Jasmine Hopkins 1

ISU Audio in Synch with Animation

Intro This write up is to explain how to add audio to an animation segment. When working with animation, one must understand what it is exactly. The term animation means to create a moving image with a sequence of pictures, each slightly moved a different way each time; these sequences are called frames. What is audio? Audio, to begin with, is the recording or transmitting of sounds. Radio shows, television channels, the morning announcements at school, and even musical albums are all dealing with audio. Audio has many key components, and it takes skilled professionals to work in the audio industry. Take a movie for example. Every character in the film has a person voicing them, also known as a voice actor. The producers of films have auditions to see what persons voice will suit each character perfectly. An example is Jeremy Irons who played Scar in Disneys The Lion King. Scars character was evil, determined and very sneaky. While many people tried to fit his part as best as they could, its no wonder Irons was selected: not only is he well known for playing villainous roles, he is also known to have a deep and edgy tone to his voice, like none other!

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(Above:

Jeremy

Irons,

the

voice

actor

of

Scar

from

Disneys

The

Lion

King,

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lm6xdo84ce1qj5t08o1_500.jpg)

Another aspect to audio is SFX, or sound effects. Sound effects imitate actual sounds. For example, recording a horse running in action wouldnt be practical for movie producers, as they want to manage their time wisely as well as their money. Instead, audio specialists would be at work doing things such as hitting coconuts together to make the sound of a horses hooves. Its surprising sometimes how the homemade way of doing things is more efficient! Another audio subcategory is ambience sound. Ambience is any sound that is background noise. Movie producers add in ambience to make the audience feel as if they are actually present in the current scene. A few examples of ambience would be if theres a shot in a film of the main character standing in the streets; the sounds you are likely to hear are traffic, birds, sirens, people talking, and footsteps. These sounds enhance the feeling and make the scene more realistic.

Jasmine Hopkins 3 ISU Tools of the trade In this independent study unit, I will be able to give a walkthrough of how to add audio to an already existing animation of mine. By using my Wacom Bamboo pen and touch tablet, Adobe Flash CS5, and a microphone to record, an audio clip will be synchronized to go with the animation (of a fox running through snow).

(Above: Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch tablet, http://www.mydigitalphotos.dk/wpcontent/uploads/Bamboo_Fun_S_PenTouch-with_Pen_in_Holder.jpg)

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http://asp-net-developer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Flash-CS5-Projects.jpg

Animation Quick Summary This is a quick synopsis (lacking detail) of how to create your own animation. The making of this animation took quite a while- the first process for me is always coming up with the idea. I wanted to do something simple, but effective. I have a lot of practice with quadruped walk cycles, so thats what I decided to do. After I have the idea thought of (I recommend writing it down, or quickly sketching it out), I opened Flash CS5 and used layers to create the sketch. After the image is sketched out, next is the outlining process. I made another layer on top of my sketch and went over it with more care, making the lines as smooth as possible. Once the outline was finished, I began to fill in the image with colour.

(Above Left: Close up of foxs head.) (Above Right: Extreme close up of detail in background)

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(Above Left: Close up of fox running, and details in background.) (Above Right: Extreme close up of tree in the distance

The last step of finalizing the fox was to add shading, so I took a darker colour than the main fur color, and applied shadows to where necessary. I repeated all of the above steps by how many frames I had in my animation to complete the character walk cycle. For the background, I chose a light blue and a dark blue and used the gradient tool to keep the colours nicely blending together. This is what created the sky in the animation.

(Above: First frame of the animation outlined coloured and shaded.)

I then painted the clouds using the color pallet and paintbrush tool, and for the trees and the snow, I did the same thing. Lastly, I stuck my copyright on the

Jasmine Hopkins 6 animation by using the text tool, and played the short film back. I then saw that I had a full animation with a constant loop, with a total of twenty frames.

Recording the audio The most major part of making the animation is adding the audio, and to do that, it needs to be recorded. In my animation, the fox is walking through the snow, so I needed to add a crunchy sound and make it as realistic as possible. After thinking long and hard, tissue paper was the best option: its crunchy and crinkly, and really does sound like snow when you shuffle it around.

