Difference between revisions of "Sound Layers"

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| synopsis =Grouping design decisions according to their semantics
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| v10synopsis =Grouping design decisions according to their semantics
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| v20synopsis =Grouping design decisions according to their semantics
 
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| rel-tag1=Context:<br>
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| rel1=[[Sound Design in Games]]<br>
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| v10rel1=[[Sound Design in Games]]<br>
| rel-tag2=Parts:<br>
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| rel2=[[Ambiance]], [[Foley]], [[Sound Effects]], [[Music]], [[Dialogue]]<br>
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| v10rel2=[[Ambiance]], [[Foley]], [[Sound Effects]], [[Music]], [[Dialogue]]<br>
| rel-tag3=Makes use of:<br>
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| v10rel-tag3=Makes use of:<br>
| rel3=[[Acoustic Ecology]]<br>
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| v10rel3=[[Acoustic Ecology]]<br>
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| v20rel-tag1=Context:<br>
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| v20rel1=[[Sound Design in Games]]<br>
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| v20rel-tag2=Parts:<br>
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| v20rel2=[[Ambiance]], [[Foley]], [[Sound Effects]], [[Music]], [[Dialogue]]<br>
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| v20rel-tag3=Makes use of:<br>
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| v20rel3=[[Acoustic Ecology]]<br>
 
| revisions =Introduced in version 1.0
 
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| description=
 
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Revision as of 17:19, 16 January 2012

The card's front face The card's back face

This design pattern has been classified as
an Aggregator Pattern after version 1.0
Consequently, it is no longer represented as a card
(i.e. ceased being part of the deck) since version 2.0

Synopsis

Grouping design decisions according to their semantics.

Relationships

Context:
Sound Design in Games .
Parts:
Ambiance , Foley , Sound Effects , Music , Dialogue .
Makes use of:
Acoustic Ecology .

Description

Sounds can be structured in layers according to its semantics and communicative purpose. The layers are: Ambiance, Foley, Sound Effects, Dialogue, and Music ([pending Peck, 2001, 2007)].

Addressing sound design decisions according to such grouping may be useful when establishing high level exploration goals and/or when wrapping the lower-lever explorations according to the semantics of the sounds that will be needed to implement them.

In consonance with the mindset and the guidelines([pending)] that are on the basis of this approach, the explorations of Sound Design in Games benefit from considering all the layers in a holistic manner that may allow to produce an Acoustic Ecology rather then a superimposition of sounds.

It is also worth mentioning that the exploration of each of the sound levels does not imply, by no means, that sounds representing that level ought to be included in the design. The exploration can consist precisely in not including sounds of a particular level (e.g., no Dialogue and no Music).

Examples

In Half-Life 2 the player feels immersed in an Acoustic Ecology where sounds belonging to each of the layers has been explored

Half-Life 2:
Bioshock:
Portal:
[show less examples...]
Ambiance in HalfLife2: A moment of calm allows to enjoy the Ambiance.
Dialogue in HalfLife2: This scene includes disparate explorations of Dialogue. For instance some of the action is experienced exclusively through the discourse, with no visual support.
Foley in HalfLife2: The interaction with objects is accompanied by the respective Foley.
Music in HalfLife2: Music prepares and supports the haste of a fight.
Sound Effects in HalfLife2: Picking this objects is accompanied representative Sound Effects


External Resources

Peck, N., Beyond the library: Applying film postproduction techniques to game sound design. in Proc. of Game Developers Conference, (San Jose CA, USA, 2001).
Peck, N. CoFesta/TGS Tokyo, Japan.(2007) The presentation of the pattern in [pending] (Alves & Roque, 2010) guidelines (Alves & Roque, 2009, 2011)

SoundLayersAndSemantics-front-v10.pngSoundLayersAndSemantics-back-v10.png