Week 13

Others did their presentations this week. Personally I wasn’t too interested in most of them because very few of them addressed the idea to me that they could possibly change (however small the chance) the industry they were talking about.

For example, take Caitlin’s presentation where she talked about the state of the animation industry. I didn’t really see her mentioning anything other than Disney and YouTube Animators in the presentation. I feel she failed the flesh out her argument to the industry. She fixated on Disney as oppose to using it as an example to an end. I could pick out a few studios in the presentation that didn’t fit her mold (I didn’t bring this up in the lecture because I didn’t want to deconstruct her whole argument in front of her which would have been cruel and confronting). Laika for instance are one of the last stop motion animation studios (this is the one I thought of during the presentation), Pixar is another huge studio and Studio Trigger has done some excellent work that also breaks Caitlin’s mold which funnily enough falls into the Bechdel Test.

Laika Studios

I enjoyed Aidin’s idea or an AR theater experience last week. The concept of that, however slim the chance of it actually changing the game/industry, was an interesting one.

I hope the guy that was sick in his presentation is doing well.

I look forward to seeing you when I start work on my Major project in the future.

Weeks 12

CIM 112.3 Presentations

This week I presented my finding so far on the Google Stadia.

After presenting what I had so far I found most of the class were engaged and asked a few clarifying questions. From these I know that next time I will need to:-

  • Use simpler language to help those listening understand the technology. Perhaps a diagram may have explained it better than I articulated.

  • Break down how this may affect related industries differently. A the time I hadn’t looked to much into it, however, This could change the methods of how we stream as well. With such a possible popular device we could see the rise of purpose built streaming devices (either built into TV’s or standalone) which could decimate the current game console hardware industry.

The last presentation was a look into VR in gaming and how we have gone from the NES to the LABO VR. It was interesting in both the fact of the technologies growth and the fact she thought it will be a game changer in the future. I don’t think VR will change the industry vastly. I see it as more of a stepping stone technology to the next big thing, whatever that may be (full dive environments?).

Lesson was unfortunately shorter than usual because we thought more people would be presenting this week.

Week 11

CIM 115.3 Milestone

This week we shared some of our predictions of future game changers. The contents of the shared document are below:

Creative content that questions what skill set we will need in the future

3D film clips – Reeps One: Does Not Exist – VR Beatbox with VR sound

Awake VR – episode 1 

Audreio - Plugin for any DAW that streams directly to IOS devices - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duxXPxW9bVs (4:30min starting point)

Facebook 360 Workstation - for creating 360 Audio https://facebook360.fb.com/spatial-workstation/

Google Stadia (games streamed) - 

Music samples created by AI https://magenta.tensorflow.org/ 

Music made by Artificial Intelligence https://www.aiva.ai/

Pro Tools online Collaboration https://www.avid.com/pro-tools/cloud-collaboration

I don’t think many in the listing above will change the game in any meaningful way. My addition, the Google Stadia, has the best chance of this I believe. This is because for a game changer to be successful in changing the game it needs to either on or both of:

  • Release with commercial success and backing. For example, Steam came off the back of Half-Life 2 which was game of the year for that year and changed the game in and of itself. or

  • Change the industry landscape so dramatically you could almost never look back. Like how cars revolutionized travel or the microphone, recording.

After the break we looked at strategising and planning to be game changers in the future. We started with the SMART acronym.

  • S - Specific - A well defined goal or a target to achieve

  • M - Measurable - A measure to be able to see both the completion of said goal/target. This can include milestones and progression.

  • A - Achievable - The goal is within our means, but not just personally, as in to say with our means to get accomplished. We could enlist help towards our stated goal for example or seek education to better achieve the goal.

  • R - Relevant - The goal we have set is relevant in the context to what we want to achieve in a grander scheme. i.e. life goals.

  • T - Time Bound - We set out our milestones and target to be achieved within a set time frame. This staves off procrastination and sets us up for the future where we might have targets to meet within a set time frame.

I have used a similar model to this in the past. For example, currently I edit my Friends podcast (WCIA). I do this so I put myself in a position where I have to have set deliverables in our Google drive ready for upload before Monday release. This has helped me in not becoming apathetic towards my aspirations to work in audio. It also helps refine my pro tools workflow to a point so I can edit to the same high quality but in a reduced time frame. It has also had the added bonus of having me set up a small studio setup for them to record into as oppose to the USB microphone setup they had prior.

Next week we present. I’ll have to build up my PowerPoint for my topic, Google Stadia, and how it may change the gaming industry in the future.


Week 10

CIM 115.3 Future Game Changer

Elevator Pitch

We all had to practice a quick elevator pitch to each other. I pitched a quick attack to a radio rep for “Weird Crap In Australia”. My partner pitched her Idea of . game where you are a human “training” your human

Discipline Specific Review of Industry Timeline

Audio Engineering

That image above is better than any I think I could have put together in the time I had to create a timeline.

