I have been exploring creating the first sample of a sound collage for a public arts project tied to bus stops in San Jose, California.
Here is the first test of a collage representing the area in and around King and Alum Rock Road in San Jose. I look forward to collecting more audio to make these compositions richer. I have a lot more recording to do of community elements and am enjoying this audio journey into various communities.
Showing posts with label sound recording. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sound recording. Show all posts
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Friday, July 10, 2009
Last day of Animation workshop 1
Today was the last day of the animation workshop. It was an intense week of working and I think all of us were quite tired by today. I know that the children all have a renewed appreciation for the animations they see in movies and TV. It is a lot of concentration and hard work for so few seconds! Yesterday they had a very interesting tour of De Anza's Colleges Animation Department. It was good for them to know that a really excellent animation program is right here in Cupertino. Today the students recorded sound using the freeware Audacity and they imported the image files. They will add music later.
Below is the rough draft that the three boys created. Their story is about a few pet shop animals that try to escape a pet shop but then are caught again. Each animal tries to escape the shop on his own and is caught. When they are put in the same cage they use teamwork to escape and sail home in paper boats they find. The final animation will be two minutes and a music track will be added as well. All the still images and audio files were inserted into Premier Elements by the children. There is very little dialog here. They had fun creating the sound effects using paper, water in a tupperware, my creaky door and rattling keys.
Teamwork Animation:
The three girls' animation was focused on vanity and the bad consequence of it. A group of fairies are invited to a party. Two of the fairies wear big puffy showy dresses and fail to realize that it is a bowling party even though the older wiser fairy advises them not to be so dressy. The two fairies brag about how beautiful they are. At the bowling alley, one overdressed fairy knocks down a little girl's drink with her big fancy skirt. The overdressed fairies bowl terribly. They end up learning their lesson and have a yard sale to sell the big puffy dresses. The girls created a lot of dialog and even wrote out their script. There will be music added to this animation. All the still images and audio files were inserted into Premier Elements by the children.
Vanity Animation:
Below is the rough draft that the three boys created. Their story is about a few pet shop animals that try to escape a pet shop but then are caught again. Each animal tries to escape the shop on his own and is caught. When they are put in the same cage they use teamwork to escape and sail home in paper boats they find. The final animation will be two minutes and a music track will be added as well. All the still images and audio files were inserted into Premier Elements by the children. There is very little dialog here. They had fun creating the sound effects using paper, water in a tupperware, my creaky door and rattling keys.
Teamwork Animation:
The three girls' animation was focused on vanity and the bad consequence of it. A group of fairies are invited to a party. Two of the fairies wear big puffy showy dresses and fail to realize that it is a bowling party even though the older wiser fairy advises them not to be so dressy. The two fairies brag about how beautiful they are. At the bowling alley, one overdressed fairy knocks down a little girl's drink with her big fancy skirt. The overdressed fairies bowl terribly. They end up learning their lesson and have a yard sale to sell the big puffy dresses. The girls created a lot of dialog and even wrote out their script. There will be music added to this animation. All the still images and audio files were inserted into Premier Elements by the children.
Vanity Animation:
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thinking Outside the Box Final Animation!
The animation is completed!
At a school with no computer lab we did something pretty fun and innovative on super low budget. We created this stop motion animation using a borrowed laptop, a $15 dollar mike, two still digital cameras, clay, two small stages and an assortment of freeware and donated software.
I just ran the voice files through another filter in my audio editing software (freeware called Audacity) to completely eliminate the humming. It turned out that I had the "gain" volume up all the way on my digital microphone when I recorded. I now know better. I thought this would make the volume of the speaker louder. Turning the gain up all the way actually makes the microphone pick up all the ambient noise around...fridge, air conditioner, rustling paper, etc. It takes a bit of digital acrobatics to eliminate the ambient noise and get the voices clear.
The children had gotten a taste of using the freeware Audacity in class when I recorded them and they tried some filters on their files to clean them up or make their recorded voices louder.
The children did a great job with this very involved animation project. I was very impressed that they challenged themselves to create two transformations for their cubes rather than the one transformation I had suggested. I hadn't planned on that and was happily surprised to see how well the two transformations worked out.
On Tuesday (if my family doesn't get hit by the flu I had last week) I will be going into Horace Cureton to give each child his/her DVD of the animation and to give them a hands on demo of the software I used. I will have a few students try out editing some of their clay images in Photoshop and a few will import into Premiere Elements. It would be great for them to have a taste of the software used. This workshop series was composed of 8 one and a half hour sessions in the classroom, plus the additional editing time in my studio. I can't believe it is done!
