Community Spotlight ~ The Sights and Sounds of Melchior

This week’s Community Spotlight shines on the very talented Melchiormeijer!  Not only has he provided us with some pretty amazing Unity Art Assets for the game, but now he is wowing us with his SFX work!  I had a chance to interview him earlier this month, and I thought you guys would love getting to know him a bit more just as much as much as I did!

FireLotus:  If you were an NPC in Shroud of the Avatar, how would describe yourself?

Melchior:  Well, if you would be looking for that NPC for some specific reason he would probably be the hardest to find in the game. Not because he’s hiding, but because he’s off doing something different every time you log in. He’s interested in almost anything, can be busy with the smallest insignificant thing for hours until it’s perfect. If something seems to be impossible to solve, this guy would find the weirdest way to solve it. BUT he WILL solve it.

Same thing when I’m working or creating 3D and sound assets for SotA. i can tweak some things on a small insignificant item that is almost too small to actually see. Like my bobbers for instance  . One of them is a cork with some letters on it. You will probably never be able to read those letters, but i spent WAY too much time on them to get them perfect.

Maybe that’s the whole reason why I chose to make sound engineering / foley , sound design and 3d as my job and hobby…. Because basically , you really HAVE to be a perfectionist in order to get some results. If you are sloppy in the beginning of your production , you will spend / waste a LOT of time fixing what you did wrong in the rest of the pipeline. And the end result will never be as satisfying as when you get every step in the process as good as you can. And i will finish the thing i’m working on even if it takes me to 4 am in the morning. I know i have to, because if i stop, i will probably begin with something new or do something completely different the next day.

It’s kind of a paradox when i think about it. The shortest way i could describe myself is an easily distracted perfectionist :/  I’s also the NPC that might annoy some because he’s that guy that laughs the loudest at his own jokes and can be a bit of an attention seeker and maybe even a bit of a gloater at times. Let’s just say that humility is not my strongest virtue.

FireLotus:  What do you think sets your contribution to Shroud apart from the rest?

Melchior:  Wow, let’s see… I think my Sound effects as well as my 3d work sets me apart from the rest – and i quote Chris on this – because I create stuff that they didn’t ask for but they DO end up needing it. In the high budget professional industry i can’t be doing that of course, because everything has to be exactly as planned.

In this case however, the game is still in development and all new ideas are welcome and those new ideas will hopefully help the game get as versatile as possible.

If you look at the way my sound effects are made I will try to make everything from scratch. The –non official- necromancer [ link ] http://www.avastudios.com/music/necroSpell01.mp3 [link ]spell is made from my voice layered from 10 different takes and vocal sounds , supported by the rumble of a large plastic sheet that protects wooden floors from desk chairs

Right now I’m going to work on some different sounds for the game, including some weapon swings, impacts, spell effects and building related sounds.

Ambient sounds will be made from scratch by either recording the sound of the actual source itself, or by recording something that closely resembles it ( i haven’t found a dragon to record yet). A lot of magical effects and unnatural items will be simulated with all my sound design and synthesizer plug – ins that i own.

It’s a brilliant excuse to make a mess too! i will be making some disgusting sounds for the game so i will be squashing tomatoes, chopping up melons, tearing up celery sticks and braking a large amount of carrots! I might even show you a behind the scenes video if you guys want

I am fortunate enough to record this all on top of the line equipment, because over the years i have collected some pretty awesome tools for recording and mixing and acquired all the professional tools for making 3d assets.

FireLotus:  What are YOU most looking forward to in Shroud of the Avatar?

Melchior:  Here’s the gloating part of me wanting to say that probably the first thing I’m going to do is hold my own personal scavenger hunt to find all my uploaded items haha! But the thing i most look forward to in Shroud of the Avatar will be the entire experience really. Playing a Lord British production together with people that share the same passion about his vision in on – and offline gaming. Actually being able to help create this new world is something i never would have expected, so I’m glad and honored that i can participate.

Do you know someone who is doing amazing things in our community?  Then drop me a line at community@portalarium.com and introduce us.  Who know, maybe they’ll be featured in our next Community Spotlight!