BCC+ Audio Visualizer

Category: BCC Time

Effect Name: BCC+ Audio Visualizer

The BCC+ Audio Visualizer filter, part of the BCC Time category, is a graphics generator that produces an auto-animating visual graphical element, which reacts to frequency and amplitude changes based on input from an audio source.

The filter takes input from an audio source file and creates a visible audio waveform over the filtered source with an option to display the waveform using the frequency or time domain.

Audio frequencies are displayed across the horizontal (x) axis with lower frequencies to the left of the graph and higher frequencies are to the right. Audio amplitude is displayed along the vertical (y) axis with lower volume levels at the base of the graph and higher volume levels reaching toward the top of the graph.

A set of prebuilt and factory installed visualizer graphical elements, each of which have multiple elements that can be modified by the user, are available via the integrated FX Editor custom user interface. Animation of the visualizer graphic is handled by the audio input and does not require keyframe generation, however, keyframes can be added manually by the user should that be necessary to produce the desired result.

Mocha parameter tracking is included in the filter, which will enable the visualizer graphic to be pinned to an element in live action source footage or masked back to display only frequency ranges that are contained with the user defined mocha mask shapes.

Working with the Filter

FX Editor and Presets

• Use the FX Editor to load or save presets for reuse.
• To load a preset: Open the FX Editor, select a preset from the Presets panel, and click Apply to return to the host application.
• To save a custom preset: While in the FX Editor, click the Create Custom Preset icon in the parameter list, enter a preset name, and click Done. Additionally, a custom preset can be saved from the main menu bar by selecting File->Save Preset.
• To import custom presets from another drive: While in the FX Editor, select File->Import Preset from the main menu bar.

Effect Controls

Mocha Mask and Track

Continuum effects include integrated masking and matte tools that allow you to restrict the effect to specific regions of the image.

• Mocha masks: used to create custom spline masks. Mocha also includes Matte Assist ML and Matte Refine ML, which use machine learning to generate and track masks.
• Pixel Chooser: used to generate geometric shapes, gradients, or mattes based on channel, luma, or color-based selections. Additionally, an AI depth map generator, and an AI-powered face detection model allow for precise control of masks and mattes.

For more information, see Mocha and Pixel Chooser.

Compare Mode

The Compare Mode is used to view the filtered result alongside the original source layer. Several split-screen and side-by-side display options are available.

For more information, see Compare Mode.

• Select Audio: The Audiovisualizer effect requires an audio source file to generate its result. In the After Effects host you can select an audio file directly from the host timeline but in all other supported hosts, audio files must be imported into the effect via the Select Audio Source button, which, when clicked, will open a system level browser where you can select an audio file to work with.
• Host Layer: Available in After Effects only, selects an AE composition layer to use as the audio source.
• File Browser: All other hosts select an audio file via the file browser.
• Channel: Selects the audio channel used for the effect.
• Mixed: Selects both the left and the right audio channel.
• Left: Selects the left audio channel.
• Right: Selects the right audio channel.

Generator Group

The Generator group is where the basic look and feel of the Audio Visualizer graph is set. In this group you’ll find controls for setting the display style as either dots or solid bars. The generated waveform can be displayed in the time or frequency domain with control over the resolution of the displayed waveform.

• Audio Style: Selects the style of the generated display. There are two options:
• Waveform: Generates an audio waveform animation.
• Frequency: Generates a graph of the audio frequency.
• Vertical Style: Sets the overall look of the Audio Visualizer effect
• Bars: Represents the audio as a series of bars.
• Dots: Represents the audio as a series of dots.
• Single Dot: Represents the audio as a single dot that marks the highest point in the audio frequeny.
• Dot Style: Sets the look of the dot visualization. Not available when the Vertical Style Bars is set.
• Rectangle: The default look of rectangular dots.
• Ellipse: Rounded elliptical dots.
• Circle: Circular dots
• Half Circle: Half moon dots.
• Resolution: Sets the sensitivity of the visualization. Higher values will result in a more detailed display.
• Scale: Sets the overall size of the visualization elements. Higher values result in a larger graph.
• Width: Sets the overall width of the visualization elements. Higher values result in wider bars. Only available when Bar visualization is selected
• Height: Sets the overall height of the visualization elements. Higher values result in larger dots. Not available when Bar Visualization is selected.
• Density: Sets the distance between the dots. Higher values result in a more compact look to the graph. Not available if Bar Visualization is selected.
• Roundness: Sets the overall roundess of the bar graph. Higher values will result in a more eliptical top to the bar graph. Only available when Bar Visualization is selected, or when the dot style is set to rectangle.

