Synth Aria
“Synth Aria is a fantastical and abstract view of the machine’s inner workings and the story of its own curious muse. The end result was visual aria.”
I am excited to share my work on MAKE & Crinimo’s Synth Aria!
A short film that I had the pleasure to create the visual language for.
My concept was to incorporate the process of machine learning with the act of playing musical instruments.
Visually, I chose to represent this by combining audio waveforms, strings, buttons, plucking, and AI neural networks.
Additionally, color was heavily used to show the internal process of the machine learning, and the external output of the actual song.
I chose AI as a subject for the film, however, no actual machine learning took place in order to create it.
Instead, I was interested in breaking down how machine learning works, and how each iteration of its work is better than the one that came before.
Below, are some of my designs, boards, and initial explorations!
the idea
The trick with this piece came down to being able to visually represent what an AI neural network looks like, and how it works, while maintaining a simple and bold visual language.
Additionally, I sought to combine data visualization with the aesthetics of audio waveforms and musical notes.
moodboard images belong to their respective owners
Initial explorations
animation
While my animation contribution to this film was short (just the opening shot, actually) — I was happy to build out the edit and figure out some of the overall animation direction of the piece. The talented team at Crinimo studio did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to animating Synth Aria!
Credits
For the full project breakdown, please visit the project page over at MAKE!
Music & Sound Design
Horner Music
Role
Design lead, Storyboarding, Initial animation exploration