Thread by @thebeauanthony

Since people have expressed interest in the violin recordings for #TheLastofUsPartII's bow draw, here's a more formal thread on my journey creating the sounds for this iconic weapon.

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A bit of history: the bow needed to be done for the E3 2018 Forest Gameplay section.

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Most of the foley elements like arrow shafting, holstering/unholstering, arrow slides & more were recorded and performed in my office with a recurve bow and some wooden dowels. Our foley artists at Paramount also provided excellent source.

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The base of the bow draw sound was a recording of a violin.

I muted the more tonal, musical elements of the violin, which left the creaking strain of the strings rubbing against the wooden neck and bridge. This provided me with a textured bow draw sound oozing with detail.

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Every arrow fired has a looping sound that lasts for the life of the arrow in the air.

This includes a constant whooshing sound with a lot of high-end movement.

There's also an authored whiz-by oneoff that triggers when the arrows gets close enough to the listener.

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This whiz-by oneoff, like the supersonic crack of a bullet whizzing by one's ear, is the terrifying element that tells the player "Look the f#%k out!"

These whiz-bys were designed to be iconic. They're unique, based on faction or character.

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The Seraphite's arrow whiz-bys are defined by a terrifyingly aggressive whoosh, which was achieved by recording arrow-bys with feathers taped to the arrow head.

This scary sound is meant to relay that these enemies are definitely not your friend! Be on your guard!

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Lev's arrow whiz-bys sound stealthy, lethal and precise, which was achieved by wrapping artistic wire around the arrow head. It gave the whiz-by a sharp, airy, almost whistly sound that worked beautifully for Lev's character.

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A lot of work went into the arrow impacts as well. All custom recorded with various microphone angles. There were a plethora of surfaces covered in the game, including mud, earth, wood and car.

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Big thanks to Sam St.Clair for letting me borrow his grandfather's bow for the project and also tagging hundreds of the bow animations with foley!

Also MASSIVE thanks Bill StClair, Sam's dad, who graciously spent his time helping us record.

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Thanks to @eoarnold_ who let me borrow her violin for recording! And lastly to Dawn, Alicia and David at Paramount who provided excellent foley elements!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed shooting stuff with the bow!

(Also yes: Beau did the Bow 😉)

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