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This week we started this project by researching into what sound design is and why its so important, especially in animation witch directly links into our course so learning this is going to be great for our future projects.

I started the week well, but then fell behind a bit after getting the second project from charlotte I wasn't managing my time well, but its something I think I'm adjusting to. I just need to get used to having two projects at once.

Next week I'm going to make sure I get everything I need to get done on time, whilst catching up on what I'm behind on. As well looking into extra things to help my understanding.

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Why is audio and sound design so important in media ?

Good sound and audio is crucial to any peace of creative media for so many reasons. The sound gives life to the media and enhances what you’re playing or watching.

This includes the sound effects, the music and any speech and dialogue.

Good or bad sound can make or break a project and good sound design can enhance an already amazing movie or game.

Many famous pieces of media have at least 1 iconic sound effect of song or soundtrack that’s associated with them and that’s the result of good sound design. For me, the entire legend of Zelda series springs to mind. It’s full of so many iconic sounds and effects, alongside an always incredible soundtrack. Though new instalments are being released, they keep the iconic theme and sound effects similar, but different enough to fit there themes and specific game. In terms of animation specifically, Ghibli movies come to mind. It’s famous for its visuals and animation but also its soundtrack. Without it they would lose alot of what makes them so special.

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What does a sound designer do ?

Sound designers create and compile audio assets for media. This includes sound effects, voice over's, film, television, advertising, games and even live performances like theatre.

Basically their the ones responsible for creating all the audio and sound.

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In terms of software used to create music, commonly used software include ableton live, Logic Pro x and cubebase.

For sound and sound effects, sound weaver and krotos studios are common suggestions.

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How is lip-syncing done?

It takes a good understanding of timing as you need to match the characters lip movements to the dialogue being said.

Capturing the natural look and flow of speech can be hard.

In order to understand this better, I looked into videos to learn how its done effectively as my animation skills are lacking as is. Doing both an animation and a lip-sync is going to be challenging. Luckily for me, Shar who I watch on YouTube a lot uploaded a video very recently about how she animates dialogue. So I used this to start learning.

Mouth shapes

When we speak our mouths make different shapes, and understanding these is important to having smooth dialogue that matches what's being said. Each sound is going to look different.

Facial expressions

Making sure the face moves and matches the mouth and dialogue being said is also super important. Doing both these things well and adding them together breathes life into what otherwise would be flat expressionless characters.

Getting good at these things requires good observation skills, as well as a good understanding of anatomy, which is a bit of a road block for me as this is something I'm still working on. The fastest way to improve this is to simply look at a reference and practice. Which sadly I'm a bit limited with time wise with the 1 and a half week left of this project. But I'm going to get as much practice in as possible and document it here.

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For this activity, i focused on matching the sounds to the movement as closely as possible and using sounds that would make logical sense. I used after effects to complete this and chose the sounds, then placed them where i thought they should go. Then cut them down if they were to long. I did this for all 3.

For this first one, i struggled finding sounds that i thought fit, so some may seem a bit random.

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This one was the simplest as it was very cartoon like and so i could use more unrealistic sounds .

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When i first heard one of the audios, a scene involving this character immediately in my head. So before i forgot i rough sketched this girl added detail to the unique bit, ready to clean up and sketch properly later.

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Here i refined my ideas a bit, adding details and colour to get a better idea of the character.

I added some necklaces and settled on her coat being green. I also lightened her eyes from the dark magenta to a very light mint green, although you cant really see that in this sketch as she had white pupils.

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This is my first sketch of the full body, rough but i didn't want it to be detailed. I just wanted to get my ideas down ready to full draw the character so i have a reference for my animation. I gave her ripped skull tights and studs on her shorts.

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This one i didn't really add much, because its a more realistic setting. I couldn't think of what else would make sense to add. It could definitely be improved on. Id change the volume of the crash, and add sound to the person at the begining and the packaging their grabbing.

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Here my final design for the character and ill be useing this sheet as reference for my animation.

I brought the bullet holder thing back from my original sketches, but put it beneath her coat this time. then changed her tights to de-clutter the design a bit.

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Practicing animation and learning lip syncing 

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Practicing animation and learning lip syncing 

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The idea of starting my final version immediately with 0 practice wasn't ideal to me, so to start, i used a character i'm used to drawing and got started on some practice movements and expressions. I admittedly put of the lip syncing because i really didn't know where to start despite watching the video which i understood well. Understanding something in theory versus putting into practice is something i struggle with.

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When thinking about examples of some good, thought out sound design, hollow knight immediately comes to mind. Theres just something about the atmosphere it creates with its use of sound. The sound track of course, is great and really adds to the already strong foundation. But the little details for me are why its such a good example of great sound design.

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I started by drawing the shapes and as a reference I took a video of myself, that way I was less likely to get any anatomy to wrong. Its still not quite right but I'm ok with that. From there I simply kept adding more detail's to each frame. But once I had I ran into the same road block I usually run into being I have no idea where to go from here.

I know I need to add in-betweens but i dont understand how to do them

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Here's my first sketchy attempt, without any lip syncing. I'm going to do a second one where I practice the lip-syncing, then add what I've leant together. Id like to clean this up more but its not my final product so there's no need.

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While looking into lip syncing, i leant that the jaw is going to move when we speak, and now i look ay it its super obvious but id never considered it even when just normally drawing. I did a practice sketch to better understand this as its going to be super important when i make my final piece.

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Despite watching many videos and guides and trying over and over, I just couldn’t understand how to make the lip sync look correct or believable. This was my best attempt. This is just something I’ll have to improve on for the future.

