Sound Recording

In order to do lip sync and reading your dialogue by breaking down each word into frames, you need to get a good sound recording first. 

The most common problem with recording dialogue is how its recorded in the first place. If you don't have a recording studio handy, need to find a very quiet room, preferably a small closet with lots of clothes in it. The clothing will help with sound proofing.

Next you have to have a microphone which will allow you to see the sound levels. You need to make sure you are not talking to loud into your microphone, otherwise your sound will be distorted. Here's what that distortion looks like.

The sound peaks going off the chart, which will cause a buzz in your speakers. You can test your recording by turning up your speaker full blast, if your sound is buzzing out its because your sound is peaking. Do a few recording tests to get a good recording without distortion. 

On the other hand, if your dialogue recording is too low, there are ways to amplify or boost the recording louder without distorting it. I use a free software called Audacity which has lots of controls to help adjust your sound and build soundtracks.


If you are interested in Sound Effects, check this post called "Sound Advice".

Getting the sound first always begins the process of making an animated project. Below is a "behind the scenes" look at our recording session.

Actors Andrew Jones and Rick Almada recorded their lines of dialogue while standing in front of a microphone in a very small soundproof room. This cramped environment allows for the best recording without any distracting background noises.

Hates Halloween from Toondini on Vimeo.

Watchcat Recording Session from Toondini on Vimeo.

Both Andrew and Rick are professional actors and worked on their performances while the director worked on getting the best performance recorded.

Sound Advice

"In the same way that painting, or looking at paintings, makes you see the world in a different way, listening to interestingly arranged sounds makes you hear differently." Walter Murch

One of the most overlooked parts of student animated films is the sound track. Animators and student filmmakers are so caught up in producing the visual look of the film, that they often forget that the soundtrack is just as important. The Warner Bros cartoons of the past had soundtracks that were created by musicians and sound editors, making a soundtrack that fit to the picture.

Here's is a recording from the Carl Stalling Project where you can hear Stalling directing his orchestra in a large sound stage on the Warner Bros studio lot. Without the animation,  imagine a large group of musicians playing their parts as fast as they can after the four click beats.

What Carl Stalling was to cartoon music, Treg Brown was the man who came up with all the funny and amazing sound effects for all the Warner Bros. cartoons. Here is a 2 part documentary about Treg Brown which is very educational and fun.

Ben Burtt created the voices and sounds for the lightsabers, aliens and droids of Star Wars: Episode IV, He also gave voices to R2D2, E.T. and Wall-E.

And while Treg Brown was creating crazy sound effects, Jimmy MacDonald worked for Walt Disney beginning his career as a musician and recording music for Disney's early cartoons. Voice acting and sound effects is where he contributed the most and his yodeling can be heard for the dwarfs in "Snow White" and sounds of Dopey hiccuping and sobbing. 

Walt Disney did Mickey's voice, but in 1947, MacDonald was given the job and ended up voicing other Disney animated characters as well. During all this time, he also became the head of Disney's sound effects department. Below, he is demonstrating some of his sound effect creations for a young David Letterman.

Here's a great link to even more amazing inventions and sound effects by Jimmy MacDonald's.

"The Wilhelm Scream" is the most used sound effect in motion picture history, used in more than 359 movies and television episodes. Ben Burtt rediscovered the sound effect and has put it into many of the films he has worked on. Sheb Wooley, created the scream back in 1951 for a scene, where man is eating back an alligator.

Disney has their own version of this scream, from a Goofy cartoon in 1941 called "The Art of Skiing".

Tasos Fratzolas is the owner/CEO of Soundsnap, a professional online sound library, featuring high-quality sound effects and loops from Hollywood sound designers and cutting edge music producers.

Here is a very interesting TEDtalk by Mr. Fratzolas and how to think about sound design.