Taper Group

• Enable: Toggles graph tapering on and off. When enabled Dot and Single Dot visualization will appear tapered. By Default, dots at the top of the graph will appear smaller than those at the bottom.
• Relative: When enabled the taper effect will be relative to the height of the visualization regardless of the individual graph height.
• Dual Axis: Available when the dot shape is set to Rectangle. When enabled the taper effect is applied to the X axis.
• Invert: By default the taper effect is applied so that the top of the graph appears smaller than the bottom. When enabled this effect is reversed, and the bottom appears smaller than the top.

The Peak Hold Group

• Enable: Toggles the Peak Hold effect on and off. When enabled, the top most position of the graph remains for a moment.
• Scale: Sets the overall scale of the peak dot.
• Scale X: Sets the overall scale of the peak dot along the X axis.
• Scale Y: Sets the overall scale of the peak dot along the Y axis.
• Falloff Time: Adjusts the length of time before the peak drops in seconds.

Waveform Group

The Waveform Group controls the overall look of the graph when the visualization is set to waveform. It is not available when Frequency is enabled.

• Style: Sets the overall look of the waveform visualization.
• Absolute Value: Sets the visualization to represent the actual waveform pattern of the audio.
• Range: Sets the visualization to represent the range between high values and lower audio values.
• Duration (ms): Sets the duration of the waveform represented in the graph. Higher values will represent a longer duration in milliseconds.
• Offset (ms): Sets the offset of the waveform representation in milliseconds.

Frequency Tuning Group

• Sub Bass (%): Sets the sensitivity of the sub bass visualization. Higher values represent increased sensitivity.
• Bass (%): Sets the sensitivity of the bass visualization. Higher values represent increased sensitivity.
• Mid-Range (%): Sets the sensitivity of the mid-range visualization. Higher values represent increased sensitivity.
• Treble (%): Sets the sensitivity of the treble visualization. Higher values represent increased sensitivity.
• Low Cutoff (dB): Sets the sensitivity of the low range cutoff. Higher values represent increased sensitivity and a lower frequency representation.
• Min Frequency (Hz): Sets the range of the minimum represented frequency.
• Max Frequency (Hz): Sets the range of the maximum represented frequency.
• Smoothness (%): Sets the range between the maximum and minimum represented frequency.
• Color: Sets the color. In its default state it is white. By selecting a color with the color chip, the color can be set to any RGB value. With the eyedropper, the color can be selected directly from the image pixels.

Gradient Group

The gradient group contains a user-definable 3-color gradient that is overlaid on the generated graph. As addition to providing control over the gradient colors and the overall size of the gradient, there are 4 corner pin controls so that you can accurately position the gradient over the generated graph.

• Enable: Toggles the gradient effect on and off.
• Color 1: Sets the color of the first position. In its default state it is red. By selecting a color with the color chip, the color can be set to any RGB value. With the eyedropper, the color can be selected directly from the image pixels.
• Color 2: Sets the color of the second position. In its default state it is amber. By selecting a color with the color chip, the color can be set to any RGB value. With the eyedropper, the color can be selected directly from the image pixels.
• Color 3: Sets the color of the third position. In its default state it is green. By selecting a color with the color chip, the color can be set to any RGB value. With the eyedropper, the color can be selected directly from the image pixels.

Grad Group

• Type: Determines the direction of the gradient

• Top-to-bottom: The direction of the gradient is from top to bottom.
• Bottom-to-top: The direction of the gradient is from bottom to top.
• Left-to-right: The direction of the gradient is from left to right.
• Right-to-left: The direction of the gradient is from right to left.

• Size: Sets the overall size of the gradient.
• Angle: Sets the angle of the gradient

The grad can also be corner pinned by adjusting the Corner Pin sliders as well as dragging the four points on the corners of the screen.

• Upper-Left: Controls the X and Y position of the Upper Left Point.
• Upper-Right: Controls the X and Y position of the Upper Right Point.
• Lower-Right: Controls the X and Y position of the Lower Right Point.
• Lower-Left: Controls the X and Y position of the Lower Left Point.

Pre Transform Group

The pre-transform group includes a full suite of 3D transform options including position xyz, tumble, spin, rotate shear xy and scale. As the name implies and its position in the filters UI control panel, this set of transforms does not take into account any of the effects that comes after it, such as mirror or polar warp.

• Position X/Y: Sets the graph position along the X/Y axis.
• Position Z: Sets the graph position in Z space.
• Scale: Sets the overall scale of the graph.
• Scale X: Sets the graph scale along the X axis.
• Scale Y: Sets the graph scale along the Y axis.
• Rotate: In addition to the standard position and scale controls, you can rotate. Positive values rotate clockwise and negative values rotate counter-clockwise.
• Tumble: Sets the graph position by tumbling it along the anchor point. Positive values tumble forward, while negative values tumble backwards.
• Spin: Sets the graph position by spinning it along the anchor point. Positive values spin forward, while negative values spin backwards.
• Shear X: Skews the graph left and right.
• Shear Y: Skews the graph up and down

Mirror Group

The Mirror option reflects the generator along its horizontal axis.

