Create a Sound Reacting 3D Waveform Animation without 3rd Party Plugins

Apr 20th in Motion Graphics by Satya Meka

Satya has done it again. He's managed to re-wire and re-invent tools that we've had for a long time to create what would normally only be possible with third party plugins. For all of you that ask for tutorials that only use built-in plugins, this one is for you. Satya has even created a free preset so you don't have to re-create the effect from scratch every time.

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Author: Satya Meka

I am an aspiring Motion Designer influenced by Generative Art. I am always willing to work with interesting people and you can follow me on twitter @gutsblow.

Satya also wrote an article on his blog comparing the techniques explained in this tutorial to Trapcode Soundkeys.

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Tutorial

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Spectrum Analysis CS4 Preset

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Spectrum Analysis CS3 Preset

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User Comments

( ADD YOURS )
  1. PG

    hzsolt12 April 20th

    first:D
    It’s great!

    ( Reply )
  2. PG

    Bonus April 20th

    niceeee, keep going Satya.

    ( Reply )
  3. PG

    sjoerd April 20th

    Jep well done m8!!

    ( Reply )
  4. PG

    NINJTSO April 20th

    nice work really like it

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  5. PG

    Richard April 20th

    looks damn nice!

    ( Reply )
  6. PG

    Ei_b3low April 20th

    great tutz..

    ( Reply )
  7. PG

    Aido April 20th

    smart cookie! well done mate!

    ( Reply )
  8. PG

    lzx917 April 20th

    like as form the plug !it is great

    ( Reply )
  9. PG

    Satya Meka April 20th

    I just did a small comparision with Trapcode Soundkeys so that you can understand the scalability of this method. Visit http://www.gutsblow.com/archive/5/audio-analysis-after-effects

    ( Reply )
  10. PG

    David Wood April 20th

    Very cool my friend, very cool.

    ( Reply )
  11. PG

    aditya April 20th

    keka ra all the best for your future projects keep going

    ( Reply )
  12. PG

    Ravi chandra April 20th

    Great Job

    ( Reply )
  13. PG

    wufeihu April 20th

    沙发

    ( Reply )
  14. PG

    mehmet akif April 20th

    very nice

    ( Reply )
  15. PG

    Steven_LS5 April 20th

    Really cool! Thanks a lot.

    Wich Track did you used for this tutorial ? Sounds pretty experimental…

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      JungleBeats April 21st

      It’s AMON TOBIN – Kitchen Sink :)

      Cheers, Ernest.

      ( Reply )
      1. PG

        Satya Meka April 22nd

        Yes!!

  16. PG

    Tom April 20th

    sorry, but I have a problem! I´m useing After Effects CS3 – and if I drag the preset – AE say´s I should by a newer Version…
    Does it only work with CS4 ?

    ( Reply )
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      Satya Meka April 20th

      I guess thats because I created the preset in CS4. But let me update you with a CS3 preset.

      ( Reply )
      1. PG

        Satya Meka April 20th

        You can now download the preset for CS3 here:
        http://www.gutsblow.com/file_download/2/Spectrum+Analysis+CS3.zip

  17. PG

    Aaron April 20th

    Awesome tut, and thank you for the update to the preset. Definitely will use it :)

    ( Reply )
  18. PG

    Brandon April 20th

    the CS3 Spectrum Analyser link is broken, please fix!

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      Lloyd April 20th

      Thanks for catching that. It is fixed now.

      ( Reply )
  19. PG

    liam April 20th

    you’ve got a bright future!!

    ( Reply )
  20. Hi,
    Great Efforts Satya Meka i like that.
    thank you for this

    ( Reply )
  21. PG

    asif_rocx April 21st

    link for sound plz,
    & thanks a lot for tuts leave 100 years

    ( Reply )
  22. PG

    Nightfirecat April 21st

    Awesome tutorial, and great effect!

    ( Reply )
  23. PG

    Bie April 21st

    ONCE AGAIN!!! BEAUTIFUL WORK!!!

    ( Reply )
  24. PG

    Jim Hines April 21st

    Thank you so much for sharing this.

    ( Reply )
  25. PG

    Scott April 21st

    You can do this stuff with quarts composer, has anyone thought about a tutorial on that to do that?

    ( Reply )
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      Satya Meka April 21st

      Yes. I love Quartz Composer and I am definitely planning tutorials on it. But the problem is, it is mac only. Also, we can make plugins for after effects which are GPU accelerated.

      ( Reply )
      1. PG

        Tom April 22nd

        Thanks for the good and fast support – it works :-)

      2. PG

        Joris April 22nd

        Bit of a shameless plug here, but I’ve been slowly chugging away at my series of Quartz Composer/VDMX video tutorials which you can find at http://www.hybridvisuals.nl/tutorials, also with a handy index to more QC related stuff. Would love to see your work and tuts on it, Satya!

        Joris

  26. PG

    pablo April 21st

    Well done !!!!!
    I like your job.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Cheers from Uruguay.

    ( Reply )
  27. PG

    Davis April 21st

    Great tut…great site!!!…congratulations Satya…this have a huge potential…i `m so impress!!!

    ( Reply )
  28. PG

    rob April 22nd

    Awesome work man. I would love to see more stuff from you.

