WRITTEN BY TESS FOURNIER
SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
As a supervisor, I’ve found that other-worldly vehicle design is one of the hardest design challenges for new editors. More specifically, creating a sense of motion within designed vehicle editorial is where most new editors need a little extra guidance. In today’s post, I’ll go over how to use pitch processing to sell movement in designed vehicles which do not incorporate engines from our world.
Before I dive in, I suggest if you’re interested in learning about vehicle editorial and design, that you first check out Jeff’s blog post The Basics of Vehicle Sound Editorial. It’s an excellent guide on getting started with editing vehicles and some of what I talk about today will assume you know the basic principles he outlined in that post.
BUILDING YOUR ENGINE IDLE
I find it best to create your vehicle’s steady, or idle, before any other element. This should be a constant sound that is static, or unchanging, in pitch from beginning to end. The most important part of this stage is to choose sounds that not only fit the visuals, but also contain a sonic element that will pitch well.
The following is an example of a recent rocketship engine steady an editor designed for an episode we were working on:
There are some great qualities to this build, but its major flaw is that it doesn’t contain any element that will pitch well to depict motion. Here is what the build sounds like pitched up over time for acceleration:
Unfortunately, it sounds really similar to the idle and when added to a scene with other sound effects and music, it won’t add any sense of motion to the ship’s maneuvers.
Hear what happens when I add a sweetener that is a little higher pitched and has more of a tonal quality than the above rumbly build:
The sweetener gives this design something that pitches well, and therefore, will be able to depict motion better within a scene.
BUILDING THE REST OF YOUR ENGINE
Once you’ve made a steady that you’re happy with and will pitch properly, you can start to create the “vehicle editorial checklist” Jeff talked about in his blog by pitching the steady in the following ways:
Acceleration - pitch up over time
Decelerations - pitch down over time
Steady Driving -
a) Slow pitch up over time, OR
b) Slow pitch up followed by a swift pitch shift back down to “first gear” to start the pitch-up cycle over again
Pass Bys - Mimic a doppler effect by pitching up during the approach and down during the away (I like to use Doppler by waves to create these)
Drive aways (camera/mic is stationary) - Pitch up as vehicle moves farther away
Drive ins/arrives (camera/mic is stationary) - Pitch Down as vehicle comes closer to camera
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES!
Once you have all of these builds created, it’s time to start cutting them to picture! I’ll refer you to Step 2 in Jeff’s Blog Post since he’s already gone over all the basics moving forward from here. One thing to note when creating your own vehicle designs this way, is that sweeteners are your friends. Don’t shy away from adding dramatic whooshes to a pass-bys or adding some creative revs to accelerations. Another thing to note is that these pitch processing principles can be applied to pretty much any design that incorporates movement, from magical flying fairies to alien motorcycle chases.
This is by no means the only way to design moving elements, but it’s effective and an easy set of rules to follow if you’re unsure how to get started.