As of late, sound within Music (particularly electronic), film, voice and the overall tone expressed by an artist’s style has become an increasing fascination for me, and something that I allow to take me on a journey of feeling and imagination. On the other hand, through being introduced to the science of sound design I am also compelled to dissect and critically analyse every aspect of someone’s work, but this also comes with the ability to perhaps understand a little more about what the artist intended as aposed to my own interpretation.
By nature sound and music in particular are extremely subject to the person who is hearing it’s ears and interpretation. Its is also the most penetrating and awe-inspiring of all mediums of art. A scale of notes is only recognisable from the notes that preceed it. But this is only for the means of measuring it. A note/pitch/key is something very consistent, yet the human reaction is infinitly different from person to person and from moment to moment, Timing within music is crucial to its effect on the listener both within the piece and the time at which the person is listening to it.
For me, animation and sound are an awesome combination when they work well together, sound effects however are almost always only there to reinforce what we are seeing and often to go un-noticed, allowing the visual aspect to take the lime-light. Only recently have I been introduced to the idea of animation following the lead of a sound effects. Productions that comprise of script led stories and sketches like Phone Jacker, are examples of how animation is used (literally) to emphasise certain words and points. Another example, and a personal favourite of mine, is the work of Ben (Yahtzee) Crowshaw whos fantastically prolific rants about computer games are backed-up with simple and blunt diagrams of literary anecdotes and idioms which emphaisise his words to great effect. Of course the, animations on their own would seem slightly crude without the diaglogue that they are supporting. Nevertheless this shows how sometimes the visual aspect can take the back-seat and still be very intreguing to the viewer.
In short I guessthat the ultimate aim of the animator is to use both sound and image harmoniously so that they can both spiral up and take the viewer into a believable world of their story. As a viewer/listener we want to be immersed into the plot and loose ourselves in the alternate reality of the story or anecdote. Therefore it is the job of the animator to keep the viewer immersed in their plot.