Topic: Owl City-Fireflies Music Video help

Hey everybody! I'm a fan of the "band" Owl City. I'm planning to make a lego version of his song, Fireflies. (Yes, I know there are already about 15 different versions already made in lego, I just wanted to make my own version) So I need help on lip syncing. How do I accurately plan out the film in order to sync the animation up with the actual music and voices?

Thanks!
-Grant Benson
GHB Productions

Re: Owl City-Fireflies Music Video help

Here's what I would do (I've never actually tried it yet, but I imagine it will work):

Go to a certain spot in the audio where you want a particular movement to start. Copy down what the timecode says. Go to the spot where you want the movement to end. Copy down that timecode. Subtract the two numbers. Divide that number by your framerate. The number you get is the number of frames the synced movement will be.
(This also works for figuring out the time between movements.)

Not literally dead, just no longer interested in Lego or animation.

Re: Owl City-Fireflies Music Video help

minifig051 wrote:

Here's what I would do (I've never actually tried it yet, but I imagine it will work):

Go to a certain spot in the audio where you want a particular movement to start. Copy down what the timecode says. Go to the spot where you want the movement to end. Copy down that timecode. Subtract the two numbers. Divide that number by your framerate. The number you get is the number of frames the synced movement will be.
(This also works for figuring out the time between movements.)

Sorry, but do you think you could be a little more specific? Here's what I'm planning to do for the first part: The piano is being played from a side angle using a computer pan. (extra info, I know) Whatever.

How exactly do I count the beats, or notes in each second to line up with the animation?

Re: Owl City-Fireflies Music Video help

GHB Productions wrote:

Sorry, but do you think you could be a little more specific? Here's what I'm planning to do for the first part: The piano is being played from a side angle using a computer pan. (extra info, I know) Whatever.

How exactly do I count the beats, or notes in each second to line up with the animation?

Just do what I told you.

If you want a specific example (almost wrote exaMLPe): What you want synced is the piano player playing the piano to the music. The spot (almost wrote spit) the note is heard is when you want the player's hand on a key. This is the end of the movement. The previous note is the beginning of the movement, when the hand is on a different key. Do my method, and you should get the number of frames it will take for the player to lift off one key and press another.

Figuring out how many notes are in a second won't work; the notes being irregular. But it would work if you want to sync a movement to a regular beat: find out the amount of frames from one beat to the next (using my method) and you'll know how many frames are between each beat.

Also, never use computer pans. In-shot pans look so much better because of perspective; If a camera (or your eye, for that matter) is moving across a space, the closer objects will appear to move by faster than distant objects. A computer-generated pan can't replicate this, which is why it doesn't look right.

Not literally dead, just no longer interested in Lego or animation.

Re: Owl City-Fireflies Music Video help

Ok, from what you said there, forget the whole thing. I'll figure out some way do it. And also, I agree with you that doing a pan with an actual camera is much better, but whenever I try doing it, it just turns out baloney.

Also, in your method, you said to subtract the end time with the start time, am I wrong? Well, The first action starts at 0 seconds. iTunes only does seconds, ex: not 1.4 seconds. How do I figure this out?

Last edited by GHB (October 6, 2012 (09:04pm))

Re: Owl City-Fireflies Music Video help

You COULD download Audacity, and then accurately select pieces of the song to get a precise measure.

Also dude I am totally looking forward to this video that's a really pretty song that you've chosen to make a brickfilm so good luck mini/smile

Re: Owl City-Fireflies Music Video help

topitmunkeydog wrote:

You COULD download Audacity, and then accurately select pieces of the song to get a precise measure.

Also dude I am totally looking forward to this video that's a really pretty song that you've chosen to make a brickfilm so good luck mini/smile


Actually, I've had Audacity for awhile now, and I use it for my voicing. But I've never thought of that! I'll try it, thanks!