The Newmans First Animation Page 3

As much as I deplore the man, I have to say I agree with Lee on this one.

The performances were lacking oomph. I know you're having problems encoding the sound, but still the voices were muted and mumbly. They sounded as though they were recorded in a tin box too. You've clearly put a lot of work into the animation and you should spend an equal amount getting the sound mix right. Sign up to Shooting People and put a bulletin out - you'd be amazed the people you can find who'll help you for free if they like your project enough. The guy who mixed the sound for my last sketch was the foley on Hellboy 2!

A couple of the edits were confusing too - the opening especially. The cut from the burning arm to the mid, to the close of the mum was very lumpy. You could tighten the 3D sequences too I thought.

Too many animators 'finish' a piece and refuse to go back to it despite the obvious room for improvement. Don't be one of those, Gav. Consider this draft one and crack on with another. This has the potential to be so much better.

PS. You spelled 'Written' wrong in the credits.

I loved the animation and the closing credits were brilliantly done with the music and pull back into the sky, but like others I did not feel the script or audio/vo was to the same standard.

Remember that the audience watches only once until they become a fan and they don't listen closely and they are used to top quality audio from their ipods, stereos and TV; so if a joke is low in the audio mix and indistinct and they can't hear it easily, it's lost to them forever. (I still can't hear the joke with the car horn over it and I watched twice and am listening on cans! Of course, I am an old git with bad hearing so f**k me, anyway!)

The JM's have had/are having the same difficult issues with getting the audio as good as the video, and this is why radio is deceptively hard to do well.

Take all the constructive criticism in this thread on board guys. It is in no way negative, but consider it carefully, as it's well meant.

With the dialogue I'd say pare the script down to the minimum number of words to get the message across and put more "animation" into the vo parts when you perform them. What YOU feel is overacting when you're performing it, does not come out like that on playback to OTHER ears. You can't judge your own work that well. Well, that's what we've found anyway.

OK, over to you, guys.

AND I LOVE IT!!! Please don't misunderstand that!!!

Love it AND waiting for the next one with glee!

Frankie xxx

Quote: Frankie Rage @ October 27 2008, 9:26 AM BST

With the dialogue I'd say pare the script down to the minimum number of words to get the message across and put more "animation" into the vo parts when you perform them. What YOU feel is overacting when you're performing it, does not come out like that on playback to OTHER ears. You can't judge your own work that well. Well, that's what we've found anyway.

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Thats a good idea, I think the next one is a bit thinner on dialogue more "slapstick" So it'll be nice to see the two sides of the coin

Quote: David Bussell @ October 27 2008, 9:18 AM BST

PS. You spelled 'Written' wrong in the credits.

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Ellie will kick my ass for that better change it

Thanks for the feedback Dave, I will definately be looking at it again. Not this week as I am kinda sick of the sight of that car interior I'll definately go back and update parts over next couple of weeks.

Yay! Well done Gav! It's great to finally see the finished product after so many snippets, and I really enjoyed watching it.

Loved it. As a trailer it sets up character and relationship.

Re: the voices and comments on quality and performance.

As David says, there is plenty of free talent and access to equipment available via the internet so you need to weigh up how much involvement you (as a group) want to maintain. Do you get people in who are already up and running in VO or are you going to use these sketch tasters of the full show to develop your own voices? That's a personal decision but whatever route you choose you then face Lee's question re:

Do we go naturalistic voice or OTT? Some cartoons like King of the Hill seem deadpan in delivery and natural in tone but I suspect if we were listening to the studio recording it would sound very different in emotional content. From personal experience, we got in an actress to record some parts in a radio play. When we began recording she hammed it up so unbelievably we were wondering whether to use it. But we trusted her instinct and experience. When we played it back, her disembodied voice was spectacularly good. The hamminess disappeared and she stole every scene. Radio / VO removes a certain amount of delicacy from the human voice because we no longer see the facial clues. Whichever route you take (natural / OTT) as a group you could perhaps explore recording several different VO takes in varying intensity / expression and then try them to see which 'fits' best.

Can't wait to see the next.

Well done Gavin, it looks great fella!!

Nice to see BSG'ers working together on this.

Great stuff Gavin and co. I look forward to seeing more of this. I agree about the voiveovers, they just need a bit more over-the-top energy in them which I find hard to do too. Otherwise the voices suit the characters really well and I like the mix of 3D and 2D.

Top notch!

The first impression of the voices is normally based on how you perceive how the voices should be, based on your visual interpretation of the animated figures. See how it goes for a while. You can tweak it as you go along. Well done mate.

Quote: Frankie Rage @ October 27 2008, 9:26 AM BST

I still can't hear the joke with the car horn over it and I watched twice and am listening on cans! Of course, I am an old git with bad hearing so f**k me, anyway

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That's the point of it. The horn censors Mike swearing.

Quote: David Chapman @ October 27 2008, 8:43 PM BST

That's the point of it. The horn censors Mike swearing.

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What I meant was I can't hear the joke or dialogue properly around the car horn.

I did work out that the beep censors the swearing btw, we did use that back in the days of steam broadcasting too doncha' know!!!

You should do, you were there too!

P.S. I do like the piece btw!!!

Maybe it's just because I know what's being said.

Quote: David Chapman @ October 27 2008, 10:49 PM BST

Maybe it's just because I know what's being said.

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Exactly, Dave. That's why it's very hard to judge your own stuff. I haven't seen the script. Unless I become a fan I'll only listen once. It's that very first impression that only someone who is not involved can offer that counts. If the audio had been clearer it would have improved the piece no end. No doo-dah!

Anyway, we've thrashed it death.

We all love The Newmans and Gav and his troupe!

More power to your collective elbow!!!

Can only add that I agree about the voices - more clarity and definition would help. Apart from that - loved it and am looking forward to the next. xx

Quote: Loopey @ October 28 2008, 3:48 PM BST

Can only add that I agree about the voices - more clarity and definition would help. Apart from that - loved it and am looking forward to the next. xx

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Thanks Rosemary - it won't be long - hopefully - if Gav gets his finger out.