Welcome to 2D & 3D Animation & Asset Production

IGME.119.02

The

Advent

of

Sound

• There has always been audio in films• During the Silent Era it was in the form of

musical accompaniment. • Depending on the movie theater, music would

be played either on piano, Wurlitzer organs, or even by a full orchestra.

The

Advent

of

Sound

Harold Lloyd in The Flirt, 1917http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIJygFYiDHw

• Silent Film: Example

The

Advent

of

Sound

• In 1927, The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, The first film with synchronous sound

• Synchronous Sound: sound that synced to the picture – Dialogue– SFX (footsteps, doors, etc)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD_YRnuuKyY&feature=related

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9LmDpMO2k0

Steamboat Willie

• Third Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie, released in New York 1928 – Earlier cartoons flopped

• Not the first cartoon with sync sound but, first designed specifically for sound

• Is the origin of the film term – ‘Mickey Mouse-ing’– Meaning matching your actions to closely to the

sound

Steamboat Willie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4

Steamboat Willie

• Success of Steamboat Willie made Walt Disney Studios

• Mickey Mouse became a household name• Also, started Disney’s Silly Symphonies series• Which, in turn, launched copy-cats like, Merry

Melodies and Looney Toons

Brief History of Sound in Video Games

http://www.g4tv.com/videos/57180/the-history-of-videogame-sfx-with-michael-winslow/

The History of Videogame SFX with Michael Winslow

Brief History of Sound in Video Games

• The '70s (4-bit): bloops-and-bleeps• The '80s (8-bit): MIDIs, waka-waka-waka; ditties• The '90s (16-bit): recorded sound, play-by-play

drum samples, stereo effects• The '90s (32-bit): CD quality sound• Current: A lot like film sound Soundtracks;

dialogue; ambient sound; full integration to gameplay

Sound in

Media

• If you were to compare the value of sound vs. imagery in a media, how would you split it up?– Sound has 25% of the importance/imagery has

75%– Sound has 50% of the importance/imagery has

50%– Sound has 75% of the importance/imagery has

25%

Function of Sound in Film

• Establish create a mood• To simulate reality • Introduce important plot elements • Direct (or misdirect) the audiences attention• Create illusion of something off scene

Function of Sound in Animation

• Establish create a mood• To simulate reality• Enhance or Exaggerate reality• Introduce important elements of the plot• Direct (or misdirect) the audiences attention• Create illusion of something off scene

Function of Sound in Video Games• Establish create a mood• To simulate reality• Enhance or Exaggerate reality• Introduce important elements of the plot• Direct (or misdirect) the audiences attention• Create illusion of something off scene

• User feedback (interactions)• Motivational device (tempo)• Immersion into the game environment

(proximity)

Types of Sound in Media

• Synchronous vs. Asynchronous– Synchronous sound: includes all noises whose

origins can be seen on-screen– Asynchronous sound: Asynchronous sound is any

noise whose origin you cant see

Types of Sound in Media

• Diegetic vs. Non- Diegetic– Diegetic Sound: Audio that audience(player) and

the character can hear• Example: SFX, dialogue

– Non- Diegetic Sound: Audio that can only be heard by the audience(player)

• Example: Music Score, Narrator

Types of Sound in Film

• Dialogue• Ambient or Natural (Nat) Sound• Additional Dialogue Recording (ADR) • Narration • Sound Effects (SFX) • Score • Soundtrack

Dialogue

• Sound of people talking on-screen• Recorded during filming using microphones

hidden from the camera (boom or lavalier mic)

boom mic lavalier mic

Ambient or Nat Sound

• Background noise in the scene• Includes:

– Environmental sound (traffic, water, birds, etc.)– Crowd Noise (Walla)– Room tone

Ambient or Nat Sound

• Different types of nat sound help portray the environment in a particular scene

• Nat sound can signal or reinforce the location to the audience• Are we in a restaurant? • At a park? • In a closet?

Ambient or Nat Sound

• Walla: crowd noise• Walla group: group of actors that come

together to generate walla– Will often speak gibberish so they don’t have to

remember lines• Examples: "watermelon cantaloupe, watermelon

cantaloupe" , "natter natter" (to which the response is "grommish grommish")

Ambient or Nat Sound

• Room tone: also called presence. The "silence" recorded at a location or space when no dialogue is spoken

• Intercut with dialogue to smooth out any sound edit points.

• Without room tone sound track would “go dead” or be perceived by the audience not as silence, but as a failure of the sound system

Additional Dialogue Recording (ADR)

• Recorded in a studio after filming• Done if something ruined the dialogue during

shooting, such as the noise of a plane or a garbled speech

Narration

• Off camera voice that provides setup, perspective or otherwise fills the audience in on the story

• Not heard by characters on-screen

Sound Effects (SFX)

• Any sound other than dialogue or music that is artificially created to represent sound in a film, animation or game

• Often very different than the SFX that occur in the natural world

• Can come from digital SFX libraries• Or be generated in a studio using the foley

process

Foley

• Sound are recorded AFTER filming in a studio• Foley artists use objects to create SFX live while

watching the film• Objects used often have nothing to do with the

objects that create a sound in reality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNvKhe2npMM

Sound

Effects

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrGw1Iq1aA

Music

• Score: Music that is created specifically for the film and plays at different points throughout the movie– Usually orchestral– Usually created after filming and using the first

(rough-cut) edit• Soundtrack: Music included in a film that was

not created specifically for the film – for example, a song by a popular artist

Music

• Music suggest mood of the film as a whole• Music can suggest locale, classes even

ethnicity • It can be used as foreshadow to signal the

audience to be aware• Atonal or dissonant music can create a sense

of anxiety

Music

• It can also provide ironic contrast

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/282728/Blue-Velvet-Movie-Clip-Open-Mr-Beaumont.html

Sound

• Most filmmakers will agree that the sound of a film, including music, dialogue and sound effects, contain 50% of a film’s meaning.

