sonofableep

as i’ve made mention before, the sound system on my last game was…ah…less than robust.  as such, the list of things we couldn’t do was longer than the list of things we could.  and though that sucked by-and-large, it also kept things simple, albeit in a rather perverse way.  we often didn’t even attempt to support Complicated Audio Feature X, because odds were Complicated Audio Feature X was well outside the capabilities of the tools at hand.

hey, what a time-saver!  we don’t have to write up a design, interface with other teams, hire additional personnel, produce the assets, integrate the assets, iterate and troubleshoot the assets associated with Feature X!  we can simply shrug and say, “sorry, Feature X is a non-starter”.  huzzah!  bullet dodged!  defeat snatched from the jaws of victory!  /sadface.

nowadays, i have quite the opposite problem.  the combination of sound system, internal tools, and smartypants code monkeys means we can do *anything*.  i can soar as high as my imagination dares!  i can dig my grave as deep as my unfocussed vision will allow!  so now…i gotta be careful.

i asked for – and received just this week (oooh i’m giddy as a schoolgirl) – the ability to edit animations directly.  so now the audio team – not animators – is responsible for placing audio-triggering tags on specific frames, auditioning them with sound in realtime, scrubbing through the anim, soloing up tags, etc.  so now a given “idle” anim for a given critter can be laden (or overladen) with numerous “step”, “shuffle”, “huff”, “growl”, “limb”, “everythingbutthekitchensink” tags.  henceforth as that sucker idles, all sorts of lovely, subtle racket can be heard.  awesome.  it’s what i’ve always wanted.

and i’m sure animators are as joyous about not doing this work as i am about taking it on.  no more will they have to hear me going, “hey animator guy, i need a ‘jump’ tag here…(a week later)…no, i need to you scoot it back a couple frames…(a week later)…no, wait, scoot it *up* a couple frames…(a week later)…no, wait, can you change it from ‘jump’ to ‘leap’?…(a week later)…hrlghhrlghhrlgh (the sound of my windpipe being crushed by the hand of an exasperated animator)”.

but now i have to step back for a moment and wrestle with the Big Picture.  how far down this rabbit hole are we going to go?  how many anims are deserving of this level of audio detail?  which ones?  what’s the list of supported tags going to look like?  who’s going to create all the sounds for those tags?  and *when*?  what’s the pipeline between the animators & audio going to be like, so we’re in constant sync regarding animation version control?  i was looking at the animation list for a typical character today – the loooooooong animation list – and it brought all this into stark relief.  hey, you asked for it.  you got it.  deal with it.

still.  i *am* giddy as a schoolgirl…cuz it really is so suh-weet.  and i’ve been waiting for it for oh-so-long.

hey, funny coincidence.  “option paralysis” is not only what i’m in the throes of, but it’s the new record from Dillinger Escape Plan, whom i saw last night.  well…i didn’t so much “see” them, as i was rendered senseless by them.  this morning i was nursing a mild case of post-traumatic shellshock…half deaf and replying to coworkers with only blank stares.  but by lunch it had worn off and i was gleefully building an all DEP playlist…