Left: the area highlighted in white is the noise in a silent portion of the recording. Selecting this sample allows you to eliminate that noise in the entire audio file. In the next image, the background noise profile shown on the left is used here to remove noise from the audio.

Different software programs work differently to remove background noise. In Cool Edit Pro, for example, you select a portion of the audio with no dialogue and sample it then load this sample as your background noise profile. Then you select the entire audio file and have the software remove all elements that match the background noise profile.

Sound Forge recording screen.

In addition to Sound Forge, another popular audio program is ProTools. ProTools also offers a free version of its program that may be downloaded from the Web at www.digidesign.com/ptfree/. This is a fully functioning version, but it only works on a few operating systems. Since software changes so quickly, there may be other freeware or shareware audio programs than these available at any time. It is always a good idea to search the Internet for free or affordable programs to use.

The remaining chapter describes the recording process with funding, audio formats, editing, timing, animatics, file naming and more. To learn about other topics, check out Producing Independent 2D Character Animation, published by Focal Press. It can be bought at any bookstore or online.

Producing Independent 2D Character Animation: Making and Selling a Short Film by Mark Simon. Burlington, Massachusetts: Focal Press, 2003. 432 pages. ISBN: 0-240-80513-5.

Mark Simon founded and owns A&S Animation, Inc., an award-winning cel animation house in Florida, which develops and produces character animation for commercials, TV, training videos and the Web. He also owns Animatics & Storyboards, Inc., the largest storyboard house in the southern United States, which has provided work on more than 1,200 productions. Mark’s accomplishments include owning an award-winning advertising firm, being a syndicated cartoonist, production designer of film, TV, and animations and writing entertainment industry books and lecturing on both animation and storyboards. Winning more than 30 animation awards for his efforts, Mark has directed Timmy’s Lessons In Nature (which he sold as a TV series), My Wife Is Pregnant, numerous commercials, training videos and television series special effects.