'When' - Bees Sound Design Tweak 001

Another part of my feedback for When was a suggestion to return to my bees entity and make the soundscape more overwhelming. I wanted to increase the audio levels of the music as well, so I decided to play around with the bees as well. I added in another layer of insect sounds that were at a higher pitch as well as increase the volume of the whispers. Hopefully this is an improvement!

Major Project: Soundscape Progress Update 005 (With Music)

I've now added the music and soundscape Bruce Reid created for my film. I spent a long time tweaking effects and volumes of different sounds to try and ensure that the main voiceover could be heard, important whispers and sound effects were audible where important, and that the music shined through when I wanted it to.

For the line about 'rejection' I initially began to play around with the music cutting out mostly, but I found it odd and immersion breaking. I think leaving the music there keeps the film uniform and flowing since prior to the 'rejection' cut-out the music is quite subtle...so when it's all that is left remaining I hope it keeps the film moving without the cut-out being too distracting. I did, however, do a similar effect for my gem. This is because I have whispers, the screen doesn't go black, and again I want the gem to be aggressive rather than just eerie.

I'm still adjusting all of the volumes, I tend to work on sound design using high quality sound-blocking headphones so I realise it sounds different on computer speakers. I'm trying to alternate how I work so I get it working alright both ways. I am really happy with how this is turning out so far.

I've also been considering adding some sort of 'warning' on my film and Art Of. I don't want to seem dramatic, but since my film discusses some serious topics I feel it may be irresponsible for me to not give any sort of context to the film's subject matter especially since the title is quite ambiguous.

I worry that some things I say in the film (some of which are things people say to me that I myself find triggering) may be destructive for others to hear if they are in a bad place. I have a similar situation with my Art Of, where I discuss my reasoning behind what each entity represents. While I specifically avoid using numbers, sizes, measurements, and so on...I am aware that things I say could possibly be seen as triggering and I want to be sure I'm not doing anything harmful. Due to this, I plan on adding a 'please be aware' sort of message to my film and Art Of just to be safe.

Major Project: Soundscape Progress Update 004

Here is the fourth update on my soundscape. I've already begun playing around with the volume of different clips to soften certain sounds out if they cause the audio to spike, such as the glitch transitions. I was going to add more positive sounding whispers during the 'hope' portion of the poem, but to me it wasn't working right and still sounded a bit sinister. I also feel I want to keep with the idea that the absence of stimuli is soothing to me.

Due to this, I left this part of the film quite free as I suspect the music will take over during this part of the film. I will now be adding the music and soundscape Bruce Reid created so I can see how different parts of the film work with the music and if I need to adjust the volumes more and/or move clips around. From here I will be able to better determine if I need to record more whispers and what sort of 'flavour' those whispers would have.

I also decided to tweak the line being Anorexic is having a precious gem in terms of timing because I wasn't completely happy with it.

Major Project: Soundscape Progress Update 003

Today I made more progress with my sound effects and soundscape. I added a few more voices to the bees scene, although I may go back and add more later on. My initial goal is to put a first layer over the whole film, then add my music, and then move things around again as I suspect some whispers will have to be moved and adjusted. I'll then go over everything again and begin playing around with the volume levels of all the elements as I decide when I want the music, sound effects, or whispers to shine through more. I also plan on doing another recording session next week to collect a few more phrases for the whispers.

The sound effects for the needles is still in progress, I'm not 100% happy with it just yet. I also wasn't sure what I wanted 'wires' to sound like so I just began experimenting with some more abstract sounds which I think work nicely in conjunction with whispers. I also have the soundscape quite subdued during the 'happiness' portion as this is another part of the film I expect the music will take over.

Today I also got my final music from my music composer, Bruce Reid. I'm very excited to have my music, although I'll probably continue working on the rest of my sound effects without it so I keep the initial pass consistent. Afterwards, I'll add in the music and adjust as needed, especially knowing that some soundscape aspects were also created with the music. I'm aiming to have my initial sound effects pass completed by Monday so I can spend the next week tweaking everything.

