The effects of sound...

"Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion."- Micheal Geisler.

I agree with this statement, as it is an accurate reflection of the importance of sound. If we were to watch a film clip without any sound, it may not hold as much meaning, as we are unable to feel the emotion that is being portrayed by the characters. We need to use sound to create a feeling to fit with what viewers can see on the screen. For example, in a horror film it would be impossible to create the sense of suspense without any sound, because the images on screen are only a part of the production, it needs sound to make it whole.

It is easy to spot when a sound effect is missing from a production, quite often we can psychologically place a sound in a silent gap, that we feel fits the scene we are looking at. Using the correct sound effects help to engulf an audience in a performance, as they can connect with the characters and the emotions they are experiencing.

Without sound, we only have half of an experience.

Creating an animation using Zu3D!

In a recent Ed futures session, we were given the opportunity to use the program Zu3D to create an animation. In my first year of University we created animation using 2 animate, however, the Zu3D software allows you to create a more complex animation, using a range of tools. Using Zu3D, we were able to construct a suitable background for our animated projects, and then add our characters or objects through a layering effect. This allowed us to edit each layer of the project, so that they would fit with each other. In order to portray the illusion of 'movement', we can use the program to manipulate our images, whilst taking a series of screenshots at each stage. This gives us the effect of a flowing moving image.

Although it was fascinating to be able to understand and experiment with how stop-motion animation is made, it soon became clear that a great deal of patience was needed, along with a lot of spare time!



The video above shows the short animation which I managed to create in a two hour session. On average, film companies produce 20-30 seconds of animated film per week, so it can take years to complete a whole film (Dirks, 2014).