Sounds

As we know for animation sound is an important aspect. Today we had a workshop with the paper cinema who talked us through creating sounds and music to go along with our animations. 

The following links are resources we were given today to help us further with sound:

http://www.filmsound.org

http://www.freesound.org

http://audacity.sourceforge.net

http://www.marblehead.net/foley/

This Video is an example of an animation by David O'Reilly. We were shown this as an example of sound. The sounds in this were made by recording sound from real life scenarios e.g. a hospital. There is also subtle music playing the whole time in the background. The choice of sound for this animation works well as it is unpolished and rough to match the style of the animation itself. 

Adobe Audition - is the software that we were advised to use for making the sounds for our animations. It enables us to create and record multiple layers of sound. 

We start by selecting "New Multitrack Session" 

To view the video while we work on the sound to make sure it fits we go Multitrack - track - video track - insert/import files

Mute or delete audio that comes along with the video as we will be adding our own.

Select track you want to work on multitrack - audio file - insert - this adds prerecorded audio that we can then play around with.

Razor tool - used to cut the track and move cut bit to the layer below to add depth and layers to the sound.

To shorten the track or end it you can simply go to the end of the track and drag it to where you want it to stop. Another option for this is using fading to make the sound fade off in places (usually at the end it is effective)

Panning is another useful tool. If someone is talking on the left hand side of the screen it works best if their voice is also coming from the left hand speaker. And this is what the panning tool does. 

To record sounds directly instead of using pre recorded sound we use the mic as an input source. have the mic plugged in to the laptop you are working on - new track - "Arm for Recording"- Record. 

once we have our sound we can then add effects to it to create atmosphere or depth. Using the Reverb effect adds atmosphere like creating a tunnel sound effect. 

Export - multitrack mix down - Format - Mp3, Aiff, Wave

To then combine these soundtracks with the video itself we can use After Effects or Photoshop if working with stop motion animation.

When it comes to my own work I've been deciding the best way to go about adding sound. I've looked at various examples to help me with making an informed decision when adding sound to my screen based moving images.

The first video I have looked at is "Three Little Pigs" by Roald Dahl. This video I think works quite well. It is a combination of narration and background noise. However I'm still not sure that I want my work narrated. 

 

The next two examples are "Peter and the Wolf" which is well known for its use of musical instruments to create sounds for each different character in the story. Although I do think this works extremely well I don't have many characters and am more concerned about creating atmosphere within my work.

The final example is a fully narrated piece of "Gruffalo's Child" I don't think this one works as well as the others which use music in the background to provoke emotion in the audience.