Animation
as a visual medium; is very different to that of standard film with
visuals from cameras.
Sound
Design can help bring realism to the fictional world created by the
animator.
For
'The Why Factor' video, I worked with Kamil Burniak a third year
animator. He had been granted permission to animate a 20-30 year old
Monty Python sketch.
Kamil
also gave me
a
sample of 5 different short scores of music and the original sketch
audio. He set the sketch in a tunnel, and wanted me to insert any
sound effects that were present through the animation and manipulate
the audio already given to me to make it all more realistic to the
setting. On the surface, the narrative appeared quite stereotypical
of a modern day Reality TV singing competition. But the way in which
he has presented the judges through the animation actually makes the
whole piece more satirical
and the fact it was originally recorded 20
years ago,
ironic. For this reason I made sure sound effect of the judge filing
her nails was present from start to finish. It highlights how little
the judges think of the act, which plays up the way in which real
reality TV shows mock or ignore bad contestants. One of Kamil's
requests was in regard to the introductory music. He wanted it to
sound like it was coming out of the radio; which was located inside
the tunnel, and he wanted the volume to increase as the camera zoomed
closer to the source. In Pro Tools I used a combination of a 4 band
EQ
(see fig 1)
and
D-verb.
Fig.
1
The
EQ was automated so that when further away from the source (at the
start) it would be more muffled. This was achieved by increasing the
Low Pass Filter for baseness but also increasing the high pass for a
tinniness synonymous with an older style 'radio' sound. As the
camera panned closer, I increased the slope angle of the High Pass
filter making it louder. I then used a 'Small Church' reverb setting
and automated this so that it was a little less intense when inside
the tunnel. This was because the music became a little 'muddy' when
the reverb mix level was set to 100%. Changing this to 62% instead
meant that you could still get the atmosphere of the music being
played in a tunnel without losing the music clarity.
From
personal experience, animators early into their career don't always
realise the importance of sound design. Countless times it has been
hard to find animation work because they do not advertise a need for
help and feel that they can do it themselves. Trying to sustain a
sound design career early on may not be easy if animation work is not
being promoted. As with video editors, the animators that do use
sound designers will tend to be working up to their deadline and pass
it on to us at the last minute which is highly ineffective when
trying to record your own foley which is often necessary when trying
to help build the world that their animation is representing. Kamil
however, gave me a reasonable
amount of time to work on it which meant that I was able to record
the majority of the foley myself
i.e.
ambiences, nail filing, finger tapping, tape playing, drips and head
scratching to name a few. I only resorted to sourcing sound effects
for parts of the train.
The
animation was intended to go on the Monty Python website and blog but
there had been talks in the early stages of it being put onto DVD.
With this in mind I used the PhaseScope plugin to monitor the volume
levels. Mixing to BBC PPM 6, was useful because it meant that I could
see where any effects were too loud and therefore unacceptable for
any possible broadcast. The final part of the animation saw a train
speeding down the tunnel. I wanted a cacophony of sounds from a
quiet train in the distance to the whoosh of it getting closer. I
layered two of the same train sounds on each other, one starting
before the other, to make it seem more calamitous which was enhanced
by using the D-Verb Small Hall reverb plugin in Pro Tools. There
were 4 tracks in total to allow for sound layering and when played
back, the approaching train effect constantly peaked at 7 or more on
the PhaseScope meter. I tried lowering the volume but this wasn't
effective. The sound was supposed to get louder as it got closer to
the judges, to facilitate a realistic awareness of space as the train
got closer. I considered remixing the entire project to a lower
volume but I decided to compress the sound effects that were causing
the peaking. Muting each of the train tracks to find the culprit it
was denominated down to the two layered approaching train effects.
There were two sharp train rail 'screeches' that sent the PPM Meter
soaring. I used the Pro Tools Compressor/ Limiter Dyn 3 Plugin, and
altered the Threshold level; “how loud the signal [had] to be
before compression [was] applied” (Vincent,
2012),
the Ratio “how much compression [was] applied' (Vincent,
2012)
and the Knee ”how the compressor [reacted to signals once the
threshold [was] passed.” (Vincent,
2012)
(See
Fig 2).
Compressing the audio signals meant they maintained their volume but
lost some of their intensity which had caused them to peak on the PPM
Meter. After these were inserted on the track, the PPM PhaseScope
meter registered 6 as its highest peak and I didn't have to re- mix
anything.
Fig.
2
There
were occasions where I was unable to control things for example the
dog. It one of the few sound effects within the original Monty Python
voice recording. It had been panned harshly to the right despite the
vocals all being full stereo. A quote by author Brent Edstrom on
this subject said that “Panning is often used to provide some
breathing space between signals that share a similar range of
frequencies”(2011,
p108). This may have been true but I think it more likely that the
original video footage of the sketch placed the dog in the right hand
corner and the animation didn't account for this.
The character's spoke throughout the parts when the dog made noises
and therefore anything added had to be identical and this was the
case for the shotgun reload and shotgun bang. Older projects I have
completed; such as a Radio Drama production of Doctor Faustus,
enabled me to understand working with panning. I proceeded to record
myself impersonating the dog as closely as possible in stereo; which
surprisingly matched up pretty well! I then panned this to the left
ear, but because the right ear was the original it was still slightly
different in one ear to the other. I split my recording into mono
left and right, panning the 'left' track harshly to the left, the
right track to the right (to blend with the original) and then kept
the stereo recording panned centre to try and cover all bases. This
gave a much better sound than I had expected!
EDSTROM,
B. (2011) Recording
On a Budget.
New York. Oxford University Press Inc. P108
VINCENT,
S. (2012) The Beginners Guide to Compression. Online. United States
of America. Available
at:
http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mixing-mastering/the-beginners-guide-to-compression/
Accessed May 3rd
2013.
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