How do you pick a song for an intro!

[Sanz]

this is a long shot, but with epic update to Flash changing to Animate and the animation feature in clip studio, I've been heavily considering making an animated 'intro' for Los Esmeraldas but i have no clue what to use as a song. There is no way in Hollywood hills Lamborghini knowledge is power I can make my own song. but how to choose a song, how would you choose a song? its been bugging me all day

[orangeandglad]

Totally depends on the theme you're trying to set. But I'm sure you already knew that. What you're really asking is: how do I find a song that fits exactly what I want?

I used to play around with setting music to animated movies (don't ask me why...I think I was just really obsessed with Dark Side of the Rainbow). What always struck me was how hard it actually was to set an entire song to one particular video. Consider what trailers for shows or movies do. In fact, consider my favorite example from the show boardwalk empire:

LISTEN TO THAT RIFF!! Oh man that kicks in around 50 seconds. What a great song right?!?! Well when I went to look into it and I found this:

I'll let you be the judge of the quality, but the emotional impact that song has doesn't quite compare to just the riff of that song in the trailer.

See what people who need to make trailers do isn't try to find a song that exactly fits, they choose a song and MAKE it fit.

I'm sorry I don't have an exact suggestion but in my opinion the best route is to make your animation, think about what type of song you want, and then edit that song so that it fits your parameters.

-GLAD

[phen]

For me, it's mostly coincidence. I'll be drawing and sketching, planning pages with music playing (radio/pandora/itunes/etc.) and suddenly, THE SOUND. The sound strikes a chord deep within my characters and concepts and it comes completely outta nowhere. It's very much an "Aha!" moment.

But if you have a theme in mind, a soundscape flavour for your story, try browsing relevant lyrics or genres. If you plan on sharing the animated video somewhere like Youtube, it might be wise to make sure what you're using isn't copyrighted (simply so that your video doesn't get flagged and taken down). Public Domain music is probably where you wanna go and there's a great selection of it out there!

[jordanthelass]

I would try and find a song that fits the overall theme(s) of the comic. My comic has a rotating theme every first of the month to keep me inspired and set the tone for the comics I want to make.

It's really fun! Just experiment with it and listen to a whole bunch of songs! ^_^

[RewindLabs]

Create your own music.

[YONBUI]

listen to your ipod on shuffle and wait until a song comes up that will remind you of the story

[carloswebcomic]

Listen to royalty free songs.
Pick a nice song that somewhat fits.
Use song.

My consultancy fee is $200.
I'll be by the mailbox waiting for the cheque.

[mappypaint]

When I was a teenager, I used to watch top gear in BBC. This show made me like cars and all that racing stuff. So when I made my comic intro, I didn't have a hard time choosing because what is more fitting than a song that got me into liking the automobile scene.
Here is the old top gear intro:

And you already saw the U-Speed intro recently:

Now the problem is the intro is only 30seconds unlike the common anime intro which is around 1:30... I can't find a long enough version of this.XD

What reminds you of Los Esmeraldas when you listen to music? It will be fun to see and I can't wait to see the finished intro. I already imagine Kelso kicking some poor alien.

[TrustyShamrock]

woooah i totally wanna make a animated intro with mine too so i feel ya. i found a song that i wanted to do it with once cuz i was thinkin about it but i really dont listen to that much music so i didnt know any songs to look up. but then i heard a song on a commercial and it was PERFECT. so pretty much what worked for me is keep your ears open and wait. thats all i got for ya. if you make it tho you should post it cuz itd be really fun to see i bet

[Sanz]

Oh that is so neat How you got that inspiration! I really hear some kind of classic rock to it. But i dont know because it might just be because i love classic rock. XD

[Sanz]

Oh i totally will share it when i get it all put together!

[mappypaint]

I don't have much idea with music. It just sounds fitting to my comic's theme. ^u^

[Cielle]

I start by looking on soundcloud, because if it's not on soundcloud I can't add it as bg music to tapastic. but other than that, I tend to use soundtracks from TV shows and movies. For my current series, I've used all Yuki Kajiura music a)because she's a genius and b) pretty much all of her music matches the mood I'm going for. I only use music on the chapter cover pages, though. I've also written a couple of my own songs, but I have no idea how to get them from my keyboard onto my computer, so for now they'll just have to stay in my head ^w^