Voice fixing (30/4/2014)

* Today I decided to re-listen to my voices from yesterday, since I realised afterwards that I never recorded them, only listened to them by ear which I was reminded was a bad thing since we all hear our own voices differently. Thus when hearing the same voices from yesterday out loud, I confirmed that I they were good, but most weren't good for a sci-fi setting.

However, if push comes to shove I could do my 'high crazy' voice since that stands out and could perhaps have some sort of filter over it. The same goes for the 'David Bowie' voice since it also stands out, but because I make his voice similar to a musical jingle, I would have to figure out from the lines where to do my pauses and where to go higher.

I also decided during today to look over other well known voices from both my voice acting book and media and see if I could match or alter one into my own as seen below. Some even being examples mentioned in the book to practice with.   

• Squidward: Managed to come out slightly more nasily than my 'high crazy' voice but, during the higher lines reverted to that one.
• Patrick Warburton: When trying to do his unique deep voice by going higher rather than just super deep with my bass, I found that it made a commercial esk voice almost similar to the heroic voice, only more controllable.
• Jock/cool kid: A very simple voice that, although sounds fine recorded, seems somewhat forced to me and maybe not right for sci-fi. But, I will continue to play around with it none the less.
• Beatles voice: An odd result to say the least, when doing short sentences with this voice it's fine. But, when doing extended ones it comes across as a Beatles' voice mixed with a slight Asian accent (despite not even intending this). Thus clearly being one I need to work on.
• Nerd: A voice that I have always wanted to pull off as my friends can, but I can't. It ended up like the Squidward one, only it was both nasily and similar to my 'high crazy' voice.
• Old man: A voice you would mess around with alongside your friends, not for a real performance. It just sadly came across as too raspy and not nearly clear enough. 
• Captain Barbossa: Although I can often do this voice in my role play sessions, today it came out Scottish which was a surprise to me since I am poor at accents. But at least I now know I can do Scottish, in a way...
• Surfer dude: Very 'Bill and Ted', it's as simple and effective as it gets.
• Mickey Mouse: I am rather pleased with this impersonation, since you have to make your voice high to do so, and then keep that with any sentence you say. 
• Stewie Griffin: Somehow I managed to completely butcher this characters voice as, although it is meant to be incredibly British, it came across as forced, though I wasn't expecting to do a good job since I have always been terrible with this voice.  
• Shawn Connery: Not the worse interpretation in the world but, the Scottish parts come out deeper.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger: What's the voice you tend to hear when people are impersonating / mocking Arnold? Yea, pretty much the same, if not weaker than most.
• Christopher Walken / William Shatner : Despite how hard I try, I always end up mixing these two voices together. Thus, it wouldn't work as the voice would be so disjointed that the audience wouldn't know what to think of it.

As I had mixed results with some of my recordings (most likely due to recording so many in one go), I decided to give myself a break and come back to the weaker ones. 
Doing so I still couldn't get the Beatles' voice right and the nerd seemed to get worse, instead sounding more like a chipmunk. However, my old man voice came out clearer and Captain Barbossa was less Scottish, but still not quite right. 

Looking at the results it would appear that either my attempt at Patrick Warburton's voice or my 'high crazy' voice could be included as both are distinct and different to the existing two that we have chosen. If need be the Patrick Warburton impersonation could be used for the narrator as its deep, but not the same as the characters more relaxed and in control voice. Whereas, despite my initial thoughts on the 'high crazy' one not being right for the genre, I now feel that it could be used for the ship as, on higher lines it sounds more like a easily panicked character.  

Granted, I need to go over these thoughts with my partner tomorrow so as to make sure he is ok with them and find out how we can edit our voices for the better.

Voice issues (29/4/2014)

* Since my partner lost his voice yesterday, we decided to reschedule the voice recording for next Monday (5th of May). However, this delay gave us ample time to confirm ideas and ready ourselves for the last remaining month.  

I decided to practice with my voices since I still needed a voice for the ship (just in case we didn't just put a filter over my voice). I also decided to do the same for the opening narrator since sadly we haven't heard back from John Tams.

