READING & WRITING
Summary of Chapters Seven (Sound Ideas) and Eight (Design Wonderland) of Animated Storytelling by Liz Blazer
As I begin to approach the end of the book, I continue to soak up much of Liz Blazer’s sage advice! Chapter 7, on sound, is one of my favorite chapters. What rookie knew that there was something called diegetic and non-diegetic sound?
I think that I instinctively get how sound, music, dialog and even silence, if used wisely, judiciously, and knowledgably, are very useful if not sometimes underrated elements of the trade. Chapter 8, “ain’t no chop liver” either with its freeing reminder that animations allow creatives to design any wonderland, far from the surly bounds of earth!
Spoiler Alert – Below are key, selected chapter learnings & insights from these two chapters. Below also contains
what was not so applicable or clear to me at this nascent stage of my animation and motion graphics journey.
Key, Selected Chapter Learnings & Insights
ü Chapter 7 – Sound Ideas – Let Sound Lead Story – This is an interesting idea for me to put into my pipe and smoke, further! Although I have led with sound and absolutely love the idea of that (a dragon boat piece that I did comes to mind. I usually just as enthusiastically fall into selecting graphics and my love thereof.
ü Chapter 7 – Sound Ideas – Diegetic and Non-diegetic Sound – Great concepts to be aware of and to be able to apply names to!
üü Chapter 7 – Sound Ideas – Sound effects, music, and dialog – I got more educated on the fact of how all three of these elements can all dramatically enhance – or distract from your animation.
— For example, sound effects like cymbals can be good, but like colors and graphics, however, should be used (as I can definitely relate to) judiciously. Here Ms. Blazar uses cautionary words like “restraint” and “overuse”.
ü Chapter 8 – Design Wonderland – Animation allows you to design any world you want! – Wow! … How empowering is that?; …. and not to cast aspersions, how contrastive is that to corporate, societal, or other stereotypical “rule-based” worlds!
ü Chapter 8 – Design Wonderland – One Caveat, Rule to in designing your crazy design wonderland – You must be 110% “All In” and “committed” to your new, weird world and its theme until the very end of your piece! Else you risk losing your audience, authenticity, and admiration (my words!).
ü Chapter 8 – Design Wonderland – Liz Blazer admonishes you to consider, when creating your design wonderland:
- Your world’s time and place
- Your world’s physical order
- Your world’s social order and, finally
- Your world’s visual order
What Was Not So Applicable or Clear to This Newbie
ü Chapter 7 – Sound Ideas – In the context of “where a client often has a specific TRT (Total Running Time) for you to hit, there is no choice: You must lock script and lay down audio before animation begins” …… So says our illustrious author. Now I get locking down the script but not quite as much the idea of laying down the audio before animation begins. My mind says lay down the story boards, script, and then, finally, lay down the audio.
RESEARCH TO INFORM
This week, I was challenged to find two great examples of effective audio and also two great examples of effective text animation. I sometimes think that effective use of audio and text animation can be undervalued and strategically underused – particularly among new animators. I therefore somehow thought that although this exercise might be a bit time consuming to find great examples, that it would still be interesting, educational, and fun!
As I thought about it, I imagined that old time radio and films might be excellent hunting grounds for great diegetic sounds since these shows didn’t necessarily have luxury of big budget visuals and animators.
These productions, by contrast, surely had to lean heavily on sound effects and music to capture, engage, and hold on to their audiences. So, my research began there!!
The “old timey” theme and research also fit in very well this week as I pushed to create an “old timey” Thomas Edison “light bulb” stop motion animation —- a first stop motion animation for me! Turns out there was a plethora of “old timey” radio and film examples out there. I let the learning begin!
Effective Audio Example – 1 – “Amazing Short Film on Old Time Radio Sound Effects: “Back of the Mike” (1938)”
Kinda quirky but I like this old film example because it literally demonstrates and shows actors reading scripts with others on the set simultaneously creating audio sounds, right next to the actors! How instructive on multiple levels! It made me think of Liz Blazer’s (author of Animated Storytelling) sentiment to try to create your own sound effects where possible to tell your unique story and not rely on canned, purchased effects.
“Back of the Mike” Viewing Tips:
Plenty of diegetic dialog and other narrative sound effects to experience but:
— Hop to the 1:57 min mark to hear the sound of horses running as they show up on the film
— Hop to the 4:03 min mark to hilariously hear and “see” the sounds of horses snorting and neighing while running again — Kinda funny but instructive!
Effective Audio Example – 2 – “Telling Stories with Sound: The Golden Age of Radio Drama”
I love this example because, DC’s Kennedy Center, by design has specifically created it to educate animators and general audiences alike on how sound and sound effects can help bring stories to life. Notice how, as Liz Blazer’s (author of Animated Storytelling) suggests, how this piece leads with sound!