Major Project: Soundscape Progress Update 002

Here's another update on my soundscape. I haven't gotten as far as I'd like to, but I had to spend a bit of time finding some more sound effects I wanted. One of the main things I added was the sound of fluorescent lightbulbs buzzing throughout the majority of the film. It's a bit quiet in places right now, but again, once everything is in place I'll go back and tweak the volumes. 

I want to also adjust the sounds more when I discuss the positive aspects of family as I'm not 100% happy with it, but I also suspect here is when the music will be more prominent.

I created my own white noise sound effect by using the 'generate' tool and then deleting parts of the clip, stretching it, and changing around the pitch. I tried to create a similar effect for the bees so it flowed better than it would be if I just slapped on a buzzing insect sound. 

In general I spent some time moving some clips around as it took a few tries to find the whispers that I felt work best at the different parts of the animation. While I wish I've made more progress, I'm excited how it's beginning to shape up.

 

Major Project: Soundscape Progress Update 001

Over the last few days I've been spending some time working on the soundscape for my film. I'm unsure how much of it I'll use in the end as that depends on the final product from my music composer as well. For now I'm creating the sound effects as if there will be no music, so I have no gaps and can play around with the volume later on.

First I had to spend more time going over the other 3/4's of my recording session from the other week to extract clips I thought would be useful and discard the weaker ones. Now I have nearly 200 clips extracted in total including many negative thoughts, some comments other people say to me, and a small handful of positive thoughts. I am aware I may need to return to the sound-booth to record some more positive ones depending on how things go.

Here is my first update of the soundscape. I may move around the whispers later down the line if I feel certain ones fit better elsewhere. I've also begun to play around with hospital sound effects from the BBC Sound FX Library CD. I still need to adjust the reverb, the volume, and other elements to these. I've also used a ventilator sound and some foetal heartbeats to characterise my sponge and meat entities. For meat I plan on reusing the heartbeat, but possibly making it deeper/louder each time we encounter it since each shot we get closer. I also began adding some glitch sounds where appropriate.

Major Project: Disordered Whispers / Soundscape Test 001

Yesterday and today I spent some time going over the recordings I made for my whispers. So far I only went over one out of my four chunks of recording, which already gave me a decent amount of content. From this one session I was able to extract 72 clips that I thought were the most useful and I suspect I could have a similar number from my other three sessions.

I wanted to test out how this would work with my soundscape, so I took the opening of my film for Edit 001 (which requires some editing changes but this is just a test) and played around with different effects in Audition. I found I usually used a process of some noise reduction, then a custom 'Echo' effect, followed by some reverb effects. I then played around with the volume, overlapping them, and experimenting with different volumes in each ear to give a disorienting and 'invading' effect. 

I also used some of the sound clips from the BBC Sound Effects Library (Disc #28 - Hospitals) and applied a few different effects to add some more depth to the soundscape. I wanted these to just be subtle for now as I want to spend more time on them. Again, this is just a test so the effects, volume, timing and so on are all subject to change. 

While I am happy with how this is turning out so far and I've been enjoying working on it, it is honestly challenging to work on it as well. It felt weird to record these as well as listen to them spoken out loud. Despite the strangeness I feel towards it, I hope it helps create more impact and raises awareness in some way.

Major Project: Glitch VFX & SFX Tests #2

The Video Copilot 'Twitch' plug-in also comes with a handful of glitch sound effects. I've also been shuffling through some of the BBC Sound FX Library CD's from the university's library. Out of all the CD's I've looked through I suspect the 'Hospitals' one will be the most useful to me although I suspect I'll be using bits and pieces from several discs. However, I need to double check what the copyright is on these CD's as I don't want to get in trouble for using them in my final film if I'm not allowed to. 

Glitch Test 007 - Custom Settings

The above animations feature both VFX and SFX - I used several glitch sounds from the Twitch plug-in as well as a a pulse monitor sound clip from the BBC Sound FX Library. I took the pulse monitor sound effect into Audition and increased the pitch as I felt it was too low originally.

