Sound

Can you hear that? The role of sound in animation

“Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion" ...Michael Geisler

The above quote demonstrates the significance of sound within animation; sound brings the story to life allowing the character to become real and have meaning (Meryll, 2012). Ever since man evolved, we have been familiar with sound and music, especially through nature. Take speech for example, a vocalized form of human communication in order to comprehend others and the world around us.

Just like this, in an animation, sound assists us in understanding the moral of the story and the concept behind the characters, especially when the animation has conversations. Music also plays a significant role by setting the mood and atmosphere and stirring the feelings and emotions of the viewers (Beauchamp (2013). 

Sound is a fundamental element in an animation and is just as important as the visual design. According to Sharma (2014) sound, music and sound effects feed further excitement to an already flourishing storyline; it allows the viewer to become a part of the story and live the moments by presenting them with the realism or adding comedic effect to reinforce the story. 

Walt Disney Studio’s produced the first animated film, “steamboat Willie” in 1928 with synchronised sound; interestingly, this was also one of the first debuts of Mickey and Minnie mouse (Coleman, 2012). Initially the film was screened in front of a live audience with live music/sound as a test. Fortunately the concept of composing an animation to a soundtrack produced extremely positive feedback and provided Walt with the confidence to continue the film and create further films based on that idea (Wikia Disney, no date); hence we now have sound and animation merged together.

In addition, Gilbert (2005) states that the Disney film ‘Fantasia’ is individually one of the most famous animations to be motivated by music. Critics have commended the music in this animation for carrying the audience along; interestingly it was argued that the animation would have lacked direction and purpose without the use of music (Thomas and Johnson, 1995), thus highlighting the significance of sound in some of the oldest animations. In line with this, Beauchamp (2013) also noted that many expert animators praise sound with contributing as much as 70% to the achievement of an animation as it is the sound track that is more often felt than heard.

Needless to say, music is an integral part of an animation and depending on the animator or artist creating the film, the importance of the music can differ. For example Disney wanted the characters in Fantasia to still be understood and accepted as characters and for the music to take the idea forward by further building upon the existing animation. In contrast, Gilbert (2005) explains how Fischinger (who was originally employed by Disney to work on Fantasia) had different ideas regarding music in that he sought the music to portray and lead the story with the characters being less important. 

Despite the difference in how the music is used, it is most certainly evident from the above that sound and music all play a fundamental role in the creation and development of animation and film.

Below is a short clip embedded from youtube of Disney's Fantasia; this demonstrates the strength of the music in this famous animation. The animation is set to classical music with no dialogue - only spoken introductions by the hosts. The music was recorded under the direction of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia orchestra performed seven of the eight pieces. Mickey mouse was used at the star cast in this cartoon version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a fairy tale that had been interpreted as a poem (http://www.justdisney.com/Features/Fantasia/). 

Reference List 

Beauchamp, R. (2013) Design Sound for Animation. Oxon: Focal Press 

Coleman, D (2012) Retrieved 23rd January 2015 from Open Culture. http://www.openculture.com/2012/01/steamboat_willie_disney_introduces_mickey_mouse.html

Gilbert, J. (2005) The influence of music on painting and animation. PH.D thesis, Bournemouth University. 

Meryll (2012) Retrieved 23rd January 2015 from Sounds/audio: An important tool in animation. http://soundsupervision1.blogspot.co.uk

Sharma, P (2014) Retrieved 23rd January 2015 from Arena Animation. http://www.arena-multimedia.com/blog/index.php/can-you-hear-me-sound-design-in-animation/

The Disney Wiki (no date) Steamboat Willie Retrieved January 23rd 2015 from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Steamboat_Willie 

Thomas, F. and Johnston, O. (1995), The illusion of life, disney animation. New York: Disney Animations