(Above: Tissue paper I used to create the sound)

Jasmine Hopkins 7 In order for me to record my sound clip, I went to my desktop screen, and found the icon for Audacity, which is free audio editing and recording software.

(Above: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/MhLMUhwEzG8/T3XHZe09qQI/AAAAAAAADOY/NAn6lgzLP0E/s1600/audacity_logo.png).

Open Audacity. The screen should look something like this:

Before you start recording your sound clip, make sure there is no background noise; you want this clip to be as clear as possible. Also, make sure you have a microphone attached to your computer (please note: most computers these days have built in microphones, so an external microphone may be unnecessary).

Jasmine Hopkins 8 I then opened Flash CS5 and opened the file that held my animation. I played it back as I went to record to make sure I was moving the tissue paper at the right pace: at the same time the feet were hitting the ground. You might want to do a few test clips before doing your final audio file to ensure crisp sound. Take your tissue paper in one hand, slide your mouse over the record button in Audacity, and click. Now you should be able to record your sound.

Press down the record button like this.

Move around your tissue paper in your hand, scratching it together, crumpling it, and pulling it apart. You should now see the audio being recorded.

These jagged lines indicate that the sound is being recorded.

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Stop your recording by pressing the stop button:

The square is the stop button. Click this.

You now should have your full audio clip that you will add to the animation. However, you might notice a couple seconds at the beginning that are silent. How might we take this out? Well we have to edit the audio, still using Audacity. Click the beginning of your clip and drag your mouse to the right, horizontally, and drag until the audio starts. (The straight line will be the part where there is no sound, take this out until you get to the first arc).

Jasmine Hopkins 10 This is the straight line. This is what will be removed.

To remove the selected, go to Edit > Cut, or Ctrl + X. Play your clip and it should start immediately with the sound and without any hesitations. If there is any more trimming to your audio clip that needs to be done, follow the same process however many times it needs to be done. Next is the process of saving it as the appropriate file, preferably as an mp3.

Flash should be open already, but if not: go to the Start menu, go to Accessories, find the Macromedia or Adobe folder, and Flash should be in there. Click it, and let it load. Then lets open your animation, File > Open, or Ctrl + O.

Jasmine Hopkins 11 Make a new layer by clicking on the timeline.

Double click on the layer and name it Audio; its always good to name your layers so you know which ones which. Now its time to add the audio. To import your audio, go to File > Import > Import to Stage, or Ctrl + R. You can find your clip in the Library, which should be located in a tab on the timeline. If not, you can always go to Window > Library or Ctrl + L. Make sure the first keyframe is selected, and then press F5 on keyframe 120.

This is where your audio is. The reason why we had to extend the keyframes is because you need a space to insert your clip. Go back to your first keyframe.

Select the Library and go to the tab, Sounds. Go over to Name and go to the drop down menu (click None) and you will see your audio file.

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Click on it and the sound wave will appear in the timeline. To synch it properly with the footsteps of the fox, you will have to analyze when its feet touch the ground, and line up the sound with the motion. This can take a few tries, but the more you do it, the more practice you will get. Play the movie back by going to Control > Test Movie, or Ctrl + Enter.

You will see the playback window with your animation along with the sound. However, there is one final thing left to do. Have you noticed that your audio sounds a bit fuzzy and lacks quality? We can fix that in a few simple steps. Flash tends to downgrade the audio's quality when played back. To fix this, go to File > Publish Settings, and click on the tab that says "Flash" on it.

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Under the heading "Images and Sounds", go to where it says "Audio EVENT: MP3, 16 kbps, Mono." Click on the button that says Set Make sure you do not change Compression. Go to the Bit rate, and set it as 32 kbps.

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Go to Quality and select "Best". Press OK and you will have clear sounding audio.

Jasmine Hopkins 15 Make sure to save your file under File > Save, or Ctrl + S, and name the file and place it under its appropriate folder.

If you have completed every step as written above, you have officially completed adding audio to an animation. If you watch your animation you will now realize why its so important to add sound to a film: it makes it far more interesting, and more realistic! Congratulations!