Alex Buchanan's
Sound Design Demo Reel
"The Blacksmith," created by Unity Technologies
"The Blacksmith takes place in a quasi-medieval fantasy world. We follow Völund, a mysterious blacksmith who holds arcane knowledge used in his magic. He has something he must accomplish, so he prepares to set out on a journey."
- From my imagination
For the cinematic part of the demo reel, I wanted to build on the dark undertone presented by the area where you are introduced. The background featured a low rumble and a hint of wind, setting the stage for a dark and gloomy view. The sound of the floating and glowing shards was created through Vital, a free wavetable synthesizer. Additionally, I manually timed the modulation of the sound effect to match the cinematic. All sound effects within the cabin have reverb to establish the space in which the Blacksmith is located. Any noises from the outside, such as the crow's call, the wolf's howl, and background wind, are filtered through a low-pass filter to enhance the immersion of our perspective inside the cabin. The same reverb from the sound effects was also applied to the Foley to maintain a consistent sense of space.
In the gameplay part of the demo reel, I implemented all the sounds through Wwise by Audiokinetic. I used the same background elements, but made them brighter through equalization. For pickup sound effects, I first identified sounds associated with each object, then layered them to match the item's characteristics. Additionally, I added a separate layer using a green glimmer sound created in Vital, which plays when you collect the items. This created a cohesive and recognizable pickup SFX. Lastly, the portal at the end of the stone path was created using the ANA 2 synthesizer. I modulated the brightness, giving this ethereal glow effect that conveys its stark contrast with the rest of the area.