Portfolio

Rahul Ranganath

Audio Design  ·  Implementation  ·  Music

FMOD Wwise Unity Unreal Engine Sound Design Composition

Selected work

Projects

Crimson Tactics : The Rise Of The White Banner

Crimson Tactics

Audio Design Lead & Composer

FMOD Unity Composition
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Mercenary Battle Company

Mercenary Battle Company

Audio Design Lead & Composer

FMOD Unity Composition
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LOKKO

LOKKO

Audio Design Lead

FMOD Unity
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Frontier Paladin

Frontier Paladin

Audio Design Lead & Composer

FMOD Unreal Engine Composition
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Process & craft

Technical Implementation

Procedural Ambience Implementation

  • Layered Ambient Architecture: The system combines traditional ambient loops for indoor and outdoor environments with 3D ambient source loops placed directly within the world for localized detail
  • Procedural Sound Spawning: A custom blueprint system uses a box that follows the player to procedurally spawn audio assets at random points, ensuring the environment feels alive and non-repetitive
  • Context-Aware Logic: The procedural spawner includes gameplay-driven constraints, such as disabling outdoor sound spawns when the player enters a specific interior area like the cathedral
  • Audio-Driven Visuals: Using the MetaSound Output Subsystem, the implementation extracts audio amplitude data in real-time to control visual parameters
  • Dynamic Lighting Integration: In this specific project, the audio output is converted into float values to drive the luminosity of light sources, creating a direct physical link between sound and the environment

Character Audio Design — Part II

  • Multi-Layered Texture Design: The audio is built using multiple layers of armor and cloth textures, specifically processed to reflect the character's unique movement and physical weight
  • Combat Reinforcement: Ability sounds, such as staff swings, are bolstered with low-end accents to provide a sense of "heft," while the final hit in a combo sequence utilizes a "thunder layer" to signify a powerful climax
  • Narrative-Driven Vocalizations: Character "barks" and exertions are specifically shaped with a simian quality to reinforce the character's primal energy and playful personality
  • Dynamic Animation Syncing: Implementation involves mapping audio source assets to specific animation beats, such as dynamically ramping the volume of footsteps when the character transitions into a jog
  • Optimised voice prioritisation logic to prevent audio dropouts during large-scale battles with many active agents

Character Audio Design — Part I

  • Holistic Character Immersion: The process begins by analyzing the character’s story, motivations, and fears to ensure they feel grounded in their world
  • Five-Step Design Framework: A structured workflow is used: character discovery, unique sound design, game implementation, testing/refining, and team handoff
  • Early Team Alignment: Before designing sounds, the entire development team aligns on visual cues and personality traits to ensure a shared creative vision
  • Building with Purpose: This phase avoids guesswork by defining a specific audio perspective on how the character should sound, feel, and react
  • The Character Snapshot: The stage concludes with a "one-page snapshot" detailing the character's core traits, environment, and key sonic moments

Linear Re-Design — Wwise / Reaper

  • Real-Time Middleware Workflow: The project features a live link between Reaper and Wwise, allowing for instant audio event triggering and testing
  • Reaper-to-Wwise Integration: By using a specialized plugin, event calls are posted directly in Reaper to trigger the corresponding sounds in Wwise
  • Cinematic Sound Replacement: Every sonic element—including mechanical servos, atmospheric drones, and character foley—has been replaced with custom-designed assets
  • Seamless Dynamic Processing: The demonstration highlights how various audio layers are processed in real-time to match the intensity and movement of the on-screen action
  • Wwise Logic Execution: The redesign moves beyond simple playback, utilizing Wwise to manage the playback logic and behavioral rules of the soundscape

Optimising Large-Scale Ambiences

  • Overcoming Scalability Issues: Traditional methods of placing multiple ambient actors are often messy and create spatialization errors in large areas
  • Single-Actor Solution: A single blueprint actor is used to cover the entire environment, streamlining the workflow and improving project organization
  • Spline-Based Movement: The ambient audio source is attached to a spline component within the blueprint, allowing the sound to dynamically "follow" a predefined path
  • Improved Spatial Accuracy: This method ensures that the listener experiences consistent and accurate 3D audio relative to the large water body, regardless of their position
  • Project Optimization: By reducing actor count, this technique minimizes overhead and provides a cleaner, more manageable implementation for open-world scenes

Background

About Me

Rahul Ranganath
Available for work

I'm a game sound designer based in India with a passion for creating immersive and engaging audio experiences across game genres. I can score and compose original music, do sound design, record foley, and handle implementation across a range of game engines and middleware, such as Unity, Unreal, FMOD, and Wwise.

I have worked on titles remotely and I'm great at collaborating with distributed teams and shipping projects independently. I've enjoyed the past several years in the game dev industry, building on over a decade of experience in audio engineering and live sound.

Sound Design Music Composition Foley Recording FMOD Wwise Unity Unreal Engine Remote Collaboration

Kind words

Testimonials

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"Immensely talented Sound Director and Music Composer. Rahul singlehandedly took charge of the Audio Pipelines at Black March Studios for Crimson Tactics. He directed the game's audio and composed the OST from scratch."

AH
Arunab Hazarika
Game Director, Black March Studios / Starlight Forge Studios
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"Rahul played a significant role in reforming the sound implementation pipeline by shifting implementation from Unity to FMOD, making sound production more time-efficient and practical. His creativity and knowledge always allowed him to understand the specifics of the sounds required in various scenarios."

SC
Stotriyo Chakraborty
Narrative Designer
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"His quality leadership skills led to the growth of the other designers in the sound team, and his collaborative nature assisted the sound team to work flawlessly with other teams and meet rising expectations during production phases and after player feedback."

AT
Atulya Thorat
Game Producer, Shortgun Games

Let's work together

Currently open for freelance and full-time opportunities.

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