Popular Japanese Electronic Music - Nujabes

Popular Japanese Electronic Music - Perfume

Popular Japanese Electronic Music - Mass of the Fermenting Dregs

Splitting & Joining Regions in Garage Band

This is a Video Tutorial from you tube that explains how to cut up different parts of a track on Garage band and then how to join them together with various other parts.

This is something that I found very useful when it came to editing my track, although I was editing something that wasn't created by me. This meant that it was slightly trickier to acheive.

Music Producing and Editing Programs

Above are some of the many music production programs that are available to people who want to make professional sounding music tracks. As someone who is very passionate about music I have considered buying one of them as I think they can give something like motion graphics a lot of depth and a lot more meaning.

I have decided to use one of the less professional programs, Garage Band to produce my track. This is because I am only editing already professionally mastered and produced tracks.

N.A.P.T 84 Tracks Mixed in 11 Minutes

This is a Breakbeat mix that I found on youtube by music producers N.A.P.T

The reason why I have posted this is mainly for one reason. The first being that the dj's mix together 84 tracks in 11 minutes. As I am doing an animation on the top ten best Breakbeat tracks I though that it would be appropriate to have a sound track that did something simular, this way the viewer will have a taste of some of the the tracks that would be appearing on the program.

To achieve this I would first have to select the tracks that I would use and then cut them up in some music software such as Logic or garage band.

However, Logic is a professional music program that I do not think I would be able to learn, considering the amount of time we have to complete this breif and especially considering the face that I am also a beginner on After Effects.

To do this I will try on the program garage band. I believe I am confident enough to navigate the program and to get the job done!

Tokuma Japan Communications 徳間ジャパンコミュニケーションズのホームページ

These screen shots have been taken from a Japanese record label called 'Tokuma Japan Communications'. I have taken the name from this label to create my fictional label from which I will be promoting 'Breakbeat to the japanese music scene.

The style of the album artwork on the sight consists mainly of blocky colours that have sharp edges. This is something that I would like to achieve in my animation because I think it looks professional and futuristic and both of these things would suit the clubbing scene, especially In Japan very well.

Fingerlickin' Management shots 管理ショット

Soul Of Man - The founders of Fingerlickin Records in 1998

Legendary Australian Dj Nick Thayer

Funky Breaks and Electro DJ Plaza Da Funk

A Screen Shot of all the artists press packs. inside each zip file are logos, Tour dates and other artist related material.

These screen shots have been taken from the the promotional management sight 'Fingerlickin' Management' . These guys specialise in promoting dj's in various different events and club nights in and around the U.K.

They were formally known as 'Fingerlickin' Records' and were one of, if not the biggest Breakbeat label in the U.K and the world. Their records sold thousands all over the world to cater for people who liked anything from 'Hip Hop' all the way up to 'Tech House'.

Unfortunately, The end of 2010 and the invention of the Mp3 saw the demise of Fingerlickin Records as fewer and fewer people wanted to buy vinyl because it was expensive and impractical.

Considered Typefaces

These are the main typefaces that I have considered to be used in my animation and I-dents.

Most of the them have a techy and clubby look to them which is important, however if the type is moving fairly fast on the screen then it will be very important to make sure the type is readable. This was something that was brought up in the first crit and is why I have considered the type face called 'Thonburi' and 'Wipeout'.

Artist and Label Logos アーティストやレーベルのロゴ

Krafty kuts logo

Shades of Rhythm logo (white)

Shades of rhythm logo (black)

Slybeats Record label logo - founded by Slyde

Jem Stone logo - co founder of Fingerlickin' Records

Drumattic Twins Logo (formally known as Shades of Rhythm)

Jam City record label logo - Founded by A - Skillz

Instant Vibes record label logo

Freestlylers logos

Futurecast logo (image only)

Futurecast logo (text and image)

'An Evening With Krafty Kuts' Event poster

A - Skillz logo

Above are some artist logos that have been taken from 'Fingerlickin' management'. Some of these logos could be incorporated into my animation to make it look more legitimate and professional.

I consider myself quite lucky to have found a website that allows you to download high resolution images of artists logos as this will help me a lot in my work.

