From a professional drummer to audio expert and voice designer on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Johnny Lucas takes us behind the scenes and gives us insight into his career journey and what it took to bring the world of Pandora to life!
Hey Johnny, tell us more about what you do as a Voice Designer? And what’s your favourite thing about your role?
When people hear the term “Voice Designer,” they often think of the iconic voices of their favourite video game characters, or the charming voices or sounds of NPCs or trusty animal sidekicks. But there’s a lot more to the role! My work can include prepping and executing voice recording, motion capture, and cinematic sessions, tracking session data, supporting voiceover (VO) pipeline efficiency, editing audio assets, supporting VO integration, and working closely with narrative, asset management, localization and casting teams through the entire process. That’s a pretty wide scope, so no two days or two projects are alike!
My favourite part about being a Voice Designer is seeing the smile on people’s faces when they hear our voice recordings appear in game for the very first time! I love being part of a collaborative process, and seeing each and every individual’s contribution comes together as a whole, polished game!
You’ve been at Ubisoft Toronto for five years now. What drew you to the studio?
Wow time sure flies! I was drawn to Ubisoft Toronto predominantly because of the diversity in their portfolio. I wanted to work for a company that can offer a multitude of opportunities and Ubisoft offers exactly that. These days, with the ability to now work on location as well as remote, our opportunities have the potential to extend beyond our internal walls. For example, supporting co-dev studios on titles such as: Assassins Creed, Skull & Bones, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, The Division, Star Wars Outlaws and so many more!
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
You worked on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Can you shed some light on you and your team’s process behind the work and what was the result?
On Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, our team (Junction x Alice) supported Malmo-based Massive – a Ubisoft Studio, who led the development, by recording, editing and mastering the final delivered assets for all of the in-game voice content.
It was a massive undertaking! (No pun intended)
To first tackle all the in-game voice recordings, we worked closely with Massive. Once voice recordings were complete, the Toronto team focused on gameplay voice features, turning our collective skillsets towards integration and debugging. It goes without saying that we each tried our absolute best to create an immersive player experience that would be enjoyed for years to come, and the collective results were outstanding!
I’ll never forget the first day I played the game after a giant import of audio assets. After six months and numerous voice recording sessions, hearing the characters come to life for the very first time was extraordinarily magical!
Did you encounter any key challenges? How did you and your team overcome it?
This was also the first project that I have worked on where we required language specialists. To ensure we achieved cultural accuracy of the Na’vi throughout the game, we worked closely with dialogue coaches who also worked on the Avatar films, and vetted every recorded Na’vi line with Paul Frommer who created the language. With every recording session, we strived to deliver the same level of subtle vernacular nuance and pronunciation, enabling the characters of Pandora to come to life and shine. The result was incredible! Watching and listening to these characters, you really felt like you were immersed in the culture and universe of Avatar. I can’t wait for players to walk around the world of Pandora and experience it for themselves!
Career development
How did you pick up the skills required for your role? How do you continue to hone them?
I spent a large portion of my life before Ubisoft Toronto working in the music industry. I used to play the drums professionally. And when I wasn’t on stage or travelling with a band? I would spend the remainder of my free time writing music for film and television, which eventually led to writing music for independent video games.
Over the years I’ve learned that it’s important to consistently strive towards personal growth in this field, and not to become overwhelmed by the daunting amount of tools and information available these days. Forward momentum to me has always been about finding the right balance.
Although a large portion of skillsets can be practiced and refined at home, a lot of the technical skills required for this role were a direct result of peer-to-peer mentorship and lessons learned from experience, experimentation and challenging myself within the workplace. Having the opportunity to learn and grow at Ubisoft Toronto has been paramount. Most importantly, do this because you want to. And always remember to try to have a little fun while you are at it! 😊
What’s the biggest hurdle you’ve overcome in your career?
Learning a brand new game engine was an exciting and fun challenge to say the least.
Working in the Snowdrop engine for AFOP gave me the opportunity to learn hands on, during a high-paced production period. This was the fastest way to overcome this hurdle and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Tell us more about how Snowdrop and the tech you use impacts your work?
Snowdrop has immensely improved my overall workflow! The features available in this new iteration of the engine are incredibly robust. I also love how the engine is modular and we can tailor versions of the engine depending on feature requests and game design needs. We also use software by Audiokinetic called Wwise. Wwise is the other side of our handshake to the game engine Snowdrop. It’s the Audio team’s workhorse in all of the productions globally at Ubisoft. Audiokinetic is consistently striving to meet our industry needs and has really been a game changer with the early adoption in allowing us to integrate 3rd party spatialized audio features into our games. I don’t think that I could ever go back to a time period without Wwise. (I’m looking at you MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID!) I’ll let you google search that one before I date myself.
Life at Ubisoft Toronto
Can you describe the audio community within Ubisoft?
I am part of a multidisciplinary team known as Alice x Junction, a collaboration between Ubisoft Toronto and Ubisoft Montreal, comprised of experts in casting, audio, motion capture and more.
If you have ever played a Ubisoft game and wondered how we are able to capture that incredible level of realization in all our cinematics and in-game animations? Chances are that you’ve experienced the high level of Alice x Junction’s industry professionalism and the result of talented experts working diligently behind the scenes to make it all happen.
The audio team on Alice X Junction is comprised of some of the greatest experts I’ve ever had the honour and pleasure to know in my career to date. I’m grateful and humbled every day to be able to work alongside such extraordinarily talented individuals here at Ubisoft Toronto. This is the first job that I’ve ever had in all of my life where I sincerely enjoy being at the office. There’s something new and exciting to learn every day.
What surprised you most when you joined Ubisoft Toronto?
How awesome the people are! The amount of diversity and inclusivity here at the studio is like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life. Ubisoft is the only place that I have worked where I feel 100% safe, valued and respected every day I come into work. The people and the company culture is really what motivates and fuels my creative inspiration to strive and challenge myself to do my best!
Just for fun
What do you do to relax?
I usually write music to relax. I have a little home studio where I spend the majority of my time off. I try to write music as often as I can to keep my skills sharpened.
I also enjoy cooking. I love experimenting with cuisines from around the world, so you’ll often catch me in the local food markets searching for delicious new ingredients!
Some days, I attempt to oil paint. I’m not very good at it, and I’m completely self-taught, but it’s a relaxing way to unwind after a long day’s work.
And finally, I’m an uncle to an incredibly cute and pointy-eared niece named Zoey. Here’s a picture of a house I built for Zoey out of used cardboard boxes. (It also doubles as a space station.)
People of Ubisoft Toronto is a series featuring studio members from a variety of projects and backgrounds as they share their experiences at our studio, perspective of the video game industry and, perhaps, even a sneak peek of what they’re working on! 
Our studio values diversity and believes in embracing differences to build stronger and more creative teams. We welcome people who would like to join us and redefine the future of games. Visit our careers page for more information on open roles and how to apply. To know more about our studio members and culture, click here.
