Akira: Ending photoes

Akira: Final storyborad

Finally, I finished the storyboards.
But the files were too big, I even cannot send one by one , by using e-mail.

Interesting Facts:
Surprisingly, video game audios are often not taken seriously and overlooked. As technology is advancing, meaning music studios and home theater surround systems are more powerful than ever, videogame sound effects/sound are becoming more and more important. WipeOut, a futuristic racing game with electronic music and crazy explosion sound effects that blew us away time and time again wouldn’t have been the same if it didn’t have any sound. Lord Of The Rings wouldn’t have been a great video game to the movie if it didn’t have any decent sound. When video games first started, many developers surprisingly took the easy way out and used compressed mono streams. However, since 1998, game developers started taking note on how exploring the world of sound effects could benefit in overall gameplay.






Sound Effects

The use of sound effects is just the same as those of motion pictures. By usual standards, the sound effects are recorded and then incorporated in relation to the interactive environment of the video game. Normally, the simpler the game will result in lesser sound recordings needed. That is why sound design/incorporation were often left to one or two people to assign.

As video games are becoming more and more sophisticated and gameplay becoming alot more interactive and detailed, this has lead to improvements in sound quality. This also lead to increasing numbers of more sound designers dedicated to game projects. Today’s games include realtime sound for better sound qualities. Thus, for instance, a bomb going off in an enclosed room will echo realistically.


Recording effects

There are two types of sound effects, these are realistic recorded sound and digitally synthesized recorded sounds. Realistic sound effects are created from recordings from original sources, they will always have the most realistic sounds. Whereas, digitally synthesized or sampled sounds are much better used for sounds that are very inconvenient to record in studios, for instance, explosions, gunshots and aircrafts flying. For the smaller/easier subjects, for instance, clipping a coin, typing or footsteps, it is much more practical/best to record them in the studio, under controlled conditions.



Good Sound Games

God of War II
The music and sound on this game were commented to be very interactive. What’s really good about this game is that the music and sound truly brings a feel that such a storyline exists. When you are playing this game, the music stands out because it has the type of music one would typically expect in a top budget movie. The sound effects were just as equally impressive, because not only did it interact with the environment in the game really well, the sound effects also gave clues as to what you can and cannot destroy.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time
One of the best, if not the best RPG video games ever created with a perfect blend of music, gameplay and graphics. It has some of the very best soundtracks and sound effects ever blended into a video game, it features many marvelous melodies that were carefully composed with string sounds and melancholic guitar picks. However, the standouts are the sound effects. Every level/location has its own large number of ambient noises. For instance, the subtle trickling of water, the wind howling and the windmill clanking. It is easy to see they put as much effort into sound as they did into gameplay and graphics because every little interaction has its own brilliant sound effects. Everything sounds so carefully created, for example, the bow/arrows, the screams and the noises/footsteps sound as convincing as the real thing. The sound quality is also full surround sound, it was arguably the first game on N64 to introduce rear audio channels rather than just the Left and Right channels.
What I loved about the sounds of this game was the way it overwhelmed you. It draws the player into the Zelda virtual reality world, which is one of the main reasons why this is one game we just can’t put down once we start playing.


Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
In terms of best sound effects, this was one of the best games ever made. The sound effects in this was exactly like in the movie, it was so realistic and well created that it made you felt like you were right there and watching it all happen in front of your eyes, which made the overall gameplay so much more addictive. The designers in this game carefully altered the sounds’ phase variations, meaning they made the impression that the sounds moved from one speaker to the other before fading out.

Akira: Completed character files

BOWEN: RAINFOREST BACKGROUND