We've all seen that effect in music videos in which a subject seems to glitch slightly to the beat of the song. I love that effect! It's kinetic and dynamic and a strange synesthetic experience that I've always wanted to use in my work, but figured it was much too complex and advanced for my limited expertise in VFX. However in this tutorial, editor Justin Odisho shows you just how simple (or at least, not super complicated) the effect is to create in Adobe After Effects, so you can be creating rhythmic particles in no time. Check it out below:

You don't need much to get started with this effect. The first thing you'll want to do is choose footage that has a dark background and clear subject, because the tool you're going to use in After Effects, Card Dance, uses your clip's light and dark areas to create the effect. From there, Odisho walks you through setting a few parameters, writing a simple expression, and then adjusting it all to your liking. He finishes up by showing you how to add an adjustment layer to add some color correction.

Odisho goes into more detail in a previous video, so if you want to learn more about how to make any effect react to audio, check out his tutorial below:

What are some other simple ways to make footage react to audio? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Justin Odisho

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Editing & Post-Production