Portfolio
Deep Space Dive
Project: Public Art Display (Animation)
Roles: Composer
Currently on display at Yagan Square, in Perth WA, “Deep Space Dive” is still one of my favourite pieces that I have written.
Jodi Johnson, a local graphic designer, was inspired by space and jellyfish when she created 8 images of celestial bodies combined with gelatenous creatures of the deep.
The piece was inspired by french romanticism and meditative synth wave music, and was a complete joy to write. You can find Jodis work on her instagram, @jodidazzles, and you can purchase printsof her work online.
Star Dance
Project: Public Art Display (Animation)
Roles: Composer
The idea of this piece was to capture the story of a man who, alone in his house, finds himself spirited away, dancing through space while listening to his music.
This piece was particularly fun to write, and I enjoyed the challenge of capturing a bold transition ina relatively short piece.
The animation artist, Elysha Chinn, is a Perth based artist, having recently completed her studies through the SAE institute there. Their work is on display at Yagan Square, and several updates are available on their instagram.
Subs Dive to Kill (SDTK)
Project: Student Game
Roles: Composer / Sound Designer / Producer
This project was originally part of my Diploma of Games Development through the SAE Institute in Perth.
While creating a submarine bullet hell, I took the opportunity to experiment more with adaptive music, ‘deep diving’ into FMod and really challenging my understanding of both musical composition and implementation using Unity and C#. This piece was intended to demonstrate the various layers which would be used in the game, ebbing and flowing in order to inform the player of the progress and relative safety.
This project was undertaken alongside Krystal McDonald (programmer), Daniel Pope (artist), and Thahn Hon (programmer).
One Last Day
Project: Game Makers Tool Kit (GMTK) Game Jam (2019)
Roles: Composer / Sound Designer
This piece was particularly enjoyable to create. The project, while entirely overscoped, aimed to capture a grounhog day scenario, where the player must stop the mad scientist from looping time indefinitely in an attempt to stop prevent the loss of their partner.
The piece was intended as adaptive music, adding and removing layers in response to the players progress, but was unable to be implemented completely since the game was not completed. The piece is intended to loop through once each time-loop, providing the player with audio cues as to their remaining time in each looped scenario.
This project was undertaken alongside Krystal McDonald (programmer), Josh Shinnick (programmer/story design), JoshMcCormick (programmer), Birdy Carrol (artist), Elleot Rolfe (artist/story design), Kimberly Smith (programmer), John Jackson (programmer), and Thahn Hon (programmer).
Escape from the Prison Planet
Project: GlobalGame Jam (2019)
Roles: Composer
At my first ever game jam, I partnered with a local perth developer, Liam Kinsella, to create mega-man-like game, where a scientist is abducted by aliens and must escape the ‘prison planet’.
Inspired by rock and funk, the funky bass lines in the battle theme are still some of my favourite pieces of writing. This particular game jam was my first experience working with Reaper, where I adopted a ‘sink or swim’ approach to learning a new DAW. Fortunately, I think it worked out for the best.
Although the game is not currently available, the tracks are all available on SoundCloud.
Spoopatron
Project: VR Roller Coaster
Roles: Composer / Sound Designer
Wirting music for a virtual reality rollercoaster is just as fun as it sounds. The project was undertaken with Frame VR, a Perth based VR company, and intended as an amusement ride at a local festival.
While the project was developed in Unity, the music and sound design were treated as though for a film. This lead to several challenges, such as event timing, since the scenes were frequently adjusted and the rollercoaster speed was variable until several hours before the first ‘passengers’ were aboard. Regardless, I am quite proud of the results, and can succesfully say that we provided some great entertainment.
This project was undertaken alongside Elspeth Brooks (artist), Ivan Ng (programmer), and Sam Grant (programmer).
Spider
Project: Short Film
Roles: Composer
Spider is a short film, directed by Hayley Lux, a local Perth director. The horror film features an unlikely meeting between two psychopaths, who unwittingly vie for dominance on the side of a dirt road at midnight.
Composing for this film, we took on an ‘adaptive music style’, akin to that used in the games industry. Composing a series of stems, we then placed these stems throughout the film, like a jigsaw puzzle, rather than writing music directly for each scene. While the technique has a lot of room for improvement, I believe that the overall result shows promise for future application.
Spider will be presented at several film festivals in 2019 and 2020, so keep an eye out!
Kids Health Network
Project: Podcast Series
Roles: Sound Designer / Audio Engineer
Perth GP, Dr. Andrew Leech, first approached me about creating a podcast series at the end of 2018. For the past year, we have created almost 3 seasons worth of content, gathering an ever growing community of listeners.
The series has frequently topped the ‘new and interesting’ listings on the Apple Store, and is currently under review by two publishing companies who wish to take it on further.
Working on this series, while enjoyable and informative, is always a welcome challenge, since every recording varies in quality, especially when guests are hosted online. This has given me many opportunities to grow and expand my editing skills, and I am quite proud of the success we have had so far.
Bunyip
Project: Radio Show (Student Project)
Roles: Foley Artist / Sound Designer / Audio Engineer
Originally developed as a student project, Bunyip is a radio show style sound environment. Featuring two young campers who find themselves the unfortunate victims of the mythical Australian Bunyip!
Creating and recording the foley and vocals for this project was incredible entertaining, and a wonderful experience. Hours of squishing melons, crunching dirt, screaming into microphones, and jumping on cars provided me with valuabel insight into the foley process, as well as giving me far more opportunity to practice my mixing and editing skills than I had originally anticipated.
All in all, working with Sasha Sclater, a local Perth Foley Artist, was one of the best sound experiences I have had to date.