• Enable: Toggles the mirror effect on and off.
• Center XY: Sets the position of the reflected generator along the XY axis.
• Angle: Sets the angle of the reflected generator.
• Edge Mode: Determines how edges of the filtered frame are handled.

• No: No frames are repeated along the edge
• Tile: Tiles edge pixels to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.
• Reflect: reflects pixels back into the result to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.

Polar Warp Group

The Polar Warp group contains a suite of controls that wrap the generated graph around itself along a circular path and includes an inner and outer radius along with a swirl feature, enabling the generation of organic swirling results.

• Enable: Toggles the Polar Warp effect on and off.
• Angle: Sets the angle of the warp effect.
• Angle Repeats: Sets the number of times the warp effect angles back on itself. Higher values will create more complex warping.
• Center XY: Sets the center point of the warp along the x/y axis.
• Stretch X: Stretches the warped effect along the X axis.
• Stretch Y: Stretches the warped effect along the Y axis.
• Inner Radius: Adjusts the scale of the inner radius of the warp effect.
• Outer Radius: Adjusts the outer scale of the warp effect.
• Wrap X: Determines how edges of the warped effect are handled along the X axis.
• No: No frames are repeated along the edge
• Tile: Tiles edge pixels to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.
• Reflect: reflects pixels back into the result to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.
• Wrap Y: Determines how edges of the warped effect are handled along the Y axis.

• No: No frames are repeated along the edge
• Tile: Tiles edge pixels to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.
• Reflect: reflects pixels back into the result to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.

Global Transform Group

The Global Transform group includes a set of transforms that operate on the generated graph as a whole. This group provides a full suite of 3D transform options including position xyz, tumble, spin, rotate shear xy and scale along with anchor controls, which set the point in 3D space around which the entire generated graph is transformed. This group also includes crop, corner pin positioning features and motion blur control.

• Enable: Toggles the global transform effect on and off.

Crop

The image can be cropped by adjusting the various Crop parameters.

• Top: Crops the image from the top down.
• Bottom: Crops the image from the bottom up.
• Left: Crops the image from left to right.
• Right: Crops the image from right to left.

Corner Pin

The image can be corner pinned by adjusting the Corner Pin sliders as well as dragging the four points on the corners of the screen.

• Upper-Left: Controls the X and Y position of the Upper Left Point.
• Upper-Right: Controls the X and Y position of the Upper Right Point.
• Lower-Right: Controls the X and Y position of the Lower Right Point.
• Lower-Left: Controls the X and Y position of the Lower Left Point.

• Position: Sets the position along the x/y axis.
• Position X: Sets the horizontal position.
• Position Y: Sets the vertical position.

• Scale: Sets the scale of of the image.
• Scale X: Sets the horizontal scale.
• Scale Y: Sets the vertical scale.
• Gang Scale: The Scale X and Scale Y slider values can be ganged together. When enabled, the scale parameter will not display individual X and Y parameters.
• Tumble: Tumbles the image along the x axis.
• Spins: Spins the image along the y axis.
• Rotate: Rotates the image along teh z axis.
• Shear X: Skews left and right.
• Shear Y: Skews up and down.
• Anchor X: Defines the point on the X axis around which position, rotation, scaling or shearing takes place.
• Anchor Y: Defines the point on the Y axis around which position, rotation, scaling or shearing takes place.
• Camera: Sets the camera position along the x and y axis.
• Camera Z: Sets the camera distance from the image.
• Edge Mode: Determines how edges of the filtered frame are handled.

• Transparent: Allows the edge of the result to become transparent.
• Repeat: Repeats edge pixels to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.
• Reflect: Reflects pixels back into the result to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.
• Wrap: Wraps pixels back into the result to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.

Film Glow Group

One of the final stages in the effect includes a multi-stage FIlm Glow, which is used to add an overall filmic glow to the result.

