After hours of effort, learning the basics of After Effects, and endless tweaking of individual frames, I have created a final product that I am proud of.
In an online lesson, I had learned about tracking using null objects that the different text layers are linked to. I used this technique for all of the "sound of silence" lines at the end of each verse. As you can see below, I animated the word "sound" to move upwards before I reduced the scale of the null object. Also, the opacity changes from 0-100% over five frames - this is true for almost every word through the song, except for a few purposeful exceptions. Most layers fade in over 5 frames and out over 10 or 30 frames, depending on the pacing of the lyrics, the intensity of the vocals, and the upcoming effects.
One of the exceptions to this fade in and out is when I turned certain text layers into 3D objects and rotated them to create the impression of the words quickly flipping over to change. I experimented with various ways of overlapping these words, but I found that simply cutting to the next word in the next frame was a cleaner transition.
Many key words were animated to reflect their meaning. In the shot below, the words "silence" and "cancer" both grew in size to match the rest of the phrase. While some basic effects I could create myself altering the scale and opacity, I also wanted to explore the animation presets. I decided to add the burn film effect to the word "cancer" to reinforce the idea of decay and death, which is what will happen to humanity if we don't speak up and care for each other.
I also made sure to pay particular attention to detail. After creating a simple image of a light shining down from above, I added the office light effect to the word "halo". For the duration of that text layer, I went through frame by frame to synchronise both the flickering of the letter "o" created by the effect, and the flickering of the beam of light below it. I changed the opacity of the image to match the letter in each frame, creating an impression of a street lamp formed by the words on the screen.
To break the song down into more manageable chunks, I started a new composition for each verse, then combined them once they were completed. Although each verse had two layers of fractal noise behind the lyrics, I also added a layer over the top of the complete song, to create more fog and mystery, and to tie each verse together more subtly. This was successful and helped keep the atmosphere consistent throughout.
I am delighted with the end result, and feel that this is the best piece of work I have produced for the visual and graphic design techniques module. My attention to detail has ensured that the transitions are smooth and consistent, and that each animation is purposeful. I chose two fonts from the Creative Cloud Font list, and feel they work well together. The thinner, lower-case font is softer without being too delicate for a heavy metal band, and the thicker, upper-case font is similar but slightly more powerful, perfect for emphasising the key words.
Some of the key effect presets I used were the flicker exposure, flash, office light, burn film, and raining characters. I enjoyed experimenting with these effects and feel I selected the ones most suited to the lyric I was animating at the time. Some of the effects that I wanted I couldn't find in the preset list, so I had to try to create the desired result manually. This includes when the word "split" splits in two, and when the letters in the word "cobblestone" fall to different levels to give the impression of a cobbled street. For the latter, I had to create a new text layer for each letter to enable different font sizes and positions, then went through them systematically to ensure the spaces between each step of the animation were evenly spread.
There are some parts I would like to improve, such as the animation of the wored "stabbed" - while I wanted this movement to be short and sharp to mimic the stabbing action, I don't think this worked particularly well within the whole composition. It feels a little bit too short of an action, although any longer and it would have lost the "stabbing" connection. It may have been better to keep the adjustments to purely the opacity as it is on the rest of the words, allowing for a greater impact of the following "flash" animation. I would also like to utilise the camera feature in After Effects. Converting some text layers to 3D gave me a slight introduction to 3D lyric videos, although I feel this is currently beyond my skill set. I hope to one day emulate the 3D camera effects shown in the lyric video for Disturbed's The Light, and use this to create a more high-energy product. This would be well-suited to more upbeat pop songs. I would also be interested to explore the fully animated style of lyric video with hand-drawn graphics, although I don't currently know how to get started with that. I would definitely have to practise my drawing skills to achieve high-quality, consistent images.
Overall, I feel that my lyric video is a success, with both technical and creative aspects that helped grow my skill set. It is different to much of Disturbed's typical style, but so is the song. I don't feel that the differences are so vast that they are irreconcilable with the band's image, but instead reflect the very different direction Disturbed went with in creating this cover. The imagery is still very reminiscent of their softer, more reflective songs, and I feel I have captured the intensity that builds towards the end of the song.
At first I was apprehensive about this module - I may be creative and enjoy design, but I had minimal experience with editing software. I knew this would be a learning curve for me. Photoshop was fairly easy to get used to as I had encountered it before, but Premiere was a little more difficult. I learned more about these onsite before the lockdown, which was extremely valuable, but we entered lockdown before we had begun to explore After Effects. I had never even opened up the program before the third design brief, so I had to learn about it from the ground up. While we had some introductory lessons to this via Teams, it wasn't practical to do a full tutorial remotely. I learned most techniques through YouTube and trial and error.
I feel my skills in visual and graphic design have grown enormously, from my first simple book cover to my complex lyric video. I would like to explore this more, particularly the kinetic typography aspect, and perhaps eventually design lyric videos for clients. I have a lot more to learn, but I know I will enjoy the process of widening my skills and techniques.
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