A COLLABORATIVE POST BY NATALIA SAAVEDRA BRYCHCY

SOUND EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST

One of the things I've noticed working in animation is that you have a world of possibilities to create all kinds of sound design of monsters, spaceships, crazy rides, or even the sound of a giant squishy ball rolling out of control! A lot of the times, these sounds have to feel heavy and at the same time have movement to them. But, how to you get something to feel heavy and big, and also make it feel that it can go fast? Check out my process below!

Step 1

For this I wanted to use as an example, a giant squishy ball rolling out of control that I got the chance to create for one of the shows that I worked on!

First, I started with what kind of texture I wanted to create for the ball. I wanted to make it sound sticky and slippery at the same time, so it had to have some kind of texture. I layered some slime-y sounds together with gore like elements.

Step 2

After this, since this specific sound had to sound like it was sticky but slippery, and wasn't smoothly rolling, I added a body fall roll sound to create movement.

Step 3

To make it feel heavy and have weight, I added a layer of rumble and dragging. For it to cut through the mix, I added a type of rumble that has some texture to it and wasn't mainly in the low frequency spectrum. In this case, I layered an avalanche crumbling and a pitched down body drag on dirt.

Full Build

Step 4

For speed I like to use a Doppler. So what I did was I used a Doppler on the build of the ball to have the ball come in and out of the screen fast, and that way you can really feel the sound go by with weight and speed.

dopller.png

Step 5

In some cases for a moving element, I like to add a layer of a reverse low whoosh just to have the feeling of something big coming at you!

Finished build! Ta Daaaaaa!

If you liked this blog, check out another one we did about creating motion:
CREATING MOTION IN SOUND DESIGN USING PITCH

Do you use a different technique? Let us know in the comments section!

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