YouTube Sound Effects Channel - Free Sound!

Where can you find free sound effects for your animation? Sound design is something that animators at a big studio take for granted - because someone else does it for you.

But when you are creating your own animation, and your own animation demo reel, you need to think (at least a little) about sound effects, and sound design, for your shots. One excellent resource for royalty-free sound effects is the YouTube Sound Effects Channel.

The YouTube Sound Effects Channel also includes links to other similar sites at YouTube. So, if you can't find what you need, try a new channel. You can also (of course) use royalty-free sites like freesound.org and findsound.org.

In a perfect world, you might delegate the sound design of your work to a professional (or aspiring) sound designer. Check out this blog post for how to get the most out of a collaboration with a sound designer.  But it's often the case that the quickest and best way to get something done is to do it yourself.

Remember that most sound design tends to get done in editing software such as Premiere or Final Cut. Sound design is hard in Autodesk Maya because you only get one sound channel; so you can't layer in sound effects. To find out how to use audio in Maya, see this blog post.

Here at Escape Studios our students don't just study animation, they learn the important ancillary skills (like sound design) that make a great animator. To see just how well great sound design can lift your work, check out the work of our students here:

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, follow this link.  To apply, visit the offical page here.