DESIGNING VISUALS IN AFTER EFFECTS
In order to create captivating visuals for a music video, I experimented with AfterEffects.
I took a single 3-second animation clip of the doux character and used a filter to break it down into pixels. Next, I used the smoothie filter and selected the color range that I wanted.
Next, I layered a kaleidoscopic flower filter, followed by another kaleidoscope filter (which I flipped around settings with to vary the shapes produced).
From here, I added a ripple effect to create consistent movements. For each second I would play around with the kaleidoscope radius, increase or decrease pixel count, or swap kaleidascope settings to create variations in my effects.
Below are the visuals I created by following these steps, which I combined to create a cohesive visual that multiplies and divides back before and after specific beat drops.
By slightly adjusting the radius of my first kaleidoscope layer, 1-3 degrees at a time, I was able to maintain general consistency in the form with the visuals, while getting different color placements and animations. I used this for moments where the beat is still building at a slower pace.
Next, I decreased the number of pixels in the original image to less than 16 px. I also adjusted the number of repeats the kaleidoscope produced, increasing them both incrementally. While increasing these two, I slightly adjusted the radius to continue producing new animated color sets.
Here, is another attempt to show 'visual growth' through the same steps of decreasing pixels, kaleidoscopic repeat, and incremental radius.
For heavier drops in the music, I wanted to create more noise in the visuals to match the beat and frequencies. For these moments, I increased the pixel count to 20-35, as well as increased the number of kaleidoscopic repeats on the lower layer. For the top kaleidoscope layer, I set it to flower and moved ripple to the layer beneath it. This produced a variety of new colors with a beautiful radial pulse, while I adjusted the colors incrementally through the first kaleidoscopic radius.