#8. Designing Creatures for Metro Exodus

As explained in my previous post, "A Quiet Place" has taught me how powerful the world of sound can be, and how Foley artists and recordists are called to think outside of the box to create unique sound.

Following their recording techniques examples, I have recorded spot effects for creatures on the snow, twisting a lettuce and a celery together, then heavy processing the result on Dehumaniser 2 to create a terrific jaws’ sound in the act of eating a human being.

The movie "I am legend" was to me a great starting point to experiment with creature’s vocalisation.

Despite Dehumaniser 2 working really well in real time processing and allowing me to perform a character altering my voice, the result achieved was not enough.

I was looking for nuances, and I often exported and imported clips in Pro tools with a higher sample rate allowing the daw to read them at a slower time to create the desired effect. Screaming pigs, seagulls, and walruses, have been used for the purpose.

Click on the picture to listen to Resident Evil 7's team interview

I also felt stimulated by audio director Wataru Hachisako's words, and by Resident Evil 7 team approach and how they had been on the same page since pre-production. Hachisako underlines how ambient sounds are crucial to place the audience in a specific spot and make them feel part of the fiction realm.

Click on the picture to listen to Lee Walpole interview.

I was also inspired by a podcast about the movie "Aeronauts", where re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor Lee Walpole explains how, in order to achieve a realistic air balloon, he started sound breaking down the object in major components, considering them leading ingredients for the scene purpose and using at least five layers.

With these concepts in mind, I felt so stimulated that I built the majority of my spot effects, such as the train, the gathering spot, even the backgrounds, piece by piece. This allowed me to get to levels of sound that I had never reached before.