Airwiggles Sound Design Showdown 2026!

Our team, WwiseGuys took a part in the challenge. Although we didn’t proceed to the next round, the project was a great creative exercise. We were given a really interesting prompt to design sound for: If origami came alive. Working from a written prompt only, without any visuals, pushed us to tell a complete story using sound alone within 10 seconds.

The narrative unfolds somewhere in Japan. Calm, minimal and surrounded by zen gardens. An origami form struggles to emerge from a static papery state before transforming into a living, mythical bird. The sound evolves from dry and tactile textures into brighter, ascending tones, guided by ethereal birdsong that signals freedom.

@Matt J Hart recorded a range of beautiful papery textures and zen garden ambience layers. @Fred Martin provided additional sounds for the emergence of the mythical bird which added more magical quality. I curated the storytelling, music and handled the final mix + master.

Thanks to @Greg Lester and @Lewis Thompson for hosting this awesome tournament and good luck to everyone else in the future rounds!