Executive Summary

Within this blog you will find;

• A process for putting sound to an animated short, using a cue sheet and a storyboard, along with the finished result.
• Ideas that didn't make the animation.

• Examples of film clips that utilize an effective use of silence. 

• Some musical experiments.

Co-Workers In Higher Quality

The finished animation in a higher quality Mp4.

Ideas That Didn't Cut It

There were a couple of soundtrack ideas that didn't make the final video;

1. Vocal antagonist - The cheeky trickster was initially going to be vocal, but having put in the musical sound cues first, the silent yet present character appeared more effective and added a greater edge to the animations climax.

2. Percussive eyebrows - An ornamental Xylophone phrase was initially composed to accompany the eyebrow motions featuring trills after the shaker sound effect. Upon implementing this into the track, it lessened the effect of the following hits, and seemed to be on the "Mickey Mousing" side. Removing this helped in applying a sneakier trait to the character, for such noticeable facial gestures to make no sound.  

3. Stomach squelching - A track that featured heavily pitch-shifted shouting that created the sound of bass heavy, beastly morphing. Proved to be too overpowering and extreme given the animations context.

4. Glue - I recorded a tub of water to go along with the shaking of the glue tub, but this along with the glockenspiel "ting" sounded clumsy. The finished version with just the glockenspiel adds a menacingly innocent quality to the trickster. Along with having such light effects such as the glockenspiel and shakers aids the contrast that comes with the climax.

Co-Workers

The videos finished more or less, only problems been with exporting in m4v. 
Here is an Mp4;

I rejected my initial "exclusively musical" based soundtrack, and produced a soundtrack that featured an opening theme tune, a variety of sound effects and dialogue. All the sound is original apart from an excerpt of Zack Hemsey's Mind Heist. 
This was the sound repeated three times during the realization stage for the protagonist to create an over-the-top and comedic climax.  

It was quite a task putting things together as I was working from different locations; recording with Reason at home, then putting the sounds to the visual with Soundforge at Uni. The audio might not be the best, as I couldn't work on the fly the same, but I'm quite happy considering the narrative context and how the piece climaxes. 

Considerable feedback (and laughter) from my peers in IAMCG implies the climax was well executed.
I composed and recorded within Reason 6. 

The final cue sheet is below; 

Co Workers	Irvine Cruickshank	Scene	Sheet
Time	Sound	Duration	Directions / Processing / Source
00:00:00.000	Theme tune	00:00:04.505	Quirky, 8-bit style.
00:00:04.842	Typing	00:00:01.748	Main synchronous point last key, rhythm paramount.
00:00:05.749	Breath out	00:00:02.858	Voiced
00:00:06.994	Clock tick	00:00:02.252	Simple metallic ticking
00:00:08.977	Breath and grunt	00:00:01.647	Voiced
00:00:10.222	Computer off	00:00:00.336	Synthesized
00:00:10.793	Sigh 01	00:00:01.277	Voiced
00:00:11.029	Chair move	00:00:01.008	Bar stool spin
00:00:12.071	Grunt, chair kickback	00:00:01.042	Voice, bar stool rock
00:00:12.844	Sigh 02	00:00:01.445	Voiced
00:00:14.895	Pondering	00:00:02.118	Voiced
00:00:17.216	Shocked intake	00:00:00.840	Voiced
00:00:18.661	Ding, puzzled	00:00:00.706	High pitched glockenspiel, voice
00:00:20.645	Sigh 03	00:00:00.739	Voiced
00:00:22.125	Shakers	00:00:00.403	Vitamin bottle shake
00:00:23.167	Bwah 01	00:00:02.185	Inception score sample
00:00:25.352	Intake	00:00:00.673	Voiced
00:00:25.912	Bwah 02	00:00:02.064	Inception score sample
00:00:26.256	Intake 02	00:00:01.112	Voiced
00:00:27.824	Intake 03	00:00:00.520	Voiced
00:00:28.384	Bwah 03, fart	00:00:01.570	Inception score sample, voiced fart

Typical

Blender chose to die on me a couple of days ago, and had no luck with the Uni's versions of Pro Tools and Cubase, so I'll have to use SoundForge via the Uni computers. I don't predict the result will be great, but I'll get something to handle both audio and video playback so I can practice and get more in depth with after submission. 

Still can't believe my own version of Cubase let me down in the first place! 

First Audio Experience For 3D

A pending potential summer project, helped out my professional project artist with her awesome spatial constructs project in providing audio assets. Very rushed due to the nature of  deadline madness with lots of team based assignments along with the other written works. The vocally designed audio helps add to the creepy atmosphere.

Regarding Co-Workers I have abandoned the idea of just using music for the animations entirety to convey all the events. Instead I am utilising a mixture of music, sound effects and bizarre dialogue. The storyboard for the animation highlighting main events;

Opening with theme tune

Typing

Clock ticking

Power down computer, pushes away with chair

Shock, rocks chair, acknowledges co-worker 

Glue shake, winning smile

Baffled

Laxatives and animated eyebrows

Doomed, dominates visual focus

Sequence of "Oh Ohs"

Climax

Credits

"Audio-Vision"

With the delayed arrival of my copy of Schion's Audio Vision from the previous weekend I have managed to get stuck in! The foreword is really good, especially with how it conveys the relationship between sight and sound, and with upon further reading how sound can be viewed as the quintessential anchor in which films derive their context/meaning. 

Started producing sketches and ideas for the co-workers short. My idea for approaching this is to use an exclusively musical soundtrack. 

Examples I'm thinking of utilising in my silence essay;

                                                     
                                                            No Country for Old Men
  

                                                                  Spider-Man 2

Other effective examples include; Leon: The Professional, Se7en, Kingdom of Heaven and Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.