How Foley Artists Create Sounds for Animation

Insider spoke with Sanaa Kelley of Reel Foley Sound and Monique Reymond, fellow foley artists in Southern California, to learn how sound is created for animated series and films.

Animation requires a special kind of Foley sound: more heightened, and less bound by realism. Plus, when working on cartoons, Foley artists start from scratch with no production sound to match, which opens up a world of creative possibilities.

Kelley and Reymond explained their creative process and demonstrated how they find the right sounds for each character and scenes for several popular animations.

Foley artists Sanaa Kelley and Monique Reymond showed us how they created cartoony sounds for “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Rugrats,” “Invader Zim,” “Teen Titans Go!,” “Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness,” and more.