Animation sound Design Update

I've started to write down all the sound effects I need whilst watching the animation without sound. every time I watch it I find something else to add, I believe I'm really starting to 'create images for the ears' once I am happy with my list I shall start trying to record and create sound effects for them. here is my list so far:

Inspiration and research

I decided to look for some information on animations directly from the sound designer for some inspiration and research, I managed to find a couple of videos on Youtube with the head sound designer speaking. here are a few I have looked at

A bugs life - Gary Rydstrom (sound designer)

Ben Burtt - (sound designer)

Watching these videos has inspired me to make my new sounds out of existing sounds, for example if I wanted a rain sound instead of going out and trying to capture the sound of rain I could merge two sounds together that when merged together would give me the sound of rain.

Quote from 'soundscapes'

When reading through soundscapes I came across a section about 'creating images for the ear' by this it was ment that sometimes in film scores/design you must add sounds which 'paint a picture' as such for the audience, this adds to there viewing experience. I intend to do such a thing within my final piece.

Animation sound scape Update

I have posted a video just to show my progress so far on my a possible FMP project I am working on, this piece is far from finished but I will continue to post videos to track my progress whilst I work on this idea. No mixing as really been done yet, and I have done some slight panning, nothing major this will all be re-worked once the design has been finished with the score.

(Animation by Joaquin Baldwin)

I have also started to keep track of all the sounds I have used from my library which I will reference properly at a later date

Working on an animation

I've started to work on a short animation by Joaquin Baldwin for this I have started to create the sound design for this, once this is complete I shall start work on the score, so far I have Used 3 sounds, One being a hair drier, one being some glass and the other an old used air horn, I have recorded all these with a dynamic microphone via a DI (Direct input).

A while ago I started reading 'Soundscape' by the school of sound, one chapter is entitled the absence of sound by Mike Figgis, towards the end of this chapter he states that someone had always told him that you cant use silence and if you wanted silence you must use 'approximated silence with room tone' which means you still have no silence but you have the room ambience only for example, chairs squeaking, lights computers humming etc. So with taking this advice I started to add 'room tone' to my piece to do this I thought the best way to do this was to add a fan humming in the background for this I used the recording of the hair drier.

(Image of cubase, Green lines represent panning a blue represent volume)

Relationships between colour and sound.

After a tutorial with my tutors I thought I would research the relationships between colours and sound I found this short documentary which really helped my understanding. Thinking how I could incorporate this into my FMP

Edwyn Collins Session

In this video I was the sound engineer, this including making sure every mic placement for the instruments where correct and everything was working and plugged in as the channel list asked (please see page #-# of my research sketchbook for plan and list)

I also played the role of a producer Mixing some of the songs.

Simon Aldred session

In this piece I was the sound engineer, again making sure all microphone placements where correct for the session and everything was working.

Sound library

I decided to start to collate all my existing sound clips into a sound library

Turns out I have Quite a few clips already.

Research - John Cage

Currently reading through some articles about John Cages work and came across this

'..first experiments involved altering standard instruments, such as putting plates and screws between a piano’s strings before playing it'

This has opened my eyes a little as when I am looking for sounds sometimes I get so lost in the digital world I fail to 'think out the box' a little, for example in a John cage piece entitled 'Cartridge music' he amplified everyday house hold objects at a live performance, if I could do this and take for example wire and a saw think of all the weird but wonderful sounds I could come up with.

Tutorial with Tutors

Today I had a tutorial with my tutors to discuss my Ideas for a FMP and to see what work I had produced for the previous unit. During this discussion we talked about what I wanted to do and what work would be needed to support these pieces. I'm feeling more confidant with perusing my work individually as I have been told I am working at a distinction level and that my sketchbook is as good as it should be.

My two ideas consist of the following:

A) an exhibition piece, highly influenced by Nam june paik.

This will include a Soundscape with 1 video installation

in a dark room, designed to make the audience feel uneasy.

B) Sound Design and score for a piece of moving image.

For this I plan to create a sound effects with natural sound clips I have gathered.

I will also store all the sound clips in a library with a spreadsheet to keep everything in order.

I will then create a Score using midi instruments as well as musical instruments.

I plan to mix this in 5.1 Surround sound if possible on either Logic or Pro-tools.

I Then plan to create a website to Host the video on with just one page hosting the video.

Research

So i decided to start reading through some books, One being 'Soundscapes' by the school of sound and 'Sound Design' by David Sonnenschein and have started to to make notes whilst reading through which I shall soon copy up into my sketch book, not only does this help me to absorb the information but helps me have it on hand when i want it instead of trawling through chapters.

So far I have read about sound energy transformation and Silence in film

(please see pages 1-3 in FMP sketchbook for notes)

My idea for my FMP is changing again, more towards my original idea of creating a score and sound design for a moving image piece, preferably animation.

The Charlatans in Profile

This is the most recent piece of work I have been involved in, For this I was a sound engineer, this including setting up microphone placements and recording the band session its self as well as fixing and problems that occurred, I didn't encounter many problems, the only problem was the vocalist wanted more vocals through the monitor mix, so I boosted them a little until he was happy. If I was to do this again the only thing I would probably do differently is probably the mic placement for the snare as it was picking up a lot of guitar but there wasn't much i could do about this and managed to rectify it during editing.

Sound Design and score for animation

I created all the sound effects and score for this short production as well as mixing and editing, in this piece you will hear many sounds, for example, washing machines, splashing in baths, blowing down a straw into water and many more I also created a score for this recorded using Midi with a selection of VST instruments.

(please see pages 72,73,81,82,85,86,87 in my research sketchbook for notes and research)