Product:Process - Ep 01 - Warhammer 40k (ReDesign)
- DJ Meadows
- May 8
- 11 min read
Welcome to Product:Process. A series where I attempt to breakdown my creative process and technical skill through redesigns, projects, or experiments. I've been saying for a while that I'd love to document my own understanding of how I go about things but somehow can never find the words or the format. Video would be easy, sure, but I'm a faster writer than a video editor. I just tend to ramble sometimes. So, if you're reading this, please keep me in check and let me know what you like/dislike about this format and maybe we can find or create something we both enjoy. So no more dilly-dallying, let's get on with the show.
For those limited on time: The Product | Scope + Goals | Space Marines | Scale + Weight | Brutality | Space | Wrap Up
Prologue: The Product
Nobody likes anticipation, especially when it comes to articles so why not give you the good right from the get go. Above is the fully redesigned clip from Amazon Primes Secret Level: Warhammer 40k episode, which, by all faucets, was brutal, gritty, and entertaining for a short one-off; this gives me some hope for Henry Cavil's take. Like many fandoms, I have always been aware of the 40k fandom. I have a basic understanding of its lore, Space Marines, and The Emperor (oh, and Nurgle), but I couldn't give you a massive lore dump like die-hard fans of the game/universe. I believe I was introduced to their cinematics before I found out it was a game, which has always been TOP-NOTCH for quality cinematics/storytelling. But when I saw this original clip, I felt like something was missing.
I recognize that this scene, in particular, was likely an artistic choice to let the audience breathe a bit (maybe?) because this entire episode is filled to the nines with brutal and cool-sounding combat. Still, this one particular scene didn't do it for me. So, why not challenge myself to redesign this little section of combat? And so that's what I did.
Introduction: Scope + Goals
What am I attempting to achieve with this redesign? How might I achieve it? Where do I start? These are common questions I ask myself at the start of any project (or redesign). As highlighted on my website, I like to take my redesigns as specific challenges, either creatively or technically. This one was rather obvious, though.
The Challenge: Scale + Brutality
Anyone who knows or is involved in the Warhammer 40k universe will likely start the conversation with how brutal, dystopian, and hellish society is at this time and how badass and equally terrifying the Space Marines tend to be. And what better way to convey scale then to make these MFs heavy AF, cause I mean, as you've seen in the clip already, THEY TOWER over the normal "humans" (subject of debate). First up:
Part 1: Space Marines
In my opinion, good sound design is similar to that of an Ogre: it has layers. If you have good layers, you won't need a bunch of crazy processing, external plugins, or otherwise. This might be a controversial take, but, often in my workflows, I try not to overdo my processing by opting for good sources. Also, partially because my studio computer can barely handle any additional processing power, to begin with, but mostly because I knew I wasn't going to be able to just scout a "SpaceMarine_Metal_Footstep_001" sound effect off any ole library. Work with what you have available, and hope it sounds good.
I needed something BIG, BOLD, and HEAVY, but I didn't want to overcomplicate or muddy up anything else in the mix. I needed it to be present but not overbearing, so I limited myself to three layers: high-mid (A), mid (B), and low (C). Simple, right? It gets a majority of the spectrum while leaving some higher-end frequencies for other elements to POP.
Here's what I settled on:
Layer A - Canvas Bag Grab
This provided weight, low-end movement, and a bit of texture.
I slapped a HPF to take out anything above 10k and notched out some frequencies around 5k
Layer B - Metal Robot Step
This should be pretty self explanatory...?
This also added a bit more CRUNCH that the previous layer didn't really have.
Layer C - Heavy Body Hit/Drop
This gave me that initial ground impact I was looking for, along with a metal HUNG - similar to that of an oil barrel.
HPF that to about 800.
Here are the results of just a bit of tweaking:
Cool. So I got the big bad to sound heavy and threatening. However, it still didn't feel like it had everything it needed to convey this pseudo-human/warrior/marine hybrid. I had their weight, but I didn't fully have their armor. This one I only used one sound but in a number of different variations. But knowing what I know about this universe, I understand that although this armor can be removed, it is controlled by future tech implanted in the Space Marines bodies.
While outrageously heavy and damn near impenetrable, I didn't want to just scrape metal together the whole video, so, instead, I took the liberty of adding some noise to the higher end. These are, in their own ways, machines created by The Emporer for The Emporer, and he can't have failure, right?
Going in with the idea that there is some mechanical element to each Space Marine, here's what I decided upon:
Layer D - Pneumatic Drill Air Release
The pop, hiss, and movement of this SFX was just enough to translate the motorized and fluid movements of the Space Marine who needed to be quick and precise. Pitched down of course.
