Sound Design Process for a Sci-Fi Gun

I stumbled across an amazing animation online of a Sci-Fun gun with moving parts and amazing Particle effects. A Sound Designers delight! I knew instantly i wanted to try and undertake a re-design (Aka an audio paint-over) of the animation.

I first needed to get a sound pallet together and consider the kind of sounds i wanted to record foley for. I recently got a Dyson Vacuum cleaner and i often enjoyed playing around with the sounds it would make as i turned on and off the motor. Particularly as the motor winded down it had characteristics of powering down a spaceship…

I knew i had to have this sound feature somewhere in this piece!

The spinning of the gun chamber immediately drew my attention as a centre piece so i needed to have it feel mechanical and dangerous. I imagine the whirr of this gun is how the gun charges the shot before being dispersed meaning it needs to be of a high build quality to withstand such a volitile energy.

Once I engaged with this idea, I took my microphone to all the various appliances around my him. I tried a blender, my DVD player and a few power tools I had in the garage, Including a Power Drill. The power drill was the answer. I didn’t even have to try other power tools as it’s characteristics are high build quality and the ability to disperse and stop energy. The exact traits my gun re-design needed….