(Newton Clementine voiced by the wonder @thisbelongsto-nohbodys )
Here’s a WIP demonstrating how I intend the soundtrack and line reads are work off each other for the production of The Tavern Barz Story.
Animation is usually animated before the soundtrack and sound design are added. I’m wanting to do the opposite... use the sound design and soundtrack to set the pacing for the rest of the film, in a process I’m dubbing audio-first animation.
The big benefit here is that I can get a good idea of the films pace before the animation is even finished, which means I don’t have to worry about deleting too many scenes or hyperfixating on details that might not even make it into the film. An added benefit to this workflow is that I don’t have to let the sound design, line reads, and music fight for attention... now there basically one and the same.
For this particular segment, I took some inspiration from the ongoing trend of “musical dubs” on Youtube, where the dialogue of a video or rap acapella is given some eccentric musical accompaniment... it’s basically Mickey Mousing but done based on existing audio. Some good examples I can think of include the work of Finn M-K and David Dockery. Adam Neely also has a few good videos on the subject (here and here), and it was through one of his videos I was introduced to the musical project JKXCM, whose work is just straight up awe-inspiring.
I don’t play any instruments though, so the musical backing piece is entirely electronic, utilizing an old school hip hop drum break and a fake sample made to sound kinda vaporwavey. The “Live Performance” aspect is kinda lost as a result, but hey, it still sounds super cool.