This is an audio design exercise I did for the trailer of Snowbreak: Containment Zone, Operation Ymir. I have never done audio design for a sci-fi or war-themed game before, so this project is not only a technical challenge for me, but also a breakthrough and improvement in my understanding of style and production ability.

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The overall tone of Snowbreak: Containment Zone is a military sci-fi style of "near future", "apocalypse" and "high-tech". Therefore, in terms of the style control of sound effects, I always focus on "metal texture", "sense of power" and "sense of tactics", and strive to create an oppressive atmosphere and a sense of future technology under the background of doomsday. In order to reflect the rhythm of "interweaving tension and calmness", I constructed two parallel sound effect logic clues:

External conflict: such as gunshots, explosions, thruster sounds, etc., emphasizing instantaneous impact and action rhythm;

Internal atmosphere: such as character skills, electronic ambient sounds, energy devices, background music, etc., responsible for building a sense of space and future.

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These two types of sounds complement each other and jointly support the advancement of the picture rhythm and the progression of emotions. In the design, I consciously avoided overly realistic explosions and gun sounds, and tended to use layered synthesizers, low-frequency pulses and noise textures to create a more technological auditory experience. For example, in the sniper section, I tried the real Barrett hit sound effect at first, but found that the rhythm was weakened. In the end, I chose a more concentrated and purer energy pulse sound, which not only fits the game art, but also enhances the hit feedback when the skill is released.

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For example, in the section where the character "Lyfe Bestla" uses the ultimate move, I superimposed lightning high-frequency sound, energy gathering low-frequency, and other sound effects. Through the rapid rise of Pitch Shift, envelope stretching, and spatial tail sound processing, this action has both the oppressive feeling of lightning and does not lose the technological clarity.

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All materials were processed uniformly after entering DAW (Logic Pro). Flex Time is used to accurately match the rhythm of the picture, and the gain tool and gradient envelope are used to modify the start and end, so that each sound effect is clear and natural, avoiding sudden cuts or volume jumps. The trailer has a tight rhythm and frequent cuts, so I made a lot of optimizations to the "rhythm sensitivity" to ensure that the sound effects can be "stuck" without being abrupt.

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In the mixing stage, I used Track Stack for classification and track management, such as guns and energy attacks in one group, ambient sounds in one group, and skills and UI feedback sounds in one group. This allows me to adjust the EQ and reverberation for each type of element separately, so as to grasp the overall hierarchical relationship more efficiently. In order to enhance the three-dimensional sense and the degree of picture integration, I used Space Designer to add controlled reverberation. At the end of the character's take-off, landing, and rushing, I added a small amount of reverberation and wind noise to enhance the dynamics while also expanding the depth of the space.

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In addition, I added dynamic processing such as volume automation and sound and image offset to multiple clips. For example, during the skill casting process, the low-frequency elements are slightly transitioned from the left and right channels to simulate the "energy concentration" process, thereby enhancing the audience's sense of substitution.

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In the whole process, the most difficult thing is not the technical problem, but the "style judgment" and "superposition trade-off". Many materials are wonderful when they are listened to separately, but when they appear together, problems such as frequency band stacking and dynamic conflict are prone to occur. Therefore, I conducted a lot of trial and error and regression. From material screening, editing, reverberation control, frequency band cleaning to final output, every detail was optimized for multiple rounds, and finally presented a sound effect version that closely fits the picture and is full of futuristic tactical atmosphere.

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For the background music, I directly used the original soundtrack OST of the game. The sound texture and the sound effects I designed are naturally integrated, and no additional intervention is required to form a whole.

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In general, this sound effect exercise not only improved my understanding of the "high-tech + war" theme, but also exercised my comprehensive judgment ability of rhythm, space, and frequency. Although most of the materials come from the sound effect library, they are given new rhythms and expressiveness belonging to this work in my redesign and post-processing.