10 Second Tip: Turn It Off


Sound plays an integral part in animation. In most cases the art follows the path of the music or dialogue, not the other way around. Sometimes, though, this can be a detriment as you work and the best thing you can do to improve is…

Turn it off!

Once you’re well into your animation process, go ahead and mute the sound temporarily before you play it back again. It will give you an instant fresh perspective on JUST the visuals and movement of your piece, and you can much more easily pick out spots that need a little more work. Save a copy of your file (or set those drawings aside) and make the changes sans-sound. Then turn the audio back on and see if it still works. If it does, your piece will be stronger than it would have been otherwise!


Now get to animating something great!

For a much more detailed discussion on Audio in Animation, check out the article Animating to Music right here.

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Rod N

But that won’t work for characters talking!

Ferdinand Engländer

The opposite: Once the dialog doesn’t distract you anymore you are much more likely to see jerky motions and bad arcs. Also you should see if you can still “hear” the dialog just from looking at the lipsync and most important if the character’s body language is clearly readable.

Clarice

Weird idea, but I’ll try it!