At a school with no computer lab we did something pretty fun and innovative on super low budget. We created this stop motion animation using a borrowed laptop, a $15 dollar mike, two still digital cameras, clay, two small stages and an assortment of freeware and donated software.
I just ran the voice files through another filter in my audio editing software (freeware called Audacity) to completely eliminate the humming. It turned out that I had the "gain" volume up all the way on my digital microphone when I recorded. I now know better. I thought this would make the volume of the speaker louder. Turning the gain up all the way actually makes the microphone pick up all the ambient noise around...fridge, air conditioner, rustling paper, etc. It takes a bit of digital acrobatics to eliminate the ambient noise and get the voices clear.
The children had gotten a taste of using the freeware Audacity in class when I recorded them and they tried some filters on their files to clean them up or make their recorded voices louder.
The children did a great job with this very involved animation project. I was very impressed that they challenged themselves to create two transformations for their cubes rather than the one transformation I had suggested. I hadn't planned on that and was happily surprised to see how well the two transformations worked out.
On Tuesday (if my family doesn't get hit by the flu I had last week) I will be going into Horace Cureton to give each child his/her DVD of the animation and to give them a hands on demo of the software I used. I will have a few students try out editing some of their clay images in Photoshop and a few will import into Premiere Elements. It would be great for them to have a taste of the software used. This workshop series was composed of 8 one and a half hour sessions in the classroom, plus the additional editing time in my studio. I can't believe it is done!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sound Recording
Today the children did all the sound recording for the animation. They recorded their voices, music (piano and guitar) and special sound effects (using pots, straws and plastic bags). First I had them create their snoring sounds and other sounds such as growling for the nightmare creatures. We used a cheap $15 mike from Frys and the freeware, Audacity, for the sound editor. I set up the "sound stage" in the kitchen. It was a good spot as all the props we needed were handy.
The children referred to their storyboard to figure out what sounds they needed.
Below, Brittany created a belching sound using a straw. This was a hit. Needless to say, many of the other children asked for straws later. Brittany also recorded her voice for her characters and a few piano pieces.
Using this pot (I am embarrassed to say it was an unclean pot), Edward created the sound of his window popping into view in his dream sequence. He also recorded his voice for his clay character and played a few pieces on the piano to include.
Mitchell's clay character does a lot of running in his nightmare (in fact, he runs away from the monster through sets of all four seasons!) . So we recorded quick steps and slow steps. Mitchell also recorded a few pieces on the piano to include as background music.
Always knowing exactly what she wants, Cassie needed the sound of an alarm clock so she decided to record both the microwave timer and the stove beeper. She will blend them together for her animation for the just right sound she is imagining. She also recorded the most convincing snore and created her own music by playing only one note on the keyboard and spinning the sound dial.
Cole, the ham, recorded no voice for his character other than snoring. His monster creature does not talk, but he recorded himself on guitar playing the melody of Clock by Coldplay for the background music.
Little Emily recorded herself telling the whole story of her dream sequence. She has such a small cartoon voice and I can't wait for her to add it to her animation. She also recorded herself playing something on the piano.
The children referred to their storyboard to figure out what sounds they needed.
Below, Brittany created a belching sound using a straw. This was a hit. Needless to say, many of the other children asked for straws later. Brittany also recorded her voice for her characters and a few piano pieces.
Using this pot (I am embarrassed to say it was an unclean pot), Edward created the sound of his window popping into view in his dream sequence. He also recorded his voice for his clay character and played a few pieces on the piano to include.
Mitchell's clay character does a lot of running in his nightmare (in fact, he runs away from the monster through sets of all four seasons!) . So we recorded quick steps and slow steps. Mitchell also recorded a few pieces on the piano to include as background music.
Always knowing exactly what she wants, Cassie needed the sound of an alarm clock so she decided to record both the microwave timer and the stove beeper. She will blend them together for her animation for the just right sound she is imagining. She also recorded the most convincing snore and created her own music by playing only one note on the keyboard and spinning the sound dial.
Cole, the ham, recorded no voice for his character other than snoring. His monster creature does not talk, but he recorded himself on guitar playing the melody of Clock by Coldplay for the background music.
Little Emily recorded herself telling the whole story of her dream sequence. She has such a small cartoon voice and I can't wait for her to add it to her animation. She also recorded herself playing something on the piano.
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