For the first test I have only the heart monitor audio after the gem spikes outward, while in the second one I have extra glitch sounds where appropriate. I want to be sure that I utilise silence and minimal sound in my animation where it would be most effective. I do plan on testing out some crystal-like sounds for this scene as well in the future, this is just a basic early test. I'm looking forward to playing more with sound especially when I begin getting bits of music. 

Minor Project: Voiceover Reverb Tests #1-6

I've returned to my voiceover so I could remove some of the background noise and overall make my voiceover sound more cohesive even though it contains chunks from different recordings. I selected various noise samples from my exported edit and used the Noise Reduction (process) tool a few times to remove unwanted humming and static. I found this in itself evened out the voiceover a bit since the sound of the humming is no longer audible, so any harsh changes from one recording to another isn't as noticeable (I hope at least).

I then used this base to experiment with different types of reverb. I want to experiment with some other effects and echoes to see what sort of qualities I can bring to my voiceover if I want. I suspect I won't choose any effects for sure just yet, since I'm unsure if I want to go for a sort of dreamy quality as it's in an imaginary mind-space or if I want it to be more of a regular voiceover. I also think there are some interesting in the 'Audio Type' selection under 'Dialogue' so I plan to play around with that as well. Here are some of the reverb tests that I've made so far after cleaning up my voiceover edit.

Minor Project: Voiceover Draft #1

After a few more sessions in the sound booth, I've managed to record a few voiceover takes that I could use to piece together my final voiceover. I've spent a while going over which chunks of audio I like the most, and pieced them together in one recording. I am not finished with it yet, I still need to go back, remove some background noise since some clips are inconsistent with the other clips, readjust the pitch and volume, and adjust a few other things.

This part of my project has been a real challenge for me as it is again far out of my comfort zone, but I wanted to share my progress with it since it's going to be part of my film eventually. I also feel that everything will feel more cohesive once I add in an overall soundscape, other sound effects, and reverb. Again, it is not completed yet but here is what I've put together so far.

Minor Project: Voiceover Influences & Script Adjsutment

Over the last week I've been working to get some initial takes of my voiceover. Doing my own voice acting is something that I admit I've been terrified to try out - any sort of acting, even voice acting, is way beyond my comfort zone. However, since this project is so personal and it feels so important to me I am doing my best to work past that and make a decent voiceover. Once the sound booth at UCA was up and running after some technical issues, I spent a few hours over the course of two days to get as many initial take as I could. For the first clips I kept it relatively simple so I had a base and to ensure that I had the ability to do it and that it should indeed be me doing it in the first place. Over the next few weeks I'm going to work on adding more expressiveness to my voiceover...I hope as I practice and do it more I'll get better. I did find that the second day I recorded I did better and felt more comfortable so I hope that continues.

While I'm not including any of the voiceover clips in this post (maybe I'll include some once I have a final version), as I spoke the words I thing I had a better idea of what I wanted my poem and animation to be like. I decided to scrap the line "When I think of my family I feel dread" as I feel that this line in combination with the other lines, was unbalanced and leaned towards a more negative feeling towards my family. This is not what I wanted as I more so wanted to express a sort of 'guilty' or 'split' feeling in regards of my family.

I also spent some time looking at some spoken word/poetry readings in hope that it'll help me get more expressive in my recordings. Here are some I found powerful...Neil Hilborn has always been one of my favourite poets to listen to.

Adaptation B: Dysmorphia Soundscape Progress #1

Today I worked on the soundscape for my animation. I used a combination of audio that I recorded myself and sounds that I found online. The majority of clips that I used were originally sounds that relate to my Anxiety or Anorexia/Body Dysmorphia such as loud crowds of people, chewing, the National Weather Service alarm, car alarms, and screaming children (some of these clips I've used to morph my models in Maya). This is just the first 'pass' of my soundscape, there are certain parts I need to fine tune in terms of timing and volume. I may add in a few more clips of audio but I'm trying to be wary and not overwork it since that's a bad habit I have. So far I'm happy with it and I look forward to seeing it with my fully rendered scenes.

