Final Edit and Output - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 333

shows the Sequencer with several sound fi les (teal) placed above their corresponding image strips. Notice
how the boundaries of the WAV fi le strips match those of the Scene strips exactly.
When all of the dialog strips have been added, it is a good idea to export the entire project to an animation
fi le for a real-time check. However, as you worked to get things to sync-up in Chapter 12, all of the dialog
should match properly unless something has gone horribly wrong.
Music
You have several options for music. First, you could simply not have any. Although this is the simplest way to
go, it would severely cripple the impact of your animation. People are accustomed to hearing music, even far
in the background, during most visual entertainment. It has become ingrained in our expectations. Therefore,
to omit it would be to go directly against those expectations and would have to be done very deliberately and
for a specifi c effect. Don't do it.
The second option is to fi nd a piece of music that you already have that is of an appropriate length and char-
acter to match your animation. Remember that almost all of the music you have in your private collection is
just that: private. Unless you are only going to show your animation to friends and family, do not use copyrighted
music . Whether or not you agree with the current state of copyright law in your country, the last thing that
you need is a letter from a lawyer after your animation racks up 40,000 views on YouTube. There is plenty
of music out there that is either public domain or free for noncommercial use, which brings us to the third
option.
Use Creative Commons music ( http://creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideos ).
Creative Commons is a fairly new licensing method that allows artists to make their works free for others
to use and build upon, as long as certain criteria are met. This could be anything from simply giving credit
to agreeing not to commercially distribute the new work. The Creative Commons music page given here
has links to many websites that make great music available to people exactly like yourself who are looking
for a background to their video project. As you browse through and sample this music, there are a couple of
things to keep in mind. First, if you choose to use any of it, make sure that you respect the terms of the art-
ists' licenses. They were courteous enough to provide you with a resource of available music, and you should
return that courtesy.
Also, most artists do not require you to do so, but it is always nice to send them a simple email with a link
to your fi nished project so they can marvel at the cool ways their decision to make their music available has
benefi ted the world. Finally, because this music is not “sold in stores,” it isn't constrained or monitored by the
systems that many of us are used to seeing in the traditional music industry. This means that anything that
might be labeled with an “adult” or “explicit” content sticker on a store shelf or mainstream music website
will not necessarily be labeled as such here. Some Creative Commons websites contain tags and fi lters for this
sort of thing, but you can never be quite sure what you're getting until you've heard it yourself. The point is
that you probably shouldn't listen to all of your music for the fi rst time with the stereo cranked and little kids
in the room.