Looking back at the list of voices I had written before, I ad libed them before deciding to write my thoughts about them, so as to determine which ones would be best. After all, I want to show off a wide range of voices that, although people may be able to tell comes from me, will still be able to believe that it belongs to a certain character. During this, I also put a cup to my mouth so as to play around with a possible echoing effect.

It was just as well that I decided to do this today since, I sadly discovered that, although I have a decent range of voices that work, none of them suited the ship or narrator. After all, as I found out in my book on voice acting ('Voice for Hire' by Randy Thomas and Peter Rofe) certain voices are better suited for other roles.
I decided to list my results below so as to be clearer.

• High pitch: Although the voice is distinct and works well with an echo, it also sounds too chipmunk like. Therefore, this one would only really work if the cut scene was for a cartoon or children's game.
• Low / bass: I decided not to work on this voice, since I also found that it sounded too much like the captain putting on a deeper voice and also that the golem is already cast to be deep.
• Heroic: Perfect for a swashbuckler, but not for a sci-fi character. It also sadly fell apart when I was meant to say the ship's lines in a worried voice / lacking in confidence voice. 
• Mad scientist: A favorite among friends of mine, since it is so different and creepy to my own. These reasons were also the ones that made me decide against it, since if either the ship or narrator talked like this then the audience would instantly be thrown off.
• High crazy: Although one of my more favourite voices, I found when practicing it again that it was an octave away from the voice I have already for the Mechanic, only slightly higher. Therefore, I felt it best not to include it.  
• Cockney: Already this voice was too close to the 'fat man' one I choose for the mechanic. Thus I decided to drop it.
• Stupid: Although a distinct and fun voice similar to Hodor's from 'Game of Thrones', or Patrick from 'Sponge Bob Square Pants', I recognised that it would feel out of place with the rest of the cut scenes more serious nature. 
• Depressed: Instantly I recognized that this voice would not suit either the ship or narrator as both would need expressive voices, whereas the depressed one can only muster one (as the name suggests).
• David Bowie: Surprisingly working better with the echo effect as it sounded rather robotic, thus maybe suiting the ship. However, it's more of a silly interpretation, since I lose it on higher lines where the character is meant to be stressed (which happens a lot). 

Overall, I plan to talk to my team mate about this as soon as possible as, although I really wanted to show off my voice acting for a project, it seems that I may have chosen the wrong genre / audience. Had I done children's fantasy perhaps I would have been ok. However, as it is I have young adults sci-fi and thus my other voices don't suit them. Therefore, I might recommend to my partner that we admit we did not think of our range sooner and will instead call for help from our colleagues. 

Despite being disappointed that I will only be voicing two characters, when I recognise that I wanted to do a project that showed off my range in the first place, I understand that it is for the better to have a stronger overall project to show off than one no one will want to listen to. Therefore, I can learn from my mistakes and next time I do any voice acting make a list of both my voices and which genres they fit best so as to avoid this problem. 

* After doing the above I then wrote down the frame numbers on the script, so as to allow my partner to attach the audio files correctly to the overall story reel.

Adding character assets to the story reel (24/4/2014)

Back from the holidays, I merely carried on putting my character assets into the story reel which, overall I have been doing well at since I have already done 37 of 114 total frames needed.

Today I was able to get up to frame 54 which is fantastic as this shows I am getting quicker at putting together each frame effectively.

Character Assets (15/4/2014)

Having stated before the need for pre-made assets, I decided to finish them today. In order to do so I traced over my original refined drawings before editing them to show their back view and then afterwards drawing their side separately, using the scale of the front and back character views for reference. I made sure to do this for the the non symmetrical characters as well, thus allowing me to use them in my story reel and act as character reference sheets for the fictitious animators that would need entire designs to work from.

You can see them below...

Granted, the above did take a good four plus hours to accomplish. However, doing this in the long run will save time. 

