Ideas on how to recreate this

[Viktor Tornfors]

Hi!
This is easily done with shape layers. Shape layers is a pretty overlooked feature of After Effects. But very powerful.

I put together a project file for you: https://www.tornfors.se/other/waveform_cs5.aep

I created a shape layer containing a single rectangle, using the rectangle tool. Then i added some properties to the shape layer. These properties can be found by twirling down the shape layer and pressing the arrow with the word “Add:” next to it.

I added a “repeater”, which just repeats the rectangle to the required amount. I also added “wiggle transform”, set to only wiggle the scale.
This way it wiggles the scale of each repeated instance of the shape layer independently, creating the waveform-like effect.

The background grid is also made with shape layers.

A great site for learning more about shape layers is Mattrunks. This tutorial is a good starting point. https://www.mattrunks.com/en/tutorials/after-effects/shape-layers-sparks

—————————————
22 year old motion designer from Sweden.
https://www.vimeo.com/tornfors

[Jackson Redshaw]

Hi, thanks for your reply and help! But is there anyway to make the shapes go to the music?

Thanks

[Jackson Redshaw]

Thanks Heaps! You’re a legend! Just opened it, will do some tweaking and it will be perfect! Thanks!

[Viktor Tornfors]

No problem!

If you want to make the bars move to the music, you can do that too.

Put your song into the timeline. With it selected, go up in the menu Animation – Select Keyframe assistant and press Convert audio to keyframes

You will now get a Null, called Audio Amplitude. If you twirl it down you got your audio amplitude in keyframes there.

Twirl down the scale property of your Bars-layer. (I think both the wiggle transform scale and the normal layer scale would work. Play around!)

On the scale property, put this expression:
temp = thisComp.layer(“Audio Amplitude”).effect(“Both Channels”)(“Slider”);
[value[0], temp];

And it will move to your beat.

You could also use the plugin Trapcode Soundkeys. It would give a better result, but it costs money.

—————————————
22 year old motion designer from Sweden.
https://www.vimeo.com/tornfors

[Jackson Redshaw]

Thanks for that, I’ll give it a go.

[Jackson Redshaw]

Hey Again,

Is there an easy way to zoom along the waveform, having multiple text boxes on top as we fly past?

Thanks

Jackson Redshaw
http://www.youtube.com/MITLRproductions