Animate a Music Video in Cinema 4D

A beginner to intermediate project-based course for the aspiring 3D motion graphic artist.

Welcome to this course, Animate a Music Video in Cinema 4D. This is a beginner to intermediate course and a basic understanding of Cinema 4D’s user interface is recommended.

In this series of lessons we will cover the fundamentals of creating an abstract music video using Cinema 4D’s sound effector, syncing animation with audio files, and specifying parameters to control the movement of abstract shapes.

Students will apply that knowledge to develop a motion graphics project to complete a one-minute music video. This course will also cover using garage Band for sound design and Adobe After Effects for Post-Production.

The topics this course will cover include the following:

An introductory overview of the project, rough storyboard and establishing a color scheme.

Overview of music and sound file options from customs-creating your own music to royalty free online resources

Overview of music used in final animation

Learn Garageband compositional techniques to craft your own original music

Export individual tracks and the full track as .wav files

Create materials based on the color scheme selected an input PMS colors

Create parametric primitive landscapes and water

Overview of the sound effector and how it works

Learn the most important sound effector parameters, how to control them, and how they affect animation

Use the sound effector to drive animation and control position, scale and rotation

Apply the Mograph cache on all cloners for faster and more accurate playback

Add rigid body tags to cloners for various effects

Specify the ‘follow position’ rigid body parameter to control the models position

Use the MoGraph cloner in various modes (grid, object, linear) to build animation

Use of the spherical field to control sound effector falloff

Introduction to the vibrate tag and how to use it

Create an atom array object to build a grid and specify thickness

Use the plain effector and spherical field to grow the grid in sync with the other animation

Add hair to geometry via the simulate menu

Specify hair parameters; length, count, and material attributes

Learn about ‘Set Driver’ and ‘Set Driven’ Parameters to power animation

Get familiar with Xpresso’s Range Mapper to specify output parameters to control the animation

Utilize the camera’s grid to frame your compositions

Use the stage objects to animate between cameras

Animate the cameras position for added visual interest

Animate each objects ‘visible in editor’ and ‘visible in renderer’ attributes to control what the cameras sees in each shot

Create a basic 3-point light set-up utilizing spot and omni lights

Create a background object and apply a material

Do test renders to view lighting results

Set-up render settings for final output

Import final animation and sound files into After Effects

Add a Fractal Noise effect to create interest in the background

Add a Blur effect to focus the viewers attention on the main parts of the animation

Add a Vignette for visual interest

Apply a Glow Effect to the animation

Add an ending fade

Add animation to type for the closing title

Thanks for watching!