Midi to Animation – How To

[Joseph W. bourke]

Hi Collin –

It sounds as if you just need to convert your MIDI files to a .wav format. I own Sonar, so I just patch my MIDI right into various instruments I want to use and export a .wav.

Here’s another way:

https://users.lmi.net/bblackie/music/winamp/midi2wav.html

Winamp claims to be able to do it as well, but my guess is that the quality of the .wav will depend on the quality of your sound card. It could end up sounding cheesy.

Here’s another:

https://www.hymnsite.com/how_to/midi2wav.html

Haven’t used either, but I know that once you get the MIDI to a .wav, you’ll be able to use the file in AE. It sounds as if you want to use the trigger point from the MIDI file, rather than the audio portion, because you want precision. Once you get the .wav into AE, you can always input manual markers as you play the file, then animate as you wish.

Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com

[Tim Andrews]

There are several issues in using using data from a Midifile to trigger AE effects.

1) Getting the data from the MIDI file.
There are various programs which can convert a MIDI file to a text (or CSV) file.

2) Preventing multiple events from occuring at the same time. For example, a drum might want to play twice within the same video ‘frame’.

3) Formatting the data for use by AE. Other than using scripts, the best way seems to be format the data in AE ‘clipboard’ format.
As described at https://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS98BCDDB7-89CB-49cb-B94D-6CEB6CED4462a.html

For the first two points, my free program might be of some use:
https://www.tima.demon.co.uk/midianal.htm

And my demo video shows the final result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiehXLeS7ew

Hoping that is some use.

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[Michael Winger]

Hi Tim, your program is exactly what I’m looking for but it looks like the link is no longer active. Is your program still available?

Also, for your movie, did you create a .jsx script that creates an individual layer for every midi note?

Thanks
-Mike

[Tim Andrews]

The Windows program is now located here:
https://www.tima.uk.com/midianal.htm
If you have any queries, my email address appears on one of the screens.

[David Van brink]

A little late, but I just posted a script which imports .mid files as After Effects keyframes, in fresh tracks.

https://omino.com/pixelblog/2011/12/26/ae-hello-again-midi/

Might be useful to you!

———————————————————-
dvb == recreational pixel abuse // motion, graphics, & scripting
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[Thomas C.]

I’m a little late, but here’s my question:

I’m looking for a way to ingest live midi signals (from a controller, over USB) into AE, to trigger animations based on keyframes. Is AE somehow able to receive live midi inputs? Maybe trough a script or something?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!