World of Warcraft: Lament of Vaia
This is the first part of my second audio rebuild project - this time, I wanted to make a video that was closer to a game intro which establishes a plotline and characters, as opposed to a straight rebuild.
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World of Warcraft: Stratholme
Game footage is captured, then the audio is removed and rebuilt from scratch. This was my first rebuild, and was really the thing that helped propel me into creating audio content for games. It's a segment from the MMO World of Warcraft, following a Paladin's solo assault on the cursed city of Stratholme.
The entire audio track was re-created from scratch by me, including the sound effects, character voices and music. Looking back at it now, there are a few things I'd improve, but given the limited time and resources available I still believe that overall it creates a compelling atmosphere.
Shortly after launch, this rebuild was specially selected by wow.joystiq.com for a feature piece including a full interview on the production process. It has also been viewed thousands of times on Youtube and Warcraftmovies.com and maintained a close to perfect rating (so far)!
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Comments and feedback
"...an atmospheric soundtrack that injects an eerie edge of desperation to an instance that's become old hat" - Lisa Poisso, wow.com
"Why can't Blizzard make sound like this..." - fatgreenguy1, Youtube user
"Very nice and realistic, gave me a really creepy feeling. And the patchwerk creature boss voice was perfect. Just the right amount of insaneness and hunger for blood!" - Capricious, warcraftmovies.com user
"That was awesome dude, blizzard need to hire you :)" - x1414, Youtube user
Sound highlights
Stratholme Gate Opening
A heavy castle gate with a nice big slam at the end, built from a glass bottle being dropped on tiles, an oven door, a garage shutter and a chain being rattled.
| Download as .mp3 |
"Hammer of Wrath" spell
This spell required a large impact after a throwing noise, and was built from a buzzing electrical generator, a synthesised kick drum and an anvil.
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Ramstein the Gorger
A massive creature like Ramstein needs a deep, beastly, unnatural sounding voice. I created the sound I was after using a combination of chorus and pitch-shifting over a doubled vocal sample.
| Download as .mp3 |
Black Guard Sentries
These monsters needed to sound haunting, ghostly and evil. This was achieved using chorus, reverb and a metaliser effect. Finally, the reverb tail from the end of both sentences was recorded and reversed to create the initial ghostly "aaah".
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"Hammer of the Righteous" spell
I wanted a heavy industrial sound here to give this spell some individuality. I used 2 kick drums for the hammer impacts. On top of those, I added some steel girders, a "lightning strike" noise and an ethereal synth pad mixed very low to give a hint of a magical ability without detracting from the harshness of the sound.
| Download as .mp3 |