• Enable: Enables independent controls for the glow parameters.
• Intensity: Sets the intensity of the glow result. Higher values yield a stronger glow across the image while lower values restrict the glow intensity.
• Color: Sets the color of the glow. In its default state the glow is white. By selecting a color with the color chip, the glow can be set to any RGB value. With the eyedropper, the glow color can be selected directly from the image pixels.
• Radius: Sets the radius over which the glow spreads to surrounding regions. Higher values will result in a larger, more diffuse glow, while lower values will create a more restricted glow.
• Radius X: Sets the width of the glow along the X axis. Higher values will result in a glow that is stretched horizontally along the X axis, while lower values will restrict the glow horizontally along the X axis.
• Radius Y: Sets the width of the glow along the Y axis. Higher values will result in a glow that is stretched vertically along the Y axis, while lower values will restrict the glow horizontally along the Y axis..
• Threshold: Sets the pixel values that are affected by the glow – a setting of 0 will apply a glow to all of the pixels in the input clip, while a setting of 100 will not apply any glow to the image.
• Glow From Alpha: The Glow From Alpha option generates the image glow from the alpha channel instead of or in addition to the color channels. The selection in the Glow From Alpha Mode determines how the alpha glow and the color channel glows are combined.
• Boost Alpha: Determines the sensitivity of alpha selection.
• Glow under Source: Generates the image glow underneath the source image.
• Edge Mode: Determines how edges of the filtered frame are handled.
• Transparent: Allows the edge of the result to become transparent.
• Repeat: Repeats edge pixels to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.
• Reflect: Reflects pixels back into the result to generate opaque pixels along the edge of the result.

RGB Independent Group

• Red Scale: Sets the scale of the red glow uniformly. Higher values will increase the scale along the X and Y axis.
• Green Scale: Sets the scale of the green glow uniformly. Higher values will increase the scale along the X and Y axis.
• Blue Scale: Sets the scale of the blue glow uniformly. Higher values will increase the scale along the X and Y axis.

Secondary Glow Group

• Enable Secondary Glow: Toggles secondary glow controls.
• Link Glow Intensity: Links secondary glow to the main glow intensity parameter.
• Intensity: Sets the intensity of the glow result. Higher values yield a stronger glow across the image while lower values restrict the glow intensity.
• Color: Sets the color of the glow. In its default state the glow is white. By selecting a color with the color chip, the glow can be set to any RGB value. With the eyedropper, the glow color can be selected directly from the image pixels.
• Radius: Sets the radius over which the glow spreads to surrounding regions. Higher values will result in a larger, more diffuse glow, while lower values will create a more restricted glow.
• Radius X: Sets the width of the glow along the X axis. Higher values will result in a glow that is stretched horizontally along the X axis, while lower values will restrict the glow horizontally along the X axis.
• Radius Y: Sets the width of the glow along the Y axis. Higher values will result in a glow that is stretched vertically along the Y axis, while lower values will restrict the glow horizontally along the Y axis.
• Glow Desaturation: This function alters the glow result by adjusting the chroma values that are used for the input. At 0 the function has no effect on the result generating a traditional film glow, increasing the value in this parameter yields a result that looks colder and less saturated.
• Threshold: Used to set the pixel values that are affected by the glow – a setting of 0 will apply a glow to all of the pixels in the input clip, while a setting of 100 will not apply any glow to the image.
• Glow under Source: Generates the image glow underneath the source image.

Color Correct Group

• Hue: Sets the hue of the effect
• Saturation: Determines the saturation of the effect. Higher values create a more intense color saturation than lower values.
• Brightness: Sets the brightness of the effect. Higher values create more intense highlights than lower values.
• Contrast: Sets the contrast of the effect. Higher values create a more intense contrast between light and dark pixels than lower values.
• Gamma: Sets the gamma of the effect.
• Temperature: Sets the temperature of the effect. Moving the Temperature slider to the left (negative values) will yield a cooler result, while moving the slider to the right will warm up the shot.
• Cyan/Magenta: Sets the amount of cyan/magenta in the image. Moving the slider to the left (negative values) will add a cyan tint, while moving the slider to the right will add a magenta tint.
• Red: Sets the value of the red color channel. Higher values increase the influence of the red color channel than lower values.
• Green: Sets the value of the green color channel. Higher values increase the influence of the blue color channel than lower values.

Background Group

The Background group sets the graphic to composite over transparency, solid color, a user defined gradient or even the filtered source.

• Background Mode: Selects the background compositing.
• None: No compositing. The visualization appears over black with no source image beneath.
• Source: Composites the visualizer over the source image.
• Solid Color: Composites the visualizer over a solid color
• Gradient: Composites the visualizer over a gradient.
• Color: Sets the color of the background when the mode is set to solid. In its default state it is black. By selecting a color with the color chip, the color can be set to any RGB value. With the eyedropper, the color can be selected directly from the image pixels.
• Mix with Original: Blends the source and filtered images. Use this parameter to animate the effect from the unfiltered to the filtered image without adjusting other settings, or to reduce the effect of the filter by mixing it with the source image.
• GPU Rendering:Specifies how the effect is rendered.
  • Default: Uses product-wide default of 16 bit half-float GPU rendering.
  • 16 Bit Float: Manually force 16 bit half-float GPU rendering.
  • 32 Bit Float: Manually force 32 bit full-float GPU rendering.
  • Disabled: Forces CPU rendering.