1. What is the Lion's Roar?

Example of the lion's roar can be seen at the begining of Singing Dog, Dancing Birds and Singing Dog 2. It's a cool effect and very easy to do. This tutorial is written for Adobe After Effects users, but if anyone knows how to make this in any other programs, please contact me and I will add your tutorial/comment or a link to it.

2. Getting Ready

Open Adobe After Effects.You should have Time Controls and Tools open. If you don't, go to Window and make sure they are checked. Now go to File -> New -> New Project. Next step is Composition -> New Composition. Select the Width and Height you want for your movie and click Ok.

3. Importing the Files

Select the clip you imported by clicking on its name and dragdrop it into the Timeline. The clip should appear in the composition window (Comp 1). Make sure that the beginning of the clip is at 0.00s. Note that the clip starts with the colored part. If it is not at 0.00s drag it there. Now put the roar.wav in to the Timeline the same way.

5. Selecting the Elliptical Mask Tool

 To make only the head of the dog (lion, yourself etc.) visible, you will have to create a mask. First select the clip in the Timeline by clicking on it's name. It is selected when it's name is on black background. Now go to tools and change the Rectangular Mask Tool to Elliptical Mask Tool, the way that it is shown on the picture.

6. Creating the Mask

Now go to the composition window and create a circle around the head. To make a perfect circle hold down Shift key on the keyboard while making the circle. When you are done, the outside of the circle should become black. Now select the Selection Tool. This is a black arrow on the Tools menu and it is located in the top left corner. With that tool move the circle to the center of the window.

 7. Synchronising

To make the Lion's Roar perfect, you should try to match the sound with the movement of the mouth. You can do that by moving the sound left or right. For more exact synchronisation export the movie and use another program, i.e. Adobe Premiere Pro for changing the speed etc. If anyone knows if that is possible in After Effects please let me know at ana.fakin@heron-productions.com

8. Exporting the Movie

 I usually export the raw movie - select .avi when exporting. Then I convert the file to either divx (.avi) or .wma, .mov etc. with another program. Export by: File -> Export -> Avi (or any other format).

9. Examples

 I put the Lion's Roar at the beginning of Singing Dog, Dancing Birds and Singing Dog 2. If you want, you can watch or download them by clicking on the links below.

Singing Dog		Dancing Birds		Singing Dog 2

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