like a little
1258s chihuahua and when it's awawa sleeps it
1262s does this cute little purring sound and
1265s I remember he recorded that for it and
1266s so that was pretty cool so he's Jeff's
1269s pet Chihuahuas in the game he's got a
1271s lot of animals in the game he has he did
1276s the cool okay that's healthy
1278s conservation stuff all the conservation
1280s stuff yeah yeah Jeff's the animal man
1285s [Laughter]
1292s the g-man what was that even for oh that
1303s was a sacrifice the video that I made
1305s the yeah sacrifice for the the the
1309s patient in the bed and it was like how
1312s do we what's the sound of someone trying
1315s like choking and suffocating struggling
1318s to breathe well the best way to do it is
1319s to kind of do that's here so that makes
1321s me so uneasy that sound and I I
1323s literally was Oh God and so I went into
1326s Travis one of our other sound designers
1328s I went into his office and and I'm like
1330s okay look because he tried a bunch of
1331s different things and that's the other
1333s thing too sometimes you can try a whole
1335s bunch of different things that that to
1337s build a sound from but sometimes it's
1339s better just to record the real thing
1341s yeah
1341s and so let's start from
1342s let's do it and I sacrificed myself I
1345s literally you are the sacrifice joy and
1347s the sacrifice I literally I literally
1349s almost passed them like seriously like
1351s after after we did I was like okay I got
1354s it like take a break here cuz I'm
1355s hyperventilating record that quick I
1358s suffer from my art I believe from my art
1362s but yeah that was it's fun it makes it
1366s exciting right before we end the podcast
1375s any advice out there for anyone that
1377s wants to start the in the audio industry
1380s yeah I think just like we said you know
1383s it's like just keep doing it and look
1385s for opportunities wherever and don't
1386s feel like you know if you don't have the
1389s latest equipment or you don't have this
1390s piece of gear or that piece of gear you
1392s know like the equipment isn't what makes
1395s you have talent the equipment helps you
1397s realize the end goal but there there's
1400s so many people that makes cool stuff
1402s with with the least amount of equipment
1404s don't let that hold you back you know
1406s air jordans didn't make Michael Jordan
1408s the amazing basketball player that he is
1411s right like you know it looks stylish
1412s yeah and made him a lot of money
1414s probably but but like just remember that
1417s that it's not it's not it's not about
1420s the tools you have it's it's it's about
1422s like your creativity and work on that as
1425s much as you can and if you a lot of
1427s people ask me too it's like you know how
1429s do I get into the game studio you know
1431s like start off small you know find some
1434s independent mobile game companies that
1437s are looking for someone to do sound and
1439s just say hey I'll work on your game and
1441s just try to build your credit list from
1443s that and and never say no and always say
1445s yes and and and always try to try to
1449s make something unique and something that
1451s you're happy with I think and then
1454s that's that's that's what shows so a big
1457s thank you to George and Eric for being
1458s on the show this month and to you for
1460s listening tune in next month for another
1463s episode of deconstructing
1466s you