Japanese Motion Graphics

Sports Motion Graphics

Fingerlickin Records

Wipeout-Title Sequence

James Bond-Title Sequences

After Effects Workshop (session one)

This is my 200px by 200px blue square situated in the middle of my composition frame.

I created a blue square and named the solid shape 'Blue Solid 1'. The shape then appeared on my composition panel and in a box that is to the left of the timeline.

Every asset that you use in you composition becomes a layer, the same as in Photoshop and is displayed in this box.

This is the settings box for the solid layer that we are about to create. From here we can change its aspect ratio and the height and width of the object.

In the tutorial we were asked to create a solid square 200px by 200px.

In the tutorial we were then asked to create a layer. This would then appear on top of the composition. To this we clicked on the layer drop down menu at the top of the screen.

We were asked to create to then create a 'solid' layer.

Layer > Solid

I have also made the background for my composition green.

As we now have a composition the timeline panel now displays a ruler.

This box is situated in the top left of the screen. It tells you the the frame size and rate and also the duration of the sequence.

The timing on AE is split into -

hours / minutes / seconds / frames

In the tutorial we were asked to set the duration length to 5 seconds.

This is where you can change the 'start timecode' and the 'duration' of the sequence.

If you come across settings that are highlighted in AE, this means that they can be changed. You can either click on the highlighted numbers and type the new ones in or you can simply hover your mouse above the numbers, click down and drag to the left or to the right.

This way of changing data is unique to After Effects.

When it comes to editing a digital video sequence it is imperative that same standard is chosen to that of the camera it was shot on.

When working with video choose the DV option.

When working with images choose the square pixel option. other Adobe programs such as Photoshop use square pixels, so this means that your placed images in AE will not look stretched or distorted when you import them.

Also available from the composition settings box are a number of video presets. The shot above shows the presets that have been split into various categories.

At the top of the list are a number of NTSC and PAL presets.

These two presets are video standards that are recognised in different countries. For instance the NTSC standard is recognised in the US and other countries such as Canada, whereas the PAL standard is recognised in the U.K and other countries such as Australia and India.

This is similar to the different paper standards recognised around the world. For example the paper in America is cut to different measurements than paper in the U.K.

The main differences between NTSC and PAL standard are the frame sizes and the number of frames that are displayed per second.

NTSC - 27.97 frames per second

PAL - 25 frames per second

This is the composition settings box and this will appear once you have selected 'new composition'.

In this box we can change various details of the video for example -

• Frame rate
• width
• height
• resolution
• duration
• pixel aspect ratio

This is also where the composition can be named and if you choose to you can also change the background colour of the composition.

Every project that you start in Ae must contain at least one composition. This shot shows you how to create a new composition

composition > new composition

This is the third panel called the 'composition' panel. This is where your animation will be played back to you.

This is another of the three main panels in AE. This panel is called the 'timeline' panel. This is where things are arranged in order of sequence and for when and how long they will appear for.

This shows the way we can import various forms of media into the project window.

file > import

This is very much the same as the 'place' option on other Adobe programs such as Illustrator and Indesign.

This panel is one of three panels that make up the workspace on AE. It is called the project panel. Everything created in AE is called a project and this panel is where the media you want to use is stored, like a library. For example you can store pictures, sounds, clips and various other forms of electronic media here.

This shot shows the different settings that you configure AE to. This makes the program more manageable to whatever style of work you may be working on.

In the session we were told to set configuration to 'standard'.

This next shot demonstrates how all the panels on AE can be changed to suit your needs.

After the tip of the day window has been dismissed the applications panels will be made visible to you. These panels are your workspace and will be where your work will be produced.

After clicking on the AE logo and opening the program this is the first screen we are greeted with. This is the 'tip of the day ' screen and it is a window that allows you to search for various hints and functions available to you on the program.

What is Adobe After Effects?

After Effects is an industry standard piece of software that is primarily used to produce motion graphics. It has some features that are similar to photoshop and is sometimes called 'Photoshop for video'.

The Program is unique because whatever you create always changes over time, this is what we call working 'Temporally'. The program allows you to work 'spatially' (like you would in Indesign, Illustrator or Photoshop).