#opticalsound

When starting this project I set out to record my own audio and then capture the atmosphere that the sound created visually, I wanted to have a strong relationship between the plot of my film and the soundtrack and I think this was done well. With hindsight I could have synced up my music more with the motions within my film but I don't know if this would have made it more effective. I think I captured the atmosphere of the sound perfectly through the build up and release of tension in the music being linked to the build up of tension and release in the narrative. There were points in the film where the characters made big movements through space and this synced with the texture of the sound.

I am happy with this project but I wish I could have done more with my backgrounds and added more lighting or texture to give it more of a polished visual style. I did the best I could with the time I had but I am not happy with the pacing of the middle section where the characters are suspended in space. I would have rather had them floating in slow motion with their bodies rising upwards being tracked by the camera in the shot where they stand still, but unfortunately I did not have time to do this.

I am really happy with the way the changes to the ending turned out and I think it makes the viewing experience much more satisfying. It is not a perfect film but I can see the potential.

As the brief was to create a piece of animation inspired by music I feel like I nailed it. I created the music without imagery in mind and then listened to it over and over and used it to inform every decision. The slighting melancholic low fi recording style was embodied by the quiet lonely swamp frog, the background fuzz of the recording matched the quiet background noise of insects at night and the rise and the change of pacing and introduction of more dynamic guitar lead runs of a second guitar inspired the introduction of a second frog. I am really happy with how well sound and imagery went together. The syncing wasn't the emphasis but the brief specified that inspiration and relation to the music was most important. I have never wanted to tell a love story or do something very endearing but the music forced me down that path in this project. Despite this tangent from my usual style I think the narrative and music work well together and I'm proud that I managed to record my own sound track.

Bibliography

I re recorded my audio, edited the timing of my previous animatic to fit it, and then took the edited version with new sound into Harmony to begin my plan.

I created a timing layer and went through plotting key points in the song to the timeline, this would be helpful when I started to animate.

As the Optical Sound animatic I had produced earlier in the semester was at a level which I was happy with, my plan was that I would re record the audio, re edit my animatics timing to the audio, and then begin animation until my project was complete. I did not need bells or whistles because I wanted to produce something endearing that felt simple. This strategy was very handy as it meant I could produce work quicker than the caveman project.

There was some changes which I wanted to make to my animatic however and that was mainly just its ending. The ending of the animatic was thrown together very quickly before the crit so I took the time to plan out a new idea where fireflies would form a heart around my frogs.

above is a revised panel of storyboard sketches for the start and ending.

below is a more developed sketch of my planned final shot.

I struggled to edit my animatic to fit with the sound as much as I had liked but was pretty happy with the outcome, I liked the narrative but felt the ending needed changing and wanted to tweak the opening sequence to fit music better.

Feedback

My tutorial was very useful, It addressed a staging error/ line break during the 360 shot at around 0:15 where the frog ends up facing the wrong direction. My thoughts on the ending and intro needing changes were confirmed, the final shot was said to be clunky which I agree with and in finding an issue with the pacing early on the discussion helped form an idea of how to resolve the issues with the end, the fireflies are very briefly shown, so having them fly around to the music as an introduction would be a good way to kick off the animation and give more of an introduction to the characters. I could use the fireflies for the ending to form the heart as the sketch I had done of the heart shaped composition had some major perspective issues which meant it wouldn't work in that format. Using fireflies as a magical transition was my plan at the start but without enough time it just seemed random, so having them appear more significantly both at the start and end would provide some much needed narrative context and closure.

I got some advice I didn't agree with fully surrounding the frogs designs and the use of hats... This being that frogs dont wear hats and it feels unusually unrealistic for my animation, as well as the point at the end where they pause in space and gravity just stops.

that said I do agree that my characters need more work and I plan to redesign them with better headwear which feels more grounded in the world. As for the issue with gravity, I wanted this to be a moment of suspended disbelief, I wanted them to float in space and for time to stop in a romantic way. I agree that them not returning to earth is a bit frustrating as what comes up must come down but I want them to come down in a way which resolves the narrative and exits the fantastical world, going back to a grounded reality. Using a transition where the stars change to fireflies and move around in the heart shape would be a pretty good way to reintroduce the magic firefly implication from the start, I can think of three ways I can take this:

Having them float back down slowly with a heart shaped swarm of fireflies moving to the music

Having the starts transition to fireflies and then it be a reflection, having a camera pan up to reveal that they are just two frogs enjoying the universe

and finally, having them both plummet towards the earth at high speed.

Jokes aside, out of the first two, I'm not sure which I prefer, and if I choose to continue this project, it will give me more time to draft up new ideas.

My group crit was also useful, there were areas during the falling of the frogs where my animatic lacked clarity, which I agree with and hopefully given more time I can clean up the rougher parts.

