So, I’m making a location from The Embrace, the Baker Street Brakeworks, which is a burned out husk of a building that once served as a brake shop, with a secret basement that acted as a speakeasy during prohibition.

As you can see, there are no windows, yet, but I assure you I plan on it.  Also, considering this is going to game-ready, it’s currently sitting at 479 polys — I’ve been really trying to get in the habit of reducing the poly count as actively as I can, which is why there are no windows. :p

But that’s hardly everything.   During this process, I’ve constantly been back and forth between Blender and Unity, checking my normals, checking door sizes and playability.  (It took some work, but I got Blender and Unity to play nicely together, also.)  It’s an incredible feeling when you can immediately play through something you’ve built.

So… play through it. WASD or arrow keys to move, mouse to look, space to jump (which doesn’t do much but show you I need to work on my collision detection on the player object), and to go full screen right click in the window and select “Go Fullscreen.” 

Please view the full post to see the Unity content.

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1. Oh, wow, has it been a long time.

I haven’t done any sound-related projects since I finished Carbon Bond — a project I didn’t even mention here — which I finished back in February.  No wonder I’ve got myself down over the state of my music and sound career.

In the mean time, I’m teaching myself Blender and Unity (also, I’m going to school for A+ Certifications, but that’s less important to this blog) with a lofty goal in mind.  I’ll start adding progress notes soon, I’m sure, as I’ve already learned a lot and I’m enjoying myself.

That said, if you’re still reading, thanks for sticking around.

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1. The Road So Far

I didn’t publicly post my resolutions — at least, not anywhere I can find them — last year, and the first step of completing anything is to publicly claim it. And that’s what I’m doing right now.

My 28-year-old resolutions are:

• For at least the next year, unless a project screams at me that I NEED to write music for it, I won’t be writing music “professionally.” I’ll finish the projects I’m already on, and a few things (like the Global Game Jam in 2 weeks) will require me to do all-things-audio, but I need to figure a few things out before I can compose for a living.  The stress-to-payout ratio simply isn’t in my favor, right now.
• Instead, I will be focusing on sound design. This seems like the direction my audio-life is going, right now.
• I will finish my demo reel. This is the major thing holding my sound design career back, and as such, it needs to be the first thing I take care of.
• While on my composing-hiatus, I will write and record an album. I feel like a major hangup in my composition is not knowing what I want to sound like, but I do know that I’m done taking jobs where I’m told asked to sound like someone else… a bit of guidance is great, and I appreciate that, but at the end of the day, I want to be asked to write music that sounds like me, not some one else.  So, to do that, I will be writing an album… depending on where that goes, you may or may not hear more about it.  I may go all out and take it to a studio, or I may do nothing more than release it as a free download — it’s sole purpose is allowing me to find my voice again.
• Finally, if it’s financially possible, I will return to school by Fall Semester. The other major holdup, I feel, is simply lack of education — I know more about music theory than most of my every-day friends, but it’s still a pittance compared to someone who is composing for a living.   I find myself falling back into the same old melodies and patterns, and that’s no good.  Also, I feel I need to point out that I said “financially possible.”  This means no loans — I AM NOT going to pay for something that I’m not 100% sure will give me equal return via loans.  Grants are fine, but I feel I’ll be paying for most of my education out of pocket.  In the long run, this will be better for me and my family.

And that, my friends, is that.

Related posts:

1. One Hour Audio pt. 2

Day 09 – A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

In case you didn’t know, that’s my wife, Kris.  I call her K-ris, short for DJ K-ris, who she would be if she were musically inclined at all.  She’s been in my life for something like the last 12 years — I can’t quite remember, to be honest — and she’s stuck through all my stupidity through it all.

In fact, her sticking around for all of it should have been a sign A LOT sooner than it was.  What can I say, I was oblivious.

I try to ruin pictures with her every chance I get.

See, through every stupid decision I made, through every girlfriend I had, she was there to make sure I was okay.  She made the 22.5 mile drive at least weekly to see me when we were still living at our folks, then moved in with me when I needed a room mate years later.  It wasn’t until we’d lived together for awhile that I finally figured it out and we started dating.  That didn’t work, so we broke up, and she moved out.

Then she got pregnant, and we got married, and we’ve been doing that for 5.5 years and still going strong.  Don’t ask me how we didn’t work dating but work married, I have no idea, it just works.

I think we were 19 here?

And, there you have it.  Way better than the last post, wasn’t it?

Related posts:

1. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 2
2. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 3
3. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 7

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh

The reason why is this was WAAAY too hard. I don’t look at funny pictures, and while I read webcomics that are funny, most of them are inside jokes between characters OR too offensive for most of my family, who has been reading these blogs.

So, I went with an old classic. The first time I saw this, I thought it was infinitely clever. I still do, but it’s made it’s way around the internet quite a bit so it’s lost it’s comedic edge.

Anyway, let’s call this day the throw-away entry.

Related posts:

1. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 9
2. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 3
3. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 6

Day 07 – A picture of your most treasured item

This one took even me by surprise, which is why it took me all day to figure out what item it would be. I knew it would be an instrument, but I didn’t expect this.

My initial thought was it would be my sax, hands down; it’s been with me the longest, it’s been banged up and repaired, smelled like cigarette smoke and beer spills, was rescued from a pawn shop for a measly $400 and was promptly stolen from me by the music shop I brought it to to be checked out and finally brought back into my possession through a private investigator and threats of never shopping there again. But, no, it wasn’t my sax.

