Josephine Felix-Turner
Moving Image Practices
Synesthesia Synergy of Audio and Visual Evaluation Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Synesthesia resonates within my project through the music and visuals. As I listened to a range of different types of instrumentals I found that I could come up with more ideas for those within the techno sci-fi category. From listening to the instrumental I chose, I started to collect ideas related to outer space. I decided to use a black background with moving stars to give the effect of a space theme and used simple colours and animated graphics to give a simple retro effect. The music I chose was the most important piece of material within this project as the ideas of visuals could only being to form once listening to it, the beat of the instrumental especially the section with the rewind effect allowed me to make effective visuals that would correspond to the sound. During the section of audio that contained the rewind I added a white spiral with a spiral out and in animation. This was effective because the stars changed direction depending on the speed and direction of the spirals movement, giving the viewer the feeling that they are moving through space too.
This project was split up into three stages. The during the first stage I learnt what synesthesia is, I watched examples of visual to audio and I learnt how to use the tools within Adobe After Effects. I found this useful as I was able to gain different types of inspiration and see how different types of visuals were used with sound, such as next, shapes etc. I feel as if during this stage I should of spent a longer amount of time practicing on how to use the tools to accomplish a wider range of effects and animations. During this stage I needed to complete a storyboard and by choice an animatic to show my ideas of how my final piece may look like. I should of managed my time better while working on the storyboard, this part of my work seemed rushed, however I did also complete a mood board and write a description of the theme of my final piece, allowing me to get my ideas across in other ways other than drawing. I added images which inspired me such as space Sci-Fi themed art. If I had manage my time more effectively I would of been able to have time to create an animatic.
The second stage involved creating the actual video, during these few weeks I managed my time well. At first Iincluded images from the web into my project however I decided to scrap the material and use my own shapes and work instead by using the shape tools within After Effects and Adobe Illustrator, this contributed to making the project my own, except for the audio. I also used tutorials to help me to understand how to use the camera tool for the stars movement. If I hadn't managed my time well here, I doubt I wouldn't of had the time to change the visuals within my project.
The last stage is the evaluation. I didn't feel as if I needed to manage my time that much during this part of the project, however, to complete my evaluation well and know what to type about I made sure to go to the lesson where we presented our projects, got feedback from our course mates and was able to see other people's final pieces.
My audience comments to my project were that the visuals were simple but consistent, it made them feel like they were playing a first person video game and that the spirals and stars went well with music and space/velocity speed. This showed that my visuals were effective enough to make the viewer understand my theme within the project, especially with the use of escape velocity as the title. Another comment I received was, the first part and end seemed like they were not together, they didn’t seem to be the same theme. The reason to why they felt this way is because at the start the animations were fast moving, however, they slowed down towards the end. I did this so the visuals and audio could end gently instead of it just suddenly ending.
The improvements I would make to this are fixing the positions of the shapes as some arent in the accurate spot or arent at the correct angle, I would also make the video longer to make the gentle finish more obvious, this would create a better flow.
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