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How can I animate a still to the beat of a song in Motion?
How can I animate a still to the beat of a song in Motion?
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9 Replies
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I’m speculating here because I haven’t done it:
1. Use the Oscillator parameter Behavior and it apply it to the parameter you want to animate. Adjust the speed of the behavior so that it is in sync with the beat.
Sounds like that might work.
If you have AE Pro, you could use an Expression to tie the scale/position/etc. to the volume of the sound, assuming the beat is the loudest part of the sound’s waveform.
Thats all I got. 🙂
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Just like FCP – tap the M key while listening to set markers in the timeline, then set your keyframes for the parameters you want to animate at those markers.
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Mark Spencer
Freelance Editor/Producer
Apple-certified instructor, Final Cut Pro and Motion
Author, Motion Visual Quickstart Guide from Peachpit Press (coming soon)
https://www.applemotion.net -
It’s called Motion 2 and you can automatically animate parameters by using a midi keyboard and just striking the keys! Very cool!
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Wow. When I saw the three or four messages in this thread, I simply assumed “SoundKeys” would have been mentioned.
Let’s say it fast, then. If the new FXplug arquitecture in Motion allows Trapcode to release a Motion version of Soundkeys, it would be a great day for Motion users. Given Motion’s philosophy, it’s odd that there isn’t some kind of “SoundKeyness” in Motion already. I would dare to say that SoundKeys is even more Motion-like than controlling animation though MIDI keyboards. After Effects “took” the SK idea and introduced some of it in version 6.What is SK? It’s an After Effects plug-in (no, it won’t work in Motion now) that scans the audio levels in an audio file and converts the level data into keyframes for a “dummy” effect. Then you can link the scale, rotation, position, tracking, fill color, stroke width, etc of your object to the values of those dummy keyframes. This leads to incredibly organic animation. If you want the hi hat to drive scale and the bass to drive position, no problem, it has a visual representation of the audio frequencies which lets you choose specific frequencies for different animations. Finally, it lets you adapt the scanned levels to the parameter range you need (0-100, 0-360, -50 to 50, etc). It’s a glorious concept!
I read somewhere that Trapcode are (is actually, Trapcode is a one person company) working on Motion versions of the plug-ins. Particular for instance is the closer you will get to Motion’s particle systems working in true 3D space.
All the best,
AdolfoAdolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com -
I mentioned Expressions in my post. You’ve always been able to tie the volume level data to any parameter you want in AE.
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Oh, I didn’t see it.
Well, not always. The Convert Audio to Keyframes assistant appeared in v6. Maybe you mean some MotionMath script, but they are nowhere near as flexible as Soundkeys or the AE 6.x assistant (which itself is nowhere near as flexible as Soundkeys, for the benefits I explained). Also, this last post of yours seems to be about “I did say it before”, right?. While Motion will not get expressions soon, my post was motivated by the fact that apparently Trapcode are working on Motion version of their plug-ins. If FXPlug allows it, then Trapcode could bypass the lack of expressions with some sort of target destination menus, I guess. I have no idea if Soundkeys for Motion is something Trapocode is working on, though.Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com -
Oh, we’re cool. I just wanted to point out I mentioned an easy way to do it in AE.
I remember a tutorial from long ago using Expressions where the mouth of a cartoon character was animated automatically by linking the scale of a simple mouth (oval shape) to the audio levels of the voice over track. It worked really well. No key frames needed, it just animates on-the-fly to whatever the audio is doing in the designated layer at that exact moment. It was pretty cool. Of course, this method only really works if an oval or circle mouth works for you. If you want different mouth artwork for the different phonetic sounds, you have to do something else (Toon Boom has tools for this more advanced mouth animation).
The plug-in you mentioned sounds cool.
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Yes, Scott. Of course we’re cool. That is a famous example of MotionMath.
MotionMath is AE’s “old” (now pretty much defunct) scriptig system. Its’ limitation is that it wasn’t dynamic, you can’t modify it easily after its’ created. And it did create keyframes. Expressions, like Motion’s behaviors, do not need keyframes (altough they can of course make use of them).Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com -
I went back and found what I was thinking of and it was MotionMath, like you said. It was included with the AE5 CD.
Thanks for the info!
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