AI Video Comes Out Silent: a Six-Step Sound Design Workflow
Frank Houbre, who makes the AI-animated series Lost Garden, describes the layer-by-layer sound pass he runs on every shot, from a muted first watch to a logged recipe. Ambience goes first, then foley on visible action, then music, mixed for hierarchy.
Key points
- Watch the shot muted and list what is missing, not what sounds bad; that list is the sound brief
- Build one continuous ambience bed that matches the specific space
- Add foley only for actions the camera shows, matching the surface in the shot
- Add music last, scored to the beat that matters rather than the whole scene
- Mix for hierarchy: dialogue, then foley, then ambience, then music
- Log the tool, prompt and settings for every sound so you can regenerate it later