Article: Designing Sound for Animation by Robin Beauchamp

In the overview of the article a very major and important point is made that stood out straight away; “…many developing animators do not get the opportunity to study the sound track and fail to develop a comprehensive aesthetic for storytelling that includes sound.” I feel as though many animators within the industry must go through this consistently, especially when working within big teams. As we know in the animation industry especially the feature film world, animators work in large teams to complete sections and sequences of the film individually then it is put together and edited at the end. Therefore, the creator of the story may not always have a huge input into the aesthetics of the sound, which by and largely can affect the original vision of the film.  However, in comparison I get to do the opposite as I have always been responsible for my own sound, even in group tasks. I have been fortunate enough to be able to be the creator of my own films without being able to use additional help from others. Therefore, I have always been able to set aside time to really focus on my sound editing. One thing I have realised since studying animation is that sound can either tell the story you are animating, or it can tell a completely different story. Either way, it tells a story. Later in the overview it states: “They remain unaware of both the process and the tools used to develop a purposeful soundtrack.” This is something I agree with in terms of the fact that most animators who lack to opportunity to explore sound design will remain unaware of how important it may be. I made sure I used sounds that I knew would fit my films the most and allow the viewer to close their eyes and still have an idea of what might be going on, however if their imagination takes them elsewhere, I would be happy for that too, as long as it told some form of story.

Article: The Power of Sound Design in a Moving Picture: an Empirical Study with emoTouch for iPad by Maximilian Knock & Christoph Louven

“Viewers of animated films unconditionally might need music and sound effects to get more background information in order to understand the story line, whereas live-action movies might do their job merely on the visual level (like silent movies before the 1920’s).” This part of the article stood out the most as it relates to not only general animation but my silent film response movie. Within the animation world, viewers rely on sound and music subconsciously whereas in live-action films, sound may not play the biggest part. When muting sound in an animated film, I feel as though it is a lot harder to comprehend what is happening, purely based on sometimes emotions are not as easy to portray on an aminated character. In live action however, muting the sound can still allow the viewer to follow the story, based off the actors facial and body expression. I don’t think this is done intestinally by our brain, however I feel as though as a viewer we expect far more unrealistic qualities to come from an animated film as there are no limitations however in live-action there is only so much an actor can do. The film industry learnt a lot from silent live action films from the 1920’s, I feel as though it made animators realise how important sound could be in animation compared to live action, in the sense of they would need to try 10 times harder to express the characters emotions. As we can tell from this article, the author’s have done extensive research into the comparison of both animated films and live action film and the sounds related to them. They infer that more work has to be put into animation sound compared to live action because if not, the viewer will struggle to understand the story line. That is something I would need to take into account when producing my own films especially if I would like to mix both animation and live action as I will need to be extra careful of my sound design and I would not want the viewer to become lost. I feel as though that is one of the most important aspects of creating the film, to make sure the viewer does not get lost. Sound can allow them to keep up.

Article: Pixar and the Animated Soundtrack by Daniel Goldmark

“…puts the soundtrack at the lowest rungs of the production hierarchy – but it also shows that animated films can be made with as much care and precision as live-action films”.

In this article is speaks briefly about something called “smell-o-vision” in which Disney and Pixar may have explored while making the film Ratatouille. As this was a film that focused so much on the aspect of food it would have been silly for them to not try their best to allow the viewer to imagine the smells in the film. However, we see that Goldmark feels as though sound has been but to the lowest part of the production to show that the film can go toe to toe with a live action film and perform just as well. As we know sound is incredibly important in an animated film however as Ratatouille focus on smell, Pixar and Disney were able to show more of the characters emotions and feeling towards smell rather than sound. I feel as though this was a massive gamble done by Pixar and Disney, however it would not have worked any other way just due to it being a film revolving food and smells. I feel as though this was extremely clever as it is not the conventional way of production, therefore it set the standards for films that followed in its direction to not only put sound design to the side but to allow the film to be as precise as a live action film. If an animator can make the viewer feel as though they are able to smell what the characters are smelling, sound may not need to be as important as it would normally. This brings another sense into the world of animation. However personally I disagree in terms of the fact that sound was put to the lowest part of production, because if they focused on sound a slight bit more it would have really been able to give a live action film a run for its money. As it would have had strong character emotion, a sense of smell and an accurate soundtrack, all 3 would have enhanced the viewers experience. These qualities are something that I will consider when producing films, as it isn’t something that is done often; a sense of smell.