Initial Ideas
I wanted to create something which combined both of my interests, which are music, music videos and computation.
So, I decided to create a project which was a collection of visualisers made with code for various songs, or a very stylised music video in which the coded art served as the background for the musician in a music video. However, during the process, I realised that this would take longer than anticipated, so I decided to use one song and a collection of similar coded visuals.
I got the inspiration from the visualisers I saw for music on major streaming platforms, such as Spotify (although I do not see this feature any more). These are frequently characterised by moving visual art, or small snippets playing in a loop of the actual music video.
While I initially really wanted to get a friend or family member to act as the musician in a full blown music video where the background visuals were my coded art, this proved to be unfeasible with the time I had. So I went with the simpler idea of just making visuals.
Examples
- MICHAEL JACKSON – LEAVE ME ALONE
This is a highly stylised video in which the main musician plays a role in the video but the video is characterised by the bizarre visuals in the background. The background visuals are what I will be attempting to code.
- RIHANNA – RUDE BOY
This is also a very stylised video but makes more sense to create as I am able to make it fit the brief. The background visuals are mainly a myriad of colours and shapes which I am able to take inspiration from and code through p5.js.
Initial Planning
After this idea solidified, I decided to start thinking of how to execute this. I did not want to overextend myself with learning new software and coding languages when I am already in the midst of learning others, so I decided to use:
- P5.JS – since I am already familiar with P5.JS, I decided to start creating visuals with this, including many variations of one pattern e.g.
I also wanted to use other Visual Coding Programmes as there were many options available, but I knew that I wanted to build on skills I already had rather than confusing myself by spreading my attention thin over many options.
2. ADOBE PREMIERE PRO
It is a good all round software with which colour can be adjusted, the designs can be cropped into the desired shape, it can be animated and then made into a full video.
Music Aspect
For the music, I wanted to use song covers that I did using Adobe Audition, while of course giving due credit to the respective musician as well as the creator of the backing instrumentals. I was not too sure if this would be a copyright issue but I decided to make the visuals first and keep the video unlisted on YouTube. The song I planned to do was Sway – Dean Martin (1964) which is a song that has been covered numerous times by various artists. I wanted to make coded designs for this 1 minute cover according to its genre, style and mood and then edit it into a video.