For the past near-century Animation had captured the hearts and souls of individuals, couples, friends and families around the world. These works of art hold a lesson and story that make for the great piece of fun-filled entertainment. Since Disney, Blue Sky, Studio Ghibli, DreamWorks and main other Animations have come to life with unique stories, memorable character and musical adventures. Impressively, they show no signs of slowing down.
The history and production of Animation is something that has piqued my interest ever since I started working on sound design project while studying. That why I through I will focus a research paper on the topic of sound for Animation looking at the history, the roles and the procedures that different departments have for the production of an Animation. As I am an Audio student, I will focus primarily at the Audio Department, but I will mention other departments as they assist in the Production of the Animation.
History
At the start, Animation was something of a game-changer back in the early 1920s as it was a new medium, an original method of communicating a story. In the west, two production companies saw an opportunity to develop animations to increase profits and global outreach. These two companies were Disney Studio, and Warner Bros. Since the release of the new style of Film called "TALKIES", the studios saw the possibilities of synchronised sounds to pictures and started to produce animations with a soundtrack and Dialogue.
Walt Disney starts his animation sound quest in his animation studio in the early 1920s. The first Animation to have synchronised sound was called "Steamboat Willie". A short animation of a Mouse-like character on a steamboat. The sound in the picture uses mainly an orchestral musical instrument. Some of the scenes have the character mouse uses kitchen supplies, cow's teeth, a goose, and other objects as makeshift musical instruments—quite an admirable little achievement in the world of sound to Animation.
Disney Studio's method of recording sound to Animation was to have the music performers that were in the theatres for silence films, to come into a recording studio and perform the score while a recording was in progress. But there was a problem with the first sets of recordings. The musicians had trouble keeping in time with the Animation. This problem was going to complicate the idea that sound imbedded to picture was the next best thing. But an ingenious idea was used to fix the issues, and it was a kid's toy, a bouncy ball, acting like a click track in today's modern recording method. The bounces were indicating the beat with each bounce keeping the tempo for the musicians. Exciting stuff considering this was all an experiment combining sounds and instruments to create storytelling sound that complements the story.
Later in 1936, Disney hired a renowned inventor named Jimmy MacDonald. Known for his inventive mind, Disney wanted MacDonald to build crazy contraptions that created interesting and believable soundscapes for different on-screen actions. For example, Rain boxes, wind wheels, and a strange glass bottle machine that made the sound for the cartoon cars driving around. Giving birth to the design of sound was called special effects—the use of a range of apparatuses designed to recreate surreal versions of real-world sounds.
Moving to Warner Bros Studio now, this studio used a different approach when it came to producing Audio for its animations. The studio first started 1903 with the studio creating large qualities of live-action Films. In the 1920s they introduced the Vitaphone, a device that used to sync sound to a film strip. The first Film with a synced musical score called "Don Juan" and later on the "Jazz Singer" as the first Film with a sound score and Dialogue. As the years went on the studio had a range of Film with synced sound.
Before long, a collection of sounds were recorded, which brings me to one man Tregoweth Brown. Brown started as a sound editor before then was hired by Warner Bros. While working for Warner he used all of the stock footage and films the Studio produce and started to cut Audio into individual pieces and samples. These samples are what created the sound design in animations. He repurposed a lot of sound in live-action films to make some pretty cool sound effects for their cartoons. For example, skidding car tires were uses in place for a character who was coming to a quick stop after running. Another sound was the sound of a plane for the character's zooming off-screen. Brown's method was the something of an identifier for these cartoon as they had an individual cartoony feel that just made the style work. Additional sound were orchestral instruments, particularly strings. A composer Carl Stalling used Violins and a style called "Pizzicato" for characters tiptoeing.
It's creativity like this that sparks and overpowering interest for films and Animation and it drives me to pursue a career in the audio industry.
Roles of Audio
There is a long list of jobs when it comes to Animation, as there is for Films, Tv, and video game productions. As they may share some similarity in an animation the show is heavily produced in the studio, so the need for sets, costume designers, lighting riggers, gaffers, camera operators and other hands-on positions. But Animator's essential to do all of those things when designing an animation. Which make it a crazy job when you think about, all of those components need to be predesigned and conceptualised months before the production start. This production is where multiple departments and hundreds of employees come in and works together like cogs on the clock.
For the Audio department, there are multiple sections of Audio, and within those are numerous positions that many engineers, sound recorders, designers and artists can fill. There are positions under those and ones under those, but they all report a man of supervision. They, in turn, reports to the Director and Producers of the production. The main ones are as follows:
The ADR Supervisors, (SOUND AND MUSIC - Job Title: Add Supervisor, 2020) They are responsible for managing and preparation of the recording of the Dialogue for the picture. The reason they need to do this is due to the fact the sound recorded on location or onset may have something wrong. Like planes flying overhead, script changes and unclear misspoken words. Several things could go wrong, so an ADR supervisor provides consult on production. They work closely with the Film and write down all the timecodes for the and Dialogue and reports back to the Audio departments, producers, directors and the Actor to re-record the Dialogue for the scenes in the Film is a studio environment.
