Check out how Beeple created this vibrant music animation and then download the free 3D source material to have a go at remixing it yourself
As the electronic music begins to play, a crazy array of animated instruments pop up from the ground illustrating the synth washes and drum beats to perfection.
When we saw this piece of work, created by US-based graphic designer, Mike Winkelmann – aka Beeple – we wondered what came first, the music or the animation. So we caught up with Beeple to ask him about his latest short film, IV.10.
“A lot of people ask what came first with my films like this where the audio and video was so tightly synced and it’s really a lot of back and forth,” says Beeple. “First, I designed, modelled, and animated about 15-20 little single instruments. These are the sort of visual building blocks of the piece. Then I took those little animations and did sound design for them, which became the audio building blocks.
“I then took all of those audio pieces and sequenced out a song from them. I needed to sort of keep in mind how much was happening at any given time to make sure I would have enough screenspace to fit everything in.”
Once the song was composed Beeple went back and placed all the instruments in the landscape according to when each sound was happening in the music. This was all done meticulously by hand over about six months.
“Every hi-hat, every snare hit, every drum kick needed to be manually synced like this. Many times things needed to be placed and replaced multiple times to fit everything in since it’s so dense. In the end every video piece matches up with the audio so the audio and video appear to be in perfect sync.”
We particularly like the hand claps in this little Cinema 4D animation. Check it out below and let us know what you think. Cool huh?
Beeple has made all the 3D animation source files available for download so you can have a go at creating this animation yourself
Beeple naturally gravitated towards becoming a graphic designer. “I actually went to school for computer science but quickly realised my interests lie elsewhere,” he comments. “I was spending all of my time doing little personal graphic design projects and making films, so after school I tried to get a job doing web design since it was sort of a cross between design and technology.”
His inspiration comes from looking at all the wonderful work that people produce. “I look at a lot of image and design blogs on a daily basis and I love the feeling of community on these sites,” he says. “Everyone brings something different to the table and it all gets mixed around in this giant digital melting pot.”
When it comes to work, Beeple enjoys creating VJ clips the most, since he tends to have more freedom on these small projects and they lend themselves to greater experimentation. “I like the freedom and experimentation that you get with tiny projects like that,” he says. “If you know you’re only going to be working on something for a day or two, it’s a lot easier to take some real chances. I also like that I am able to put these out fairly quickly for feedback.
Beeple’s favourite animation of all time, in terms of full-length movies, is Wall-E. “I am a big fan of robots and I loved the story as well. In terms of short film, I really love a lot of the work that David O’Reily has done, like ‘Please say something’ (See Please say something via Vimeo). I really love the aesthetic as it’s just so different from anything out there while still being completely cohesive.
Currently, Beeple is working on another short film as well as releasing more VJ clips, but what’s next for him? “I’m also trying to learn more about integrating Cinema 4D with something like V-Ray and RealFlow.
“These are areas I know very little about and would love to at least have a bit more a of a working knowledge of… Other than that I’d just like to keep working on fun projects and growing as a designer.”
Beeple recommends that anyone starting out, or anyone looking to gain some more exposure should do as much personal work as possible. “Being your own client is sometimes the easiest path to doing awesome work that will bolster your portfolio and skillset.
“I would just say to do as much work as you can, even if that means doing it for free. Don’t worry about who it’s for or what it is, just worry about getting better. Clients and projects will come and go but nobody can ever take your skills away from you. Concentrating on getting better technically and design-wise and doing as much work as you can and people will start to notice.”
You can download the entire project file to see exactly how everything was done or recreate the animation yourself, via Beeple’s site beeple-crap.com
Let us know what you think of the animation. Or if you’ve got an animation you’d like to share, please let us know via the comments box below, or via 3D World’s Twitter or Facebook.
Posted on Monday, April 16th, 2012 at 11:00 am under Showcase. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: Animation, Beeple, C4D animation, Cinema 4D, Free 3D resource, IV.10, Mike Winkelmann, music
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