Refining the storyboard (14/4/2014)

Having finished my story board recently, I decided to start work on the refined one for the story reel itself. However, as I realised that there was a lot of work needed for the 114 frames I decided to look back at my work and decide where it would be possible to cut corners as stated in my last blog. Therefore, I made the following list that consists of characters and environments, detailing how many copies I would need of them, or what I could get away with.

Captain:

• A whole body as there's a lot of front view shots, expressions can be done separately. 

Pilot:

• A whole body as theirs a lot of front view shots, expressions can be done separately. 

Golem:

• Front view torso.
• Head with the jaw and eyebrows on separate layers so as to change its facial expressions. 

Mechanic:

• His whole body in general as his eyes and mouth are only things that will need to be made wider.
• A variety of tentacle arms that twist and coil in various ways. 

Ship:

• One whole ship that I can then scale and edit to make it look as if it is turning in space.

Dock Bot:

• One whole character design of the dock bot which I can easily change using the same technique as the ship. Will likely have the face on a separate layer.
• 2 close up shots of the same face, only edit the pixels to show two different expressions. 

Environments:

• Space can easily be accomplished by just doing a black background before adding stars. If push comes to shove, I can also just rotate the screen 180 degrees to make it appear different. The same can also be done for the veils, as those can easily be copied thirty plus times. 
• Detailed walls for the conference room and ship hanger, as numerous shots are characters in front of these. They can then also be mirrored, so as to make the backgrounds look somewhat different.  

With the above in mind I then started to complete the story board pages which each consist of 6 frames.

Editing the storyboards (12/4/2014)

Having finished the storyboard a couple of days ago, I went back to it today and realised that the human stick figures were too similar to one another. Therefore, I went back and gave them extra features such as hair, so as to make them more easily identifiable.

You can see a comparison of before and after below...

I also went back and re drew the first three story board frames since I wanted it to keep to a consistent style. Not like the following...

Further recognising the work load I would have in the form of the 114 frames needed for the story board, I decided to start cutting corners where needed. For example, I decided to work on a detailed ship that could be re-used for any of the scenes it appears in. However, just because the same asset will be used doesn't mean it will look bad. I will attempt to make it look as detailed as possible, so as to put in all the hard work needed for one decent asset, rather than trying to copy it multiple times and coming up with an inconsistent drawing. 

Issues with the story board (3/4/2014)

* Fantastic news! My partner spoke to John Tams last Friday and, not only got full rights to the theme of 'Sharpe' which we are updating, but John said he would look at the script and consider accepting the role of narrator for the start of the story reel! This is great news as, not only would this make our piece seem more professional, but it would also be a nod to the writer of the song we are adapting.

My partner was also good enough to spell check this sent script as unfortunately I didn't find the time to do so myself. Therefore, I hope this doesn't put him off our piece, especially since I am an aspiring writer.

* Recently the company 'Bioware' uploaded an interesting voice acting video. Therefore, I decided to share it with my partner to get inspiration for when we perform.

* Speaking of performing, I realised that due to the holidays we will not be able to record our lines as intended on the 21st. Therefore, we rearranged it for the 28th. 

* I then spent the rest of the session carrying on with the story board I have been working on. Although I realised that my first three pages (18 pictures) were too detailed for simple idea generation. Therefore, I made sure to do the rest as simple stick figures so as not to waste time and leave more time and effort for the story reel, especially since the coloured in story boards I had done didn't look all that bad.

I plan to eventually post our story board on the lecture room wall, so as to show more of our creative process.

* Looking over the amount of frames needed for just the story board alone (114 to be precise), I reassured myself that actually story reels tend to be only black and white. Therefore, I will give our story reel as much detail as possible using just monochrome. The space scenes however, may have to be more colourful due to the black backgrounds, but we shall see as the process goes along. 

* Having shown the lecturer my story board so far, he recommended that I research camera angles as so far not all the shots have these descriptions. Also add some simple expressions on the characters so as to get across what we want more. Finally, when I actually print these off and display them we should write notes on them, thus showing our creative process. These notes can include extended times or the need for new shots if say one lingers for too long.