While this might not sound like much, I promise you'll have to trust the process. I'm saying that because I also had to tell myself that since this was one of the first things I tackled. I would slave away for some time, just trying to dial in the armor since it's the focus of this piece, but when it came to mixing it, very little of it mattered.
Part 2: Scale + Weight
Now, mind you, scale doesn't just mean the Space Marine, it means everything that interacts with the Space Marine, weapons, environment, impacts, whooshes, everything. We have our bulky space marine but how do we further convey their scale? Use, but don't overuse, the low end to my advantage.
I used a lot of pitch manipulation and whooshes on accent moments to really help me push the narrative of weight, especially in my [d] - DSGN section.
Take a listen:
While you hear characteristics of a number of different SFXs, there aren't many complete resolutions to those sounds (SFX A starts and fades out; then SFX B enters). It's a lot of build up, quick tension, and then no release, or a completely different release entirely.
This was something I learned during my Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Redesign. My hits weren't landing sonically like I thought they should and after some experimentation, I found that if you build that tension, quickly with a rather sharp cut-off, but don't have a resolution, or a different resolution, it helps with the initial impact that follows allowing for a punch to have more UMPF.
Take a listen to the whole section and let me know what you hear:
Part 3: Brutality
It wouldn't be the dystopian hellscape that is the Warhammer 40k universe without the brutality. We have the fear but we're missing the violence. How do we get that? Well, by treating this like an outrageous horror movie and being nightmare fuel to fruits everywhere. Warhammer is bloody, gore, and just downright disgusting at times, so who am I to stop that visual element from being even more grotesque on a sonic level? All I know is that I needed a lot of gore, some gnarly impacts, and a few moments that hit to keep the attention of the listener, should they start to become fatigued.
But let's tackle the gore first. Everyone knows that they best way to get the most gore is the herbivore diet. Just go crazy on some fruits and veggies and you too can sound like a slasher film. The only downside is, you have to have to see the bigger picture. Similarly to the footsteps, destroying veggies and fruits don't really sound that brutal by themselves, they often leave a lot to the imagination and can sometimes feel hollow depending on how you record it or where you source it from. My source was great quality recordings but they all lived in the 4k+ range, which leaves little to the imagination when it comes to brutality that Mortal Kombat has made us all used too.
The Solution: A little goes a long way
Bonus Solution: Play with formatting; Have the general hits in Mono and the BIG hits in stereo.
Take a listen to the Mono hits for the Gore:
Brutal right? Now let's take a listen to the 3 major stereo gore hits and compare those to the footage.
Hit 1
Like butter, splits a guy in half, his first kill that we see in this scene showing the lethality of the axe he's carrying.
This sound, while sourced, sounds like it has movement opposite of the victims fate. The beginning of the sound, sounds as if it starts wide and hyper-focuses in the center channel forcing the listener to focus in on the center of where the action is taking place.
Hit 2
Second kill. This shows the weight of the axe he's swinging around and how non-existent the victim will be after the fact.
While the sound itself doesn't have a lot of weight to it, the sound effect is carried by the weight of the whooshes and metal impacts in the [d] - DSGN section.
Hit 3
We are an accomplice in this one. Another annihilating attack from the massive weight of the axe, only this time, we get sprayed with the victims blood. We should hear that, and we do.
The tail end of the sound adds an additional element/grime to the scene, though subtly.
While there is a lot going on in the scene, from punches flying, to various other Space Maries joining in on the carnage and lethal punches. From the POV of our Space Marine, these three fatal blows are what paint a clear picture of the brutality at hand.
Here's a snapshot of the SFX section:
Part 4: Space
We've got weight, we've got brutality, we've got the gore, and we've got the tension. That all still has to be placed IN a space. And not just any space, but a desolate wastelandic mad-max fueled space.
Since the focus was never "the space" in its entirety, you still can't have a brutal beatdown without glueing all the pieces together somehow through the BKG, AMB, and some Additional Foley. Check out the elements below.
BKG - Focusing in on angry mob/crowd noise with a mixture of canabalistic intent. We don't know who these enemies are, do you? Let's add a little spice.
AMB - Building out a space that moans eerily when it's quiet, but not relying to heavily on it during the busy parts.
FOLEY - Probably the quickest and easiest thing to finish due to the lack of need for it in this piece. The only notable moment is right before the lone warrior attempts to attack the Space Marine with a machete. In that moment I wanted to isolate the character to draw attention to the space. But also because everyone else in the space was dead.
