51. SOUND EFFECTS

After putting the frames together, I had to implement sound effects. I think it is a much neglected aspect of film production; or maybe it's just that I neglect it. Facing sound production in the face finally, I felt like the project was just about done. Perhaps that is why I am apt to rush past this process, even if I know I shouldn't.

Even though there were lots of shots and scenes that needed to be re-rendered, I could still use those poor quality renders to stand in place for use during sound production. So I had a first draft of the movie, without sound.

Several years ago I got the Sony Sound Effects Series library. Like the Mixamo animation library, I limited myself to the resources I had. Like the Mixamo library, this took some work to go through, but once I collected the basic sets of sounds, I got to working.

With every sound, I had to alter it in one way or the other in order to make it work best for my film. Typically this was just adjusting EQ, or pitch shifting.

For as much as I've bad-mouthed my Mac in this development blog, sound design was one place where this computer was able to shine. All of the most basic options were available, and it was invaluable to be able to watch the film while tweaking the sounds.

One thing that I realized once I stepped away from the sound design is that, just like every other aspect of this production (and any production, really) I needed to tweak and adjust so many little things to get it just right. The key revelation that I had in doing this for sound design was that I listened to the whole piece without any visual queues. That is, I closed my eyes while listening to the sound effects. It was easier for me to identify problems in the sound balance this way. Everything that either worked or didn't seemed so much more obvious this way. I'm sure that any sound person would say the same thing, but I just realized it now. 



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