Sound Lead - Tim Alward

[Sorpico]

Position: Sound Lead

Do you understand that Wildfire Games is a non-commercial project, work for 0 A.D. is volunteer, and work is done for free?

Yes

Do you agree to distribute all your work for Wildfire Games under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license?

Yes

Name:

Tim Awlard.

Email:

tim@theorysound.com

MSN Messenger:

theorysound@live.com

Location:

Orlando, FL.

Availability:

My availability is open to contribute to Wildfire games as much as needed. I do freelance work as well as contributing to projects where I find them. I can dedicate as much as 30-40 hours a week if needed.

Age:

32.

Occupation:

Professional Sound Designer / Sound Supervisor / Sound Engineer

Skills and Experience:

I have 10+ years in sound related projects. I do everything from recording on location to creating, mixing, and delivering audio content for Film, TV, Multimedia, and interactive content. I have been nominated for my post sound work and have contributed to many open source/indie projects throughout my career. My passion is in game audio and has been since I started my career. I previously was a Sound Lead on a medieval indie project where I headed the sound team to create, organize, and document everything in regards to sound. I personally created over 100 sound effects for the project, as well as created proper development documents and conducted the implementation. I feel that game audio is my sweet spot and continue to involve myself in creating content and also playing as much as I can.

Motivation:

I get my motivation through creating something that is unique and seeing it to completion. Working with others in the industry to accomplish something that is a work of art, whether it be a game, film, or album, is exciting to me. Being able to be creative in what I do for a career is motivation enough for me to get creating content. Creating, organizing, and completing a project is motivating to me.

Personality:

I am a very driven person that works hard on everything I put my hands on. I put my best efforts to use on every project, and search for ways to make each project perfect. Essentially, I have an audibly led creative mind.

Short Essay:

I found out about Wildfire Games over 5 years ago when Damian Kastbuaer contacted me about helping him with some sound design. It was an early stage of the game and I was able to contribute some sounds that he needed for creaking wood, cannon, and rubble sound effects. At that point in time, there wasn't a huge need for a sound team but I was eager to contribute.

Interests and Hobbies:

My interests include various things such as gaming, spending time with my growing family, traveling, and anything involved within the sound industry.

Staff:

I knew Damian Kastbuaer (LostChocolateLabs) back in 2006 when I helped him with sound effects

Community:

Gamasutra, Audiogang, gearstultz, hometheatershack, gameaudio, designingsound. I'm also an affiliate member of the MPSE (Motion Picture Sound Editors).

Favorite Game:

I have recently acquired Company of Heros 2, which is becoming a new favorite. It's hard to beat the original but it has promise. I'm a long time fan of RTS style games and I played and owned almost everything from Cossacks up to Starcraft. I do enjoy the fps genre and I've recently been playing Chivalry (Medieval First person battle sim). But my favorites are the progression based strategies that involve a bit of history. AOE and cossacks was a family pastime and my family and I still do LAN parties when we get together.

Work Examples:

My website has all my information and credentials. I can also share sound effects that I have created and a preview of design documents and milestones.

www.theorysound.com

[Sighvatr]

Yay! A sound lead!

Ew. Chivalry.

[Nolanjoker]

is probably one of departament with less people. good to see you join.

[Pureon]

Hi Tim, welcome to the forums and thanks for your application.

Would you be able to join our IRC channel tomorrow so that we can chat further in real-time? We use IRC for meetings and general discussion so hopefully a few team members will be around to say hi. If that sounds doable, would you be free sometime between 4pm and 8pm Orlando (EDT) time tomorrow? Our development IRC channel is #0ad-dev on QuakeNet. I'll try to finish work on time and get home for 4pm EDT.

We don't really have an active sound team at the moment, so the new Sound Lead would be in charge of deciding what needs doing (with our help) and who can do it - We've worked with many talented sound specialists in the past, so there's a possibility they would be able to work on new material if needed.

Have you had time to play some 0 A.D. games?

[Ludo38]

Welcome Tim !

[Sorpico]

Hey guys and thanks!

Pureon, I would be happy to join the IRC channel and talk. Thanks for the invite. I'll be able to get on around 4 EST or a little after. I've been following the project for some time and yes I've played 0 A.D. and enjoy it very much. It's been intriguing watching it grow and I would be happy to help out where I can.

