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When it comes to Animation, I am quite fond of creating it along with music. Ever since I was little I loved both and was interested in developing it. I know that a lot of beginning animators and other video artists tend to leave out music and sound in their works. Now, this is fine and dandy but, unless the animation is something spectacular, without sound or music it feels like it’s lacking something; of course unless you’re into silent animation. The thing about music is that it shows emotion and makes us feel alive. So putting well-cued sound into animation can enhance the viewer’s enjoyment level. When I’m adding sound to one of my animations, I tend to look back at a lot of classic animation, in the way they use sound in their animation. The best technique I have found is to think of sound not as sound but as if it was a part of the animation like a bone/joint of a finger. Along with putting sound into animation, putting animation into sound is also nice.

Now I’m going to talk about reactive animation and visual effects that accompanies music. I am somewhat of a beginning DJ, and there have been a couple of things I’ve noticed while doing shows as well as observing other DJs. One thing is to play music that fits the setting and people you are playing for. This is quite important since, if people do not like your style, good luck finding a place to play. The best way to insure people are happy is to watch them and provide some paper for requests. As for creating remixes, I found people, at least here at Bradley University, enjoy popular songs that have been turned a mash-up or simple remix, so it’s still something they know but it’s different too. This works well in the clubs in Peoria (although sadly I have only done one show in a club and it was amateur night so it was only 15-30 minute sets and I only got paid 20 dollars along with some other stuff that I most likely will do another post about) and also the frat parties. As for any other genres, like dubstep or bass n’ drums, I have to say you can throw them in if you know your crowd or make sure it’s danceable or remixed in good fashion. I have to say, people seem to like it if you first take a dubstep remixs of pop and then during the break, mix in the original song but keep the dubstep btm of 140.

The second thing I have realized is that people like visuals and if you want to wow people use animation. The thing about DJing is that everyone and their best friend will try and becoming a DJ. For the most part it honestly is not that hard and unless you have the spare time and the talent to create your own remix and beats, you’re pretty much nothing special. You need to find a way to stick out, especially on a college campus where everyone that knows how to use virtual DJ is in competition to get shows and for the most part you’re doing it for free. And one way is to simply use animations, which can be anything from a simulated Oscilloscope to a full blown reactive animation rendered out in aftereffects. Of course the easy way is to just run video loops into a projector, which I have been exploring at shows. For the most part, the loops don’t have to go with the music. If you want to be fancy, play around in aftereffect with sound as reactive animation/music visualization, which is something I started doing even though I have not completed any videos yet. But I intend on doing this during winter break when I have more time to work on them. And I have found it’s easier to make the animation of the music as a form of emotion drawn from the music or thats at least how I see it .

Good example of Music Visualization done in AfterEffects

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