Exercise 5

Exercise 5 - Shapes and sounds

In this exercise you will create an animated representation of music/audio sample of your choice using simple shapes and audio sync. Keep in mind that the purpose here is not only to sync audio to animation, but rather to use animation (of text or other graphic elements) to convey ideas/emotions this particular piece of music or audio evokes to you.

A few examples combining music/audio and animation to introduce and support main concepts/ideas:

Monster Inc. Titles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVaoNxG8Ahg

The Incredibles End Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJnfABHiCVQ

Guidelines

Create an animated representation for a piece of music/audio using simple shapes and audio sync. Your animation should be between 10-20 seconds long.

Remember, the goal here is not simply to have shapes and/or words that are synced to the music/audio, but rather to use animated shapes to tell a story, and share concepts and emotions that music/audio brings to your mind.

Steps to completion

1. As in exercise 4, planning (steps 1-3) is crucial for achieving a great animation. First of all, you need to select the music/audio you will use in your animation. A great open source to look for music is the “Experimental” category in the Free Music Archive:

http://freemusicarchive.org/

What comes to your mind when you listen to it? What is the story, including concepts and emotions, you would like to tell with this music/audio?

Define the main assets you will use in your animation and sketch them by hand or using Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop.

1. How should you animate your assets together with the music/audio you have selected to convey the story you wish to tell? Think about all animation properties you have learned in Lesson 4 and 5 and how you could apply them in your animation.
2. You have already created two storyboards (Project 1 and Exercise 4), so employ this useful tool again to plan the different frames of your animation (by hand or using Adobe illustrator/Photoshop). Start with the main frames and then fill in the frames in between (similarly to what you have done before). Indicate how you will apply the different animation properties you have learned to animate your shapes and sync them to the various segments of your selected music/audio.

Don’t forget to add short descriptions to each frame explaining how they contribute to express your ideas and how they progress in relation to the audio. Indicate how your animation will move from one frame to the next.

1. Use Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop to create the different assets for your animation (including text and other graphic elements you plan to use). Remember, each element that will be animated needs to be in a separate layer.
2. Import your assets into Adobe After Effects. If you don’t remember how to do this step, watch again the video available on Lesson 4.
3. Finally, animate your assets using Adobe After Effects. Carefully test your timing to make sure each asset and transition is properly synced with the audio. Again, if you need, go back and make any necessary adjustments to your original assets.

Remember, in this exercise your concept, assets, and audio must be all carefully aligned and are all crucial to assure the quality of your final animation, so devote time to work in each one of them separately and in combination when producing your final piece.

1. Take a closer look into your complete animation and make any necessary adjustments.
2. Export your final animation as an .mp4 video following this naming convention:

art204_exercise5_lastname_firstname.mp4

1. Upload the animation to your frame.io page and post the link on the course page.