    ( Reply )
  29. PG

    Diego SA April 22nd

    It remembers me a lot of things!
    It rocks!

    ( Reply )
  30. PG

    CgBaran Tuts April 22nd

    Excellent work

    ( Reply )
  31. PG

    Mike April 22nd

    Amazing work Satya!!

    ( Reply )
  32. PG

    af April 23rd

    sweet tutorial but you need to learn some short cut keys so you don’t have to click 4 million times

    ( Reply )
  33. PG

    Fybo April 24th

    can some one tell me the name of the sound sample pack that are use………..pls

    ( Reply )
  34. PG

    popo April 25th

    What expression did you use at final range values in null objects?

    ( Reply )
  35. PG

    Alex April 25th

    AMON TOBIN IS THE KING !!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice tut!!!

    ( Reply )
  36. PG

    Kiwi May 2nd

    converting the spectrum thingy to key frames doesnt seem to work for me

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      Satya Meka May 3rd

      Make sure you did everything right. You have to apply the preset to a null object and in the layer selector you should select the spectrum layer but not the audio layer. Also the spectrum should not be composited on the background nor pre-composed. Also, you might wanna adjust the amplitude and bands in the spectrum layer to get decent values. Let me know if you have further problems.

      ( Reply )
  37. PG

    jason May 4th

    does the spectrum analysis support windows?? mine doesnt work… it should mention that if it doesnt. silly.

    ( Reply )
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      Satya Meka May 4th

      I tested it on windows and it should definitely work without any problems. Can you be more specific about the problem?

      ( Reply )
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        jason May 5th

        I download Spectrum Analysis for CS3. It opens up in WinRAR like everything I download, I extract it to a folder on my computer. I find it and there is a folder MACOSX (and in it Spectrum Analysis preset) and the file: Spectrum Analysis. I double click on it and it attempts to load into AE.
        The error says:
        After Effects error: Can’t import file “Spectrum Analysis CS3.ffx” unsupported filetype or extension. ( 0 :: 1 )

  38. PG

    Web Design Quote May 21st

    Awesome tutorial, and great effect! I like your all the work which posted in your site. And this one was special for me. Keep up the good work.

    ( Reply )
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    Ash May 27th

    brilliant tutorial thank you very much

    ( Reply )
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    hetal June 20th

    hi, nice tutorial. tried it but it gives the msg: function sampleImage is undefined Expression disabled. can u help out. i use ae 7. i need this effect for a music video.

    ( Reply )
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      Satya Meka June 20th

      sampleImage() requires AE CS3 or higher.

      ( Reply )
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    Jeevan June 30th

    Great tutorial, love the fact that it doesn’t include expensive third-party plug-ins that much. Wish to see a non-HD/lo-res version of the video tutorial for slower connections.

    ( Reply )
  42. PG

    stspro July 2nd

    Very nice tuts but what is this the expression u used in the final range value slider

    ( Reply )
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    Adam Everett July 12th

    Satya, I hadn’t ever gotten around to watching this one until now. Dude, you blew me away! This was truly well thought out and insightful! Awesome! I think I’m going to use your technique to generate a different effect if that’s cool with you. Very Well done!

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      Satya Meka July 12th

      Hey Adam, I have no problem with it as long as you credit me ;)

      ( Reply )
  44. PG

    Laiho July 14th

    Geez……awesome stuff yo!!!!

    ( Reply )
  45. PG

    Laiho July 16th

    Hey can you please get the spectrum analysis preset for AE 7 as well!!!!!! plz plz plz plz …. :( !!!!!

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      Satya Meka July 16th

      It is not possible in AE7 as the function sampleImage() requires AE CS3 or higher.

      ( Reply )
  46. PG

    Csquared July 20th

    Is there a OSX version of the preset? Most helpful

    ( Reply )
  47. PG

    julie August 2nd

    I cant get the spectrum analyzer! Im using cs4, downloaded the extra animation presets on adobe, but they wont open into after effects, says ‘unsuported filetype or extention’.

    ( Reply )
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    alex August 3rd

    wicked thanks, i love this type of stuff, because i make music, i always wants cheap easy ways to make exciting and new videos

    thanks

    ( Reply )
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    daff August 31st

    how can you make song for this effects? witch program do you use?

    ( Reply )
  50. PG

    kiki September 30th

    Hi there,
    I use a French version of AE CS4 so the preset doesn’t work because it needs translation for “Layer”. How can I edit the preset and translate the word?
    thanks a lot

    ( Reply )
  51. PG

    beatsystem October 15th

    where can i get a windows version of this plugin for cs4 please. I love what u have done just need to run it on windows,thanks derek

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      Satya Meka October 15th

      It runs on both Win and Mac CS3/CS4

      ( Reply )
  52. PG

    sunil November 18th

    I dont have (Spectrum Analysis Animation Preset) can u plz tell me where can i get this
    or will u plz upload this for me so that i can use it for practise

    ( Reply )
  53. PG

    shira November 18th

    too bad the tutorial doesn’t work..it’s beautiful!!!!

    ( Reply )
  54. PG

    Lloyd April 20th

    I also updated the post with the link at the top.

    ( Reply )
  55. PG

    Lloyd May 5th

    Presets are run from the Animation menu within After Effects, not by double clicking.

    ( Reply )
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