Adaptation B: Lighting & Soundscape Influences

I've now imported all of the models I want into one scene and set up lights for each one. This took me a while because each one is a unique shape, so I needed different lights for each model or else not all of them would come out the way I wanted. I also want them to each light up individually, so I figured it'd be best to set up lights and connect them to their corresponding model. Some of them were more difficult to light than the others, the ones where I had animated the joints and the arms/legs are stretched tend to be the most difficult. Those models I also had to remodel slightly as sometimes an arm or a leg would be beneath the floor. However, I'm liking how they are looking now.

I may rearrange them a little bit more, but I kind of like how they are set up the way that they are. I'm concerned about the render time but I won't know exactly what is going on until I render it on something other than my laptop. I think now I can do some playblasts for an opening scene where the camera moves around and the models light up one by one, then I can start doing some playblasts of close-ups. Hopefully from now on I won't need to move around the lights too much.

I also had a look at some different soundtracks/soundscapes from games, TV shows, and films that I liked because they made me feel uneasy. I figured listening to these tracks would help me get a feel for what sort of sounds I may go for in my sound design using the sound clips I plugged into my models to make the audience feel anxious. Out of all of these, the titles of the TV series 'Outcast' stands out to me...it always made me feel uneasy (especially around 00:42-00:52).

Outcast Titles from Justin Gurnari on Vimeo.

Adaptation B: Audio Wave Node Test #7 & Converting Images to Sound

Today I had some reassurance/advice for what I was doing for my project and some of my peers suggested some ideas to experiment with. One of these ideas was to convert an image into an audio file, which I found out could be done using Audacity if an image is imported as 'Raw Data'. I read that different types of image files (JPG, PNG, PSD, and so on) will result in different sounding audio clips but I haven't tried that out yet. I used an old piece of artwork I made a few years ago that relates to Anorexia and Body Dysmorphia and imported it into the program as a PSD file. It made a strange sound clip so I used to that to plug into my model's joints again to see how it would mess with the body's shape. I think it has some interesting results and I was able to get some peculiar looking stills. I like the idea that I'm creating sound using my old artwork, so I'll probably continue working with this instead of stock music and perhaps I will use different sound clips to create a soundscape.

Drawing used to create sound.

Adaptation A: Sound Design Progress #2

I've decided to add in a few extra sound effects to my animation as I returned to my files to edit the volume and positioning of some of the clips. I added an extra popping sound effect when the Periodic Table appears, which I think helps improve that part of the animation. I also added in a scream sound effect to accompany the blood splatter, which I think works nicely. I've also gone back into After Effects and fixed a few issues with my animation that I noticed - most notably a problem where my monster's head appeared darker than his body during one of the fading out transitions. I'm not quite sure why this happened as it only appears in some of my compositions in After Effects, but adding some brightness keyframes seems to have improved/fixed this.

Adaptation A: Sound Design Progress #1

I've put together the sound effects that I wanted for my animation along with my music. I wanted to add an old film projector sound effect over the entire animation as an overlay to enhance the 'silent movie' feel. Overall I think it is working well but I may go back and add in a few things while I go in and readjust the positioning volume of some of the sound effects.

Adaptation A: Influence Map, Planning for Artwork & New Music Test

So I decided to try out another piece of music for my animation as I knew the piece I used last time I didn't like. I got some feedback from a few people and out of the selection I had, this seemed to be the most preferred but I'll continue looking just in case there's something I like more. I think some added sound effects will improve it a lot and the timing is currently off because I didn't edit the original footage for it yet. I've also gone through my video and tried to plot out assets I need for my infographic and some different ways I could do it and what I could add in possibly.

Adaptation A: Old Film Effects #2 with Music

I decided to type out my 'steps' and string them together in a video. I figured this way I can try to plot out what sort of things I'll need to design. I've also decided to begin looking at some music to try and get some pacing. Out of the music I've found so far, the one I've put in the video is my favourite but I'm going to continue looking and I'll eventually add other sound effects. There is currently no animation on the text, but I've found a few very useful tutorials on Lynda.com so I'll begin looking into some methods of animating. I'll also begin drawing assets that I need, which may in turn remove some of the text that is in this video right now.

Pikatti: Editing & Sound Design Screenshots

Pikatti: Autodesk 3D Models & After Effects Composite Test #1