Animal Fox, bear, mouse footsteps and "cloth" recording

Question

Hey guys! I am in my final term at Vancouver Film School and working on my final piece. With that I am trying to find good sounds for tiny and big animal footsteps. I've currently used the "Rode NTG3" shotgun with no backup room mic.

You can see the video I am doing here: http://vimeo.com/41205967

My question is as follows: 1) Are there any specific mics that will work better for small tinny/sounds? Usually just become tinny/spiky and not very nice in a final mix (We use mostly ME66, Rode NTG3 etc) 2) Good things to use for bigger sounding steps for i.e bears? 3) Should I do perspective changes while recording with 2x mics, or tweak that in post with verb and just volume/eq? (I used 2 plungers on a small cloth piece on top of a dirt pit (make sound less sharp and more natural))

Should animals have any "cloth" movement? If so, any suggestions for what sounds furry?

Any suggestions would be well appreciated! Thanks! J

Answer 1

1) Try this question or this question to see what people have already discussed in terms of mic choice for quiet sounds.

2) For the bigger sounds you'll find that using multiple layers will get the results you want. Experiment with what you think might sound right - often the best results come from mistakes!

3) Not quite sure I fully understand what you mean here. Record what you need to record as cleanly as possible and, if you can, with multiple takes from different angles. Even better, if you can record multiple discrete channels with different mics this will give you more ammunition to play with later.

4) Regarding should animals have cloth movement, this depends entirely on whether you feel it will add to the soundtrack you are designing. Unfortunately, as with many choices we have to make in a creative process, there is not a clear yes or no answer to the question.