For my final project in interactive media, I composed “Underground Lake” with LMMS. Then, I challenged myself to visualize the music as a pattern of moving ripples in a dark pool of water.
The purpose of this project was to overcome a barrier in After Effects, the lack of a feature that seems fairly simple: A way to transform the composited image data in the Echo effect. For instance, creating a trail for a stationary object.
It would be so simple, if only you could:
- reference the image of this layer “current” as it appeared 1 frame ago, through the virtual layer “last”
- apply the transform effect to “last”
- composite “last” on top of “current”
The Echo effect is sealed shut, and doesn’t allow that kind of tinkering. This project is a hack, using MotionTile to animate layer trails.
My final submission also included a diagram of the entire project. However, I think that my diagram could be refined before I post it here. In the meantime, here’s the video:
John Dorsey 