AI

AI was addressed in the lesson. I thought it was interesting on how a lot oft he class approach AI created art. Once they know it was created by a machine they dismiss it as not having intended emotion. I see it differently. No matter who made the art the meaning comes from the emotion it evokes from you, the audience.

Week 9

CIM 115.2 Presentations

This week was a little weird. Because of the timing change in the assessment due dates we essentially had another week to present our assessments. Some of the assessments were interesting. The shift from asmr/binaural audio to software based ambient 3d (“8D”) audio was interesting. For an earlier Tri I worked with creating and re-convoluting my own reverb from scratch using sine wave sweeps.

The look into Spotify as a streaming platform was interesting as well. How even though it’s a multi billion empire it has not turned a profit as of yet.

My work with Altiverb a convolution reverb

My work with Altiverb a convolution reverb

CIM 115.3 Milestone 1

www.xlr8r.com

Although I’ve never heard of it. We’ve been told this is where the “tastemakers” listen to new tunes. Although I am skeptical of it’s influence over the larger zeitgeist of culture.

https://boomkat.com

Another that was brought up as a a place where obscure music is presented.

We were asked to find platforms that people that inspire us use. I found

  • One I edit for “Weird Crap In Australia” uses Spreaker to distribute the podcast to each platform that they release on. To compliment their (Matt & Holly’s) revenue stream they have a website and they sell merchandise on redbubble and teepublic. They also have a Patreon with some exclusive content available to those who donate $5 or more a month. To make themselves visible they post regularly to instagram and facebook to “beat the algorithm.

  • One I looked up was Dan Avidan (Danny Sexbang). I know him through his exploits on Game Grumps and some of his work as a singer. He has successfully worked to diverify his income through may streams including:

    • Prolific on Social Media maintaining constant engagement with his audience. Including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and has been seen doing an IAMA on reddit.

    • Co-working with others groups like TWRP while maintaining his individual name (feat Dan Avidan)

    • High posting onto Youtube (this is known in the Youtube community to help a channel thrive)

    • He has appeared on many other Youtube channels like “Reacts” to make himself known to possible new audience.

Starlight Brigade. A work Dan Avidan was apart of.

Starlight Brigade. A work Dan Avidan was apart of.

We looked into distribution platforms and scheduling tools. They were interesting. I know Matt and Holly (Weird Crap In Australia) that I mentioned earlier use Spreaker to distribute their podcast. The idea of scheduling social media posts makes a lot of sense to me as it allows time at actually make that creative venture rather than spend all my time posting about it.

Services like Hootsuite and Social Report would make maintaining a presence on . social media easier.

USP =Unique Selling Proposition

Elevator Pitches have been done in the earlier part of the audio course. I prefer the terminology of KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid which reflects the point in the video shown to us even quicker than it presented it.

Week 8

CIM115.2 Presentation/Reflection

I'm writing this first part before the presentation. Over the week I’ve been getting annoyed with my presentation so I’ve shifted my Aim to the gaming industry in regards to the middle ground of games and how the industry only appears to be AAA or indie. It’s actually proving to be quite interesting. My oly hope is that with this topic it is a bit more dated than my original products to services pitch.

Hope all goes well.

The presentation went reasonably well. In future I need to stick closer to my points. Most of the presentations were interesting. I particularly liked Musicoin, AI and the Psychovsky presentations.

Week 7

CIM 115.2

Although we were told we were suppose to have a substitute. No one showed to teach the lecture. Over the course of an hour all bar myself and 2 others left the room. Over the next hours I talked among the few remaining and left myself at around 7:30pm.

Throughout the week I’ve haven’t had as much time as I would have liked to devote to my studies (full time hours at work…yay). I have looked over some of my ideas and notes and settled on my presentation premise.

“How we no longer own our entertainment. Moving from products to services”

With this premise I want to compare studios to small up and starts and their delivery methods.

Week 6

CIM 115.2

Earlier in the week we were sent an email with links to reports on the states of the industries we would be potentially involved in.

I printed the Audio reports and looked at some of the game industry ones as well. The music industry’s projection look like a good recovery from the piracy of the early 2000’s. Though I don’t see any funding projects put out by the government like they do with film and games (more film)

In class we went through this.

Towards the end of the lesson a few of us got talking about our assessment/presentation on current game changers. I think I might have to rethink my approach into the topic I will use. Initially I wanted to go for a conceptual change in industry. I.e. from games as products to games as a service.

Thinking about it. The processes we use to consume thing are changing. With the rise of funding services like Patreon and YouTube introducing a channel membership to further support creators we are seeing a shift from the idea of “as a product” to “as a service”. Even the idea of kickstarter games being released in beta (or even alpha).