All this, sent to a spacious Verb will bring [almost] anything together.
Part 5: Lessons Learned + Exciting Moments
Now, mixing wise, I can't go too deep on, at least not on this project because I tend to mix as I go on personal projects. Adjusting levels, consolidating clips, EQ/effects rendering, and more as I see fit. Upon further review, I realize that I likely should have a better streamlined process but I'm the only one who is touching this project so, I should do what makes sense for me, right?
However, as is the case with most redesigns, I learned a thing or two along the way.
The biggest one being:
Lesson 1:
ALWAYS. UPDATE. YOUR. TEMPLATE.
This is staring me in the face while I'm writing out this article. Happy to say that I should probably throw this away, as I did this last Friday. But the point still stands.
Sometimes when starting a project from scratch, whether client or personal, you can be complicit in settling for whatever templates you've created and just "figuring it out" if something is missing, the routing is messed up, or what have you, but I promise you that if you don't do it now. You're gonna kick yourself when it does inevitably happen.
I've also been sitting on the same issues for quite some time now and just have never felt the need to update any of my templates. Especially ones I don't typically use. The loop of "I-need-a-project-to-get-better-but-I-don't-have-a-project-to-get-better" mindset that I often fall victim to. (I'm saying this for me and also you but--) YOU SHOULD ALREADY HAVE THIS DIALED IN BEFORE THE PROJECT SO YOU CAN DO A GOOD JOB ON THE PROJECT WITHOUT ANY MAJOR HICCUPS.
While I was, overall, better at organizing my SFX in this redesign, they normally look hellishly chaotic, the routing to FX and printing has always given me a headache and my least favorite part of any project.
Lesson 2: Less Is More, Let It Breathe
While there's a lot going on in this short piece, I often battle with myself on how much to add and if I should be surgical or more broad stroked. This piece was no different. As you might see throughout, there's a lot of stuff I decided not to use, like a lion roar for the motorcycle scene.
This couldn't be more true when it came to the violent nature of the piece and mixing in the gore with the massive attacks, massive protagonist, and brutal deaths. Any major action I tried to fill out the spectrum to push the narrative but in between kept a bit of lull to allow the user to explore the space. The gore is very lack-luster but if you mix it in with the designed elements of the gigantic axe, VO, or whooshes, it FEELS larger and more brutal. At the end of the day, all you need to do is have certain elements peek through.
Lesson 3: Don't Over Think Sh!t
I think it was Kenny Beats who officially "coined" that term in the modern day for his brand/company (D.O.T.S.) but it's true. Stop overthinking and just create the shit. Good shit. Bad shit. Mediocre shit. The more you create, the better aware you are of your skills and limitations.
Obviously, as artists, are main goal is to make the best shit we can and put it out in the world, be recognized (maybe) for it, and use that momentum to create other cool shit. But we can't always create our best shit, that's just not how creativity works, at least for me. And we have to be okay with that -- I'll let you know when I get there myself.
But just putting yourself out there, being vulnerable to some degree through your art, may provide more value for you long term.
Lesson 4: Open To Feedback
This one I'm prepping myself for. I don't often put out redesigns for public execution - I'm sorry - feedback. I'm confident in my work, but I'm not confident in my work on the internet. I've slowly showed this to my friends for feedback but I plan to put this out into the sound communities I'm a part of and let them rip it to shreds. This is something that is going likely going to be an ongoing and reoccurring theme throughout most of my breakdowns.
Lessons aside, I'm glad I finally put this piece out and got it off my plate. Now it's on to the back catalogue of redesigns I need to do, personal projects, and skill improvements. So, I'll leave you with some of my favorite moments during this piece.
The Motorcycle Axe Found @ 0:05 this hit/swish + impalement makes every part of my brain (and ears) tingle with joy. I was afraid of losing it in the mix initially on account I wanted to bring in the motorcycle a few frames earlier to make it more "realistic". I'm glad my buddy suggested otherwise.
"HAMMER DOWN!!!!"
This is the perfect build-up to an initial hit that follows. I believe this is the build up of the final axe swing leaning into a lethal punch into the grown, killing 2 baddies in rapid succession. While I was a big fan of the hit that I crafted, which ended up being an anchor dropped in sand, the swing was way more rewarding than the hit.
Headbutt
How do I convey a gnarly headbutt that kills again instantly? Well, a heavy head and some juicy fruit foley. This crush makes your skin crawl and if it doesn't -- are you okay?
I hope you enjoyed this ep 01 breakdown of this redesign! What would you like me to redesign next?
Until the next episode!
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