Question about animating waveforms

rlc4810 wrote on 11/9/2004, 10:38 AM
Has anyone had figured out a slick way to synchronize animation with the beat of the music on an audio track?

I'd like to produce a waveform image on the video output of the finished movie that would jump around to the beat of the sounds playing on the audio layer. It could look very much like the wave form in the audio layer, or could just be pulsing lights or colors that intensify with the volume of the music.

If perfect audio and video synchronization is not possible with MSVF, does anyone know of a way to handcraft an artificial waveform that just looks like it's moving to the beat of the music? Or is there other software out there that could produce something like this that could be imported into my MSVF project?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.

Rick <><

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/9/2004, 10:57 AM
What problems have you had with syncronization? You can line up audio and video tracks with each other right down to the sample level to match the beginning, and you can stretch either in nearly infinite increments to match the end. At the worst you might be off by one video frame, but with very little effort you can sync right down to the audio sample rate.
rlc4810 wrote on 11/9/2004, 11:13 AM
Thanks so much for the reply. I probably didn't make myself clear in my original question.

I know how to synchronize video events and a picture. That is, I can hear the 'crash' of a cymbal in the sound track and flash a picture up on the screen at that precise moment, then fade the picture out when the next sound occurs. What I'm really after is an actual waveform (I guess that's what you call it) that moves across the screen right to left and pulses up and down to the beat of the music. Sort of like the green bars in Windows Media player or the lights on a graphic equalizer that move up and down to the beat of the music.

Thanks,
Rick <><
Steve Grisetti wrote on 11/9/2004, 11:27 AM
You mean something like an EKG? Or more like the "visualizations" in Windows Media Player?

There's no way that I know of to do it internally, in the program. However, there are several freeware and shareware programs available that create visualizations (but none that I've actually used). Here's an interesting one that exports its final movies as AVIs:

http://www.3dmaxmedia.com/Zuma_01.htm
rlc4810 wrote on 11/9/2004, 12:36 PM
Yes! You got it! An EKG or WMP's visualization is EXACTLY what I'm after.

Thanks for the tip on Zuma. I'll check into that.

On a semi-related question, are there additional effects that you can purchase from Sony that can be added to MSVF's built in set of video FX?

Thanks so very much for your help.
Rick <><
IanG wrote on 11/10/2004, 12:41 AM
If you can find an old, freeware version of CamStudio, that will capture animated screen shots as avis. WMP's already been mentioned, but you could see what visualisations are available with Winamp or one of the other free music players.

Media Center has some visualisations that might be suitable, but it's not free. It does have a free trial though, and it's a very useful app anyway!

Ian G.