Portfolio - Person Meetup

📺 Not Enough (40K Comic Dub)

2024-06-05T00:00:00Z

“Rest brother… Not enough left of me… to save a second time…”

Around the start of the year, my friend Pyro sent me a comic based on Brother Ignis', a character from the Blood Angels Space Marine chapter in Warhammer 40,000. Since I had been dabbling with voice work around that time, the idea of dubbing the comic came to mind. While it would be a couple of months before I got around to doing this, it was a fun exercise in editing, sound design, and vocal work!

📺 Recall Protocol RP-106-N

2024-05-24T00:00:00Z

“In the event of a breach event by SCP-106, a human within the 10–25 years of age bracket will be prepped for recall, with the compromised containment cell being replaced and restored for use. […] an automated hydraulic press (“the femur breaker”) is used to injure the lure subject. The sound emitted by said subject will be transmitted over the site public address system.”

Back around the start of May, I was being encouraged by some friends of mine to audition for a voice acting role. While my line reads were good, there was a lingering question about whether I could yell. Fast-forward a couple of days, and my friend Cocodotts asks me out of the blue to “voice clip of [me] screaming in pain.”

Being an overachiever, I drew reference from the femur breaker scene in SCP: Containment Breach when abusing my vocal cords. Since I didn't know what Cocodotts would be doing with the waveform, I decided on editing the vocals into a proper recreation; if I was going to make my throat sore, those screams ought to be put to use!

📻 Overflowing Canvas

2023-07-18T00:00:00Z

Overflowing Canvas was a track inspired by the sneak peak for ULTRAKILL's first level in layer 7 (Violence) titled the "Garden of Forking Paths". While the WIP music is likely more fitting to the intended atmosphere of the level, I couldn't help but feel it needed to be more agressive.

Also worth mentioning I did the cover art myself! Since ULTRAKILL's soundtrack uses two tone silloetes for its cover art, I figured I'd try my hand at a similar approach. I dabbled in a tri-tone to give some perspective and depth on the Mannequin, whose pose is referenced from the final boss of Drakengard's ending E. Given it's the first real digital artwork I've done, I'm really proud of how it came out!

📻 Sn0wy Direct: Original Soundtrack

2023-06-06T00:00:00Z

When I was editing the first Sn0wy Direct episode, I found the ending stood out like a sore thumb to me. Not because of how everyone pilled into the stage to say their piece, but rather because of the ending music. For whatever reason, I didn't like the idea of replaying “Beneath the Mask” for the outro, and felt like something else needed to take its place there. It probably didn't help that Cocodotts was playing the track through his phone speaker, which was made even worse by me boosting his volume to 200%.

Honestly, I think I used Sn0wy Direct as an excuse to work on an old idea I had a while back, which was to make a collage of the various songs and melodies used within Sn0wy. It was another idea of mine that I was interested in doing, but simply didn't have the motivation to kick it off. That was the thought process going into “Sn0wed In”, which was intended to be the only song produced for the direct.

Of course, once you start something it's hard to stop, and much like the rest of the direct things went out of control very quickly. I ended up making 3 more tracks for the live event, with 2 short squelches (one of which I extended for the OST) and another full track that served as the backing track for my mental breakdown in the series. And of course, I made sure to include “Summer's Day”, the predominate melody found within Sn0wy, in some form or another.

Pretty much all the tracks on the OST were created for the live event in about a week or less. For the soundtrack release, however, I spent some additional time fixing up some tracks to address some minor issues I had with them. For instance, I ended up refining the baseline to “You Cry Together” as I felt the version that was originally released was a bit too flat in its sound. The only “unique” track to the OST would be “Surrounded”, which I extended further to serve as a reprise to “Sn0wed In”.

Despite having put off releasing it for so long, I'm really proud of what I managed to do with the soundtrack. It's just one of the multitude of reasons that I'm happy about having the chance to work on Sn0wy Direct.

🔗 I Never Learned To Speak

2023-05-15T00:00:00Z

Information

This overview focuses on the technical aspects of I never learned to speak, as I feel I've already said much of what I need to about its artistic intent within the page itself.

I never learned to speak was my final project for my Advanced Web Design class at the University of Lethbridge. Structured to make things easier for us at the end of the semester, the main goal of the assignment was to play around with (variable) fonts and CSS animations. It was a simple outline that was open to interpretation from us students, giving us a lot of leeway in what direction we took our projects. For me personally, I decided very early on that I wanted to take the design parameters very literally.

The first animation I began making for the page was that in “The Fall” section. The falling font in the final page is the result of multiple classes that modify a base animation property. This allowed me to vary how different words fell by using premade settings, rather than create multiple classes that would ultimately be variations of the same animation. The most difficult part in coding this section would've been figuring out how the styles would overwrite each other, as that was something that caught me off guard for a while. Ultimately, this section is most notable to me for setting the tone of the whole project, since the structure came to justify this animation.

