Serration Media - Audio Engineering and Teaching

Dark Skies – Art in Motion Video

With the video for our 3rd release, we decided to go for a more upfront narrative to compliment the song’s storyline.

This track is a hard-hitting powerhouse, and we set up the visual to reflect its intensity.

The idea was to create a city and have it appear to be decimated by the threat of the piece.
A displacement map was laid out using f-curves to illustrate the appearance of constant motion and destruction (fig.1 and fig.2).

  • fig. 1
  • fig. 2

The next step was laying out the volumetrics to make the video feel more layered and provide tangible depth between the camera and the main focus (fig 3).

  • fig. 3

With this complete, it was on to creating the text (fig. 4 & 5)

  • fig. 4 – New object “text” added.
  • fig. 5 – Texture is attached

We then textured it and placed it in as the backdrop to our video (fig. 6).

  • fig.6

The last step in the initial setup was to add lights, having them sweep through the buildings as if they collapsed when moving forward towards the light (fig.7).

  • fig.7

This adds the illusion of a mysterious force driving the narrative as well as adding additional action, and a nice cyberpunk feel to the scene.

For the chorus, we had the camera lift up through the atmosphere, coming up close and personal to the vessels.

The video needed a break up in theme once the interlude cut in, so we had the camera zoom in close, then tumble down as if we were pulled in and cast from the vessel (fig.8 and fig.9)

  • fig.8
  • fig.9

We reintroduced letterboxing to gain focus on the action, then went on to add a slow colour drain to signify the change, adding some effects such as grain filters and an overlay for the scratched-up, aged film look. (fig. 10)
This inserted a passage of time, feeling that the attack continued over a longer period.
The attack then feels relentless.

  • fig. 10
  • fig. 11

Once this was all complete, we added title cards, beginning and end. (fig. 12 & fig. 13)

  • fig. 12
  • fig. 13

Fade-ins and fade-outs were keyframed along with the titles to give the video a cinematic look (fig. 14).

  • fig. 14

The final step was to add some gamma correction to the video, to help highlight elements of the terrain, and prevent details from being lost during both light and dark moments.
(fig. 15 & fig. 16)

  • fig. 15 – Gamma 8
  • fig. 16 – Gamma 10

We were then ready to render.

All in all, this is a very complex video to undertake, but the overview has a simplistic feel that doesn’t get too busy for the viewer.
This was another video we enjoyed creating.
The outcome as well as the overall aesthetic is one we found to be both pleasing to the eye, as well as entertaining.

W4RM3CH4N1C – Bustin’ Walls

Music Production:
Bustin’ Walls is W4RM3CH4N1C’s first release for 2021.
Having its roots in EDM, the track itself starts in familiar enjoyable territory for W4R. A soft vocal lead-in lends a relaxed atmosphere and floats the listener in, accompanied by a hypnotic beat.
The synths round out the sound and maintain head-nodding bounce. The chorus kicks in the way you’d expect any new addiction to strike you.
This track is fun to listen to, would be the welcome company to a great weekend, good times with good friends, and on your favourite playlist.

Animation:
The first step was in the creation of the great retro logo in place on top of the action. With things like this, the beauty lies in simplicity. Sharp, professional lines will give it instant recognisability.
Many iterations of the logo were designed (fig.1) before settling on the final one (fig.2)
The remit behind the logo was clean lines and a slick feel. A glossy easy glass texture was added and this stage was complete.

fig.1
fig.2

Setting intrigue is an important part of a visualizer, as you need to keep the audience engaged not only with the track but also the dynamic elements.

This is the fun part.
A back wall was set up, once again using PBR textures (fig.3)

fig.3

The logo was then placed into the scene, and a lightning animation was added. This gave the whole scene some great extra lighting effects and meant the action wasn’t entirely reliant on the probe lights, and the visualizer itself.

Forefront view of lightning setup for the Title text, and lightning for the logo at the rear.
Lightning set up for the logo
Logo in place with lightning added

The title of the track was added into the scene as well as the titles, which was then set up in front of the lightning setup to complete the look.

The next step was to add the visualiser. To make things more interesting, the visualiser was programmed to pulse in time with the Music, and bloom during the Chorus (fig. 4).

fig.4

Individual bars were created in series as part of the visualiser then copied the required number of times. As is required with a visualiser in blender, the audio was then baked into the F-curves (fig.5) to provide the animation and move along with the music as it should.

fig.5 – Audio Baked into F-curves (highlighted)

The final touch was to add an emission shader, with a colour ramp node.
This throws out some real eye candy to complement the Neon bars, and make the video pop.
We hope you enjoy this track and reading about the process by which the visualiser is created.
We look forward to taking you through other tracks in the near future.

Lemon Powder – Spinning Hammer

Animation:
This was one of our shorter projects.
Some Foley work to be used as a gaming asset.
We used Cubase to line up the animation with some nice swing and slam SFX from our studio library.

