I've been wondering. Some animators here and elsewhere (myself included) simply are not musicians. And some of us will use liscensed songs in our animations.
And of course, as always, we give credit where it is due. Its the moral thing to do to let others know a particular part of the work is not your work but anothers...
Do you consider it sort of like "cheating" when you use liscensed music to add to your animation?
Or is it relative, meaning theres a difference between putting it in because it "sounds cool" and putting it in because you feel you have the right idea in your head to do the track justice.
Opinions would be nice! :D
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Joe
@aggimajera
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So is it cheating if...
Posted by aggimajera - May 9th, 2014
Comments
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.
Makes sense. A lot of sense actually. The audio portal is quite rich with content, so maybe it is a great idea to pull from there.
Seems like subtlety is the best idea.
Free Bird... not exactly subtle XD
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.
Plus I'd imagine it might pave the way for future collaborations supposing the results are good. Better quality work in the future.
I used to care about this.
but then I said "Fuck it"
Hmm... quite a view on things.
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"
I understand your viewpoint and agree that bad audio can ruin anything, animation and live-action. And depending on the style you want... yeah, certain things here in the portal may not cut it.
I do that as well in some important parts of my animations. Design the animation around a musical piece and things sort of fall into place.
Partly, I agree with your "fuck it". But at the same time I want to be able to have something that is original to the piece the viewer see's.
But I digress. Varies from individual to individual.
Good points, though.
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 :)
I once heard from a friend that often times people just want to "get it done and not work around anyone else's schedule", at least for solitary animations.
It certainly seems like a viable viewpoint, but I was never able to find something that fit what I wanted. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough, or maybe I should've seen if anyone was interested first.
You're right in the fact its all about the product in the end. But having help from others and simultaneously getting others work out there was never a bad thibg either!
beerbird
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.
aggimajera
Ah, of course! I did forget to mention that. Credit must be given where it is due, and I abide with that always. I will be sure to put that in the original post. Thanks for the reminder!