Sound Effects Resources for Motion Designers
Half of the emotional power of motion design is in the audio. If you're not ready to hire a professional sound designer, here are a bunch of great sound effects resources for motion designers.
⭐ My favorites
Boombox by Mt. Mograph
This amazing After Effects/Premiere Pro plugin gets you an ever expanding library of great sound effects. And it works right inside of After Effects. It's truly a game changer.MotionSound.io by Michael Jones of Mograph Mentor (and some amazing sound pros)
Michael Jones collaborated with foley artists to create 3 sfx packs for motion designers (Digital, Life, Essentials). You can get them individually or save a buck and buy them as a bundle.
I use Boombox and Motion Sound effects in most of my motion design projects.
Free Sound Effects Libraries
Adobe Sound Effects LibraryAdobe has thousands of uncompressed, royalty-free audio sound effects for free. They are grouped together by type and style. The only downside is that there isn't a preview option, so you have to download full categories at a time. But thousands for free! Not too shabby.
YouTube Studio Audio Library
Easy to search and download... and free as well :DFacebook Creator Studio
Facebook has a pretty cool collection of free SFX... including a reaaaally neat collection from NASA 💫
NOTE: These sound effects are only for use in videos uploaded to Facebook. See terms here.freesound.org
Most of the sounds here are not for commercial use, but you can find some good stuff for your personal projects in here.ZapSplat
More free sounds… this time with a credit/attribution for payment (or you can buy their gold membership if you can’t/don’t want to credit them).BBC Sound Effects
Over 33,000 sfx from the world famous British Broadcasting Network. (H/T: Beau Ryan)Notification Sounds
Great for phone and UI animations. (H/T: Beau again)Archive.org
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. (H/T: Kyle Kreuger)
Paid Libraries
Boombox by Mt. Mograph
Like I said above, this is a must grab library that exists right inside After Effects/Premiere Pro.MotionSound.io
Also, as stated above... these are sounds created by and for motion designers.MotionPulse by Video Copilot
Epic sounds of heavy impact, organic goodness, atmospheric whooshes. This is not your typical foley library.Pro Sound Effects
Want to really get your hands dirty? Pro Sound Effects has a deep library of collections to make your films sound legit. They also have a Freelancer Program that allows you to save up to 60% on their libraries.A Sound Effect
My favorite library in here so far is 8-Bit Games 👾
Pay Per Effect
Pond5
I use Pond5 every now and then when I can't find what I'm looking for in my go-to libraries I've already purchased.AudioJungle
These are a bit cheaper, but if you're on a tight budget and you can't find something good in the free section, this can do in a pinch.*SoundSnap
I haven't used SoundSnap, but found them while researching for this list and they seem to have some pretty interesting collections... like Antique Store and Farmer's Edge. Also available as an unlimited annual subscription.*Epidemic Sound
Another wide variety library of inexpensive sfx. Also available as an unlimited annual subscription.
*Also available as unlimited annual subscriptions
Some of the links in here are affiliate links, which means I get a small commission, but it doesn’t change the price for you. I only partner with companies and products I personally use, love, or believe in.
The next level is hiring a professional sound designer, but a little bit of love and care with your audio goes a long way.