beerbird 2014-05-09 00:45:53

Taking music (Licensed or not) without giving it proper credit is wrong.
But if you do give it proper credits it sounds fine to me.

Gianni 2014-05-09 00:55:43

I think if it's an animation focused on the song then it's fine, but if it's an animation where the song adds mood or background, you should try to find some more underground stuff, preferably pulling right here from the portal if you can, because to be honest when I hear something like "Freebird" or "Another One Bites The Dust" come on or whatever, I'm actually distracted from your animation because the song is so iconic, my mind just goes "Ah, here we go..."

Using lesser known licensed is a little different because you're not going to trigger that distraction mechanism when a song I know comes on.

ALLLLL of it is fine as long as you give credit, but for the QUALITY of your piece, my personal taste is to go for something which someone probably hasn't heard before because it'll be that many less ears getting distracted from YOUR actual content as well as helping promote someone else's creation and spreading the wealth.

Just me, though.

TomFulp 2014-05-09 10:41:32

People don't expect that an animator also makes amazing music, so it's totally fine to work with something else that is the right fit as long as you give proper credit.

And I 100% agree with SirUndead, it's way cooler when people work with lesser-known musicians and working with guys from the Audio Portal is awesome because most of them want that sort of exposure. A lot of NG musicians might even make an original score for you if they like your animation. Then you both created something new together and can take a lot of pride in the collaboration.

Kel-chan 2014-05-10 01:03:11

I used to care about this.

but then I said "Fuck it"

Kel-chan 2014-05-10 02:08:10

I should be more honest. I actually had someone from the art portal help to make a whole soundtrack for one of my cartoon series. He was really awesome about it and it worked out really well. However fo someother things, there just wasnt anything on the portal that cut the mustard.

Also I kind of design my cartoons around the music so its' a pretty big deal. In my last cartoon there was just no way I was going to find anybody on the portal that was doing good electro-swing like I wanted. There were however alot of small time DJs on YT that put together remixes that were good and thats what I ended up using.

Music is such an important facet of any animation. It can truly make or break something. No matter how good your art, animation, or story telling is....If you decide to use the wrong track it can totally destroy something you made.

It really isnt' to be taken lightly but as far as copyright and what not. Thats where I say "fuck it"

AnalogByNature 2014-05-11 02:35:45

Heck, we'd love it if people used our music tracks. So far, I think only one submission has used a song of ours in their game.
You got it right though, and I don't think it's cheating, if you're either creating some original content, or the song has context to your movie. Either way, it's exposure for all parties, and in the end, it's all about the product that you release, and if you feel it fits, it fits :)