Summer Project: 'Soundscape 17'

Here is a general summary of my experience with the Summer Project.

With my summer project, I had 'Soundscape 17' to respond creatively to - an evocative track beginning with soft sounds of the eerie night, continuing with an ominous drumming that escalates to a crescendo of chanting and singing.

As such, my main concept was a microcosm where the remnants of mankind seemed all but lost and forgotten. With a small tribe of humans reduced to a wild and natural state, they occasionally discover artefacts and technologies of humanities past such as a cassette player or set of keys. Although with no knowledge of what they are, they simply use them as little more than objects of jewellery or attire, where larger artefacts have become symbols of worship or reverence invoking such rituals as ascribed by the soundscape.

Thus, I began by creating the building blocks of this world with character and environment design as these were two areas I wanted to improve upon. Here are a few examples:

Characters - Chief, Matriarch and Wise One


Environments - Shelter, Boat, Tree and Ritual





I originally intended to produce some CG work with these concepts, although I ran of time if I was to make the deadline for printing my book.



To design and print the 'Art Of' book, I used Blurb.com and their software package that streamlines the process nicely. In short, you:

• Register a blurb account
• Download and install their software 'Blurb Booksmart'
• Design your book in Booksmart
• Hit Order Book when your ready to publish.

Its fairly straightforward, but it does take time when designing your book so keep that in mind if your working to a deadline.

There are a variety of different formats you can choose from, whether portrait/landscape or hardcover/softcover. My book, which is a Standard Landscape Softcover format with 48 pages, came to around £25 including delivery and shipping, taking about 7 working days to arrive.

When my book arrived, I was very pleased with the quality of the book turning out pretty much exactly how I designed it. Its a lovely feeling to hold work you've created entirely digitally on the screen of a monitor, into a physical copy such as a book. You can find more images and details here.

Overall, it was a refreshing project to do without the pressures of 'getting the grade' so to speak. Although, I intended to do much more, I certainly recommend taking on such a project (if it continues next year) as it is a chance to improve your skills both creatively and technically to your own choosing - and who knows, maybe you could also win a shiny new Wacom tablet... :D

If you would like to see more of my summer project, you can find it after the link.