Pokimane's Stream Intro (Sound Design Commentary)

Preface: In the interest of upholding prior agreements, I will not be discussing anything related to my experience working with clients or any other professionals involved in any of the projects featured on this blog. This is purely about detailing my personal creative decisions while working on the project.

KSD here again! Back with another blog post!

Today we're going to be revisiting the Sound Design of Pokimane's Stream Intro!

CREDITS:

Sound Design/Editing

Sound Mixing

Sound Direction

Project Info & Video Link:

https://www.kickbacksounddesign.com/animation/pokimane-stream-intro

0:10 (Finding and creating extremely specific foley)

A character picking up headphones and putting them on seems relatively easy to design for, but a lot of the time you'll find that you don't have as many drag and drop solutions in your library as you thought. So you're forced to either record your own sounds, look for a specialty library or get creative with the sounds that you do have. If you choose to go the last route, you can start by looking for sources that share the same material and a similar size. It becomes a real test of your ability to draw sonic parallels between real world objects. This is a really powerful skill that is foundational to Sound Design, because the more substitutes for a sound you can identify, the more options you have to design with.

In the end I managed to source something for the leather ear pads, but the rest of the sounds were a mix of multiple plastic items ranging from containers, buckets, and a prop helmet.

0:19 (BONK)

This was actually the first shot I worked on, as I can't resist the allure of a funny bonk on the head. I recall laughing about how awkward the foley in this scene sounded with the music cut out. It goes to show that sound is just a single part of a greater whole and usually works in tandem with other mediums like music. I really enjoy getting to talk to composers for that reason, It's extremely helpful to have the opportunity to share workings with each other, so we can make decisions that compliment each others work, like a tightly choreographed dance.

0:33 (Giant Breaker Switch)

Every time I think of a large industrial sized light turning on, I can't help but hear that distinctive heavy clunk of a giant switch. I found it rather hard to find a quality sound for this wholesale, I did find a much lighter sounding electrical switch and pitched it down aggressively, then combined it with a heavily reverbed wood impact. You'd be surprised how far you can stretch simple tricks like reverb and pitch shifting to reshape a sound and change the way it's perceived by the audience. If I had to choose two foundational techniques out of my tool box, those two probably offer the most accessible possibilities for experimentation.

0:45 (Ejected)

When you have a director on a project, it's often not strictly necessary for you to have an extensive knowledge of your clients or the media they create. However, It certainly doesn't hurt to take an interest if you think there's something you can bring to the table. Knowing or researching the material often gives you the opportunity to include things based on that knowledge. Having known about Among Us is what allowed me to spot the reference to the ejection sequence in the visuals and bring that same level of authenticity to the sound. The sound itself is a chopped/sped up morse code signal.

1:04 (Sova's Bow)

Here's the part where I somewhat contradict my last point, hahah. I haven't played Valorant personally, but I did do some research on the kind of sounds this bow makes. In this specific case, the games sound effects are rather conservative (likely a conscious design choice to prevent fatigue from hearing it over and over) So I decided to take some creative liberty and ham it up a little for the close up shot, seeing as it's only going to play once. The physical movement of the bow is actually two samples of a metal drawer opening, I really liked the impression it gave of several sharp metal pieces moving in tandem. Then for the actual draw, there's a few elements to indicate tension. There's a sort of high pitch servo sound to imply the draw is somewhat mechanically assisted, as well as some tightly squeezed paper which acts nicely as a substitute for string tension. All culminating in a hefty release with a piercing whistle as it flies out of frame.

1:09 (Rocket launch)

I think I ended up with around 14 layers for the rocket. A few for the main blast, and the rest dedicated to the thrust. I sampled a few aerial vehicles and exhaust sounds to get it just right, then moved on to the more reactive elements to track with the sporadic trajectory of the rocket. Topping it off with a little panning left and right. I probably have more whooshes in my library than any other category of sound (we're talking thousands upon thousands) which can be a chore to sort through, as there's only so many ways you can describe a whoosh in words. But it's also incredibly satisfying to find just the right combination. I really like the whistling wind right before the rocket hits the camera.

That's all for today! As always, I hope you enjoyed and I'll be back with more soon! See you then!

KSD