Take 5: Animating Sound 013

I was really happy with how my planning turned out, and it looked as though it was going to be a really nice animation that accurately represented the sound. I wanted to produce it digitally as this way it would be easier to replicate the rings, as well as give them a glowing effect, not only this but like the previous animation, it would represent the texture of the sound more accurately. 

Planning

Similarly to sound 018, there wasn't much planning I could do in terms of timing. The rings were to move from one side of the shot to the other over the course of 5 seconds, and the line was going to do the same. Due to how well sound 018 went, I decided that I was going to try and use After Effects for this animation too, and after I had drawn out my components in photoshop I got to work.

Adding a Glow in After Effects

Firstly I tried to give the rings a glow. I managed to do this in photoshop, but couldn't work out how to import the effects along with the layer. So I tried creating a glow in After Effects instead. This was much easier, and the glow was actually much stronger using this program. 

When it came to drawing the line, I actually decided to represent this sound as a bouncing ball instead and I did this for a number of reasons. The first was because I found the ball easier to work with in After Effects, as I could just adjust the anchor point and rotate the ball to make it bounce. The next is because I didn't want the line to look too much like my previous animation, and the last reason being that I thought it looked nicer than the line. I still made the ball bounce in the same way as the line was going to move as I had first initially planned though. 

When it came to making my rings move, I struggled greatly. To begin with animating was going well, but then I started to become confused with my keyframes as there was quite a lot of them, and then I began to struggle at getting the program do what I wanted it to. In the end, I ended up deleting the keyframes and starting over as they were just too complex. Thinking back, I should have at least saved my first attempt, so I could have potentially worked on it or at least referenced the work I had been doing. I just got too stressed and didn't think about it, as I just wanted to correct my mistakes.

Sound 013

In the end I didn't get the rings to move how I wanted them to, but I think I much prefer how they pulse along in groups of four. Where as this is completely different to my initial plan, I still think this accurately represents and lines up with the sound clip, and I'm really happy that I was able to conquer my issues. Even though I really struggled with using After Effects this time around, it hasn't put me off using the program. I still want to learn to use it more effectively, as I think it will be a very handy program. 

Edit: When I was showing my sound animations to Matt, he said he didn't see why I had the bouncing dot running through the middle of the rings, as he felt it didn't portray the sound accurately. Looking at it again, I can see where he is coming from, but at the time of planning the animation when I had the sound on repeat for about 2 hours, the sound seemed to break up into separate ones. One of which was a beat that ran separately to the pulsing "rings". At a first glance/listen, you may not be able to hear it, but when you have listened to the clip a few times like I had, you can distinguish between the two sounds that blend together. Only then does the dot seem accurate (hopefully).