Akantilado
Two cats. One cliff. 200+ hand-made sounds for a jungle that hums, rustles, and rarely sits in silence.
Camera-Based Jungle Sound
Two cats chase a golden orb through a jungle canopy. One of them goes over the cliff. I built 200+ custom sounds for the film: paw steps on wet leaves, claws digging into bark, plants whipping back after something brushes past them.
The hard part was scale. Close shots needed tiny detail - insects, leaves, claws on bark - while wide shots needed the jungle to open up without swallowing the music. I built five ambience layers that shift depending on where the camera is. Close to the ground, you hear insects and leaf rustle. Pull up to the canopy, and the mix opens into wind and distant bird calls.
Composer Noah Bots from Ghent Conservatory wrote the score; I handled sound design, foley, ambiences, stereo mix, and 5.1 mix. Howest DAE, 2024.
200+ custom sounds. Two cats. And a cliff.
Foley, Ambience, and 5.1 Space
Jungle Ambience
Five ambience layers in the mix: leaf rustle, distant animal calls, running water, wind, and a low room tone that gives the jungle a sense of depth even in silence. They crossfade based on camera distance - close shots are insects and detail, wide shots are wind and canopy. The background keeps moving without fighting the score.
Creature Vocals
The two cats needed to sound like different animals, not the same sample pitched up and down. Orange gets a lower, throatier voice and heavy footfalls - you feel him land. Pink is higher, quicker, lighter across the surfaces. I aimed to make each cat identifiable by weight and pitch before the reveal.
Foley
Key paw steps, claw grips on branches, and plant reactions were custom and synced frame by frame. When the orange cat climbs a tree, you hear bark cracking under his weight. When the pink cat runs across leaves, you hear them scatter.
5.1 Mix
First a stereo mix for cinema, then a full 5.1 surround version. I split the jungle into three spatial zones - canopy above, ground level around you, distance behind. When the camera is in the trees, the surround channels fill with leaves and wind. When it drops to the ground, the surrounds fill with ground-level detail and the space feels denser.