#Putting sound in firealpaca animation trial#

This shows that a beat with 120 would indeed awkwardly hit every 12,5 frames (120/1500). So to calculate which frames the beat is on, you divide the Bpm of your song by 1500 (keep in mind that you get different values for other fps rates). In order to bring these worlds together, I am afraid we need to use… math: If you work with 25 fps, one minute has 1500 frames (60 seconds x the frame rate: 25 fps). Musicians, though, work in beats per minute (bpm). Two worlds meet here: We – the animators – need to know the beats per frames, so that we can put our hit positions on the correct frame. Musicians, of course, usually don’t calculate in frames. Whenever you have the opportunity to influence the music, you should take care that the beat hits whole frames. In a quick cycle you would have one frame less for half of the motion – one frame that could be an important up, down or breakdown A breakdown is a pose at the turning point of a motion path - often during the fastest moment of a motion. Of course, this gets a little awkward to deal with. You can still animate it though, you just have to alternate the space between the beats: hit after 12 frames, hit after 13 frames, hit after 12 frames, hit after 13 frames and so on. In this example the beat comes exactly every 12,5 frames. If we place it every 13 frames, it will come to late. If we place our hit position every 12 frames, it’s too early after a while. Here we have a metronome click on a fixed speed (120 bpm): Let’s have a look at an example where the beat lies between the frames. More in between and your dance cycle is ready to go. More or anticipation Preparing a motion by first going into the opposite direction to build up momentum is called anticipation. You just put your hit position there, a nice breakdown A breakdown is a pose at the turning point of a motion path - often during the fastest moment of a motion. It’s pretty easy to animate if you have a fixed beat, lets say every 12 frames. The big problem is that the beat can be between frames. You should only analyze the short snippet you are actually using, because the beat might change throughout the song. However, this might not be very accurate. In the internet you can find tools where you can tap on your keyboard to the rhythm of a song and determine the beat this way. If it is too fast, increase the interval if it is too slow, decrease it. Guess the beat, put a symbol in a fixed interval and see if it flashes in sync to the music.

#Putting sound in firealpaca animation trial#

You really need it to be exact or else, after some seconds, the animation will look out of sync, even when it appeared perfect at first! If you don’t have any other tool you can find out the beat by trial and error. Before you start animating you have to figure out the rhythm of your music. Set visual contrasts by moving the body and arms up and down, left and right, streched and bend… On the beat you can either drop the weight or make the character push himself up. It is not so much actual dance steps that make your character get the rhythm – it’s his overall shape expanding and contracting. Whatever you let your character do, the most important thing is to work with the ups and downs of the whole body. More (or accents if you divide the space between the key and the breakdown A breakdown is a pose at the turning point of a motion path - often during the fastest moment of a motion. Keep in mind: Cycles with an even number of frames are easier to animate, because you have a frame in the exact middle for the breakdown A breakdown is a pose at the turning point of a motion path - often during the fastest moment of a motion.

Somehow we only notice the repetition if it happens two whole times. If you really don’t want your audience to see any repetition (in a classic dance for example), you could just reuse half of your cycle and then go into different one. or is in a breakdown A breakdown is a pose at the turning point of a motion path - often during the fastest moment of a motion. Off the beat, your the character prepares for the next hit position (e.g. On the beat your character goes into a hit position – a special rhythmic event (like clapping his hands, making an important dance step, jumping, shifting his weight up and down or from one side to another etc.). As long as the speed of your song doesn’t change, the beat is a fixed reoccurring interval that has to be represented by visual highlights in your animation. The obvious thing first: The beat of your song defines your character’s movements. No matter if your character is supposed to deliver a fine dance performance or subtly bobs his head, there are some tricks and rules that really can help you to create a catchy and interesting animation.

Sooner or later every animator will have the fun task of animating something in sync to music.