The next notable section is “The Landing”, where I would redeem myself from the previous project and manage to properly implement offset-path. Previously, I felt like I was unable to control the position of the path to line up alongside another graphical element. It didn't help that my attempts to rescale the element proved futile in making any change to the path. Having spent some time experimenting with how offset-path works, I ended up realizing that I needed to apply the scaling to the property's path value rather than the container element itself. Once that was sorted, things fell smoothly into place for that section.

For the progressive animations, I again utilized Russell Samora & Jonathan Soma's fantastically simple enter-view library. I did my best to minimize my use of the library as much as possible, opting to use CSS where I could. As powerful as JavaScript is with libraries, I value sending as few scripts as possible to keep data transfers to a minimum. It also helps that more people could access the webpage as a result.

Overall, I never learned to speak was a great end to the semester for me. It was a project that challenged me both technically and creatively, and I'm proud of what I managed to accomplish in what was a relatively short time frame. ~~Even if it meant pulling an all-nighter to get it done.~~

🔮 Common Beat

2023-04-10T00:00:00Z

Common Beat was an interactive art piece created for the University of Lethbridge's Interaction Design course in the Spring 2023 semester. In it, two players drum to their own rhythms, represented as vibrant pulses. As the players continue drumming, a central tempo begins to emanate from between the two pulses. Barely existing at first, the tempo grows to overpower the inputs of the players until they choose not to play along anymore. Common Beat serves as a personal reflection on how mediation is a form of control over others, while still acknowledging its power to unite us together.

The concept behind Common Beat came from the theme of the assignment, which was “Collective Memory with a Subjective Twist.” From that mouthful, the first idea that came to mind was rhythm. We all work on our own tempos, and sometimes they don't align with others. My idea was then to have the player pulses generate a centre pulse that would be an average of the two inputs over some period of time. While the idea was good, I was later told that I had to posit the subjective twist in my work.

After spending some time thinking about it, I realized that my attempted dodge of addressing the subjective twist still addressed it. I realized that the medium of rhythm could be a way to express my feeling on mediation, a topic that I had been thinking about throughout the semester due to some personal revelations.

Without going too deep into details, mediation has been a significant part of my life and how I approach my interactions with others. It's what allows me to talk to people with varying differences in perspectives. That said, it's also a way I attempt to control situations that I can't do anything about. Bringing music into the equation, I'd argue a conductor serves the same role as a mediator. They allow performers to come together and perform even better, but that's assuming they're not acting like Terrence Fletcher.

The physical circuit I made for class

With those realizations in mind, I had a solid scope for the project. Instead of averaging player inputs as they made them, I'd just pulse a constant tempo as players continued sending inputs. From there, this project began relatively simple. I already had some code that did almost what I needed from another project, so I copied it over and adjusted the classes to better fit in with the assignment.

The physical side was even easier, as the Arduino circuit I needed boiled down to taking the states of two buttons. The problems I did have coding for the Arduino involved making it easier for Processing to clean up data sent onto the serial bus, but that was solved by including a tab character between pin readings. Assuming the last variable was sent out with println(), Processing's splitTokens() function would be able to break up the data into an easilly usable array! All I had to do was check if one index was true or false before triggering a pulse.

While this definately was a minor project in terms of workload for me, it was one that I still really appreciated. It gave me an opprotunity to revisit Processing, let me reflect and remind myself of my relationship with mediation, and allowed me to focus on other courses that needed my attention. Common Beat might not be much, but it was still a fun project that came around at the perfect time.

📺 Sn0wy Direct

2022-08-02T00:00:00Z

Sn0wy Direct was a ~~podcast~~ live show created to give the latest news and host discussions on wallaceprower's web-series called Sn0wy. And by give the latest news and host discussions, I mean spread misinformation and berate Wallace. This was another project I worked on with Cocodotts and Kalil, coming about spontaneously from Cocodotts asking me to record a stage VC he had set up in the Prower's House. I don't think any of us expected this project to take the direction it did, but it was a fantastic experience nevertheless.

During this project, I ended up focusing on post-production for nearly all the episodes. I ended up editing, cleaning up audio, and even composing a few tracks. The biggest focus for me, however, was the editing. It had been a while since I had done any video editing, and working on Sn0wy Direct gave me a chance to dust off those skills and spend time learning to use DaVinci Resolve; my planned video editor of choice. Moreover, I ended up regaining some confidence in my abilities, something that had been lost several years ago. This shouldn't be taken that there wasn't confusion and stress, but most of that came from worrying about what others think about the final result. Once I focused more on how I perceived the work-flow and the end result, I found myself more satisfied with what I put out.

