User:Slopijoe/DICE AMAs

AMA Info (9/16/2018)
Dev: Rob Gardner (DICE LA) RobgzzzzLA

Position: Voice-Over Designer

Through: Battlefield wiki discord

Partipants: Collision, Slopijoe (Shoutoku Legend ~ True Admin), Professor Sugarcube.

Total Transcript
CollisionToday at 4:29 PM

@RobGzzzLA so usually when something is recorded, you have different microphones placed where each one is a different angle represented in one audio track and the editing/cutting happens on all of the tracks at the same time after synchronizing them? I had this idea and question in mind when I was editing two synced captures I have for upcoming content.(edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 5:55 PM

it depends what the recording is for. If it's a performance capture session (like the cinematic for the single player war stories) each actor has a mic strapped to their head while they are performing so we can capture the audio synced to their performance and lip movement. Each actor has their own mic which is recorded on a separate track. It should already be time synced to the performance, but it always requires a bit of manual adjustment later as scenes are edited down for time. if the voices don't need to be time synced to anything, we can record each actor separate in different sessions, unless we want to record them together for any reason. Most of the time we record the inworld soldier voices in ensembles so the energy one actor's performance can influence the others.

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:00 PM

For the Operations loading movies, we recorded each actor in a different session. I actually had the actors reading ALL of the lines and chose the best actor for the best line later, and edited it together and synced to the loading movie manually (working with the animators to find the best way to have the lines hit at the right moment). So the Australian actor actually read ALL of the lines in the session, but I only used that one line for him in the loading movie.

CollisionToday at 6:05 PM

I think I was talking about gun and vehicle sound when I said different angles. I'm thinking if you have more than one entity/actor emitting sound at a time, how can you separate the noise of each from the other's track? (you might hear the entity's sound as noise in another one's mic recording) "separate track" could be stereo and not necessarily mono, right? Also mind defining "inworld" for us? (edited)

Shoutoku Legend ~ True AdminToday at 6:06 PM

Rob, thank you for the info provided.

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:06 PM

no problem

Shoutoku Legend ~ True AdminToday at 6:06 PM

Mind a quick question?

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:07 PM

go for it

Shoutoku Legend ~ True AdminToday at 6:08 PM

In the artbook for BF1, it was stated there was plans for the Central Powers to have their own campaign I believe. Do you know anything about that and such?(edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:10 PM

by "campaign" does that mean single player war story?

Shoutoku Legend ~ True AdminToday at 6:12 PM

yes sorry,

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:12 PM

I am not sure what the statement is referring to. I didn't know of any plan to add more war stories after the BF1 launch. Are they referring to the "Nothing is Written" story?

CollisionToday at 6:13 PM

@Shoutoku Legend ~ True Admin Are the Central Powers a WW1 version of the Axis powers (WW2)?(edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:13 PM I do not have the art book...so I am not sure what that is referring to

wgatToday at 6:13 PM @Collision yes

CollisionToday at 6:14 PM

Funnily enough, Axis powers translates to something along the lines of "Central Powers" in Arabic.

Shoutoku Legend ~ True AdminToday at 6:14 PM

@Collision its the side that composed of German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the ottoman empire and they opposed the Allies (US, UK, FRA, ITA and Russia)

CollisionToday at 6:14 PM

Yep, I looked up the definition and had this wonder

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:14 PM

I think the Ottomans were part of that and they were represented in Nothing Is Written @Collision - For soldier VO, we refer to the player voice as the SELF voice, and all of the other soldiers around you as INWORLD 1P vs 3P

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:15 PM 1P vs 3P

CollisionToday at 6:15 PM دول المحور = The Center States (direct translation)(edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:16 PM also, I am sure I understand the other part of your questions. We do not record guns, vehicles and voices at the same time correction * I am not sure I understand the other part of your question...

CollisionToday at 6:18 PM

So for these cases you record one angle at a time and then sync? Are you referring to the mic noise and stereo/mono questions?

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:19 PM yes,,,this part "(you might hear the entity's sound as noise in another one's mic recording)" I am not sure I understand We record voices, weapons and vehicles separate we are not recording actors shouting and firing weapons at the same time if you referring to how they play back in engine,,,they are not really on tracks. All of these sounds just trigger in the game and there is a very complex mixing system setup on how you will or will not hear a sound that triggers to make sure you are hearing things in a realistic way and hear voices when you need to, or big explosions that may duck down other sounds to give those more impact

CollisionToday at 6:24 PM Well, let's say you're in the case of recording entities (actors or objects such as a vehicle or a gun) emitting sound in ensembles (all together in the same session is what I mean), don't you ever need to separate the voices later on? Or if you will, would you know in advance and plan separate sessions for them?

As for the tracks, I meant do you refer to each track as a mono track or could it also be stereo or multi-channels? As for the engine explanation, I believe I've seen a sample of the system before explained in a GDC video. I lost the link tho

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:26 PM we would plan in advance how we would want to record and setup the mics based on that situation. For an ensemble of actors, they would each have their own mic recorded to a different track, and they would be instructed not to talk over each other or make noise while another is performing (unless instructed to do so) unless we were wanting to record a big crowd of people yelling together, then we would record that all together with multiple mics and angles

CollisionToday at 6:27 PM I see, I believe that's to prevent the noise from being heard in another track as I thought.(edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:27 PM yes we don't want another actors voice or a sound they are making bleeding into another actors performance. It will sound bad

CollisionToday at 6:28 PM Haha, I also remember a blurred video of DICE employees yelling together at a balcony/roof, I believe it was for BF1!(edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:28 PM yup that was for the male soldier death screams, bayonet charges, and on fire stuff that was recorded the rooftop terrace at the Stockholm office

CollisionToday at 6:28 PM Funnily enough, VLC extracted for me most audio tracks out of a Lost episode's MKV file and I happened to hear some localization noise in the SFX track.

