Well, I'm finally at the stage in my project where I'm doing the voiceovers. I recorded them at home with an mbox and protools and have been editing them.
Question 1: I recorded each character separately and had planned on importing the files separately into flash and stringing them together in the timeline (I'm using a separate flash file for each scene and plan on stringing it all together at the end.) It occurred to me, that maybe I should string all the voiceovers per scene together in pro tools--that way I can make sure all the voice levels are uniform, etc., THEN bring that one file into flash and start doing the lip-syncing and animation. Does it make a difference? Any preferences from you more experienced animators out there?
Question 2: All my vocal files are wav files. Should I import them into Flash as wav and then compress them to mp3's after I save or should I compress them into mp3's first, then import into flash? Or doesn't it make a difference?
Thanks!
Thanks, Jane! Those are cool! Thanks for posting. And good luck with them!
I'll definitely post when mine are done (I don't think I'll have anything completely til maybe early next year.)
And thanks again for the voiceover tips!
Wally
Congrats on getting to the sound part of your animation in Flash!
Personally, I think you have more control when you have lots of different pieces for sound. You can move it and adjust it and help time your animation in a more controlled way on your time line. That's my preference-- even if I have a long piece of sound, I generally chop it up and just mix it in when I'm in Flash.
I've had problems with .wav files in flash-- sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I'd say test it out first to see if they import ok.
thanks, Jane. That actually makes a lot of sense. I think I might do it both ways--set up all the individual files in pro tools so I can tweak and adjust the levels, etc., then import each file separately so I can tweak them for the animation timing.
Another question: I'm doing a series of 11 minute episodes (that I plan to break into 3 parts so they can be broadcast over the internet.) I know for movie and tv sound production, you usually add a layer of either "room presence" sound or "street presence." Is it a good idea to fly some of that stuff in? I had thought I might experiment with that when I get to post and start flying in the SFX...
Thanks again,
Wally
I guess it depends on what's going on in your animation. I make all of my sound w/a skype headset and Garageband and layer the sounds in Flash... I've used lots of kinds of sounds but never room/street presence. It's pretty easy to add and remove sound in Flash, so if you want to add the extra noise in there to see how it sounds and don't like it, you can easily remove it.
Good luck with your project. 11 minutes is a ton of work, so it sounds like you'll be busy! :)
thanks again, Jane. I guess I'll experiment with it, see how it fits.
If you have any links to the stuff you've done, I'd love to check it out.
Best,
Wally
Good luck with your cartoon, Wally. Hope your sound works out well for you. If you want to see/hear some of my stuff, as you asked, I did Lucky Hijinx cartoons (3 episodes all under 5 minutes each) on either YouTube or MySpace:
www.youtube.com/siblingrebelry
www.myspace.com/luckyhijinx
I did the sound all myself using a skype headset and Garageband, except for the "Chaz" voiceover for episode #3, as the great Blag Dahlia (lead singer of the world famous punk band, The Dwarves) provided sound for that part. Hope you have a laugh. And please post any links you have (when it's ready) of your stuff-- would love to see. :)