Sound

• Sound designers mix all types of sound to create the soundscape for a film

• Sound in a film is much simpler than sound in reality

• Sound designers choose each and every sound to enhance but not distract from the narrative

Sound

• Great horror film directors like Hitchcock understood that silence or minimal sound in film can give a sense of isolation or anxiety

The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock, 1963

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwLiH8bWFdM

Types of Sound in Animation

• Recorded Dialogue (same as ADR)• Narration • Sound Effects (SFX) • Score • Soundtrack • No Dialogue or Ambient/Natural Sound since

everything is manufactured

Sound in Animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrpaUOVwNeU

Types of Sound in Video Games

• Recorded Dialogue (same as ADR)• Narration • Sound Effects (SFX) • Score • Soundtrack (maybe)• Dynamic audio

Sound in Video Games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iqYgVuoTFA

Dynamic Audio in Video Games

• Sound which reacts to changes in the gameplay environment and/or in response to a user

• Encompasses both interactive and adaptive audio

Interactive Audio

• Sound events occurring in reaction to gameplay

• Responds to the player input or actions directly

• Example: Player presses a button, the character on screen swings their sword and makes a “swooshing” noise. Pressing the button again will cause a recurrence of this sound. The “swoosh” is an interactive sound effect.

Adaptive Audio

• Occurs as part of the game environment• Reacts to gameplay, rather than responding

directly to the user. • Audio changes according to changes occurring

within the game or playback environment• Examples:

– Super Mario Bros, music plays at a steady tempo until the time begins to run out, at which point the tempo doubles

– Environmental sounds get louder as the player approaches them within the game

Using Sound in Flash

Supported Formats

• WAV • AIFF • mp3

Two Types of Sounds in Flash

• Event: For interactive sounds – Triggered by AS3 (example: button click)– Continues playing until explicitly stopped– Cannot be heard when scrubbing the timeline

• Streaming: Used for animation– Synced to the timeline– Can be heard when scrubbed

Importing Sound

• You place sound files into Flash by importing them into the library

• Select File > Import > Import To Library• In the Import dialog box, locate and open the

desired sound file• Stores sounds in the library along with bitmaps

and symbols• Like symbols, uses instancing when dragged to the

stage

Importing Sound

• Sounds can use large amounts of disk space and RAM

• mp3 sound data is compressed and smaller but can be lower quality

• WAV or AIFF have better quality but can be very large

Adding Sound to the Timeline

• Sound can be place on layers containing other sounds or objects (not recommended)

• It is better for each sound to be placed on a separate layer

• Each layer acts as a separate sound channel • The sounds on all layers are combined when

you play the SWF file.

Adding Sound to the Timeline

1. Add a new layer to the timeline, label it appropriately so you know which sound is on that layer

2. Select the audio layer, drag the sound from the Library and onto the Stage

3. Select the audio layer and go to the Property Inspector to setup sound properties

Sound Properties

• Name

• Effect

• Sync

• File Attributes

Sound Properties: Name

• If you have multiple sound files in the library you can swap them from here

• Choose None to delete a sound from a layer

Sound Properties: Sync

• Event for interactive sound• Stream for sound that will play with

animation• Disregard Start and Stop as they are for more

advanced functionality

Sound Properties: Sync

• Repeat/Loop: Specify the number of times the sound will play– Looping stream sounds is not recommended as it

dramatically increases the size of your file– For continuous play, use Repeat enter a number

large enough to play the sound for an extended duration

• For example, to loop a 15-second sound for 15 minutes, enter 60

Sound Properties: Effect

• Left Channel/Right Channel: Plays sound in the left or right channel only

• Fade Left To Right/Fade Right To Left: Shifts the sound from one channel to the other

• Fade In or Fade Out Gradually increases or decreases the volume of a sound over its duration

• Custom: Lets you create custom in and out points of sound using the Edit Envelope

Sound Properties: Effect

• Choosing Custom will bring up the sound editing window or Edit Envelope (you can also click on the pencil icon to open it)

• Edit Envelope allows you to change the sound level by adding and manipulating control points

Removing a Sound from the Timeline

1. Select audio layer containing the sound and a frame that contains the sound

2. In Property Inspector, select None from drop down under the Name menu.

Sound in Flash

• By adding layers of sound and spacing them with empty spans you can easily add synchronized sound to an animation

Adding Sound to an Animation

DEMO

Project 2b: Animatic

Animatic

• Storyboarding is followed by simplified mock-ups called "animatics"

• Gives a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with motion and timing.

• Series of still images and simple animations displayed in a timed out sequence with a rough dialogue and/or rough sound track

Animatic Examples

• Double Rainboom Part 01/06 - Animatic – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ne10kapKNw

• Gorillaz - Dirty Harry (Animatic)– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1uRncKY8DU

• IRON MAN 3 animatic - Mansion Attack – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiZRuOxiCGw