PROFILE
Michelle Hwu
By Andrew Leyenhorst
One of the greatest things about
our industry is the widespread interconnectivity of creative mediums and the transferability of skill sets ; there is no singular path to success or career satisfaction . For Michelle Hwu , satisfaction is a product of curiosity and exploration .
Hwu is currently a sound designer at Ubisoft Toronto , the triple-A video game developer behind recent and upcoming entries in the popular Far Cry and Watch Dogs franchises among others , including October 2020 ’ s Watch Dogs : Legion . However , a career in game audio wasn ’ t always the plan .
Born and raised in Toronto , where she still resides , Hwu ’ s upbringing was one that very much set a precedent for her outlook on life . She explains that her mother always encouraged her to be curious , and this went hand-in-hand with her innate desire to create , listen , and learn about how things are made .“ I learned to play the piano , do pottery , painting , folk dancing , Chinese storytelling , and so on . I loved – and still love – to find the connection between different mediums ,” she explains .
Music would take hold as the driving force for Hwu , as she would go on to study percussion at the University of Toronto , ascending to a spot with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in ’ 08 and ’ 09 , and completing her bachelor ’ s degree in 2010 before launching into the professional orchestra circuit .
Between 2010 and 2016 she performed with many ensembles , including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra , The Royal Conservatory Orchestra , the YouTube Symphony Orchestra , the National Academy Orchestra , as well as the Screen Composers Guild of Canada , and more . As well , she offered private tutoring and would send many students on a path towards their own futures in music . Despite finding immediate success as a performing musician , in the back of her mind , Hwu wanted to indulge her curiosity elsewhere .
She recalls a course on recording technology at U of T , which required students to compose , record , and edit original music and sound effects set to a short animation .“ I enjoyed the entire process , but in particular , creating the sound effects . I ’ d always known about sound effect creation but never considered it as a career at the time .”
Conveniently , her background in percussion set her up perfectly for this new interest , and she began reaching out to animators on Vimeo asking to record sound effects for their shorts .
“ I started collecting materials like rocks , branches , and sand from outside to create the sound of footsteps and this was when I realized there was a direct connection between the percussion knowledge I had and Foley . They both have the same fundamentals when it comes to rhythm , timbre , and sync ,” Hwu explains .
In 2014 , she decided to take another step in this direction and attended OIART in London , ON , to study audio engineering formally , before landing an internship in the sound effects department at Sim Toronto ( formerly Tattersall Sound & Picture ) the following year .
After her time with Sim , she enjoyed a brief stint as a Foley artist at Post City Sound , a breakthrough experience for her . “ It was so meaningful to me because it felt like I had officially been able to achieve my initial [ audio career ] goal of being a Foley artist and performing at a professional Foley studio ,” she says proudly . “ I loved every minute of it and the mountains of shoes , cloth , and props that were everywhere . Those moments made me feel like I made the right decision to transition from music performance to post-production sound .”
She had also begun freelancing as a sound editor and re-recording mixer in cooperation with The Farmhouse Creative Labs , which further developed her engineering skills .
Between her time with Sim , Post City , and freelancing with The Farmhouse between 2015 and 2018 , Hwu worked with a staggering list of clients , including NBC , CBC , A & E , Uber , the NBA , and the Government of Canada , and that ’ s only a small selection .
The final domino would fall in 2018 when an old colleague now at Ubisoft Toronto told her of an opening for a voice designer at the studio . Although not part of her original plan , she says , “ I was more than happy to start in the video game industry and fuel my inner nerd-dom .”
She got the job and quickly acclimatized , working with directors , writers , actors , animators , and programmers as she learned the process of integrating audio into video game code while also taking part in recording sessions . Yearning to tap back into her sound design and Foley roots , she took on more work in that realm and eventually shifted titles to sound designer , where she has primarily worked on Watch Dogs : Legion and its post-launch downloadable content .
While she has lived all throughout the Greater Toronto Area , Hwu currently resides in the west end of the downtown core with her partner Tim Atkins , who is also a Ubisoft Toronto audio engineer . They recently adopted a pair of cats named Booyah and Wiggy , and have been working together on smaller side projects amidst the pandemic , including stop motion animations by Lee Hardcastle and a Japanese short film detailing transgender issues .
Her childhood-instilled artisanship still holds sway as well , as she sculpts animal figurines from clay and has recently completed a stop-motion puppet-building class . Her desire to learn also remains very much intact , having begun learning the Python programming language and hopes to develop an indie game in the future with a small group of friends . Additionally , she recently decided to pick up Mandarin lessons .
Michelle Hwu ’ s impressive career path so far is a testament to the virtue of curiosity and an overt demonstration of the idea that truly , everything is connected in some way . With that in mind , perhaps the most important connection to be made is with those around us . “ I love working with people and creating things together . There ’ s nothing that brings me greater joy .”
Andrew Leyenhorst is the Assistant Editor of Professional Sound .
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