MUSIC VISUALIZER GUIDE

Video tutorial
Part 1. Basic Usage
Part 2. Customizing the Appearance

Basic Usage
1.

Download and install the free font Kelson Sans.

2.

Open one of the provided projects in After Effects CS6 or above.

3.

Select File->Import->File... in the main menu to import your music track.

4.

Open the composition "1. Music", then put your music file into the composition.

5.

Drag the "Music End" marker to the music layer output while holding the "Shift" key. The marker will stick to
the music layer output. This is necessary for the correct displaying of the elapsed time.

6.

Click on the music layer and go to Animation->Keyframe Assistant->Convert Audio to Keyframes in the main
menu. Let After Effects think for a few seconds and it will generate the "Audio Amplitude" layer.

7.

After generating the "Audio Amplitude" layer, click on this layer, hit the "U" key and select the "Slider"
property in the "Both Channels" effect. After that, click the "Graph Editor" button and hover the mouse
pointer over a topmost point of the graph. You'll see the value in the tool tip. This is the value for the "Audio
Level Max" property, which we will need to fill in a little later (in item 11). If you need more detailed
instructions, check the "Customizing the Appearance" section.

8.

Open the next "2. Track Name" composition. Double click the text layer and enter your track name.

9.

Open the next "3. Artist Name" composition. Double click the text layer and enter your artist name.

10. [Optional] Import your cover art or logo image. Open the "4. Cover Art" composition and hide the
"Cover_Art_Placeholder.jpg" layer. Then put your cover art or logo into this composition. If the image has
square proportions, select the layer and go to Layer->Transform->Fit to Comp in the main menu. If the image
doesn't have square proportions, select Layer->Transform->Fit to Comp Width or Layer->Transform->Fit to
Comp Height depending on the proportions of your image.
11. Open the "Controls" composition and select the "Controls" layer. There is a bunch of controls here, which
allow you to set up the appearance of the music visualization. Generally, you have to select one of the
provided color presets, then set up the "Audio Level Max" (see item 7) and the "Audio Bars Max Height"
properties. These two parameters have to be adjusted for a maximum visual appeal of the final video because
of the uniqueness of each music track. Check the detailed instructions on adjusting these parameters and the
full list of other properties in the following section "Customizing the Appearance".
12. When you're satisfied with the appearance you have to set the work area duration of the output composition.
Open the "1. Music" composition once again, select the music layer (not "Audio Amplitude" layer!) and hit the
"O" key to set the playhead to the music layer output. Then go to one of the output compositions depends on
the desired resolution of the video ("Output HD 1080p" for the full HD video, "Output HD 720p" for the video
in 1280x720) and set the work area end by hitting the "N" key.

13. When you're finally ready to render, go to Composition->Add to Render Queue in the main menu. Then set
up render settings, output destination and hit the "Render" button.
Note: If your machine has multiple processors or cores, be sure to enable Edit->Preferences->
Memory & Multiprocessing->Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously and select RAM allocation
per background CPU 1.5 GB at least. It will significantly speed up your render. The more memory
you allocate per each processor/core, the faster render will be.

Customizing the Appearance

Open the "Controls" composition and select the "Controls" layer. There is a bunch of controls here, which allow you to
set up the appearance of the music visualization.

Color Preset the drop-down list for selecting one of the provided color presets. Select "Color Preset Custom Colors" in case you want to set up your own colors. Once you have selected "Color Preset - Custom
Colors" the controls within the section "Custom Colors" are activated and you can use them to set up your
color scheme.

Custom Colors
Spectrum Color sets the color of the polygonal shape, which represents an audio spectrum. It also sets
the color of the triangular faces flying out of the spectrum.
BG Blocks Color (for circular spectrums only) sets the color of the blocks flying out of the center.
BG Ramp Inner Color sets the background radial ramp inner color.
BG Ramp Outer Color sets the background radial ramp outer color.
Titles Color sets the color of the titles (track name, artist name, time).
Progress Bar Color sets the color of the progress bar.
Optical Flares Saturation changes the saturation of the optical flares (default value: 0).
Optical Flares Brightness changes the brightness of the optical flares (default value: 100).
Optical Flares Hue Shift changes the hue of the optical flare (default value: 0).
Chromatic Aberration sets the strength of the chromatic aberration effect. If you don't want this effect
to be applied, set this value to 0.

Common Props
Audio Level Max sets the maximum audio level which is used in animations driven by the sound.

After generating the "Audio Amplitude" layer (Basic Usage, item 6), click on this layer, hit the "U" key and
select the "Slider" property in the "Both Channels" effect (1). After that, click the "Graph Editor" button (2)
and hover the mouse pointer over a topmost point of the graph (3). You'll see the value in the tool tip it's
63.37 in this case. This is the "Audio Level Max" value we're looking for. You don't have to be so precise,
take the integer part of the number.

Audio Bars Max Height sets the length of transverse edges of the spectrum shape. The more bars
maximum height you set, the more prominent spectrum you get. This property should be adjusted for each
music track, because even if the value is the same, every music track generates bars of different heights.
Audio Bars Number sets the number of transverse bands of the spectrum shape. The more bars you
have, the more detailed and responsive spectrum you get.
The spectrums with rectangular bands can have only a certain number of bars. You can set any value and
the spectrum will take the closest available value automaticly.
Circle Start Angle (for circular spectrums only) sets the starting rotation angle of the circular spectrum
shape. If the rotation speed is set to 0, the circle will be permanently rotated at this angle.
Circle Rotation Speed (for circular spectrums only) sets the rotation speed of the spectrum shape.
Circle Pulsation Strength (for circular spectrums only) the scale of the circle can oscillate according to the
audio level if this property is greater than 0. The value sets the amplitude of the oscillation.
Camera Pulsation Strength sets the amplitude of the "camera shake" effect, which affects the
appearance according to the audio level. There is no "camera shake" effect if this value is set to 0.
Pulsation Smooth sets the pulsation smoothness. The value set to 0 gives the most sharp audio reaction,
2 is an average smoothness, 5 or more is good for a soft music tracks.
Show Titles if it's checked, the music track name and the artist name are shown.
Show Time if it's checked, the elapsed time is shown.
Show Progress Bar if it's checked, the progress bar is shown and the titles are offseted upward.
Show Cover Art if it's checked, the cover art is shown and the titles are offseted according to the cover
art size.
Cover Art Size (max 100) sets the size of the cover art up to a maximum size of 100%.