Before meeting Stephanie Andrews from Pixar and discussing about sound design for high/end animation, we had one last look at how soundtracks are composed for low-end animations, from Don Hertzfeld works to Looney Tunes.
Duck Amuck
The latter, made in 1953 by Warner Bros, particularly captured my attention. It opens up with Daffy Duck being a musketeer, introduced by a majestic, almost patriotic orchestral music; he soon finds himself acting towards an always-changing background, in contrast with him being dressed as and acting like a musketeer. The music changes as well as the backgrounds shifts, and goes from being majestic to subtle and suspicious every time Daffy Duck realises the background has changed (outcome emotions, that anticipate the outcome of the following action). As there are no hard effects or Foley sounds in the first part of the video, particular attention is drawn to the music, as it is the only sonic elements that can convey feelings and meaning.
I found it kind of funny and, almost ridiculous, when at 2.18, sound is completely turned off, and Daffy Duck asks for the sound to be turned on again, but the wrong hard effects start playing. Instead of guitar strumming we hear rifles noises and donkey sounds. There is a shift in the music in terms of intensity and valence as well (from from high-intensity to silly and cartoonish), which helps the plot move along.
I appreciate one scene in particular, when the character is given a snowy background, and starts to ski; cheerful Christmas jingles play to authenticate the images. It's a common convention and symbolic code, that whenever one thinks about winter, snow and cold weather, immediately one thinks about Christmas season as a joyful time. Therefore the Christmas songs played in that scene are totally appropriate to the context, as it is very easy and quick for the audience to decipher the meaning of the scene. In this case as well, the cheerful music creates momentum, contrast of timbre, rhythm and valence with the following scene. As the Christmas jingles fade out, Daffy Duck finds himself immersed in a summer day on a desert beach. The orchestral soundtrack (and Daffy Duck's singing) again shift to being low-pitch and feeling almost annoyed. In general, I like how the soundtrack accompanies and explains to the viewer the character's emotions (when he is annoyed, happy, silly, embarrassed). Even thought the visuals are quite basic, the soundtrack is designed at a microscopical level, taking care of small details and notes.
I also appreciate how the orchestral music and the high-pitch, cartoonish sound effects (sound of slippering and rubber) suture the action when the artist draws new environments for the scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XvXsuSJ-1A 2.07).
I believe it was a great choice to give to every scene a particular piece of music to underline the type of location it is set in (for example, when Daffy Duck is immersed in a farm, he sings Old MacDonald had a farm, when he is on an island, he plays a hawaiian ukulele and so on.
Overall, I believe the cartoonish and silly soundscape really emphasises the emotions of the characters throughout the whole video (outcome emotions), unpacks and makes easier to understand how the plot moves along and adds a cartoonish and funny mood to the already silly animation. As the viewer's point of audition is always from the outside of the scene, we are always just spectators of what is happening, and we are not totally involved, these sound design techniques helps the plot move along, adds meaning to the animation and helps the audience understand what is going on (in terms of emotions, vibe, location).
The Runaway Species
We also discussed about Eagleman & Brandt's book The runaway species, in which they analyse cognitive processes and methods beyond convergent and divergent thinking. I will definitely be using these creative methods for my next assignments, where I have to create a soundscore for an animation prototype of an arcade-style videogame. My main sources of inspiration are: the soundscores of Pacman and other videogame melodies found on Soundsnap.
Going back to The Runaway Species, the authors explain how innovation is part of the human nature. Regardless of the context, it is impossible for us to find a perfect solution to an issue, therefore we are continuously evolving and innovating to find a solution that better than the previous one. As they mention, brain works from precedent. Therefore, They explain how innovations don-t come from nowhere as it might seem to be, they are the result of past inventions, (only the best of them). "Creativity results from pressing history into brilliant new forms" (Eagleman,Brandt 2017). As everythings else, creativity as well come from past experiences and inventions, connecting the best of them together and "refashion the world" (Eagleman,Brandt 2017) to deliver something that feels new. They state that "stealing" old experiences and ideas is actually what makes a process creative. "Creators absorb the world into their nervous systems and manipulate it to create possible futures [...] we relentlessly simulate what-ifs.
However, creativity is also an "inherently" social act, as every artist is influenced by other peers and works to impress others (surprise is what we seek in art and technology, as our brain never settles down).
So the next question they propose is: where does all our creativity come from? Creativity is mix of cognitive processes, that can be divided into 3 main modes from which all ideas and innovative processes generate :
1) bending: where the original and already existing idea is altered and twisted into something new.
2) breaking: only part of the pre-existing idea is taken completely away and replaced with something new, the rest is kept as it is.
3) blending: two or more original sources are merged and combined together.
"We bend, break and blend everything we observe, and these tools allows us to extrapolate far from the reality around us".
Meeting with Stephanie Andrews
On Wednesday, as we discussed how sound is designed for high-end animation, we also had the chance to meet Stephanie Andrews, who previously worked for Pixar on some famous animation movies, like A bug's Life and Toy Story. I appreciated a lot how she explained very meticulously and patiently the most important aspects of working on a 3D animation work. From lighting, visual composition, animation, sound and overall creative production. Among the many things she explained, I noted the following:
Every Pixar animation gives a huge lot of importance on creating visual compositions that are structured in a way that direct viewer's attention to the main parts of the scene and the main characters only. Every other visual aspect plays a secondary role in the composition and usually lies in the background, whereas the main characters always stand prominently and evidently in the foreground, close to the viewer. Visual and sonic elements are also designed together in a composition in order to emphasize the plot and make it more clear and understandable. In A bug's Life, the sound design totally reflects this approach of drawing attention only to the important parts of the composition. Especially because they're are thousands of ants and bugs of various kinds that appear in the movie, the sound design approach helps the viewer to unpack the huge amount of visual information and concentrate only on the main things. Where there are thousands of ants collecting food and running around the scene, the only ants that are accompanied by sound are the ants in the foreground, having dialogues, or doing some important action that helps the plot move along.
This approach is clear in Monsters inc. as well, in the chasing scene where Mike and Sully try to escape through sliding doors while the evil character is chasing them from behind. The visual elements in the composition are so many (4 characters, infinite doors, so many colours and everything is happening in a huge environment...). All this could easily distract the viewer, however Pixar designers have built the scene in a way that the viewer's attention is drawn only towards the main characters and objects in the scene. This is done by using vibrant colours towards a pale background, letting the main characters move freely in the foreground while everything else seems to move slower or be still. Of course, the viewer's attention is driven by sound as well. So obviously the main attention goes to the dialogue between Mike and Sully as the try to escape, as well as the sound design of the doors sliding, opening and closing, footsteps and so on.
I also found interesting an anectode that Stephanie Andrews revealed about a technique Pixar animators use to attract attention. Every character, whether it is realistic or cartoonish, has small light reflections in their eyes (usually small white circles). This also helps to express the character's emotions and seems to be very appealing to children.
REFERENCES
Eagleman, D. and Brandt, A., 2017. The runaway species: How human creativity remakes the world. Catapul https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=B44pDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT5&dq=The+runaway+species+&ots=jDbPUXb8Dw&sig=7hSn44EkGhTryjbkC3DWFGSbvOQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=The%20runaway%20species&f=false
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