TUTORIALS FOR VFX & MOTION GRAPHICS
Free After Effects Tutorials & More Hosted By: Andrew Kramer
Sep 17, 2007 | 26mins. 50 secs.
• Convert music amplitude to drive particle animation
• Use particular to generate custom "waveform"
 
TUTORIAL NOTES:
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732 Responses to "Audio to Animation"
VRAsociation
02/02/2012
Everytime I try to orbit camera. It wont work. With Andrew, you can see the particle in Z space but with me it wont work!!
Help anyone
erik
01/25/2012
as soon as I turn the velocity off it fails to work just turns into a straight line.
Erik
01/25/2012
doesnt work. I try to use the orbit camera tool to see the particles but its still just one dot.
kenneth
01/20/2012
I can`t key anything longer than 30 sec.
What may be the reason?
dmajor
01/24/2012
go to Composition/ composition settings/ then make your comp longer by changing the time in the duration box.
Andy
01/13/2012
I have done everything, but in the end when i play the file the song doesn't come out. When i press (period) button i only could hear the song and when i press (space) i only could see the animation, how can i get both of them playing at the same time? btw my audio file is mp3
hosen
01/04/2012
hi andrew u are amirical
Logan
12/27/2011
Is there anyway possible to spell out words etc. with audio waves??
jobeth
12/20/2011
good
Ian
11/18/2011
just watch the last 50 secs of video but if u want to learn math watch the whole thing
Alan
11/18/2011
Sorry you apply that Audio waveform effect to a SOLID LAYER not the song itself.
emily
11/01/2011
I'm using CS4 on my macbook and the layout is different . I can't seem to find effect>trapcode>particular . HELP !
Ethan Archer
01/01/2012
You do need to buy Particular, but I wouldn't worry, most of the time you can do the same thing in CC Particle World.
sulayman
11/09/2011
hey you have to buy Particular, it wont be there if you didnt buy it, come on
HÃ¥vard Modalen
11/08/2011
you need to buy it, u can find it her on VideoCoPilot
The Don Dada from SA
09/12/2011
YA YA YA YA!
ITS GREAT
DamienWalters
09/09/2011
WOOOOW way to tell me i needed trapcode ahead of time. Just wasted 45minutes of my life and now i cant even finish it........DANGIT
Nic
11/15/2011
This tutorial isn't even 45 minutes long -.-

Also it says you need it before you watch the tutorial video.

"3rd Party Tools: Particular"
AENOOB
10/25/2011
Hate to agree with him but, being a noob in AE, I worked on this for like nearly an hour and then found out trapecode did not come with AE itself. I was really disappointed. Andrew, can you mention it at the beginning of the vid next time? Thanks :)
anoynomous coward
09/22/2011
Why wouldn't you help him? I'm tired of fake "knowledge hogs" that turn everything into a BS hustle. Video people around my way don't want others to know this tutorial site exists. But there videos has every effect in it this site teaches for free.
The Don Dada from SA.
09/12/2011
Its just that the one I GOT is 46MB, i was gonna help you
amess
09/03/2011
great totorial :) tnk's
Vcortez
08/04/2011
How do you use that panel in which you put the code manually , mine doesnt have that.
"TREBLE= effect("Both Channels")....etc

can you help me
Ballard
08/16/2011
Alt+click on the stopwatch next to it.
vinz
07/20/2011
i put mp3 sound in AE5 but not here sound please.
Monaco89
08/05/2011
press NUM 0
Kyle
07/26/2011
Thankyou so much! I love this effect, here's my final outcome>

/watch?v=zmUCIewpBgM

Took ages to upload though, and render :(
Moysa
07/12/2011
yea thanks man. its very cool
Grady
07/06/2011
"Now some of you have seen the great Justin Timberlake video where everything looks like an audio waveform and he's dancing and it all goes to the music, really cool effect. Well, in this tutorial we're not doing ANYTHING like that so... I just wanted to get that out of the way."

