ElevenLabs: Creating custom ambient music for an animation

Mike Murphy | AI Handyman·Jun 2025

Demo summary

The user demonstrates generating a specific 21-second ambient background track for an After Effects project by describing the scene and adjusting the duration settings in ElevenLabs.

Step-by-step

Note the duration of your animation in After Effects
Navigate to the Sound Effects tab in ElevenLabs
Enter a description of the video into the text prompt box
Click the Generate button
Preview the generated samples in the history panel
Click Reuse Prompt to adjust settings if the initial results are too short
Adjust the duration slider to match your composition length
Download the preferred sample and drag it into your After Effects project

Options

Reuse Prompt to refine or re-generate based on previous inputs

Watch out for

Check the duration setting before generating to ensure the audio fills the entire composition

Highlights

“I just generated my own sound effect exactly how I want it by simply entering in a text prompt. Pretty cool.”

All demos from “ElevenLabs AI Audio: How to Use Text To Sound Effects”

1:181:18Generate sound effects from text in ElevenLabsThe creator demonstrates how to navigate to the sound effects tool in ElevenLabs, enter a text prompt, adjust duration and prompt influence, and generate four audio samples.ElevenLabs· AI Sound Effect Generator
3:171:13Browsing and using the ElevenLabs sound libraryThis clip shows how to explore the pre-existing sound library, filter by categories, and use the 'copy' or 'use' functions to bring library prompts into the generator for modification.ElevenLabs· AI Sound Effect Generator
4:381:15Creating custom ambient music for an animationCurrentThe user demonstrates generating a specific 21-second ambient background track for an After Effects project by describing the scene and adjusting the duration settings in ElevenLabs.ElevenLabs· AI Music Generator
Watch “ElevenLabs AI Audio: How to Use Text To Sound Effects” →

AI Music Generator

12:432:29Compose AI music with ElevenLabs MusicThe user demonstrates generating an energetic EDM track by providing a text prompt and then shows how to refine the output by removing specific tags like 'deep voice' from the generated style.Eddie Chen | AI Automation
8:122:42Creating AI music in ElevenLabsThe video shows the process of generating AI music by selecting styles, setting duration, and inputting a prompt for a lo-fi hip-hop track.Ritesh Hegde - Your AI Partner
4:320:35Create AI background music in ElevenLabsThe user shows how to generate a 30-second instrumental Christmas track by entering a prompt for 'joyful Christmas music melodic bells' and selecting variations.ElevenLabs
13:031:38Generating and adding background musicThe narrator uses the ElevenLabs music generator to describe and create an 'ominous' instrumental track, then drags it onto the project timeline to layer it under the narration.ElevenLabs
4:381:15Creating custom ambient music for an animationCurrentThe user demonstrates generating a specific 21-second ambient background track for an After Effects project by describing the scene and adjusting the duration settings in ElevenLabs.Mike Murphy | AI Handyman
13:051:27Generate background music in Sound Effects toolThe narrator uses the sound effects prompt box to generate 30-second clips of jazz-inspired lo-fi background music.Excelerator
2:491:00Add AI music beds to video projectsThe narrator demonstrates generating a 'dark sci-fi' music track within ElevenLabs Studio, adding it to the project timeline, and trimming the audio clip to match the video length.ElevenLabs
4:230:59Generating Original AI Music TracksThe user demonstrates how to generate background music by typing descriptive prompts like 'soft tech, ambient' and showing the resulting audio tracks generated by ElevenLabs.AI Master