In class we had to make a Kinetic Typography (Basically Animated Typography) To a 15-30 second clip of audio. I decided to make a Kinetic Typography video to one of my favourite songs; It Has Begun by the band Starset. I discovered the song about two months ago and it is like my life, haha.
The entire thing was made in After Effects, but I went off to Photoshop to edit some pictures included in the video (its just the walls that were used at the beginning of the actual video and the first part of the chorus.) Other than that, entirely After Effects. I did look around youtube and some other websites to find Overlays (Like Old Film Effects) that were all free to use don't worry. Some I had to use multiple times throughout the video.
Since the song "It Has Begun" is a pretty intense song, I thought that, of course it should have a pretty intense typography video to go along with it! if it was left up to someone actually good at this kind of stuff it probably would have looked way cooler, but I made what I had with the minimal knowledge of After Effects that I had (and the knowledge of people from the Internet...because I got stumped multiple times haha.)
The chorus I felt almost NEEDED to have a continuous theme of red, since I felt it fit a whole lot (mostly because I can only think of Tokyo Ghoul when I listen to it (since I discovered it through an AMV of it), and I also associate it with pretty intense drawings when I sketch to it) to the theme of the song. Also red is a pretty intense colour. Though actually in the end I think 99% of this video is RED, no other colours but RED. There IS some grey and blue thrown in there somewhere but you know...
This was really, really, REALLY hard to actually plan out and accomplish. Before when we started doing Kinetic Typography I had no prior knowledge of how to use After Effects and, even though I knew so little, I set SUPER high standards for myself (If you look at this compared to my storyboard, its actually nothing like it, haha.) and then left my brain going; "gurl wtf are you doing."
I struggled, A LOT. From making certain effects to synching up the words with the music, I. Struggled. My god. I think the absolute hardest part was synching the words with the music, especially near the end (I gave up halfway through the last part, so it looks really bad and unsynched, I'm sorry!).
The best part was looking up ways to do things, and then when I tried them I actually did it right! For example, when the text shatters I had no clue how to do that. I Looked it up, found out you use an effect called Pixel Prolly (I think that is what is called, its in the Simulation section of Animation Presets) I found it, used it, and it worked after a few minutes of fixing the timing. I was so satisfied! Also when the "Nothing could ever stop us from stealing our own" came along, even though the words, I agree, were pretty hard to read, it was so satisfying to see that the timing of the words when they moved (using a Null Object layer) was close to perfect! So happy! So happy...=w=
In the end, Believe it or not, I am SUPER proud of this Kinetic typography of mine! I feel its really good, considering its my first time ever making something like this. I love how it turned out, I love most of the synching, and i still most Definitely love It Has Begun, even though i had to listen to it nine-thousand times so I could complete this thing!
[Extra About Audio! :P...was it supposed to be in the general post? I dunno]
Literally the worst part of this (after the planning out and stuff and the synching) was actually snipping the audio to 30-something seconds and making sure it was actually a working audio file. It took me maybe two days to get my audio perfect? (I snipped it in Garage Band) But the worst part came when I actually tried putting it in my composition
First things first...MY. GOD. The audio was working horribly! the first time it played out, yeah, sure it played normally, but as soon as it replayed the audio's pitch became lower and slower and I definitely did not want that. After another day or so trying and trying again to fix it, nothing was working! I converted it to multiple different audio files (WAV, MP3, etc.) and still no change in how it was. One day I just got so severely frustrated that I stopped working altogether. My friend that day (before I went home) suggested that I open the song back up in Garage Band and just speed it up, so when it slows down in After Effects it'll be at the normal pitch I wanted. I went back Monday and tried to do that, but...
Garage Band didn't work. I was so unbelievably pissed. I tried for half an hour or so, gave up and just decided to use Audacity, even though I've never used it before. I managed to speed up the song, and I played around for a bit with the speed, moving it back and forth to and from After Effects until it was at the best I could have gotten it. In the end the audio is actually a bit too fast, but I needed to get going on the Actual Typography part before I fell even more behind than I already was.
What I learned from this experience? Garageband/After Effects doesn't like me, so I don't like them! unless its for Class, I won't be using those programs ever again! X(
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