Working with Sound in TVPaint - what's your pipeline ?

[D.T. Nethery]

I'd be interested to know what other people are using as their production pipeline when working with sound . Something like this:

1.) Record the Sound . (voices all on separate tracks, music and sound effects on separate tracks). I'm assuming this is all being done in a professional sound studio and the tracks are delivered in digital form as .wav or .mp3 files.

2.) Breakdown the sound for animation. Old method would involve writing out the sound on Bar Sheets and/or X-sheets frame by frame. Voices broken down phonetically , music broken down by beats noting the main accents . This allows animating accurately on the exact frames when a sound occurs .

The TVPaint Timeline Notes can be used to breakdown a single voice track in that manner:



but for working with multiple voice tracks or voice tracks combined with sound effects or music I'd tend to fall back on the old established paper Bar Sheet method first, then transcribe the information to TVPaint Timeline Notes . This may just be me not able to break out of old work habits, but for me it's easier to use paper Bar Sheets and/or X-sheets to keep everything in order , especially with multiple tracks. However, with just a simple voice track (single voice) it's usually easier to use the TVP Timeline Notes to breakdown the sound , scrubbing over the sound that has been loaded into TVPaint, writing out the vowels and consonants on the Timeline Notes.

3.) After animation is finished the individual scenes need to be edited together in continuity with a final mixed soundtrack (voices, music, sound effects all mixed at appropriate levels . ) . I'm curious what most people use for editing ? I have Final Cut Pro. What do other people use ?

[artfx]

I wrote a long and detailed post answering to this, but with pitiful internet connections, all was lost. I guess I'll be more careful to write in a text editor and copy to here next time (though I am not doing that now).

I basically wrote that I don't get into bar sheets, x-sheets or any of those methods, when it comes to sound in TVP, because it seems, to me at least, to defeat the purpose of the advances in digital technology that are supposed to make our lives easier. When you load a sound onto the timeline in TVP, you can scrub the timeline and hear exactly what sound is supposed to be coming out at what frame. I simply do that and draw what is needed. This is especially fast when at the rough line stage. You can see an example of that in the trailer for my course, where the character says, "This is an outrage!"

[Fabrice]

(out of topic, please excuse me )
Terrence, please can you send me a PM or email, I try to contact you, but I think you changed you email adress.

[Paul Fierlinger]

When you load a sound onto the timeline in TVP, you can scrub the timeline and hear exactly what sound is supposed to be coming out at what frame. I simply do that and draw what is needed.

I'm with you, Terrence, particularly now that we can clearly see the wave graph at any size. Sometimes I'll scribble little marks in the timeline notes space to remind me which spots should be emphasized in the acting. I also do use the Timeline Notes space for lip synching, only because it speeds up the drawing process by not having to pay close attention to the sounds once I'm in the fervor of drawing. But generally, all I really need are the squiggles of the wav graph as they correspond to the frames below.