“Telling Stories with Sound” Viewing Tips:
— Hop to the 0 min mark to less than the 60 second mark to get a great sense of telling stories with sound and a “listening” introduction to classic movies with great sound effects. Also, at only the 37 second mark listen for an elongated, nice “hearing” of the classic, almost scary sound of a creaking old door opening!
Effective Text Animation Example – 1 – ““Kiss The Girl”
In case you missed it and “Back by popular demand”, “Kiss the Girl” was such a great example of a kinetic typography animation to me! Therefore, I debut it again, from an earlier module below!
(Above video used by permission from “Kiss the Girl” creator, Sarah Husney)
Its February 2024 at the time of this writing. Close your eyes for a moment and this piece will lull you in. Listen to it for only 5 or 10 seconds and it might have you dying to jet to Montego Bay, Ochos Rios, Negril or some of the many other delightful destinations in Jamaica or the Caribbean when the weather warms up a bit.
Now please open your eyes! You, like me, were getting a bit too comfortable! I want you to take another 15 or 20 seconds to appreciate, like I did, this well-done example of kinetic typography!
True to the name of kinetic typography I am impressed by the ways that Sarah uses a true and undeniable variety moving text and dynamic motion to capture my attention! At the same time she set’s a very relaxing tone, while entertaining and exposing me to a variety of great colors and animated techniques and elements! The song she uses is so appropriate to illustrate this genre of motion graphics!
All of this just works to accent or underscore the moving and contrasting typefaces that make up the big and small words!
Here’s the kicker: I love the story line. I love how, like slowly peeling back a sweet onion I get curiously pulled into the world of how this love-struck person is getting more and more infatuated with this girl – to the point that he just wants to kiss her. Again, my oh my how well Sarah uses moving words to advance the story!
NEXT UP ANIMATED LOGOs!: Since an upcoming project involves creating my very own animated logo stinger, I thought it would be appropriate and useful to briefly examine two iconic animated logos that are known across the globe!
Effective Logo Animations Animation Example – 1 – “Netflix’s Special Logo”
The simple logo and vibrant colors do not take a long time to reveal themselves as they move towards the viewer and in this simplicity lies the animated logo’s power. We know that a strong red logo and heaving use of colors such as red represent energy and vibrancy, which most certainly is a part of Netflix’s messaging.
Effective Logo Animations Animation Example – 2 – “Google’s Special Logo”
Here is another iconic brand that skillfully uses primary colors and other playful animated techniques to heighten its text-based, animated logo and brand above most within the digital landscape.
The result is a fun application, variations of which that I have seen used in a number of Google settings and channels. Because of its creativity, simplicity, and power, this logo and its animated cousins are also easily recognizable around the globe!
CREATE
KP Post-Production Summary STOP Motion Animation 1 for “1001” – Keep Your Grind Until the Light Comes On
As I indicated in my Pre-Production materials I work for an electric utility where Thomas Edison and Lewis Latimore, the two character’s in my stop motion animation are featured prominently in the front lobby.
I thought this short stop motion piece might be useful as a creative and different way of me paying homage to two prominent inventor/collaborators, who furthered one of the best and widely used inventions in the world – the ubiquitous light bulb!
I chose a linear format for this animation because I thought the story of the advancement of the light bulb lent itself to the classic story process of a beginning, middle, and an end.
Whew! Glad to get through it! I knew, the momentum of my recent 19 second practice test stop motion animation notwithstanding, that this would be a one–shot filming deal.
MY GENERAL PROCESS / EXPERIENCE WITH THIS PROJECT — I diligently prepared my set up. Although preparation was very helpful, it was also a bit of a project avoidance mechanism! One of my main goals was to *just get through it*, not risk the time I would need to play with and test Stop Motion Studio’s cell phone app settings and features! I didn’t want to blow up anything that I had achieved right from the beginning! “Now, stop motion app, please magically somehow save my work as I am already 90 plus shots in!” …. lol!
As usual, I spent good money on various supplies like crayons, colored pencils, a traceable character comic book, tracing paper, a sketch pad and other things that never saw use!
For inspiration and technique ideas I continued to watch and research several related videos including some that our professor suggested. Not realizing that there are over 10 types of stop motion videos I quickly focused on character/scene cut out animations, which resonated with me the most in terms of aesthetic, “do ability” etc.
Since my cut out stop motion animation is character based I did a deeper search and dive into examples that focused on characters, *especially how to generate facial expressions* as I was planning for at least one happy face scene and one sad, or at least pensive face scene. While I didn’t have time to generate appropriate facial expressions I did learn some things, including how the eyebrows and (obviously?) the mouth are positioned seem be two of the biggest determinates of facial expression.
I used old an old timey intro and outro and used Adobe After Effects to animate my title before pulling it into Adobe Premiere, my main program for this effort. I also used old timey music and brown, sepia tones to set an authentic stage, background, and mood suggestive more of Edison’s time period and the emotion that I wanted to evoke.
I expect and desire some constructive criticism on my one-take wonder, but all and all this experience was a blast, and I was generally pleased with the overall result!
Have a gander, below!
