Jakob Parsons on Sound Design Tues 15 March

Jakob Parsons

We're delighted to welcome back sound specialist Jakob Parsons to teach sound design to our 2nd year undergraduate animators.  Jakob will join us on Tuesday 15 March at 9.30am.

Good sound design is a vital part of the film-making process. 50% of the experience of enjoying a film is audio, and yet when teaching film-making we tend to focus most of our attention on what we see with our eyes, sometimes neglecting the importance of sound.

• Animators might not always realise it - but we definitely need good sound design.

Why Animators Need Sound Design

A sound designer at work

Animators need sound design. If you're working on a short film, sound design is a necessary part of the animatic you will put together to test out your work. 

Sound design includes voices, narration, sound effects (such as foley), and music. 

How these get combined together is part of the art and craft of film-making, and must be done before animation begins. 

Sesame Street Sound Archive

For animators looking for inspiration for some cartoony animation with dialogue, one great place to search is the Sesame Street Sound Archive, which you can find here. 

The Sesame Street Sound Archive is full of cartoony audio clips, which work well with cartoony characters such as Mr Buttons and also the Willy rig.  

To get started, try picking a very short line of dialogue, download it and then drag and drop it into your timeline in Maya. To see more about how to use audio files in Maya, follow this link.  To see more about how to use the "Willy" rig, see this blog post.

Royalty-Free Music at Bensound

One question that animators often ask when making a short film, or compiling their demo reel, is where to get Royalty Free Music - either for free, or at low prices. 

One very useful resource that we recommend is Bensound. At Bensound.com you can download royalty free stock music for animation, YouTube and multimedia projects.

How Animators Work With Composers

Original music composition helps to lift our student films to a professional level, as our students learn to collaborate with composers and sound designers to push the level of quality of our film projects.

An original score also helps to avoid problems with copyright music, which can be a barrier to entry in film festival competitions.

So, how do our students work with composers to get the best possible results? 

Composer Stuart Bramwell Scores at Escape

Stuart Bramwell 

Stuart Bramwell is a musician and composer, currently studying at Berklee College of Music for his Masters' Degree in Scoring for Film and TV.  Stuart's specialism is in writing music for animation. 

Stuart has recently collaborated with our second year students on their short film project "A Long Way Home", directed by Harrison Bell, which will soon be entering festival competitions. 

Stuart's original music composition helped to lift the film to a professional level, as our students learn to collaborate with composers and sound designers to push the level of quality of our student film projects.

Sound Design with Jakob Parsons 9 March

Jakob Parsons teaching at Escape Studios

We're delighted to welcome back sound specialist Jakob Parsons to teach sound design to our 2nd year undergraduate animators. Jakob will join us tomorrow, Tuesday 9 March.

Good sound design is a vital part of the film-making process. 50% of the experience of enjoying a film is audio, and yet when teaching film-making we tend to focus most of our attention on what we see with our eyes, sometimes neglecting the importance of sound.

Free Music for Film-Makers from Mobygratis

As our second year animation students put the finishing touches on their film projects, it's important to remember the importance of sound design - audio is fifty percent of the audience's experience. Fortunately for our students, there are many free (and royalty-free) resources out there to help with student film projects. One newcomer is the musician Moby, whose website mobygratis.com is an excellent free resource for independent film-makers.  Moby has released many free tracks for use in independent film projects, including student demo reels. 

Sound Design Tips from Jakob Parsons

Jakob Parsons

Escape Studios recently welcomed sound specialist Jakob Parsons to teach sound design to our 2nd year undergraduate animators.

Our animation students are currently working on their first Studio Project - a teaser/trailer for an upcoming game, TV series or feature film.

Sound design is a vital part of the film-making process, and the only way to really learn it is to do it, make your mistakes, and then fix them.

Jakob Parsons Sound Designer to Escape

Jakob Parsons

Next week on Monday 12th March Escape Studios welcomes sound specialist Jakob Parsons to teach sound design to our 2nd year undergraduate animators. They are currently working on their first group project - a teaser for an upcoming game, TV series or feature film.

Sound design is a vital part of the film-making process, and the only way to really learn it is to try making your own short film project.  Jakob will be coming in to Escape to share his workflow with the students, and to help them come up with inventive and creative solutions to the many problems they will face.

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.

What Kind of Sound Files Can You Use in Maya?

Maya has long been the leading 3D animation software, but it does have its limitations. In particular, Maya's audio tools are relatively unsophisticated. You only get one audio track, and it will only accept certain kinds of audio files.

So, how exactly should an animator approach the use of audio files in Maya? In theory the process is quite straightforward, but in practice there are quite a few pitfalls.

Below is a guide to many of the common problems - with some helpful solutions.