That is hilarious. Thanks for everything Andrew...
fabri
07/05/2011
man ur good, how u get so good with this? Did they teach you? or u learned by urself?
Jared
07/04/2011
Hey Andrew, bro, how much RAM do you have, and whats the capacity of your video card, cause mine lags,
Mind helping me out?
iourzzz
06/28/2011
great tutorial!

thanks!
help me
06/22/2011
I still cannot get my audio (wav) to work on my intro!!!! pls anyone who reads this could u pls reply with helping comments
Charles
06/22/2011
try with an mp3 file, it works to me ;)
annmarie
06/21/2011
what is the period key to hear the audio pls?
fabri
07/05/2011
the one to the right of the letter "M" this one-----> ,
Rebel28
06/22/2011
It's on the numpad, mine also says "Del" under that.
walk by
06/22/2011
number board "0" or "del/."
hadi
06/21/2011
tanxxxxxxx andrew
Ed
06/20/2011
mines says that there are no TREBLE commands. 7:35
negar
06/02/2011
qqq
Jordan
05/25/2011
you my friend are a genius
seriously all these tutorials are so helpful
akito
05/23/2011
nice job andrew
solaria
05/19/2011
HI,
MAN YOU ARE FANTASTIC AND YOU TUTS ARE REALLY HELPFUL
CAN I ASK YO PLEASE TO GIVE ME THE SETTINGS TO MAKE THE PARTICALS LOOK LIKE THIS:
http://portfolio.estebandiacono.tv/#265046/-lafur-Arnalds-Lj-si
IT WOULD BE GREAT IF YOU HELP ME ... THANK YOU
roojyn
05/11/2011
hii i don't seem to be able to find "particular" under effect>trapcode>particular :S
armz
06/03/2011
Its a plugin, you have to pay for it :P
problemchild
05/04/2011
I can not play or hear my song in playback or RAM-preview. What can I do to fix this??
I tested .wav .mp3 .mp4 .aiff but it seems like that's not the problem.
Jtizzle
05/04/2011
hahaha! almost there! make sure to render the audio in your render cue.
Diegos
05/03/2011
How would i use this to maybe, say. Make a light flash around to the beat of a song? get brighter and Dimmer along with the music?
The Lex
04/25/2011
Great tutorial Ak! For anyone who is trying to do this with a longer exert (or an entire song) you may run into an issue where when you create the keyframes from the audio, and you click on the Null it immediately gets deleted. I struggled with this 10 different ways and then just gave up. I created the null and went to get a donut. When i came back and clicked on it, it was still there :D Moral of the story, if your Null with Audio keyframes gets deleted, just let it sit for a couple of seconds before clicking :) Great tutorial again!
James
11/29/2011
Dude thx for posting that, like John I too was losing my mind... Did you know you are the only person on the internet that refers to this problem... the only person I could find at least... and boy did I look...
John
08/15/2011
good god, thank you so much haha. I was going crazy over this!
jack
04/14/2011
how do you get rid of the red lines on the particle efects ?
Mr. Help
07/07/2011
You have to register the product.
megamilk
04/13/2011
Which thing do I buy to get trapcode particular??
sk
04/12/2011
You do great tutorials!
ZAMY KHAN
04/07/2011
HI ANDREW BROTHER......I AM REALLY THANKFUL TO U FOR THESE ALL STUFF U GAVE US...U MADE ME UR FAN.....LUV U........HAVE ANICE DAY..TATA
snakers
03/24/2011
thx very much mr andrew
Jean
03/17/2011
I like how you give in depth explanations. Great tutorial
Naveen Sabesan
03/15/2011
You're THE best AE Tutor in the world !! And thanks a million for the pain and effort you take to teach us Andrew !!

- Naveen Sabesan (Chennai, India)
Hassan
03/04/2011
Awesome andrew u R my Guru..............fan from
PAKISTAN
RahLeeCoh J. Ishakarah
03/03/2011
how do i get the particular plug in
DragonRider65
03/25/2011
Go to www.redgiant.com and buy Trapcode Particular.
Aamir Wali
03/02/2011
hi
dear sir