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This week I worked on the character I’ll be using for my final project, as well as practicing my animation skill really to start production next week.

I’ve stuck with my first idea for this project and stuck with it so far because I think it works with the voice clip I chose. What I now need to decide how detailed I want to make this animation, whilst keeping in mind time limits and my own general ability. I’m going to spend the first half of next week animating and then finish any unfinished work and annotations. I’m a bit behind with somethings so I’m going to catch up over the weekend and make sure I have as little to do next week making sure my Animation gets done.

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These were the frames I drew early on so that I remembered to include them. I wanted her to look left, then switch direction like I’d practiced, change the way her eyes are looking then start speaking.

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My plan was to have her peeking around a wall, but quickly realised with the animation I’d done so far this wouldn’t work. So I needed to adapt my idea.

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This was my first sketch of the frames I’d planed, now I needed to put them where I wanted and clean up the sketches.

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After adding detail here’s what it looks like. I stretched her out more in certain frames to emphasise the movement and then hunched her over but, at least I tried to, to give the idea she slightly annoyed.

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This week I’ve started my animation, and other then a few other bits I haven’t done which shouldn’t take long, I should be finished. I’m struggling a bit with the lip syncing again but I’m just going to get it finished so I can make sure everything that needs to be to be done gets done. I’m still unsure if I want to add colour and or a background if I have time.

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Here’s the cleaned up line art. The line weight changes a bit towards the end and her eyes are a bit wonky but I’m ok with that. This is something I don’t have a lot of practice in yet so I’ll get better over time. I added the eye direction change and now it was time to do the lip syncing.

At this point i realised i would have time for colour, but to make sure i get both projects finished properly, the background might have to be skipped.

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One my favourite areas in the game is the city of tears, wheres its constantly raining. I really like the sound of rain so naturally i like this area but the sounds they use when the rain hits the floor, or how when your inside and near glass and rain hits the glass it sounds different. As well as how when you get attacked here, the rain completely stops emphasising the impact.

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Another example is Deepnest. An area themed around spiders, which as someone who it terrified of spiders, struggled to play though on my first go. Not because of the visuals, but the sound. You know theres spiders, you can see that, but the audio of small bugs of any kinds squirming and the pattering spider sounds combined with the creepy music make me genuinely uncomfortable. A sign of sound design done well. suddenly your playing a horror game.

Ive included a link to the sounds if you want to here for yourself.

https://youtu.be/osR6OdBphQs?si=U8SqR2TWPBw6EL2S

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This project we were tasked learning about audio and sound, as well as lip syncing and creating a final product animation using lip syncing. Initially I was super worried about this project as i'm really not confident with any kind of animation yet and don't understand most of it. My first idea i stuck to though the whole process for the first time. I think this is main because we were tasked with creating a new character to animate. Im used to just dipping into my collection of existing characters i've made already. Making a brand new character added a new layer to this project. The character I ended up using i really liked, as its a bit out my comfort zone, out unlike anyone i've designed before. I really enjoying developing her design and I think she fit the sound i chose. I think I could've developed her a bit more but i'm ok with what i've done. My target audience is anyone around my age group, who enjoys characters and creating them, though i hope its enjoyable for anyone.

In terms of primary research, i looked into lip syncing videos and wrote down what i learnt from them which really helped me learn the dos and dont's, and really improve. I applied everything i learnt into my final product and without it i'm sure I would've struggled. For my secondary research i looked into hollow knight and why i think i uses sound so well. I learnt why certain choices can have such a large impact when dealing with sound. This is something I want to use not only in this project, but future ones to. Ive learnt so many skills I didn't have prior to starting this project like lip syncing, a more in depth understanding of 2d animation, using after effects for sound, and how to use sound. In terms of improving, my animation as always is a bit shaky. Its not great but i'm going to keep practicing because i think its a skill that comes with time. I think their somethings just not clicking for me, but once the penny drops ill be able to create higher quality outputs. My ability to use after affects had only gotten better with me now knowing how to add sound in it. Lastly, lip syncing. Yes a kind of animation but to me it felt like its own skill that i just couldn't quite click with. I think its what drags the whole final product down so i really want to work on developing it. I think everything i've developed and learnt is applicable to any job in the industry so i'm glad this project gave me the chance to learn them.

My main issues this time round were mainly convincing myself that my animation doesn't deserve to be binned every ten minutes, especially with the lip syncing. As always my own idea of the minimum standard slowed me down, so i slowed down in week two annoyingly. This is just something im going to have to overcome, in fmp i'm not going to have time for it so i'm glad its happening now so i can adapt for the next project. Making sure i keep my motivation is crucial and i'm what i'm going to work on, though sometimes i don't think i can do much.

Overall, this isn't my best work, and i'm ok with that. With the 3 week deadline, and still lack of animation skills, a masterpiece wasn't going to be produced and definitely nothing that meets any professional standard. This are all skills I can build on going forward and the difficulties were mostly just necessary hurdles that come with learning any new skill.

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Heres the line art with the lip syncing, at this point i decided to add colour so started working on that.

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Here was my colouring process, i knew that the colour would take me a while so to make sure i got it all done i used flat colours.

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I can immediately point out many errors, but this was my first time trying something like this and Im ok with it being full of errors. The face is wonky and changes and her movements don't all make sense. These are all things i can work on in my next animation. I would've loved to do more, but it took me about a week to fully grasp why my prior animations were so bad and apply that to this. leaving me only a week to produce the final product with limited understanding and skills. But Im looking forward to my next attempt.