Anton Pimenov

This excerpt from The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) was sound-designed from scratch in Pro Tools to demonstrate the creation of natural, film-realistic ambient soundscapes. All material was sourced from free libraries. Sounds were tightly synchronized to picture, immersed in the reverb of each environment using Audio Ease Altiverb, and automated for level, panning, EQ, and reverb. Certain sounds were cleaned of noise and artifacts in iZotope RX, equalized with FabFilter Pro-Q 4, and transient-processed using Native Instruments Transient Master. Specific sounds, such as the paint roller and footsteps, were also time-warped to match on-screen motion. The final master was processed through the Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain and limited with FabFilter Pro-L2 to meet EBU R128 standards (−23 LUFS integrated, −1 dBTP).

After receiving the AAF project containing ambiences, Foley, SFX, voice tracks, and music, I started working on the audio in Nuendo. I did the audio editing, added automations, and applied various types of processing such as EQ, dynamics, spatialization and distortion. The narrator’s voice was mixed to match the director’s intent.

This was my first coursework project as a sound designer, created in Reaper. The challenge was to capture the atmosphere and mood using the provided sound libraries. The project contained 128 tracks, including original music, textures and noise elements, everything from the library. For each scene, I developed detailed sounds and textures as if the trailer were cut from a full-length movie. I spent about two weeks working on it at a slow pace.

This short video sample was created in Reaper for a university assignment focused on realistic sound design. The task was to build a natural soundscape from the camera’s perspective using a provided sound library, with pitch and volume automation applied to enhance the realism of the passing car.

I aimed for high audio fidelity, but given the project's technical constraints and the programming languages used, this represents the most cost-effective audio result achievable. Occasionally, brief micro-loads during gameplay prevent certain sounds from playing; this behavior stems from the project's architecture and cannot be fixed in the current build. Similarly, some sound elements I wanted to add remain unimplemented due to the same project-specific limitations.

About the game: The game is created for the top CIS Twitch streamers. It is a two-month real-time strategy event in which streamers play the game, and they need to complete other games to make a move in our game. Streamers can upgrade bases, complete quests, interact with items and inventory, recruit partners into a family, capture territories, and more.

About game development: The game is developed on the Unity engine, using WebGL, React, Electron and Chromium. You can follow the event with general information via Discord, Telegram and Twitch bots, the Twitch extension, and the website. The development team consists of about 15 people.

My duties: I served as Sound Designer and Music Editor.

As Music Editor, I sourced background music from Audio Jungle to match the game's style (swing-jazz of the 1930s–1940s) and ensured it fit the atmosphere and the voice-overs, whether happy or sad in tone.

As Sound Designer, I created the game's sound design, partially integrated sounds into Unity (including scripting), and edited, mixed and cleaned up 869 voice-over tracks.

Work performed: audio editing, cleaning and voice mixing.

All VO material was sourced from the MGE game. The examples shown are only a selection of 869 VOs of different voices and characters (most are in the Meetings category).