Images – © Lemon Powder – 2021

Beseech The Scars – Access All Areas

For this video, we decided to create a visualiser in its more traditional sense, but with a Serration Studios twist. The song itself is an aggressive, powerful and lively track. It kicks off right up in your face and doesn’t relent.
The Vocals are scathing, the Guitars are brutal in their emotional delivery.
If the Drums were an athlete, they’d be a heavyweight pugilist with the accompanying Basslines shouting out instructions from the ropes.

Read Music Interview Magazine.com’s review here:
Beseech The Scars: A Prog Metal Playlist And Video Must

As powerful as the song is, what was needed from the video was to keep the focus on the song, while not removing the viewer from the experience. A problem not easily met, but one that was solved.
The idea we arrived at was to give the video a hypnotic feel. The use of clever, yet subtle lighting was introduced to keep pace with the mood of the song and provide visual cues to the viewer.
The pulsating walls were again the genius of blender’s F-curves (fig.1).
The undulating floors were programmed using the same technique, and when it all comes together, it pulls focus into the centrepiece, the Beseech The Scars logo (fig.2).

fig.1
fig.2

To keep the viewers captivated, the F-curves were cleverly modified to drift the audience in on a soft wave via the floor (fig.3) with the walls programmed to do the hard-hitting leg work.
This kept it exciting and maintained the momentum (fig.4).
The Back wall then served as a “buffer” to keep the eyes fixated and prevent the view from softening or moving beyond the confines of the room (fig.5).

fig.3
fig.4
fig.5

For the overall look, we wanted to create a sci-fi meets a clean, crisp hospital wall feel inspired by the work of Stanley Kubrick, and the “White Room Torture” cells (fig.6).

fig.6

It all comes across as welcoming, albeit unsettling.
You are safe in your viewing environment, but are your eyes safe from what you’re being invited to watch, and from what your subconscious conjures up?
The walls are clean and clear, but is your mind creating the images, or are they being presented to you?
The feeling of catharsis and uncertainty weave into the song seamlessly.
We have many other plans to use visualizer’s and look forward to playing with ideas that can be utilised in blender.
This video may have been a quicker turnaround, but it didn’t come without its challenges.
As with many things, often the most simple ideas can be fraught with complications.

Beseech The Scars – Whilst Hidden

Production:
Whilst Hidden is a 7-string stomper, with a good, groovy bounce.
The Theme of the song has not yet been revealed, although there are some clues within the lyrics if you listen hard enough.
This was recorded using Steinberg’s Cubase 10, a product that we’ve long since sworn by, recorded on the ever-reliable Aston Spirit (a personal favourite of Rev’s), using Ibanez Guitars, and the 5-string Dingwall NG2.
The song itself blasts along with unforgiving intensity.
The seven-string guitars attack mercilessly to meet the vocal melody born of pure scorn.

Animation:
The concept we arrived at was a lyric video with a more involved experience.
We created a city scene from an asset pack to take the viewer on a first-person flight through a vibrant industrial city, one that captures the evocation provided by the low-tuned guitars in its grimy walls and inviting advertising, dirty, thumping basslines in its unforgiving streets, and blast beats reflected in the moody lights that hold the atmosphere.

We started with a small asset pack that was expanded and manipulated to look bigger and more complex.
Lending a sense of depth to the city was important, which meant the use of bridges and elevating or shrinking the buildings and the use of clever camera work (fig.1).

  • fig.1

The next step was to set up lighting rigs throughout the map in order to keep the user’s view illuminated, and capture the city’s true feeling of desperation and hopelessness (fig.2).

To build on the depth aspect, an irradiance volume was introduced into the scene (fig.3) to not only invoke a feeling of claustrophobia but to also set in a sense of darkness, highlighting the life going on inside the buildings of which our hero neither welcomes nor do they wish to be an active part. This city belongs to them, and they move as freely as they wish.

  • fig.2
  • fig.3

The next challenge was inserting the lyrics, which were first laid out and left outside the city to be able to call upon later (fig.4 & fig5).

  • fig.4
  • fig.5

We used a fun technique using the text to create the Neon Text and applied it to our font, making it our own using a similar node tree setup, for other parts of the scene (Seen in fig.7).
The next part was one of the most complex; setting the animations for the lyrics (fig.8), and placing them where needed (fig.6).

  • fig.6
  • fig.7
  • fig.8

We wanted to create a real feeling of someone at times barging through objects and kicking things out of their way to enforce the relentless nature of the song – see fig.9.
We saw the character as a person with a goal to achieve, and a planned route through the city, so to have them decimate the things in their path helped to create an air of realism, and brought the video itself to life.
Giving the words and letters characters of their own gave the video a slightly more organic and at times comedic feel. It wasn’t enough to simply let the camera do the work for us but to invite a sense of this city living and breathing, having the words be its citizens going about their lives, having their day interrupted by our hidden protagonist.

fig.9

As a final slice of fun, (as animators often do to prevent themselves from going insane) we inserted little Easter eggs for Eagle-eyes.
Small remarks help weave the lyrics into the scenes as neon signage.
There are many others hidden within the video. The photo below is one such example.

All in all, this is a video of which we’re very proud and like to revisit often.
Judging by the views it’s received, it’s something others like to revisit also.

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