Granted, the lecturer was concerned that the stick figures were almost too simple. However, I explained that I did this so as to not over shadow the final project which is the main focus for me and Ed, or use up valuable time. After all, the story board is merely there for just a visual reference and  for generating ideas.

* Whilst researching camera angles, I was able to find the following useful image, therefore I plan to add its example descriptions to my story board.

* Over the Easter holiday we will need to make a list of all the things we need for the summer show, as the planners have to plan the room out in advance and make sure everyone has the resources they need.

I also aim to try and draw between 3-6 images a day over the holiday, so as to avoid burning myself out from drawing too much whilst aiming to get as many of the images needed before I return.

Harvard Referencing: 

• Bioware (2014) The Art of Voiceover with Brian Bloom and Claudia Black. [Online Video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVtUTRnlDBE (Accessed: 3/4/2014).
• Zakarias, C (2012) Manufacturing Perspective: Camera Shots and Angles. [Online Image] Available at: http://blogs.swa-jkt.com/swa/10318/tag/camera-angles/ (Accessed: 3/4/2014).

Folio (27/3/2014)

* First of all, I showed my partner the script I thought would be best for the project and gave him time to look it over. Loving what he read, we made the necessary tweaks before deciding what other camera angles should be used and which sounds should be assigned to which scenes. 

My partner also came up with the good idea of adding a mysterious ship that appears behind the protagonists. Thus adding mystery and tension to the scene.

* Checking on our progress, the lecturer recomended that we create a basic stick figure story board for the whole scene, thus adding more professionalism to the final product and showing more clearly how the overall project came together.
Therefore, I did so, using a basic story board template I found online (see Harvard Referencing below).


* Afterwards, Ed and I went over the script and made a list on all the audio and folio sounds we would need for the story reel. This required a lot of work as we had to think about every possible sound made by the characters and locations including...

Page 1:

• Heavy atmospheric music
• Noise as title appears? (whooshing)
• Humming (noise)
• Air Conditioning
• Guitar strumming
• Footsteps

Page 2:

• Opening door (solid sound)
• Crew work noises
• Bridge sound effects (consoles etc.)
• Intercom noise
• Footsteps
• Tools

Page 3:

• Hands clapping
• General movement noises

Page 4:

• Golem’s story ambient music
• Story effects
• Intercom

Page 5:

• Patting on metal
• Rustling noise

Page 6:

• Intercom Noise

Page 7:

• De-cloaking sound
• Running crew
• Noises of many different sized ships
• Hangar doors
• Patting noise
• Intercom noise
• Flying through atmosphere
• City street noises (Mixed)
• Vigil lowering
• Heavy landing noise
• Many legged creature
• Electric motor doc bot.

Page 8:

• Fast motor noise
• Footsteps
• Pebbles being moved
• Pebbles being thrown
• Wind

* I also raised a point I had thought of recently. Since it looks like the current script is going to be around 12 minutes long and not everyone has the attention span for that, perhaps we should break it up and display on the computer screen a page of videos that the audience can choose from e.g. parts 1-6 that each list how long they are and are entitled to explain what the scene is about. 

Once Ed agreed with this, I edited the script to fit these individual parts. After all, our audience may well be keen to watch our work, but may not have the time to watch the whole thing. Therefore, we give them a choice on how long they spend each time and as a result don't put pressure on them to watch the whole thing, or on ourselves when we see someone leave half way through. Again, this may not be because they don't like the piece, they may just want to look at everything else during the show.   

* Overall, we had a good productive day today and will aim to look over the character descriptions next week when Ed will also show up with the background for his pilot character. We will also finally decided on how the golem and ship will sound before their voices are edited, thus we plan to practice over the weekend.

Harvard Referencing: 

• Desactivados, C (2013) Productores de Cine Información Importante. [Online Image] Available at: http://www.ticatlantico.blogsek.es/creando-nuestra-propia-productora/ (Accessed: 27/3/2014).