This wouldn't have been possible without Cocodotts or Kalil, however. Cocodotts was an absolute carry for both me and Kalil during the directs with his solid improv and public speaking skills that kept things both moving forward and unpredictable. Kalil created all the artwork that shows up in the background, faithfully emulating the style seen in Sn0wy while also bringing it to a higher standard of quality. He also set the ground floor for the lore we created, which we would end up growing as we added on our own ideas to the mix.

Overall, Sn0wy Direct was a fantastic project to work on. I want to say thank you to everyone who supported it, whether it be on Discord, Soundcloud, or YouTube, as well as to those who contributed to it in one way or another. This was an enjoyable experience that taught me a lot, and I appreciate every bit of it.

🔗 Person Meetup (The Site)

2022-03-01T13:37:25Z

I initially wasn't sure about developing my own website. Despite having previously learned about web development both on my own and in university as well as discovering Neocities, it was something that I kept putting off for later. That is, until I saw NetworkChuck's video on making a website. While the rest of the video wasn't applicable to me, I found myself paying attention to the big 3 reasons Chuck gave for making a website; Standing out, making a difference, and creating opportunities.

While I had the confidence push I needed to set out making this site, I was still in university. That meant this idea would have to be set on the back-burner until I had a free moment. I ended up getting that sooner than expected, however, as my university would face a month long strike that started mid February. As soon as my final class finished, I dove head first into getting this site built using the limited knowledge of Eleventy I had at the time.

This website is still an ongoing project for me as I continue to expand, develop, and write content for it. Below are some articles I've written about the various things I learned during this process.

Ignore the JAM, Focus on the Bread: A Look at Streamlining Web Development

📻 Last Request

2022-02-02T00:00:00Z

My friends pulled up a WWE clip of Paul Bearer asking Kane to take out The Undertaker, specifically for the WOAH at the very end from the commentators. For some reason, Paul's speech appealed to me enough that I decided to make something to use that one voice clip in.

🔗 Frontier Corps.

2021-11-16T00:00:00Z

Developed as a university project, Frontier Corps. is a Titanfall/Apex Legends fansite. One minor note is that I used the site as a testing ground for figuring out Static Site Generators and deploying them to Neocities.

🎮 Office

2021-06-27T00:00:00Z

Don't go into the Portal 2 elevator at 3 AM, you'll end up in Home Depot hell.

Roy Berardo held a Home Depot themed mapping competition, where our submissions had to be based around doors and windows. Despite coming hot off the heels of barely surviving another competition, I decided to make something for this one as well. It didn't win the contest, but it achieved it's intended goal. Just look at these raving reviews!

This map hurt my brain

warning dont ply this while high on weed

примерно так и ходят за справкой в русской больнице

📻 Who Are You

2021-05-21T00:00:00Z

Initially created to be included within Rations as part of it's soundtrack, Who Are You was removed to further add to the cursed atmosphere of the skit. I held onto the project file, deciding later on to expand the minor melody into a full track.

📺 Rations

2021-04-22T00:00:00Z

Wandering for food in an apocalyptic landscape, a man comes across a self-proclaimed king who taunts them as he tells stories about the beginning of the end.

Rations was created for a university assignment, but leaving it at just that would be underselling it. Part of what makes it special to me is how involved some of my friends got in it's development, with them providing ideas and feedback that helped improve the final product. Beyond that, I feel Rations helped give me a ground work for doing more video editing in the future by two ways.

The first is that this was the first video I made in DaVinci Resolve. As of recent, it's become my main video editor of choice with how robust of a package it is for the low price of nothing. Compare that to VEGAS or Premiere where you have to pay an arm and a leg for a similar feature set. For my needs currently Resolve fits the bill perfectly, and Rations gave me an excuse to play around with the editor and figure out how to use it.

Secondly, Rations helped build my confidence. Seeing friends of mine help out and appreciate what I was making was something I needed. I was fretting for a while since whenever I tried to make a video it would fall apart during editing, leaving me discouraged. Rations helped me make the U-turn away from that mindset.

📻 Grass is Greener Today

2021-04-03T00:00:00Z

Grass is Greener Today was one of the tracks I created when I was first playing around with Digital Audio Workstations. I think the first half was initially made to play around with Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover Plugin, with the second half being me wanting to incorporate synths into the track. I ended up releasing it when I rediscovered the track's project file on my hard drive since it was decent.

📻 Felt

2021-01-29T00:00:00Z

I think the Soundcloud description summarizes this track well.

This came about pretty randomly. I was playing around with a piano patch I got recently and stumbled onto some chords that sounded nice. from there, I made this.

🎮 Abstract

2020-04-17T00:00:00Z

Founded while Zepheniah was still alive, this facility now has radio and missile launching capabilities in the present day. The reasoning for territory being undisputed being Mann Co. owning all assets to the building, until their recent development on an Australium based missile silo. Since then, the property has been split in half for both RED and BLU respectively. Capture will result in control of ~50km of land.