ADR Recorder, (Hinton, 2018) they are the person who is controlling the recording equipment and DAW (Direct Audio Interface) while the Voice actor is in the Audio. Once the ADR Supervisor has done their job, and the Actor is ready to record, the Recording Engineer setups the session and controls the equipment. They make sure that the recording levels are nice and clear, that the words are said correctly and provide coaching to the voice acting when the senior Supervisors aren't happy with the performance. They need the Audio precisely as it did on the day of filming, from the Tone to Speech, Articulation, and Delivery.
Sound Designers, (Sound Designer, n.d.) they are the head of the Sound Effects department. They create the concept of the soundscape for the production. These concepts come from the Director or Creator of the production, as they have a creative vision for the production. It's the sound designer's job to embody that vision with a compelling and engaging soundscape, from the on-screen sounds to the sound that generates emotions or life-like environments. They sometimes manage other elements to the production too, Like sound editors and re-recording mixers.
Foley Artist, (Maio, A. 2020) they are the actors of sound. When the Audio is recorded onset, the sound recorder is mostly worried about the Dialogue not so much the props the character use or the footsteps they make. That's when a Foley studio with a Foley artist is required. A Foley Artist will stand in a recording studio with a massive collection of props (to others could be seen as junk), and they re-enact the action to a scene to make noise as it appears on the screen. These studios have massive screens to project the Film, and they act out the movements made by the actors on screen. Sometimes the Artist will have to get creative as the sounds you hear on screen are no the actual items used to make it.
Foley Mixing Engineer, (Crepeau, 2018) they prepare the recording session so the Foley artist now that they are doing. They often prepare a document listing all the sounds needed for the scene/scenes they are working—the document mark locations of everything in the clip. Whether the sound comes from the Actor or props, the characters are handling. They also control the recording and manipulation of the Audio while the Foley Artist is in the studio. They often layer multiple sounds together to create a new sound effect and use a range of processing plugins to create an organic sound that fits in the world of the animation/production.
Music Composer, (What does a composer do? ‐ CareerExplorer, n.d.) this is the person/people who write all the Music for the picture. They often have meetings with the Director who has a vision for the Film, and their job is to write a score that embodies that vision. From there, the composer will write, direct and create the Music using any asset they need. A lot of productions use an orchestra and would use the engineers and musicians that are familiar with their work to make the process run that much smoother. Composers have the fantastic ability and musical ear to hear the differences, changes and slips in the notes/score, so they know if the recorded session is reasonable to proceed down the production chain.
Music Mixing Engineer, (What is a Mixing Engineer? n.d.) the head Engineers for the recording of the musical performance. They work together with the Music composer and manage the studio while the band/orchestra is performing. But their work is not limited to just recording; they also provide creative processing with the musical score, things like editing, mixing and mastering processes to improve the overall quality of the score. They also make sure that the recording devices and processing work correctly, to prevent any downloading, and deletion of any data while in the recording session.
References:
Beauchamp, R. (2005). Designing sound for Animation. Taylor & Francis. https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5qrTtKm42yMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR2&dq=Sound+for+animation&ots=f1YHUefN0B&sig=SPko94tQgERvJjJqo1XtO0UwdMo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Sound%20for%20animation&f=false
Careerexplorer.com. n.d. What Does A Composer Do? ‐ Careerexplorer. [online] Available at: https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/composer/ [Accessed 10 September 2020].
Careers.stateuniversity.com. 2020. SOUND AND MUSIC - Job Title: Add Supervisor. [online] Available at: https://careers.stateuniversity.com/pages/100000186/SOUND-MUSIC-JOB-TITLE-ADR-SUPERVISOR.html [Accessed 10 September 2020].
Crepeau, E., 2018. How To Become A Foley Engineer | Job Description & Salary. [online] Careersinfilm.com. Available at: https://www.careersinfilm.com/foley-engineer/ [Accessed 10 September 2020].
Encyclopedia Britannica. n.d. Warner Brothers | History, Movies, TV Shows, & Facts. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Warner-Brothers [Accessed 10 September 2020].
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Get In Media. n.d. Sound Designer. [online] Available at: http://getinmedia.com/careers/sound-designer [Accessed 10 September 2020].
Hinton, J., 2018. Everything You Need To Know About ADR In Film (And Didn't Know To Ask). [online] Frame.io Insider. Available at: https://blog.frame.io/2018/06/11/adr-film-primer/ [Accessed 10 September 2020].
Lift-Off Global Network. 2017. Roles In The Sound Department | Lift-Off Global Network. [online] Available at: https://liftoff.network/roles-sound-department/ [Accessed 8 September 2020]
Maio, A., 2020. Foley: The Art Of Sound Design. [online] StudioBinder. Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-foley-artist/ [Accessed 10 September 2020].
Sageaudio.com. n.d. What Is A Mixing Engineer?. [online] Available at https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/mastering/what-is-a-mixing-engineer.php [Accessed 10 September 2020].
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http://filmsound.org/animation/steamboatwilly/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/walt-disney-ub-iwerks-steamboat-willie-1928/
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