Charlie T. – Seeing Sound

For my Senior Project, I composed a song and created an abstract animated video to go with it.

My name is Charlie Thackway, I am a multi-disciplinary artist using all forms, from digital art and design to drawing and collage. In the fall I will be going to art school at SAIC (School of the Art Institute of Chicago). In the last year before college I have delved much further into my work, taking design courses at FIT and RISD and exploring new mediums, in hopes that I can elevate my work to the next level.

In my project, I reflected that mindset of trying new things and decided to combine two interests of mine, animation, and music, although I had almost no experience in creating either. The first three weeks of my project were consumed by learning, where I took an online course in Adobe After effects (an animation software) and familiarized myself with Logic Pro (a music creation software).

I was then ready to create my song. For much of this year, I have been interested in House and various other genres of electronic music, so I decided to create an ambient electronic song that would go well with visuals. I started with a simple chord progression and built around it until I had my finished product. 

Then came the most laborious part of the project, creating my animated video. In it I chose not to tell a story, but instead to produce a visual representation of the song, emulating the trippy lights of a concert as well as creating an abstract digital feel throughout. I also incorporated text in the video to further convey emotion. After finishing this process I find it very interesting watching back to see the way I visualized different sections of my song.