Chapter 199: Sound Design

As much as matters on the enemy lawsuit attacks continue to plague and seem to be getting bigger, it is quite unprogressive to dwell on it.

Sure, it was annoying to have to be stalled by such underhanded lawsuit tactics. Sure, it was irritating to be passively waiting and only come up with defenses. Sure, it was grating to have his great Ace Attorney and impressive 'Calvin and Hobbes' tactic be rendered semi-obsolete by the enemies' stubbornness.

As much as Alexander portrayed himself to be as indifferent and apathetic during their talks, there was no denying that he was ticked on the inside by all the messy variables that mess with his flow.

It had to be said that in all his long years of past-future life along with this re-life, the lawsuit problems and delaying implications were quite the issue that made him want to be expressive.

Alexander didn't want to baggage it any further though as it wasn't much compared to his loss mourning phases.

Nonetheless, Alexander had to find other methods to busy himself and not let his worry affect other things.

There was the legal team that would mostly do all the work for that legal battling and all the productions that are underway. These things need composure from him and not the angry whining that extroverts take pride in.

Anyways, he just had to find other ways to busy himself and keep the annoyances to the back of his head.

Hopefully, the month he dubbed as Musical May can help out with that.

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First on Musical May's agenda was not any Musical protocol in the comic book sorts but on certain phases of animation that should need sound, music, and the like.

Although Alexander would mostly take a spectating backseat for most of these parts, he still had to acquaint himself with some stuff so that going to school wouldn't be his only option.

It pertains to a lot of technical and professional processes indeed. Since Alexander would mostly be piggybacking most procedures, he had to turn to the project leader for advice. "Konnichiwa, Mr. Miyazaki."

"Hello to you Alex-san." Seasoned Hayao greeted the talented boy. Of course, Mr. Translator was always by his side to resolve the confusion of Creed Animation employees and Hayao himself.

"I heard that your manga... I mean, comic books are in some bits of trouble for the past couple of months." With the translator's help, Seasoned Hayao conveyed his sympathy. "Doesn't the senpais of your civilization know that it is not good to bully children as young as you?"

"Well... the enemy are just weird that way, Mr. Miyazaki." Alexander reasoned as he could. "Anyways, that comic book trouble is why I'm here now. I'm kind of trying to keep my mind off some troubling things. Hope it won't be a hassle for you guys?"

"Of course, it wouldn't Alex-san?" Seasoned Hayao didn't mind and even joked about it. "It is your money and creativity that power everything that happens around this animation studio, after all."

"True, true." Alexander played along. Anyways, it was mostly his assertions that led to the entire animation endeavor to come to what it is at present.

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Alexander's participation is just a brief interlude to the entire process that came next though.

In any case, Alexander acquainted himself with many things and adjusted to whatever he can. Since Seasoned Hayao is mostly coordinating everything, not many problems came up and it was just a learning process for the Creed little boss that tagged along.

Since storyboarding and styling were already finished by Seasoned Hayao and Creed Animations, voiceovers and recordings came next.

Of course, the true blue drawing process also happened around this time, so that everything would be accurately timed and correlated.

Contrary to movies, where most voice dubbing comes later, animation uses sounds and recordings before the actual animations.

Timing the opening and closing of mouths is crucial for the flow of the process.

Japanese animation is said to employ the opposite with voice actors perfectly timing themselves with the finished animations.

Of course, with the Japanese Season Hayao at the helm, finding the middle ground and appropriate technicalities between Eastern and Western technicalities was done by the team.

Editing, layering, working on every movement clip, blending every image, and all the works became the next phase of choices and decisions.

The animation phase and sound effects phase are generally intermixed to be able to achieve the desired finished product.

But why is sound design and voice recording whatnot essential for animation though? A lot of it boils down to a common sense that mostly revolves around the films and shows that people watch.

The simple fact that film projects happen in the real world means that everything makes noise, from the traffic in the street to the cameraman's footsteps.

With animation, it's completely different. Since it's created from the ground up, there's no "natural" sound.

As such, the Creed Animations building with its 'sound' compartmentalization came in handy here.

Imagine that your story is happening deep inside a forest. The sound of the environment around you helps to set the tone of the story. It can tell the audience how dense the forest is, how pleasant the weather is, and even how secure that forest is. You see a small bush moving slowly, with a nice soft wind blowing on the trees' leaves and the lovely sound of birds singing. Seems like a nice day, right?

Seasoned Hayao and the sound-specialization team mostly revolved their work around that concept as Dragonball and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The 'animation' compartments work on grinding through the Goku's and Ninja Turtles, the making of background in which the characters are set to contrast, and they work through guiding the fluid actions and motions.

Whilst they were doing that, Seasoned Hayao correlated things with the music so that it can set the tone for most sound special effects that need to be incorporated into the production and the vision he was going for.

There are five different aspects of sound design that he needed to go through and something that Alexander was learning as it progress.

Ambiance: The sounds that set the tone and the environment of the animation.

Foley: Used to represent what's being seen.

Sound Effects: The sound effects that enhance other sounds, actions, or elements.

Voice Over: The mysterious narrator telling you the story.

Music: The distinctive or supplementary music in the background working together with the ambiance to set the tone of the story.

Learning through that and how to use it masterfully takes some time to settle. Since Seasoned Hayao was hired to be an instructor and guide of sorts, the entire process mostly started with a session revolving around it.

Nonetheless and at the very least, Alexander found that this Musical May was truly bound with a lot of sound aspects as he expected.

Although he would mostly delegate these tedious production tasks to whoever specializes in them, partaking in some bits of it was still an experience for him.