Final Product Evaluation
I have had so much fun while working on this final project, and it has been a crucial growth towards me professional development in the music industry. As I have learnt many new lessons from’ my mistakes, successes and research. I am now going to be talking about what went well with my project and what I would have done differently doing the project again. For this evaluation I will be using the gibbs reflective cycle. On this page I have also done a Viva Voce.
Time management
During this final project my time management has been very effective due to my detailed time schedule I followed, I made this schedule in my proposal form and kept updating it and following it each session in order to achieve my weekly targets. This was very successful as I did not fall behind in work on more than one occasion, the one time I fell behind in work was when I underestimated how much music I had to compose. Furthermore making me have to re-organise my time management plan to compose an extra piece of music, However due to the detail of the plan and the strict schedule I got through this. One other example of good time management can be seen in the final boss theme, in the previous week I had to scrap the action theme from week 4 due to their being no space in the footage for it. However to avoid this week being a waste of time I used my staccato theme idea from this music block and put re-arranged it to fit inside the boss theme. This shows great time management and problem solving skills, as this meant I did not waste time in week 4 on an unused piece of music. One way my problem solving could be improved would be by making sure I completed all my weekly evaluations on the weekend to a high standard, as at the end of my project I have had to re-write these due to them lacking detail and correct phrasing. Furthermore doing these to a higher standard earlier in the project would have saved me time near the deadline and given me more time to re-read everything.
Arrangement
In general I am happy with the outcome of my practical work and how I composed it, this is because the action packed sequences of the game are filled with exciting rhythms and harmonic texture which accurately represents the thrill of the combat on screen. However there are many things I would improve in this arrangement, one thing that I would improve would be to add reverb onto the strings and brass. This is because there are moments when the instruments cut off very abruptly and the mix suddenly loses texture, I believe using reverb on these moments within the music would make the music sound more naturally between musical transitions and professional. However I did not think to do this until the re-watching the video at the final showcase. Furthermore to avoid this issue in the future I will make sure I am completely happy with my music before exporting it, furthermore making sure there are no mistakes or insecurities within the final bounce of my music.
One other thing I would improve within my music would be to compose more exciting percussive rhythms using a wider variety of drums such as; taikos, concert bass drums, ect. This is because I believe adding more rhythmic texture into the music would drive the action music into even more intensity, furthermore immersing the player into the game more effectively. However I could not do this as Logic is very limited when it comes to cinematic drums, as they mainly specialise in drum kits and latin percussion. Therefore if I had access to a percussion plug-in such as Berlin Percussion, I would use my research on composing percussive rhythms to make more interesting rhythms within my music.
My musical arrangement in general was very successful however as it professional full-fills its purpose as video game music. It does this by efficiently adapting to the gameplay actions on screen, for example by switching to combat music when the character enters combat or playing a triumphant stinger when the player retrieves a significant item. The harmony and tone of the music also accurately reflects on the dark and gloomy video game environment, while personifying the dangerous enemies on screen during battle. In conclusion the music blends naturally into the gameplay of the ‘Wwise Adventure Game’, and there is very little I would change about this project in terms of arrangement if I was to do this again.
Presentation
During this project I believe my presentation has been of very high quality, one way I think my presentation has been successful is in the video it’s self. This is because the quality of the footage is very high and runs very smoothly, furthermore making the viewing of this project very pleasurable to watch. Another way my presentation for this project was successful is because of it’s release in three formats (final showcase, YouTube, Instagram) making it very accessible to the public. The lack of promotion may have let the social media release down due to it’s low views, however the final showcase was very successful as it allowed over 150 people to view my project. The presentation of this was great as the music was played on 2 stereo speakers which immersed the audience in the music, as the gameplay was projected onto the stage. In conclusion the presentation of this work was very successful and to a high standard, however to improve this I would have posted my music on more social media platforms asking for feedback. However I was very nervous to do this as I worried people would be too harsh, however from this project I have learned that I need to put my music out on as many platforms as possible and prepare for positive and negative feedback.
Promotion
For this project I have been promoting my project on instagram in hopes to make my project reach a wide audience online. However this has been unsuccessful as not many people have viewed my product online nor given it a thumbs up, I believe I am to blame for this as I have not been regular with my uploads on instagram. This makes people less likely to interact with your page. Therefore if I was to do this project again I would being promoting my music from the beginning of the project by sharing little clips of music or pictures of me composing. One thing that went well with my promotion however was learning how to effectively promote professional, as I did research on digital marketing which made me learn professional marketing techniques online. Furthermore from this project I have picked up a new skill in promotion, that I will practice as I promote my music online more often.
Collaborations
For this project I collaborated with Paul Holmes on my digital design, through this collaboration I developed a YouTube thumbnail and a credits screen for my final showcase. This collaboration was very successful as the artwork I got out of this collaboration looked very professional and related to the dark theme of the video game. The credits screen also gave the gameplay video a very professional conclusion to the project, which looked very organised from the perpective of the audience. In conclusion this collaboration was very successful as it gave my project a more organised and professional look during the showcase, however in my thumbnail I initially wanted more detail. However due to the lack of time I did not get to add more detail into the thumbnail such as a person holding a torch, therefore if I was to do this project again I would begin the collaboration earlier in order to develop a higher quality YouTube thumbnail.
Professional Development
This project has been very crucial for myself as a musician as it has allowed me to grow a lot as a composer/musician and learn a lot of new techniques and lessons. One way I have grown as a composer is through my research on instrumental characteristics, this helped me understand how to arrange for an orchestra and furthermore make more emotional orchestral music. As an aspiring composer it is very important to understand the different timbres of each instrument within the orchestra, therefore this has helped me improve professionally as a musician. Another way I have professionally developed by effectively communicating with Paul for my artwork, one area where I have shown professional development was when I composed a word documents of cues I wanted in my end credits screen. This shows great planning and forward thinking when it comes to collaborations.
During my final project I hoped to programme my own music into the game using Wwise, however after learning how long it would take to learn this I decided to instead compose over already existing gameplay. However as a real life game composer you must be comfortable with using Wwise and programming your own music into the game, therefore in future I would like to learn how to programme my own music into video games using Wwise. To do this I will spend my own free time out of college researching how to do this, and practice this by composing music over other open source video games and programming the music into the game. Learning how to do this would look very good on my CV when applying for job roles in video game music, therefore this will be very beneficial for my long term music career.
One way I can improve my professionalism as a musician would be by getting more comfortable with presenting my project in front of an audience, as I was very nervous when presenting in the showcase furthermore leading to me missing details in my speech. As a musician it is very important to be confident in your own music, therefore I will push myself to become a more confident composer/presenter by performing music in front of larger crowds via gigs as this will allow me to get used to standing in front of crowds.
Viva Voce
Update: I misspoke when discussing how the instrumental arrangement of the brass could be improved. What went wrong was the I composed the brass to play multiple chords at the same time, when in reality brass instruments can only play one note at a time.
One thing I would improve that I failed to mention in my Viva Voce would be to add reverb onto the strings and brass when mixing my track, this is because their are moments were instruments such as the violin suddenly stop playing when they are in the front line of the music. This makes their drop out in the music sound very abrupt, therefore adding reverb onto these instruments would not only make the music flow more naturally but also create a sense of space within the music.
Source List
MindTools, n.d. Gibbs Reflection Cycle. [image] Available at: <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/reflective-cycle.htm> [Accessed 26 May 2022].