Bible Animations

  - Sound work
    Last week I talked about sound work at the end of the post and pretty much not at all in the video, but over the weekend I got to spend a lot of time on not just recording sound, but adding sound to the project. In fact, here is a list:
 - Spatter contact (same as next)
 - Water hitting pavement (works for concrete too)
 - Water slosh before and after pouring and before throw
 - Whooshes before contact
 - Whoosh for throw
 - River (two sound effects)
 - Crowd hush for magician's close-up (need to add them back to at least some extent until music comes in)
 - Birds
Of course, this is looks a lot more impressive than it is, because some of it I could simply duplicate and move (like the birds, river and crowds). It still has to be done though and it meant that progress was made and to such an extent that the Foley test was passed. When I showed my mom the scene again (after doing all these changes) she said: "It's good, you showed it to me this morning". Totally missed the work on the audio! GOD is so awesome!
The biggest test for any foley work is that it has to be invisible. If it stands out = failed! Not even the least bit of a change was noticed!

In addition to the sound work, I also got to work on the flies' sound. I mentioned two possibilities:
 - zipper scratch/scrape
While certainly one of the closest to the sound of actual bees and flies, this still doesn't really come close to that frantic and sudden pitch shifts that you get from flies, so it's not really an option, unless you have flies you can listen to and learn how to play the zipper, hahaha. If you have access to such files, why in the world would you be using the zipper in the first place! haha.
The zipper was just not gonna work - unfortunately...

 - bees
I did record some bees, but bees, though sometimes very similar, have a much more laid back kinda sound. It's only when they get like really mad or in a really large group that they sound a lot like flies. So, aside from the danger factor, just not practical.

 - Actual flies (yes)
GOD helped me get some real flies over the weekend. Yes, foley is not the most glamorous of departments and neither is getting sound in the field - though both are essential for a quality production.
You can tell that I'm stalling, hahaha. Yes, I actually recorded flies around poop! Dog poop to be precise. For some reason, this particular one was covered with flies, so I quickly got my gear (aka phone and tripod) and went back to said sample and just held it close enough to disturb the flies to make them fly around. I thought it was gonna be a massive flop, because there were birds and there was wind and traffic noise, etc. Thankfully, the flies were so close to the mics that barely any lift is needed and the added wind noise in the file actually makes sense, so yey!

Again, not the most fun way to get flies recorded, but it certainly worked and I am so thankful GOD prepared me for it by showing me the same deal a week or so ago.

I got the humming ambience as well as the sound of them landing and flying away rapidly. Both are essential to be able to separate, seeing that when they are afar off, you don't hear them landing and taking off. It will increase as they get closer, in frequency, not so much volume.

 - Snake sounds
   I was stunned to learn that the king cobra actually growls... Like a black bear no less! Probably not as loud, but certainly very similarly! They also make scratchy noises by rubbing their scales and of course they hiss and make those bawking hiss attack noises.
   I don't feel like the black bear growl is appropriate for Exodus, seeing this offensive, not defensive. The growl is for defensive purposes mostly. I may have my dog growl for me to get it (very similar).
The bawking hiss attack sounds and normal hissing is more appropriate in general, but it will certainly surprise people seeing it for the first time.
The same will go for the frilled lizard inspired dino. I went online looking for some idea of what they sound like and the best I got was "tsss"... Very underwhelming, hahaha.

 - All of the Egyptians
   This was interesting. I didn't notice it until this week.  This afternoon (I start writing these posts during the week to make vlog day easier to bear) I was seeing the Israelites around the river, but they weren't digging and tonight while working, I kept getting the message that it was the Egyptians digging about the river for water, because the river had been turned to blood and guess what:


That means that while the Israelites didn't dig necessarily, they certainly knew when GOD made something stand, you can't waste your time digging about the river, because you won't find anything - HE never does anything half way.

That leads me to believe that while they digged, even though scripture doesn't explicitly say so, they just dug up more blood instead of getting water. I believe that is the case for a few reasons:
1) It's what I'm being shown
2) GOD said that their floods were also turned into blood (meaning all major sources for the river were directly affected within the country - all river water was blood) (Psalm 78:44)
3) They had the male children thrown into the river - blood they wanted, blood they got. (Exodus 1:22 and Revelation 16:6)
4) The Nile today (at some point it became water again and that does not happen with time - GOD had to change it back for the country not to die of thirst)

Is it possible that there may have been water there? I would think it is possible, but since GOD limited it to 7 days (presumption based on a vague verse), I don't think there was water where they digged. Scripture says:


That to me says that something specific happened after the 7 days and if you also take Psalm 78 into account, it seems pretty clear they had nothing to drink for those 7 days, suggesting that HE turned the water back after 7 days:


Scripture also says:


From context, we know this certainly was to say that GOD limited the blood at this point to the river. Out of context, it's just specifically telling us that the water that was in the river was turned to blood, but certainly as eyewitness testimony goes, necessarily can exclude anything else.

Do we know for sure - no. Can we? Yes, if GOD plainly says so, but for the most part HE doesn't, because people fight over this kind of thing... I'm not interested in arguing with people whether they dug up blood or not, because it's beyond the point. Psalm 78 says they couldn't drink, that means they couldn't drink for the duration of the plague - for me, leading goes that they dug up blood. May GOD correct me if I'm missing HIM on this.

 - Lip Sync Improvement
   Overall, this more refined method is the same as before. Only I limit the range it uses to middle frequencies (where the voice lives) and increased the attack time, so the mouth doesn't move so rapidly. And of course more enveloping than I care to mention. Having said that, it was soooo worth it!! I am so glad GOD had me spend the time on it, because Moses' speech this week alone was stunning! Thank YOU LORD!!

Here is the video. I do open with the 1st 40mins with a character creation thing with Make Human. So if you want to get straight into the technique, go from about 35mins - just to make sure you get every thing.

GOD is so great!