Hello Everyone!
Fresh off the release of our latest music video, monophreak thought it would be helpful to put together a short guide and a few tips on how we used Imaginando Visual Synthesizer to make the video.
Summary
The speaker effect was created by combining a photo of our ancient Auratone monoblock speaker (used as a background image inside VS) and a circle shape in the centre, jumping to the beat of the kick drum. Electric, wavy lines were synced to the strings and to the vocals with speed altered so that they moved only when that particular instrument came in. Finally, a squiggly circle shape was used to react to the solo guitar and piano, emphasising these places in the song. Attack, release and speed settings were adjusted to slow down impact rates so that shapes sync’d with the laid back vibe of the track. The plan was to make the video accessible by all by choosing objects that would not flash excessively.
The music video was finished off using a combo of Apple Final Cut Pro X with VS layers bounced out, spliced with footage and enhanced with effects from CinePacks. If you get the chance, it is really worth checking out the Cinepacks store. Several of the free samples such as the smoke, were used in this track.
Tip 1: Low Powered Computer?
Due to limitations with an old Mac, individual tracks were bounced off and fed into Visual Synthesizer one by one. It could be worth considering this approach even if you have a high powered computer because you may find it easier to control a shape connected to a single track (such as a kick track), loaded into VS as an audio file. The audio can be ramped up high to make sure an object jumps on the beat, every beat with tight precision.
Tip 2: Green Screens and Linear Dodge Blending Mode.
To get the layers into Final Cut Pro, you can place a VS object on a green background and use the green key in FCPX to isolate the object. Alternatively, you can use the linear dodge blending option by basing a VS object on a black background. The green screen tools in FCPX and linear dodge make backgrounds transparent and easy to lay over each other.
Tip 3: Additional GLSL objects.
Extend VS by adding in additional GLSL fragments.
Nuno covers this in an excellent video here:
and finally, the video itself:
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