People seemed to like the designs and setting, although the part were they bounce up into the air had some design issues, the mushroom they bounce on were unclear so if I develop this project further I will be sure to give them enough detail and colour to make it clear.

I didn't get knocked for having bad music which is genuinely something which terrified me putting myself out there and writing/composing myself for the first time.

Yaqi said she got the magical fireflies implication which was pretty useful as I thought it was totally lost, but it made me take the idea a lot more seriously.

The editing was also pointed out to be a bit off, I was very aware of this and plan to crisp up the relationship between sound and motion if I develop it further and actually animate this project clean.

Final Thoughts

Through listening to the song I had made over and over I started to note down key times for the animation, I did this to make sections which I used as a time guide for my storyboarding.

I wasnt sure about the ending of this version, It is very rough but I planned to have the frogs hitch a ride on the shooting star, after some reflection I decided it was a bad idea and just made things too unrealistic.

From this I started to draw out my rough style frames to help me build the world, I really leant into my inspiration, gnomes.

I started with some sketches.

From these rough Ideas I developed them further, taking inspiration from shows like Adventure Time and Over The Garden Wall

As I wanted to avoid copyright and had issues with my previous choice I wanted to use something slow and melodic which built up so I could structure a narrative around it, I decided to try make something myself so although never making music for animation before I gave it a go and made this.

I listened to it over a couple of times and began to form this idea of being taken out of your reality or following someone else. Given the low production, small and melodic nature of the song I figured something "cute and lovey" would be a good fit, so I started to build this narrative idea.

I saw some garden gnomes at the shops and thought about doing a gnome themed romance but ultimately thought gnomes just weren't cute enough, so I decided to use frogs. I made a frog based mood board to try and get an idea of how animated frogs look as I haven't really ever drawn one or thought of one as a character I could use.

I know they are turtles but it was still useful

This is real, his name is Thog

Bibliography

Everybody loves hypnotoad (2007) IMDb. IMDb.com. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1151330/ (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

Frog seasons: Winter (no date) Adventure Time Wiki. Available at: https://adventuretime.fandom.com/wiki/Frog_Seasons:_Winter (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

Frogs (no date) The Lion King Wiki. Available at: https://lionking.fandom.com/wiki/Frogs (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

Marvel (2021) The frog as worthy as Thor, Marvel Entertainment. Marvel Entertainment. Available at: https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/the-frog-as-worthy-as-thor (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

The month in memes: Dat Boi and a big-screen bow for slender man (2016) The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/jun/08/the-month-in-memes-viral-comedy-june-2016 (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

Over the Garden Wall (2015) Flickr. Yahoo! Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bettycouch/16345096108 (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

Over the Garden Wall: Lullaby in Frogland (2020) unshavedmouse. Available at: https://unshavedmouse.com/2020/10/30/over-the-garden-wall-lullaby-in-frogland/ (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

The princess and the frog movie photos and stills (2009) Fandango. Available at: https://www.fandango.com/the-princess-and-the-frog-122018/movie-photos-posters (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

Rodan5693 (no date) Michigan J. Frog, DeviantArt. Available at: https://www.deviantart.com/rodan5693/art/Michigan-J-Frog-875475470 (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

Seibert, F. (2010) Wizard frog, Flickr. Yahoo! Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/84568447@N00/4289515402 (Accessed: January 22, 2023).

I used the song and oscilloscope to test my idea. I think its really cool but its not the right time to use it.

Having permission for the Ego Death 8bit cover meant I started to get a very early idea of what I wanted to produce together, I thought about using an oscilloscope to visualise pitch and volume as it is an analogue technology which fits the 8bit sound well, I also thought about using pixel art and imagery and make a film about someone getting sucked into an arcade and going up against 8bit monsters, with the action synced to the beat with transitions where the character would dissipate green lines and morph into the oscilloscope as it reacts and swells with the music.

I could imagine that idea pretty clearly and initially was excited by it but I kept running into things I didn't like, the pace of the music is very fast for long stretches and slow for others with less of a dynamic range then I would hope for given my idea. I also thought that while I could do a pretty good job with pixel art, it isn't something which I want to continue with in the future, so although the project would work out, I would not really be putting time and effort into something which I would use long term, So I dismissed this idea and began to plan something new.

Bibliography (audio used for oscilloscope test)

I was very excited about this project as animation and music are two things which I truly love, especially when combined. I was almost overwhelmed with different ideas and picking something felt very hard.

I had asked the creator of this cover of Polyphias playing god if I could use the song for my project on the first day of the project as I thought it would be a great choice

I had gotten permission and checked that he had permission from the band Polyphia themselves too, they featured his version and were supporting of it so I felt it was a good option.

Bibliography