In this animation, most of the sound effects revolve around the characters. These include the rustling of clothes, breathing, hands patting the bed, phone alarms, tapping on the phone, touching clothes, footsteps on the ground, walking sounds, plates being placed on the table, sitting down, dragging chairs, waving hands, eating crisps, pillow impacts, door pushing, wind, heavily sitting on the ground, doors slamming, men’s roars, twisting doorknobs, cups sliding on the table, gasping, unlocking doors, and closing doors, among others. These sounds help integrate the characters’ actions and the environment into a cohesive whole. I primarily voiced the sounds made by the animated characters, including speech and breathing.
Additionally, I incorporated the sound of tinnitus to represent the protagonist’s somatic depression and to reflect the sudden noises that depression sufferers might experience in real life. I also added a phone ringtone, hoping to see if viewers instinctively reach for their phones upon hearing it (which isn’t that just being trapped by our phones?). Subsequently, I found and included necessary sounds from online sources and my personal sound effect library, adjusting all sounds gradually. Adding effects to the sounds made them more fitting for my animation. Building a personal material library accelerates animation progress without any drawbacks.
For background music, I preferred ethereal, rhythmic, and slightly creepy tunes to match the events following the character forgetting to take their medication. Near the end, I needed a piece that feels relaxing yet subtly tense, hinting that the story isn’t over, suggesting that our protagonist might not have left their “room.” Concerned about copyright issues, I chose to use the SUNO-AI music generation platform to create the music I needed. Although generating around 40 background tracks resulted in only one perfect match, it was free and commercially usable, so it was acceptable. Using the entire platform is similar to using AI image generation: simply input relevant prompts, like instrument types or music genres, and it quickly generates suitable background music.