Vvvvv VvvvvvToday at 6:29 PM Who's your favorite actor

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:29 PM I wanted to do that with the female soldiers too...but we didn't have enough females at DICE LA to do it...so I asked the female actors to do those screams instead

CollisionToday at 6:30 PM I love it when things are so cleared up, thank you so much for explaining Rob!

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:30 PM no worries. favorite actor I've worked with or just in general? I'm not sure either way...haha

Vvvvv VvvvvvToday at 6:31 PM Both ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Oh well What's your favorite scene in a Battlefield game

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:32 PM British actresses that did the female scout voices were great to work with. So tough and had so much fun doing it. Beatriz Romilly was so professional and great I enjoyed working with the shock operations actors too I have tons of actors I like in general. Gary Oldman is pretty amazing

Shoutoku Legend ~ True AdminToday at 6:34 PM I was gonna ask about the Russian voice actress. Was she voiced in LA or SWE?

CollisionToday at 6:34 PM I remember an Instagram post of the English-language female announcer voice (Mother) saying that she was working on Battlefield again, I think it was for Shock Operations.

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:34 PM which one? shock operations? or In The Name Of The Tsar?

Shoutoku Legend ~ True AdminToday at 6:35 PM both if you want, but namely the Russian scout

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:35 PM The Russian Language women were recorded in Moscow I went there with the director that worked on all of the soldier recordings

CollisionToday at 6:35 PM https://www.instagram.com/p/BeQgsg3n60i/?taken-by=katkingsley Instagram Katherine Kingsley on Instagram: “Back in the booth. I might not...

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:36 PM the English language versions of the Russian scouts were recording in London (I went there as well)

CollisionToday at 6:36 PM TSAR release was before that Instagram post(edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:36 PM Katherine Kingelsy is the British female announcer she worked on the game from the start all the way throughout Apocalypse we brought her back for every new Operation and every time we added a new game mode or new Codex entries I never flew out to the sessions for her, but I am the one that sent over the scripts for the lines for her to read and I also edited the VO and did post production on it and put it in the game

CollisionToday at 6:38 PM I'm not very familiar with Codex entries, do they have voice announcements too? (edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:38 PM some of them do for maps, for operations and for game modes what year is that instagram post from? is that 2018?

CollisionToday at 6:39 PM It doesn't state so it's 2018 Web page metadata and post description say 2018 too(edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:40 PM if that's January, she was recording lines I sent over for air assault and some new codex stuff

CollisionToday at 6:40 PM Remember any codex names that have voice announcements? I'm going to look up some and hear them because I never did.(edited)

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:40 PM for Apocalypse

CollisionToday at 6:40 PM Yes, Jan 22.

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:41 PM I don't know off the top of my head. I would have to have the game up

CollisionToday at 6:41 PM I see, no worries

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:43 PM for the last 3 DLC it was usually the codex you get when playing the maps, for playing operations, for the operations campaign and I think the game mode that I how I decided which ones to record I don't think they did that with the first DLC (since the was done in Stockholm) but starting with In The Name Of The Tsar, that's what I did

Shoutoku Legend ~ True AdminToday at 6:46 PM Thank you Rob for taking the time to talk to us here. Good luck with Battlefield 5 and thank you for your work on the franchise

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:47 PM no worries. Glad you are interested in that stuff. I am putting together some videos about this stuff for youtube if anyone is interested. I'll more in depth with stuff like this

CollisionToday at 6:47 PM That was so satisfying

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:47 PM thanks I appreciate the kind words take care everyone. I'm going to go play some drums now.

♥Prof. Sugarcube♥Today at 6:49 PM bloody legend

CollisionToday at 6:49 PM I just hope you try to let us know a little about the Easter egg recording process in your videos, as long as it doesn't spoil anything (edited) It's hard D:

♥Prof. Sugarcube♥Today at 6:49 PM side note; i can't stop imagining someone in a recording booth wearing a microphone on their head like a halo an attached boom mic ehehee

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:51 PM oh those weren't in a booth. I was on a soundstage during performance capture (you know those funny looking suits the actors have to wear with dots all over them to track their movement...and dots on their fact to track face movement)

♥Prof. Sugarcube♥Today at 6:51 PM ohhhhhhh oh yeah those

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:51 PM they were tiny mics attached to their caps to pick up their voice acting not full sized mics. hahahaha that would be pretty funny

♥Prof. Sugarcube♥Today at 6:51 PM that's what makes it incredibly hilarious to imagine just RobGzzzLAToday at 6:51 PM lol

♥Prof. Sugarcube♥Today at 6:51 PM full on boom mics attached to their head a la Carrot on a Stick

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:52 PM that would be funny.

and yes @Collision I will probably talk about those neebs Easter eggs at some point too alrighty. take it easy everyone! talk to you lter

CollisionToday at 6:52 PM WOOT

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:53 PM I'll check back for more questions if you have them

Shoutoku Legend ~ True AdminToday at 6:53 PM thank you Rob for taking the time here.

CollisionToday at 6:53 PM See you later, have fun drumming!

RobGzzzLAToday at 6:53 PM no worries. My pleasure

♥Prof. Sugarcube♥Today at 6:54 PM Later my dude