Ted-Ed is an educative Youtube channel and youth-education initiative by TED, the organization behind the popular TED talks.

I got approached for an episode about heart attacks, to make the background soundtrack and enrich the animation with sound effects. Animator Chadwick Whitehead was responsible for the hand-drawn animation of the clip.

For the soundtrack, an earlier version, made by another composer existed, but it was not satisfactory. We quickly came to the conclusion that the first draft was too distracting and would interfere with the frequency range of speaker voice and sound effects. For this to change, I came up with 3 new drafts that would stick to the background, sound less percussive, very sublime and mirrored the action on screen.

One of my drafts was then immediately favorited and chosen for the final version. The sound effects were sourced so that they would sound neither synthetic nor “hyper real” but very organic and fluid in some sections. Especially in moments of morphing shapes. The main material I used as a basis were sounds or rice grains, slicing vegetables as well as paper and other organic materials that wouldn’t come over too harsh or lifeless.

I am very thankful for Chadwick and TED to approach me with this project and it was a very enjoyable and creative experience.