Audio for animation: these audio pros are working in film and television, and many find the line between live-action sound and animation blurring

Post, August, 2004 by Christine Bunish

The Euphonix System 5 allows McGleenan to create multiple monitor stems so the level and tonality in the talent's head-phones, for example, can be different from that in the director's headphones and in the room. "Although you just capture one channel of sound for animation, the Euphonix enables us to route the same signal path with different decibel levels so if one is overmodulated, we're protected with another," he adds. "The Euphonix routing matrix also permits me to change a set-up in milliseconds instead of minutes."

McGleenan and his colleagues enjoy "being part of the process" when an animated feature just begins taking its baby steps. "We're doing work today that won't be on. film until 2007," he points out. "I'm constantly amazed when I see the finished product. You paint a picture of what the character is like when you do the voice recording, but when you see the animation on the big screen, it blows you away."

SOUNDS LIKE LIVE ACTION

Animation powerhouse Nelvana (www.nelvana.com) handles post production for much of its product in its 14-month-old Toronto facility. On the audio post side it boasts a multipurpose record suite and two mix theaters with Pro Tools|HD 3 systems with Accel cards running 6.2.3 on the latest Macintosh OS X 10.3.4 workstations. The pro Tools systems have ProControl surfaces with fader and edit packs. An 8 TB SAN solution links the audio engineers to video editors who cut shows on eight Final Cut Pro systems in 16:9 anamorphic. All mixing is done in 5.1, optimized for broadcast. The 5.1 mixes prepare shows for DVD release and future-proofs them for further distribution.

Among the current workflow in-house at Nelvana are the 2D-animated Jacob Two-Two, which airs on YTV in Canada, and the 3D-animated Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends and The Backyardigans which are both about to make their fall debuts on Nick Jr.

Senior post audio supervisor Ryan Araki believes the proliferation of 3D animation on TV has prompted the trend to more cinematic audio post. "When you watch a Pixar movie with such detail--the grass moves, the clothing moves--it's like live action, and you want to hear that. The same for 3D on television. You have to cover that detail. It's different from the days of George Jetson's shirt that never budged."

Araki also notes that animation lacks the "live facial expressions of actors to cue the audience to what to listen to" so audio has to step in to fill that role. "Every sound is there for a purpose," he emphasizes. "It provides support for the story."

For the past 18 months or so, Araki has noticed a demand for sound effects and music cues in the pre-production stage. "Animators can receive sound files and integrate them into their Flash programs and animate over them," he explains. "It helps them get the job done faster, and the director gets exactly what he wants. It also gains time on the post end: about 70 percent of the time those cues work and remain in the finished product."

While animated shows have always featured atmosphere when dialogue or sound effects did not take center stage, Araki has lately seen series call for more detailed backgrounds and environments, including Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, whose all-insect cast lives around a giant tree. "This show has a very rich atmosphere, deep textures and very organic sounds," he says. "The animation process allows us to have a large amount of creative input, which gives us the opportunity to provide unique and interesting soundtracks."