Audio for animation: today's audio post pros look to escape predictable cartoon cliches

Post, July, 2005 by David John Farinella

WHILE CARTOONS still air on Saturday mornings to the amusement of the 10-and-under set, many animated projects are being used to attract an older audience. These days animated films, television programs and spots are entertaining and informing all ages, which pushes creatives on all sides of the process from idea to execution to post.

For those working in audio post, animation creates an interesting challenge since entire soundscapes must be built from nothing and special care must be taken with dialogue recording and sound effects. So sound designers have to be careful when it comes to laying in sound effects depending on the direction from clients. There was a time, many say, where sound effects and design sounded purposefully exaggerated, but nowadays the goal is to sound a bit more realistic.

As with other formats, facilities looking to bid or work in the animation field are focusing more on hiring the right talent than getting the newest and fastest gear. In fact, it's part of how the facilities market themselves to potential clients. "I think the difference [in how the facility markets itself] is who we present as far as a creative team for a show," reports Mark Kaplan, VP of sales and marketing for Technicolor Sound. Then again, the majority of those asked had already upgraded to the top-of-the-line digital tools in order to work in the live-action market.

KEEPING IT CLEAN IN-STUDIO

The team at New York City's Pomann Sound (www.pomannsound.com) works on just about all aspects of the projects that come through the studio, says president Bob Pomann. The company also does a handful of spots, including a recent project for Sweet & Low that's tied into the still-in-production Pink Panther film, and radio work, which Pomann feels animation is closely related to. "I think it's very similar because you're painting pictures with the sound and you're filling in things that aren't there," he says.

While the company made its name in animation while working on the cartoon Doug over 13 years ago, it continues to build its name by working on JoJo's Circus for Disney, Kids Next Door for Cartoon Network and two shows--Pinky Dinky Doo for Noggin and Little Einstein for Disney--that will begin to air in September. "The Little Einstein show is a big ticket for them, because it's a spin off of the Baby Einstein tapes," Pomann says. "It's classical music and classical pictures, and it's done in a really great way."

Pomann Sound also works on Moving Up, a reality show that airs on TLC. "That show is just cleaning up dialogue, and for those shows you just have to know how to be a good dialogue mixer and clean it up, keep it even and take really lousy sounding dialogue and make it sound good," he says. "Whereas on the cartoons you always have a good track, even if it's recorded at a bad place, because it's in a studio and it's clean. You get to put your own ambiances in and make your own little places. In live action you bounce into the air of wherever they are, so you have to make it sound like wherever they are. With animation I find you can make it anywhere, even where the animation isn't, and play like you're doing a radio show in a sense. Animation is a little more difficult because you have to do everything with nothing."

More than dialogue, animation offers a challenge for the Pomann team in the effects department--even though the average age for shows like Pinky Dinky Doo and JoJo's Circus is four to five years old. "That doesn't mean the effects are easy to do," he explains. "We don't try to use the same effects over and over again. We try to be a little more organic with it and not to have it get too much in the way."

After years of being a DSP Poststation house, Pomann Sound moved over to Digidesign Pro Tools last year. The hardware and software has helped them with the calls for 5.1 mixes on the DVD releases of the shows. "We are doing 5.1 on the DVDs, because it's in the contract and it says it on the labels," he says. "They need it done, but they don't want to pay much for it."

TREAT IT LIKE LIVE ACTION

Bobby Mackston, who works as the supervising sound editor, music editor and re-recording mixer on King of the Hill, is involved with the show from table-reads to re-recording. It is, he says, "one of the most fun shows I've had the pleasure to work on. It's a real smooth operation and there aren't a lot of challenges."

Mackston treats King of the Hill like a live action show. "It's very similar to The Simpsons, on which he worked as supervising sound editor and dialogue editor for 16 years, but The Simpsons is a little more into the cartoony effects. King of the Hill tries to stay very live action-ish in their approach. There are no boinks or whooshes or that kind of stuff. It's treated as if it's live action."

In fact, both shows also share a dialogue-first approach. "Well, yeah, any time writers are in charge of a show, dialogue is going to be important," he says. "That's truer on The Simpsons than King of the Hill, because on The Simpsons they try to pull a sound out as soon as possible because it might interfere with someone's word." He ensures that the dialogue comes through by being careful with sounds. "The thing you try to do is not hit them over the head with it or be so heavy that it's intrusive."