Tutorial: How To Concept And Create A Cinematic Re-Design Of A Game Trailer
Re-Design (Hard Effects pass) of a cinematic cutscene trailer of Destiny 2. Overall impression should sound larger than life and a bit over the top/ dramatic.
Key Events:
- CU POV: Pirrha the scorn aiming with the telescope on the weapon (futuristic UI) & load-up plasma weapon
- MED: Cayde-6 summons small assistant drone (Ghost).
- CU: Pirrha the scorn aims & plasma shot at drone
- MED: Drone gets hit by plasma beam. Slow motion: Plasma explosion, pressure wave spreads. Shrapnel flying through the air. Cayde-6 is thrown to the ground.
- DST: Enemies (horde of Scorn) view at the scene from top-down position. Plasma Wave expanding, obliterating enemies.
- MED: Cayde stands up slowly, metal debris fall to ground, badly damaged but still alive.
Characters:
Cayde-6
Main weapon: pistol (Ace of Spades): Heavy pistol or better hand canon, presice, metallic, elegant, slick, efficient, firepower, colt-like.
Pirrha
Main weapon: Plasma Crossbow. He’s a Rifleman/ Sniper, the triple crossbow is a powerful sniper weapon. Long range, precise, takes a while until loaded. Player should pay attention to the load up sound, since this means danger.
Sound Descriptions
Crossbow Aim Sound
Should sound futuristic and aggressive. Super close up POV shot, hence not embodied in the space. This is a typical futuristic UI sound. Pitch rise means rising danger for Cayde.
Pirrah Grunt:
This was a nice opportunity to design a creature vocalization. Scorn are physically strong, intelligent and this rifleman is super focused and deadly. The controlled breath and deep grunt should emphasize this.
Weapon Load Up
Rise in pitch should mark the load up. Scorn weapons should be brutal, ruff and a bit improvised. I wanted a dark, organic and gritty feeling for the load up sound. I mixed some leather creaks in like in a traditional crossbow like when you tense the tendon.
Summon Ghost
Cayde is one of the heroes. He is an Exo (robotic body with a human soul). His technology is futuristic, high-tech, metallic, and a bit could (to a certain extent, which he compensates with his humor and warm soul). I mixed some futuristic UI sounds, scanning sounds, a deeper portal sound for the body of the sound and noisy servo sounds, high frequency glitched sounds and a modulated whoosh sound to give the sound the overall futuristic/high-tech theme and some dynamic for the summoning action.
Weapon Shot
The triple crossbow is a very powerful scorn weapon. I wanted to give the weapon a very powerful feeling. Again, my aim was to go for a more gritty and organic sound for the plasma, mixed with a heavy punch on the release. The overall sound should be quite noisy, with a bit of tonality that symbols the plasma cutting through the air.
Ghost Explosion
This is a very dramatic and intensive moment for Cayde, since the lost hope to call for reinforcements. To enhance the drama, the visuals go into slow motion. I wanted to mirror this sudden change with a heavy impact. For the high frequencies I used two flare explosion sounds with lots of sizzle with one I added some FX. I used filtered and heavy modulated pitched down explosion sounds to add that dramatic rumble. And then a low rumble with a slap delay to enhance stereo width. I then added whoosh sounds with heavy Doppler FX on them and futuristic laser sounds with pitch-modulation to enhance the slowdown effect. Then I added a tonal layer with reversed metal and glass shatter sounds and added FX like a ring mod, pitched delays, .etc on them to add a initial harsh impact transient and then a tonal element, when the slow motion takes place.
Extending Plasma Wave
We are looking from a distance (POV of the enemies) how the plasma wave extends and approaches them. I wanted to emphasize the raw power and energy that was released at that moment and the sucking in motion when the energy wave expands towards us. My base layer was a heavy, filtered and distorted low thud sound. I added a synth bass sound to complement it. The first sounds goes from peak to low, and then I added a noisy reverberant whoosh and reverted it, so it goes from low to peak in the opposite motion. I added a sci-fi synth sound with rising pitch in the same direction to emphasize the feeling of being sucked into the expanding wave. Then the enemies disintegrated. I used a deep reverberant zap sound together with a sci-fi impact sound to emphasize the disintegration of the enemies at the end. I added a deep, punchy pulse sound with some reverb at the beginning of the wave to help lead the sound in. And for the expanding phase, I added some processed and reversed crow sounds that sound like chanting (wall of sound) and added an airy texture sound to make it more interesting and larger.
Cayde Stands Up
You hear all kinds of debris falling to the ground. Cyade is badly injured, but manages to stand up. I added some futuristic hangar ambiance backdrops and various layers of debris. Some with more reverb, other sound more detail to give depth to the scene. I didn’t want to give Cayde typical robot Foley. He is more human, agile, swift and should not sound too clumsy, even when he is badly injured. I used regular footsteps and cloth Foley that I’ve recorded for another project. I gave the steps a bit of weight, since he is so badly injured. I added some subtle servo motor sounds to symbolize the damage his exo-skeleton took, and added a futuristic version of a tinnitus ringing to emphasize the serious situation and disorientation after the explosion.