help me plz i like ur work,
XxposinxX
03/02/2011
the tut is working fine untill i could not find those particuls*. could you creat a tut on how you could make one from scratch
rycycles
03/01/2011
Spot on... I've been wondering whether something like those linear expressions existed and now I know they do! Thanks aplenty
jeronimo
02/27/2011
god bless your parents `))
Cenz
02/24/2011
thanks alot, great help! :D i dunno where i'd be without u :]
nono
02/24/2011
Great tutorial, cant wait to finish my project. But i have a problem. Somehow, when i try to orbit around the particle, it remains as a dot. So that was the part where i couldnt go on with the tutorial. Thank you for your help, anyone.
sprock
02/28/2011
I had the same problem. Couldn't orbit around the particles.
Justin
02/18/2011
You have some great tutorials and I hope to be sending you a final in the next week or 2!
TYTY
Rave
02/18/2011
YOUR LESSONS ARE REALLY GREAT, I AM SHINING IN MY AREA BECAUSE OF YOUR IDEAS.

THANKS
RK
(ONE OF YOUR FAN)
D
02/15/2011
YOU ARE MY GOD!!!
Sunny
02/12/2011
It's AK-47 :)... I mean Sir Andrew Kramer's 47th exciting tutorial...
THARAK
02/09/2011
i want full part of tutorial make video
uotalama
02/08/2011
thank you
KicE
02/04/2011
Nice Man Tnx :)
Alex
01/30/2011
I can't get my audio to play on AE CS5
I downloaded the demo on my mac and I can't find out why my audio won't play
DragonRider65
03/25/2011
I have the same problem on my CS4 and my CS5 versions. Very discouraging.
David
02/22/2011
try pressing ctrl+0
dan
02/09/2011
try pressing 0 on the numpad to render preview.
Federico
01/28/2011
Thanks a lot, great tutorial ... thanks ..
Erich
01/26/2011
Hello everyone at Video Copilot. I once again would like to extend my most sincere thanks to you all. I feel like I have grown 2 or 3 fold from all that I already knew. Thanks for the inspiration, the guidance, and for the sharing. I'm having loads of fun playing with these audio animations.
Peace
Pavlos
01/15/2011
This tutorial came straight from heaven!

Is was what I needed to synchronize movement with sound on an animation video I am making. Well not exactly, but you give so much info, that I will manage, I believe, to extract from it what I need...

Thanks for your nice tutorials!
Pavlos
Alan
01/12/2011
THX A LOT..................... UR GREAT.....
Flo
01/11/2011
Man! I lOve you!! Thank you very much!
Chrisk
12/30/2010
For some reason the video isnt working, im getting this Video not found: http://video10.videocopilot.net/efc5e19e65fe9ca2cbd9818d45ac92a1/videotutorials/47-Audio_to_Animation/data/tutorial.flv
Angelo
12/30/2010
This is nice. Now i can make a Call Of Duty Modernwarfare 2 Intro :)
VaLoRxDuCk
03/22/2011
same here
rohit
12/26/2010
thanku
mblue
12/25/2010
Dude you crack me up all the time =))

Awesome work btw!
driss ouddiaan
12/24/2010
u are a good persone,thank u my brother
Hollman
12/23/2010
Hello guys (before I´m sorry my english is no well...) I have some problem with adding Trapcode effect.I have Adobe after effects cs4 and this is maybe cs3 so when I open the effects I don´t see there any trapcode->particular pls help... :/
Todd
12/29/2010
trapcode is not included with after effects. it is a separately sold effect.
Yaseen
12/29/2010
it is a third party plug-in you must buy it
TimManila
12/21/2010
were is the audio you used on these tutorial.. thx
DragonRider65
03/25/2011
Yeah, that was what I was looking for too. The project file I downloaded only has part of the files in a zip file! I will use my own audio file and see what I can come up with following along with the tutorial.
Loughlin
12/15/2010
Dude amazing tutorial, helped me heaps with a work project.. cheers!!
Madjack
12/14/2010
luv it
used it fo mah project
Rosell
12/12/2010
I llke the story part
Will
12/11/2010
It was all going sweet until i got to adding the partical and once it was added i moved the time slider along and it locked up! And i don't have a slow computer. Soo anoying!
Nick
12/27/2010
I don't know if this is a how do i fix it comment, but I accidentally brought it up to 101000 pixels and i have 2 gig of RAM. I waited for about 3 minutes and it finally worked. Not sure how long you waited.
daniel
12/04/2010
nice!
Kostas
12/02/2010
Thank you a lot for the tutorial.
I've made a nice Video. Check it out on youtube

http://youtu.be/gr1JEMd_jao


don't judge me hard. its my first one
satish
12/02/2010
thanks a lot.this is very useful tutorial for me thanks...
Klepty
12/01/2010
Man! i just know you are an angel from heaven sent to help us noobies
ABHI
11/28/2010
Andrew