Britney

Next up I thought it would be my Fender Strat. This guitar was originally my friends’ dad’s, which he sold to me for $125 that I paid in $25 increments — to this day, it’s still the most expensive guitar I’ve bought myself. It was originally a stock 1996 Mexican Stat, complete with 60hz-hum plagued single coils and all the tuning issues you’d expect from a Strat. But I learned a lot of stuff with this guitar, and not just how to play better guitar… It was the first guitar I rewired, it was the first guitar I changed out hardware on, and it’s still my go-to-axe when I’m required to make a choice. Hell, I even named it… my sax didn’t get that luxury.

But, no… it was my piano.

Three, maybe four, years ago, Utah Pianos posted an add on Craigslist that they were emptying out two of their storage units of pianos that were in too poor condition to be sold in their store and pianos were going for as cheap as free, and my wife knew I wanted a piano, so we went.  We also brought my dad along, ’cause it’s always nice to have him around and, if we were going to get a piano, we’d need his help.

When we got there to the storage units, the pianos available ranged from the free-$400 range, and ran the gamut of qualities, shapes, and sizes; Player pianos, console pianos, full-sized uprights, and even a legless baby grand.  I played many of them, my hands getting dusty in the process.  All the pianos were out of tune, some with many broken hammers and strings, missing keys or simply keytops, and none that most people would fine desireable.

We were there for a free piano.  I didn’t care if it was in tune — I knew a tuner — and I didn’t care if the keys on the ends even had hammers; I just wanted a piano.

I had picked out a free piano at the back of the storage unit that needed some love, but it was playable.  It had two octaves that were relatively in tune, and that was good enough for me, and just before I asked the guy to pull it out, my wife pulled me aside.  She had recently done some work for my parents, and they owed her $125; if it was alright with her if they paid her in buying me a piano, instead.

Instantly, I knew which piano I wanted — looking back, I think this was not only her plan, but she also knew which piano I wanted and knew she could get it for me. It was an old beat up thing in the back corner where someone had modified the top to have an additional shelf — we were told that was in style in the 50s — that sounded good throughout it’s range and only had two broken hammers and a broken damper pedal.  It felt good, it felt like it was once loved by a lot of people, and it was a full-sized upright.

So Kris talked to my dad, and he agreed.  We wheeled the piano out into the parking lot where a piano tech — who also saw the add and thought it was a perfect opportunity to get some business — repaired the hammers for free, all while talking about how he grew up in the same small Colorado town that my mom did and how he knew my mom’s dad’s brother.  We called Kris’ folks to come help us with a truck, and we brought the piano home.

It’s moved with us twice: once to an apartment where we used it as the excuse to have a ground-level apartment, when in reality we knew Kris’ knees and hips simply couldn’t handle stairs every day but there was no medical backing for it; and then to our house we live now.  It’s become the source of jokes about my dad’s strength from both moves, and then moving it around the house and through our back door into my office, because in all three cases he alone lifted one end clean off the ground and basically shoved the two of us in the front to where we were going.  It’s the nicest and most thoughtful gift my wife’s ever purchased for me.  It’s where I go to write music. It’s my desert-island instrument.

So, yeah… it’s my most treasured item.

Related posts:

1. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 9
2. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 8
3. Last thirty days of the decade

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day

I spent a good couple of minutes thinking about today’s post, considering everything that would be required of me if I were to change places with Obama for a day, or work John Mayer’s 9-5.  While it would be entertaining to do that, and play with their toys, ultimately I’d fail and everyone would remember it as “The Day Dave Matney Destroyed the United States” or something like that.

So, I thought some more, and I came up with this: Ben Burtt (see his IMDB credits… you may not have heard of him, but you’ve definitely heard his work).  Ben practically invented modern sound design single handed, and he’s STILL out there working on things.

I won’t lie and say I wouldn’t love to just go play with his toys, but his toys are things I know how to use, or could at least fake it.  I may not get anything worthwhile finished in that day, and they may not use the work I did, but I’d end up with a credit as being an Assistant’s Assistant or something, and I wouldn’t just spend the entire day sitting around.

Also, it would give me a taste of things to come, to see if I could ever handle it.

Related posts:

1. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 9
2. Last thirty days of the decade
3. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 3

Day 05 – A picture of an old memory

When I was 17, I played in a ska band called Arrogant (But Nothing Special) — we really were pretty awesome.  This picture is of me and Big Greg Johnson, who’s no longer playing his ‘bone but, instead, making sweet videos about why you should turn your phone off during movies.

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1. Last thirty days of the decade
2. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 2
3. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 3

And, really, I’m still not.  So, instead of a single picture, here are ALL the pictures I took last night.

Day 04 – A picture Some pictures of your night

As you can see, it was Christmas for the Matneys.  My sister, Sarah, and her husband, Christopher — who is in the Navy — are visiting us from where he’s stationed in Guam. They’ve been here since before Thanksgiving, and will be leaving later this week.

I haven’t seen Christopher in three years, and it’s been an absolute blast to have him here this year.  Hopefully they get to come back to the States soon.

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1. Last thirty days of the decade
2. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 8
3. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 2

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show

I’m a huge sucker for shows that make me feel like I’m getting smarter by watching them, especially when they aren’t science shows, and Lie To Me does just that.  The likability of the cast, chemistry between the leads, and Tim Roth’s awkwardness as Cal Lightman don’t hurt, eiter.

Related posts:

1. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 9
2. Last Thirty Days of the Decade: Day 5
3. Last 30 Days of the Decade: Day 8