Visuals + Sound = Awesomeness

Posted November 16th, 2010 / By Matthew Carlin in Resources, Tips

For this article I thought I’d write about something which I think is important to motion graphics, and should make your motion pieces better too. What do I think is so important to motion graphics?  I’m talking about sound.

Motion graphics is very much considered a visual discipline. We create and make stuff that moves and our language is very much a visual language, but one element that will make your motion graphics pieces stand out is sound.

So, what kind of sound am I talking about? I’m talking about both music and sound effects. Music is something that is commonly added to a motion graphics piece or a motion graphics piece is timed or animated to music. If you’re not incorporating music into your motion graphics yet, then it should be definitely something you should be adding in the future.

Another sound element that will make your graphics stand out is sound effects.  Sound effects are something that I think a fair few people doing motion graphics forget about from time to time, but they are definitely something that will help motion graphics stand out.  They will help your next video be a really great motion graphics piece, rather than something which someone says ‘that looks good’.

Think about the next time you’re in a 3D package like Cinema 4D,  and you’re making that logo explode. What will make it more convincing and realistic?  Adding some kind of explosion noise or other kind of sound effects will make that motion graphics piece better and make it stand out from being something that just ‘looks like it explodes’.

Another example might be, you’re animating paper moving or turning in After Effects, whilst you can get it looking pretty good visually, you think there’s something missing, something that you think will make it just a little bit better.  Think sound effects.

Sound can also help with the mood of the piece. If you’re doing a bouncy, happy animation, then you can help that mood by using happy sounding music and bouncy, squidgy noises. Or maybe your doing a dark bleak animation, maybe some classical music will help set the mood, with some howling wind.

So remember the formula below:

Visuals + Sound = Awesomeness

Take a look at the following videos, watch them first without sound, then with sound, which do you think is better?

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Hi, I’m from Nottingham in the United Kingdom. I’ve been writing about motion graphics on Motion Design Love for a while now, as well being a Video Editor and Motion Designer by Day. I probably spend most of my waking hours either doing something with motion graphics or thinking about stuff I can do with motion graphics. I’m looking forward to writing some great articles for Fuel Your Motionography, I hope you’re all looking forward to reading them!