[Pureon]

I'm running a bit late - stuck at work. Probably won't be home until 5pm EST time (10pm my time) . Others will be on IRC though, if you want to introduce yourself

[Pureon]

Looks like i'm going to be at work until 11pm - so maybe i'll catch you tomorrow instead. Hope thats ok

Edit:

Some useful info I found:

Audio files guide

I'm going to link to the online public svn for this guide because I can link directly to its folders and files. The same folder structure will also exist in an installed version of OAD. I'm going to use the building construction hammering sounds as an example.

Audio OGG file location and SoundGroup xml files

All publicly released sound files (OGG format) are found inside the 'audio' folder in this directory:

http://svn.wildfireg...s/public/audio/

The building construction sounds are found in 'resource/construction/':

http://svn.wildfireg...e/construction/

In the construction folder we have a number of old OGG sound files, however I believe only the 'con_wood' files are being used (we only have 1 type of construction animation). You will find many sound files are not called by 0AD because they were never implemented or simply aren't required, in the future these could probably be removed.

To see which of the 'con_wood' OGG files are being used, open the 'con_wood.xml' SoundGroup file located here:

http://svn.wildfireg...on/con_wood.xml

This is where you can set which of the OGG files in the 'construction' folder are being used and how they sound in 0AD. For further information on each of the parameters, see here.

At the end of the 'con_wood.xml' file you will see the <sound> elements calling the different ogg files. The <Replacement> element a few lines above will call that sound file when the number of individuals exceeds a set limit, however that functionality hasn't been implemented yet so just make sure one of the existing (new or old) ogg files is listed there for consistency.

To add new construction sounds, you'd place an ogg files in the 'construction' folder beside the others, and add a new <Sound> element line before the </SoundGroup> tag to call the new ogg file.

Simulation template

You can see that the female citizen uses the 'con_wood.xml' file by looking in it's simulation template (the SoundGroup parameter is usually found at the end of a simulation template):

http://svn.wildfireg...ale_citizen.xml

In that file you will see all the SoundGroup xml files used by the female citizen for a variety of functions.

  <Sound>
	<SoundGroups>
	  <select>voice/hellenes/civ/civ_female_select.xml</select>
	  <order_walk>voice/hellenes/civ/civ_female_select.xml</order_walk>
	  <order_attack>voice/hellenes/civ/civ_female_select.xml</order_attack>
	  <order_gather>voice/hellenes/civ/civ_female_select.xml</order_gather>
	  <order_repair>voice/hellenes/civ/civ_female_select.xml</order_repair>
	  <attack>attack/weapon/sword.xml</attack>
	  <build>resource/construction/con_wood.xml</build>
	  <gather_fruit>resource/foraging/forage_leaves.xml</gather_fruit>
	  <gather_grain>resource/farming/farm.xml</gather_grain>
	  <gather_tree>resource/lumbering/lumbering.xml</gather_tree>
	  <gather_rock>resource/mining/pickaxe.xml</gather_rock>
	  <gather_ore>resource/mining/mining.xml</gather_ore>
	</SoundGroups>
  </Sound>

All other units that construct buildings in 0AD should also have the same <build> element in their simulation xml file.

Unit actor xml and the event attribute

In order for the sound to function, and play at the exact time the construction unit's hammer hits the building foundations, we need to make sure there is an 'event' attribute in the 'animation' element. Example:

		<animation event="0.6" file="female/f_build_01.dae" name="Build" speed="40"/>

In the above example, the event will happen at 60% through the unit's hammering construction animation (0.6)

0.0 = start

0.5 = middle

1.0 = end

The entire actor file for a unit looks like this:

http://svn.wildfireg...ale_citizen.xml

[more info needed here]

[Sorpico]

No worries. I had a long day as well. I stopped in on the channel to say hello. I can get on tomorrow whenever is good for you. Thanks.

[Pureon]

It was good to finally talk on svn yesterday. It sounds like you'd fit in very well with the team, which is always a bonus. Your sound effects are good too

When you're happy with them, post those blacksmiths sound effects here for us to review.

[Pureon]

Tim, any updates?

[Sorpico]

Hey Pureon,

Sorry for the delayed response. I've been preparing for a huge project that I'm heading for a feature film and at the same time my family flew in from London....Aaarrgh....! However, that hasn't stopped me from working on some ideas for the blacksmith. I'm still doing some research on the info you posted but as far as raw sound effects I'm posting an idea I put together from some of those individual elements (and others) that I posted in IRC.

I'd like to give you an idea of how I'm building the sounds through getting some opinions on each element and with the blacksmith design. I didn't want a sound that would get drawn out by re-clicking on the building. So I kept this first rendition simple to an audible point but hope its a good start.