Your excellent and your tutorials are useful to each and every student Keep going
j
11/07/2010
for this
must you have particular?
or is there another way around it
thanks
wicked lesson
Ranjan
10/30/2010
really helpful....thx dude,ure my idol
grekamedia
10/16/2010
thx andrew
Will
10/13/2010
@MARS

I had the same problem. I clicked convert to keyframes and the second i clicked anywhere it disappeared. eventually I realized that you just need to have enough patience to wait for the audio to finish converting before you click anywhere. usually if you have a small .mp3 it will convert instantly so it's not a problem but with bigger files it can take a while and you just have to not click anywhere until it's done.
lee
10/12/2010
hi andrew great tutorial i have never used after effects before and iv got used to it. thanks a lot keep up ur good work!!!
mahmuod751
10/09/2010
thanks a lot Andrew Kramer :)
Yorch
10/07/2010
i don't speak very well english but i can understand you perfectly. i'm learning a lot with your tutorials.
thank u so much. from spain. thnaks!
winzo
10/05/2010
can i ask how come when i preview, there is no music even though the music is not mute?..
shantanu
10/01/2010
awesome work man!!!!
Marco
09/30/2010
Andrew, thanks alot for your tutorials, you ROCK! Keep up the great work!
Christophe
09/23/2010
Hello Andrew,

Just one word, AMAZING :D You are amazing, French is my motherlanguage and I can understand what's your saying, and I've got amazing results. Continue like this, and thanks again, this tutorial help me a lot for a projet in my school :D I will thank you in my credits, thank you again Andrew.
aprax
09/20/2010
I love your site...very very helpful.Thx again...!!!
Michal Kopanski
09/13/2010
I should also mention, that a lot of people following this tutorial don't reset the Bass
Michal Kopanski
09/13/2010
Great tutorial! I just started learning MoGraph coming from graphic and web design.

Here's what I came up with using the technique from the tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bCv2jjs1VQ

Thanks Andrew!
domeng
09/12/2010
thank you andrew!! fan from the Philippines. hope to continue your kindness by sharing this incredible stuffs!

maraming salamat pagpalain ka ng diyos. (tagalog)
thank you very much god bless you.
Mars
09/06/2010
Hi. I'm grumpy.

After looking around, i can't seem to figure this out.

I'm running CS5 attempting to use how you described to convert audio keyframes. I add my audio ("The touch" by stan bush) And it will convert just fine alone. I add a Bass and treble effect and it will create the null, but the second I press any button it disappears. Precomposing it doesn't help.
AvanTgardA
09/02/2010
thanks for this! it really helps.
Philip
08/31/2010
Hey Andrew, nice tutorial ;) really helped :)
maybe you could have a look at my attempt...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP4X0HUEWGE
James
08/26/2010
Hey Andrew. I go to art school for media arts and animation, and recently just got into After Effects and motion graphics. You are a huge help. Thank you for your inspiration and knowledge.
Cyn
08/20/2010
Thank you so much Andrew
Iliyan Stankov
08/17/2010
Hi Andrew. At thind minute you say" I really wana do this in outside program". Would you share the name of the program you may use? Please reply me on the e-mail
jhon wilmer
08/14/2010
HOLA MIS AMIGOS PUES DESDE AQUI DE COLOMBIA LOS SALUDO Y LES DIGO QUE ESTOS TUTORIALES SON UNA CHIMBA QUE BIEN , SI QUE ME AYUDAD EN MI ESTUDIO COMO PRODUCTOR DE MILTIMEDIA QUE CHIMBAAAAA
Oybek
08/10/2010
Thank you Andrew from Uzbekistan
Come on to our old city Bukhara
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