Skip to main content

Animation in Final Cut Pro

Like many contemporary composers, I am fascinated with the correlation between music and the visual arts. The cross-pollination of the arts has given birth to many great compositions and visual works. Dr. Kristine H. Burns (see link in Artist Links) at Florida International University has mastered an animation style utilizing Final Cut Pro's Video Generator features. She used it for her amazing video piece, Copper Islands.

Final Cut Pro has a variety of Video Generators available. You can create a simple color matte, text, shapes, bars, noise, etc. For electroacoustic composers, think of these as the basic sine, triangle, and square waves (and noise, of course) that a composer manipulates electronically through sound synthesis. These are building blocks.



You need to be familiar with the KEY FRAME feature available in Final Cut Pro. By setting KEY FRAMES you can alter an effect over time.



Start with something basic, say a basic Color Matte with a Mask Shape (ex. a circle) over it. Now you have a circle.
To move the circle, set a keyframe at its current position (by clicking on the keyframe), and then move it to another location about two seconds later. Click on the keyframe. During playback, the circle will move across the screen.



Apply an effect to the circle. You can also alter the effects using keyframes. A Ripple effect is boring and predictable, but add a secondary ripple and alter speed and amplitude over time, and the image becomes more interesting.



Depending on your processing power, it may make more sense to export a mini version of the piece instead of waiting for full rendering. Experiment with the effects. Add effects onto effects. After a while, you will be amazed by the what the computer creates. My work ENIGMA took me a few months to complete. Believe it or not, it started out as only as a gray circle and a Highlight.



I had an older Mac G4 that nearly fried itself processing all the effects for the piece, Innermost Thoughts of the Distorted Psyche', which was entirely animated using key frames on a still frame of a face.





Unfortunately, Final Cut Express does not have the amount of options available as its big sister FC Pro, but some interesting effects can be created by layering Distortion effects and adding a little creativity in fading in and out various clips. Similar effects can be created in Adobe Aftereffects and Adobe Imageready, using the same processes of altering an effect on a simple shape over time.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Composer's Brief Guide to Percussion Mallets

When composing for percussion, it is important to know the difference between a variety of mallets. Although in most cases the percussionist will choose the proper mallets for the passage, sometimes as a composer, you want a particular sound. It is always good to research a mallet before indicating it in your score. Consult a percussion catalogue for a more in-depth look at the hundreds of mallets available. 1. YARN MALLETS They come in every dynamic range from supersoft baseball-sized to forte. They are the multi-purpose mallet, used for toms, suspended cymbal rolls, marimba, xylophone, woodblock, and pretty much anytime a percussionist doesn't have time to pick up another mallet. 2. CORD MALLETS These are harder than the yarn mallets. More effective on xylophone and vibes, these mallets can also be used for a variety of percussion instruments. 3. BRASS MALLETS These are for use on the glockenspiel/bells and the occasional brake drum. They produce a more "tinny" kind of ...

Music Secrets: The Music School Survival Guide

Music Secrets: The Music School Survival Guide Don't have any time to balance rehearsals, exams, and a social life? Then read on!  So you find that between playing in orchestra, the school musical, a solo recital or two, joining Sigma Alpha Iota or Phi Mu Alpha , playing in the alternative band at night, pep band, and marching band that you can't keep your eyes open, let alone study for the music history midterm next week or even begin to write your term paper on Debussy? Then read on and learn to balance life in Music School. 1) Musicians DO need to Sleep   Yes, you need to sleep, even if it is only five hours a night plus catnaps. Your brain cannot function if you do not sleep. So sleep, even if that means that you can't play in that awesome alternative band that jams every other night till 5am at the local bar. 2) Eat right and exercise Okay, so I sound like your parents, or Oprah, but I am serious. My biggest mistake as an undergrad (well, one of my bigges...

Percussion 101: How to Play Hand Crash Cymbols

Young Girl Plays Cymbals The hand cymbals (or crash cymbals ) are extremely versatile percussion instruments . The hand cymbals are used in the military, drum and bugle corps , the orchestra, and wind ensembles. Proper percussion hand cymbal technique takes many years of practice and hard work, as well as stamina and upper body strength. The most common use of the hand cymbals is in the drum line, whether in a high school band or a professional drum and bugle corps. Two cymbals are held by straps to the cymbal player's hands. In marching band and drum and bugle corps, the cymbal player often will loop their own hand in the strap, then grab the strap.  Protect Your Hands Tape, strap pads, and gloves are often used to protect the cymbal player's hands from blisters and the slow grinding away of skin during a lengthy band show. In the orchestra setting, where the crash cymbal is often reserved for music accents and shorter music passages, the percussion player does...