Sound of selection of the Blacksmith building is attached. I couldn't get the media manager to work.

Here we go, Please let me know what you guys think (it's attached as a mp3 format for posting):

Blacksmith Test.mp3

Edited August 24, 2013 by Sorpico

[Pureon]

I won't be home until tomorrow evening, so will download and give feedback then

Has anyone else downloaded it? Perhaps they can feedback sooner.

[Ludo38]

Good work Sorpico. I like it.

Just one remark : the metal sounds are of very good quality but maybe as they are pretty clear and light, they sound a bit like cattle bells, which expresses the farm as much as the blacksmith. By turning the metal sound to something a bit heavier, it would surely feel more blacksmith, more "heavy hammer work".

[Enrique]

I downloaded it and I like it a lot. Sounds very nice. My personal opinion would be to get rid of the second "clinck" hammer sound and stick with the first and last (the strong ones) and make it sound closer to each other. It will also make the effect a little bit shorter, which I think it's good for a selection sound.

Overall really nice

Looking forward to hear more from you Sorpico!

[Mythos_Ruler]

I agree with Enrique. Could probably get rid of the "woosh" and use a couple of the "dings" closer together for the 'selection' sound, while making the 'completion' sound slightly longer/more detailed. For completion, probably something like what you gave here, but instead of a "woosh" you maybe have a slight "roaring fire" background sound.

[Pureon]

Thanks for the reviews guys.

Sorpico: I really like the sound. I understand Mythos_Ruler's feedback, the bellows sound might be too unrecognizable (not your fault, i suspect an actual bellows sound would be likewise) for a short selection sound.

Otherwise, I'm not sure about removing the second clink sound, but lets see how that works.

Nice start

[Sorpico]

Thanks guys! Lots of great feedback!

I agree with the bellow. It's more of a placeholder. I didn't like the sound when I created it as it is a little weak.. But ya it can be a little more beefier and prominent. It would really simplify the blacksmith if we didn't have some fire aspect in there somewhere. The goal was to get all main aspects of the blacksmith out in a couple of seconds without getting too drawn out. Also, have something that wouldn't get to annoying click after click.

I get losing the second anvil hit but the reason I implemented this in was because if you've seen metallurgists at work they do this awesome timing and rhythm to keep each hit exactly the same strength and depth. It really cool to witness. However, it is probably too short of a sound bite to get it across.

Also, Ludo38, this might come from the pitch of the current hammer sound. Although, anvils can produce many harmonics, I agree. It's a little high. They need some more weight behind them and deeper tonality. I'm wondering if I added some fire flares/crackle sounds so that when the hammer hits the material on the anvil, you can hear and relate to whats happening. It would be exaggerated but is probably what is needed to fully relate to a blacksmith sound scape.

The aspects I wanted to get across are the forging elements:

Bellow - fire element

Hammer - Wielding element

Iron/steel - material element

Anvil - base element

I'll keep at it and probably post some single elements to get feedback as I'm forging...

[Sorpico]

Hey guys. I don't want you guys to lose faith in me yet! I've been super busy with sound supervising but I want all of you to know my commitment is still very strong to this project. That being said I have some time this week to continue some design and I'll post an update soon.

[Pureon]

Just wanted to point out that you now have competition

[Nolanjoker]

both competitors have 32 years old. i wanna hear your sounds . good work dude.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Tim lives in Orlando, May be I can meet him this year. this years I will go to Washington and Orlando

[Sorpico]

Hey guys,

Well, I've been put in a position to choose. Currently I have been unable to produce any further original content because of my current position. I've been so busy I can't find any time to do much else than work on this film. I really felt like I fit in with the team but unfortunately, I can't commit, at this time, because of my current work. I'll most likely be freed up around December and if the position is still open, I would love to still try out. If not, I would still love to contribute to the project!

I feel bad and I thought I would have had the extra time to take the position I applied for. Sorry guys and I hope you find a well rounded Sound Lead that can create original and interesting stuff. I would have liked to have been that person but I cannot find the time at the moment.

Good luck and I'll touch base with you guys in a couple of months.

[feneur]

Thanks for being honest with yourself and us Hope everything goes well in your current endeavour, and welcome back later if you have more time then (We're certainly likely to need more sounds made for quite some time yet, so you'll definitely have a chance to contribute in one way or another.)

[Mythos_Ruler]

It's all good Sorpico. And we have another who has started contributed some sounds, so we'll see how he works out. All is not lost. Who knows where we'll be in December on the sound front. Good luck on your film!