Reflections on Sound Design

Adventure Time - It Came from the Nightosphere Scene

 

 

Script transcribed by Anthony Shadows

Being an aspiring sound designer/editor, the creativity of this sequence intrigued me. The show is Adventure Time, and it airs on Cartoon Network, it's geared towards the ages of 10-18 but also has enough tangible substance to appeal and entertain those of us 21 year olds. What really fascinated me was how astounding the creativity of the sound design was, within a scene that the sound script was quite simple. 

One of the very first aspects to catch my attention was what the designers did with the listening modes. In order to bring about an otherworldly feel to Marceline's father they used a contrast of causal and semantic sounds. The causal sounds being when he, and the other characters, are speaking. Where-as the semantic sounds are the disembodied noises that accompany his actions and words in order to represent his demonic powers. Most notably is while he attempts to suck out Finn's soul, he is able to explain (in the most terrifying echoing manner) what exactly he is doing. 

Another striking aspect of the sound design is the utilization of some gestalt principals, once more, to create a demonic feel to Marceline's father. Their manipulation of proximity to show the fluctuations of his powers were effective and were able to elicit an impressive emotional response. By increasing the pitch and intensity of the screeching shrieks the designers created an increase in the power and terror of his presence. Also by using the illusion of sound, they blended many of the jagged and shrill sounds with screaming to create a new and horrifying hellish sound. 

By taking a simplistic sound scheme and adding some tiny yet creatively placed editing the designers made this scene in a cartoon show, one of the most impressive and memorable scenes in the sound medium.

"Find Your Howl" A Discussion on Creative Voice

Johathon Flaum’s "Find Your Howl"




So what's the gist?
In Flaum's first story, regarding the red wolves, he talks about the transition from comfort and captivity to the unknown. But it is in that unknown that we can truly find who we are in the deepest part of us. He speaks about the captivity the wolves were living in, as comparable to the security of living in our parents homes, and being cared for by them. Which is what we need when we are young. But Flaum goes on to express that we are missing some key element of ourselves when in captivity. It is not until we venture into the wilderness, and fend for ourselves that we can truly learn who we are, and can finally retrieve that key element that makes us, us.

What aids us in this endeavor of finding our own voice?
The main example is the creative advice of the masters, quotes, stories, etc.

I may be young, but I adamantly maintain that one of the wisest and most mentally provocative adages I've ever seen, was one I found on a t-shirt. It said :

"You laugh because I'm different, I laugh because you're all the same".

I cannot express on how many different occasions this saying has gotten me through. Be it those awkward 7-8th grades, or when faced with a particularly narrow-minded critic, this small piece of wisdom carried me upward, and allowed me to look within myself to achieve my goal.

As we all know, quite well, creativity is a daunting blessing, and as Flaum explains it does not come without a hefty cost. Those that are truly talented and creative are required to be different from everyone else, even different from other creative peers. The cost of this creativity is that we all have to find our own "howl" or artistic voice. This voice is different for each one of us, and it is what allows the arts to continue to thrive. Now there are many individuals in this medium that fall short of their own voice because they choose to use what others have done . But, more often than not, they aren't regarded as an artist are they?

In order to be a creative soul, one must be different, to think and feel differently from those around them. This can lead to arduous social challenges, both while growing up and through-out our lifetime. I know that most of us have been picked on more often than others, because of those creative aspects we posses, and it was this quote that really struck home with me. Those that don't understand, they aren't worth it, usually they will never come to get it. They are simple minded, and will live a life devoid of the rich and deep seeded sense of accomplishment one gets when probing the very depths of existence. Though it is disheartening to think along those lines, it is what allowed me to put the negative words aside and to press on with what my heart and mind were screaming at me to do.

It was once I devoted myself to following these feelings that the true weight of that adage came to me. It was what allowed me to find this path. What enabled me to stick to the road, regardless of the difficulty I experienced from others, and from my own mind. I finally knew that I was different, and that I wouldn't have it any other way. Those that labeled me "weird" or "freak" were really paying my artistic creativity a compliment. They were saying that I was getting closer to my creative goals. I used those labels, not only as compliments, but as encouragement for me to continue on finding my skills, my voice.

Now, as I begin my final years of college, I pride myself on those characteristics that make me different. I reach in and draw on those feelings to give me, not only, the inspiration I need to create, but the aspiration I require to keep going with it. While growing up I've scoured the timeless works of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Faulkner, and yet have not truly found that adages rival.

After all these years I am still hard-pressed to find words that evoke such a deep discussion in my mind, such a warm glow of comfort, as the ones I read on a t-shirt so long ago.

 

Adventures in Color, Light, and Shape! 2

Antagonist - Jezebel
Color

Though the protagonists colors were darker in nature, there was an underlying pulse of feeling, of passion behind the color scheme. For Jezebel I chose to utilize analogous earthy tones. Closely resembling the appearance of autumn, near winter. It was my intention to convey a feeling of death and decay with the character. 

There are different hues of brown and many incorporate a more pale lifeless look. These decaying colors correlate to the dry emotionless manner in which Jezebel views her world, and how detached her motives are from moral perceptions. 
Where Alexandra is passion filled and brimming with frustration, Jezebel is cold, impassive and devoid of mercy. 

Lighting

Contradictory to the more conventional approach to lighting a villain, all shadowed and half lit, I wanted to experiment with the reversal of that. The key elements of a shadowed villain are that you only see half their face and the rest of the image is shrouded in darkness, the final effect of this is that the focus is on the character and you don't get a sense of where they are. Those elements were important to me, and I wanted to maintain them, but in a new way.

I chose to light Jezebel in a heavy contrast where the background is nearly washed out and her features are only recognizable in the dark shapes. 

This approach still allowed me to preserve the sinister hidden style of the classic villain, but with a twist.

Shape / Line

 

Again trending with opposing Alexandra, Jezebel's shape and line has a very open stance. Jezebel's line is outwardly confrontational, rather than inwardly defensive. Her overall shape is again round, but has many features that are very triangular. Those triangular qualities give her character a dangerous and sense heightening appearance. A persons eyes are drawn very quickly over all of the angular and demonic features first, before moving on to the humanistic characteristics.

This gives Jezebel a more sinister and imposing effect on the viewers, her presence is free burning and dynamic. Where in retrospect her protagonist counterpart is a smoldering tug at our heartstrings.

 

 Antagonist - Jezebel

(All credit to the final image goes to len-yan)

(Again, I'm rubbish with modeling and artwork)