Tabula Rasa : Illumination - Andrew

Favorite games
First 3 in the XCOM series, Resident Evil series, Heroes of Might & Magic III, Elite, Ultima 7 + Serpent Isle, Ultima Underworld II, Warcraft II, Starcraft, Doom I & II, Blood, Call of Duty, Captive, Dungeon Master, Duke Nukem 3D, Hexen, Half Life, GTA 3, Todd's Adventures in Slimeworld, Halo, System Shock 1 & 2, World of Warcraft

Favorite books
The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien Animal Farm - George Orwell The Illiad - Homer The Time Machine - H.G. Wells A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens The original Conan stories - Robert E. Howard The Eternal Champion series - Michael Morcock The Art of War - Sun Tzu I, Robot - Isaac Asimov The ABC Warriors - comic strip in 2000AD

Favorite movies
Alien, Aliens, Terminator 1 & 2, 12 Angry men, Seven Samurai, Hard Boiled, Sonatine, Training Day, Die Hard, Predator, The Matrix, LOTR series, Aeon Flux series, Spooky Encounters, Ghost in the Shell 1 & 2 + Stand Alone Complex series, Total Recall, The Good the Bad & the Ugly, Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, 8 ½, Last Year at Marienbad, Army of Darkness, Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now, Robocop, The Thing, They Live, Rollerball, Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels, Forbidden Planet, Dodgeball, Team America: World Police, American Beauty, From Dusk till Dawn, Circle of Iron.

Favorite websites
http://www.imdb.com/ http://www.ebay.com/ http://www.Amazon.com/ http://www.Dictionary.com http://www.filmsound.org/ http://www.Pricegrabber.com http://www.gamasutra.com/ http://www.gamesindustry.biz/ http://www.gamerankings.com/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/ www.the-underdogs.org/

Favorite bands or songs
Booker T and the MGs, Ultravox, John Foxx, Coldplay, YMO, Beach Boys, Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Silvestri, Devo, B52s, Lenny Kravitz, Tim Follin, Simple Minds, The Associates.

Favorite quote or personal mantra
'Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.' - Winston Churchill

Previous projects
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, NBA Jam, Turok Evolution, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion, Armorines Project S.W.A.R.M., Re-Volt, Extreme-G 2, Forsaken, Batman & Robin, Alien Trilogy, Die Hard Trilogy, Batman Forever, Primal Rage, Mortal Kombat, .and many more

Describe your job
It has varied depending on the company, the structure of the audio department and the project in question, but more or less my duties on a game have at one time included or currently include the following:

To meet with the game's lead designer, read through the game design and produce an initial sound specification comprising sound effects, speech and music requirements. To produce a technical audio design document from the sound effects specification, providing specific details of each sound effect in the game. To produce a schedule of all audio work for the project. To design original sound effects as per the sound effects design document. This may include combining audio elements created by Foley or field recordings, pre-recorded source material and from synthesis where appropriate. To provide full and up-to-date details on sound requirements for other sound designers working on the game, if applicable. To work with music composer to facilitate composition tasks and/or with music licensor to procure licensed music for assigned project. To meet with the game's lead designer and organize the casting and recording of voice talent for any voice script required. To attend regular meetings with the game's producer, lead designer, lead artist and lead programmer, to keep up to date with recent developments and changes in all areas of the game, including audio. To implement all sound effects, speech script and vocalizations and music into the game using appropriate custom-written sound development tools/ scripting system and/or working with an audio programmer. To play-test the game and ensure all audio content is correctly implemented and balanced, and there are no audible glitches. To meet with the audio programmer and correct any audio problems or implementation bugs that may arise. To ensure regular backups are made of all audio work in development, and to archive all audio data on turnover of the game.

What sources have inspired you?
Action, Sci-Fi and Horror movie genres are my major source of inspiration, and an ideal to aspire to. As far as movie sound designers go, Gary Rydstrom, (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan) is probably my favorite, and provides an endless source of inspiration, along with work by David Yewdall (The Thing, Nemesis, Starship Troopers) and Jim Shields (Alien). Other favorites include Richard L. Anderson (Predator 1 and 2) and Dane Davis (The Matrix movies).Other indirect sources of inspiration can come from looking at artwork, particularly sculpture and architecture, reading adventure/sci fi fiction and war historical non-fiction, travel, and really just from listening out for interesting sounds wherever I may be.