How to record an feature animation dialogue?

Question

Hi guys,

I've got an upcoming feature animation project, my part exactly is to record dialogue. Since I've never got any experience on animation, I did some research especially on the mic use and positioning, nothing were found but some pics and small clips...such like, Happy Feet 2, Happy Feet 1 (these are from Happy Feet 1 and 2, but totally different use of mics...)

So, I was wondering, what are the tricks to record an feature animation dialogue? Does it like doing ADR? or Voice Over? or...somewhere in between?

Any comments are very much appreciated!!

Best, Eric

Answer 1

I think it's the Soundworks vid for Where The Wild Things Are in which they show how they recorded the actors in the studio "physically" acting out the scenes with mics strapped to their heads, as opposed to the usual static VO/ADR type session. Well worth a look!

Answer 2

I've not recorded feature dialogue but I have done TV animation dialogue. We decided to keep it simple in the records and do any perspective changes required in the show during post. This is because there were no storyboards to work with and also because our cast was made up mainly of under 10 year olds.

We recorded each character separately and positioned the actor about a foot away from the mic and with a pop-shield in place. This gave us nice dry dialogue to work with but without a lot of mouth noise and clack, especially good for the kid's performances.

I don't think there's a right or wrong way to do this as there's advantages and disadvantages to the way I work and what Andy just said.

Answer 3

Tell you what, after working with some puppeteers for some kids TV shows including the amazing Kevin Clash (Elmo) the microphone on the headband sounds brilliant. If you have the mics get them to act it out using this technique, you don't even need loads of space, just enough that they can act stuff out on the spot can help give an authentic delivery.

Naturally some actors are so animated and have so much experience in voiceover that they can pull it off in a booth.