Abstract was made during the development of another Team Fortress 2 map as a reality check. I wanted to see if I could develop something - if anything - that was worthwhile to play on, with this map being provoked by feelings that I had been unable to create a solid, enjoyable map. I also developed it with myself in mind; did I enjoy playing on the map? That was the only opinion that mattered regarding the map's design, which was a stark contrast to my philosophy on the other map - that being to gather as much input from others as possible.

What came out was abstract, hence the name. The map is extremely close quarters with it's enclosed size, yet is open enough with its various flank routes to prevent strongholds. I managed to get a few 4's games on the map with friends, which showed that the map was enjoyable to others and worked in a (semi-)competitive setting.

To me, Abstract represents the idea that developers should focus on their ideas first. To others I imagine it's just a weird map, and that's fine. I think its fun to play on, and that's all that matters.

📺 What do people think about VR?

2020-03-21T00:00:00Z

When Half-Life: Alyx got announced, I noticed that the Steam Discussions were all focused on the fact that it was a Half-Life game in VR. Seeing the heat in some discussions, I took to making my own thread with the following question:

Forget Half Life, what do you guys think of VR? Is it the next step forward? Something that merges two realities that should be far apart? Simply too expensive for you?

I got a lot of insight from that thread, which pushed me to compile all those view points into a video that would be found easier than a Steam Discussions thread.

🎮 Addiction

2019-11-15T00:00:00Z

Test results seemed to suffer when subjects were looking at or within the confines of a maintenance area. Currently, there is no reason as to why this happens, with the best theory being the magnitude and endlessness of the environment get in the test subject's head.

I am addicted (pun intended) to Portal 2's mechanical areas. I love the twisting pipes, the catwalks, the void boxes; everything about them appeals to me aesthetically. While that love of them is great, it's also extremely dangerous when I have access to mapping tools.

The heel to showing off mechanical areas - especially those close to the player's proximity - is how much effort they require to pull off. Depending on how open of a space you're giving the player to move around, your potential workload skyrockets if you want to create a believable location that feels as if it's more than just boxes floating around. That requires a minimum level of detailing that serves multiple purposes, including:

Making the location appear bigger than it's actual size
Preventing players falling to their deaths from seeing any nodraw textures
Making the space feel lived in despite its emptiness.

Not all mechanical areas have to be open. Valve has several areas in the main campaign where they either keep things close quarters, contain the level to within a box, or even combine the two. This meant Valve had less detailing they needed to do game wide, and indirectly let moments like reaching the Central Core have a greater emotional impact.

When you're making something for the workshop, however, the biggest thing on your mind is "how cool does this look?" I don't want to phrase that as a problem as that thought drives what you end up creating, but at least for me it's always short sighted in how to incorporate mechanical areas (assuming they're needed at all). Ultimately, I put it most bluntly in the map's description...

This map would have come out sooner if I [...] decided not to add a pointless BTS area to the map. But I CAN'T HELP MYSELF THE STYLE IS SO GOOD.

🎮 Separation

2019-04-25T00:00:00Z

[Insert Test Chamber Advisory Message Here]

I built this test to focus on puzzle design, something I believed I could use some work on. Shoutout's to the speedrunners who took this test down to ~26 seconds, especially to grapefruit who provided some good feedback on what I could have done better to make the test less breakable.

🎮 Farlands

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

In an attempt to escape from Wheatley, you happen to come across another vault door. Seems like it's the only way out...

Farlands was developed for Thinking With Portals's third mapping competition and was one of my most popular Portal 2 maps, which probably could be explained because of it's inclusion of Wheatley. It still remains as one of my most ambitious maps due to it's scale and scope alone. It was a challenging map to deliver with me unable to compile it at the very end, all the while feeling a time crunch with a deadline fast approaching.

🎮 Tracted

2018-11-30T00:00:00Z

Just a standard testing [chamber]. Nothing special.

🎮 Detour

2018-09-01T00:00:00Z

Dang sparking door, now I got to do some dumb tests with even more doors.

The concept of Detour was one that I had spent many months working on. The idea of switching test tracks appealed to me, with the first edits I ever made in Hammer based around this idea. It took 3 seperate attempts, however, before this map was finalized. That's without mentioning the several bumps along the way. I go into more detail about Detour's development in Out of Bounds.

🎮 Laser Construction

2017-07-05T00:00:00Z

Just because it's under construction, doesn't mean we can't make science!

Laser Construction was the first custom map I released that was made in Valve's Hammer Editor for Portal 2. I had spent the past few months working with the editor, trying to make another map, when Thinking With Portals held a comeback contest after being down for several years. I also briefly mention my experience building this map in Out of Bounds.