A slightly different kind of image blending...

[TKS]

...at least for me, I haven't seen anything like this yet.
There's still plenty of room for fine-tuning, but I already like my first test.
Feedback appreciated!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF65Cvh6_Gc

[Terry Payman]

Awesome! Well done!

I would call this a transition rather than a blend, as its impact and appeal come from the dynamics of the changes and the moving textures.

Looks great on a phone so very effective in use for a music video. This test was hugely successful in my opinion.

Perhaps it wasn't part of the test but because the transition is so impactful that the timing with respect to the music seemed uncomfortable to me in quite a few places.
EDIT: Timing is so good for the majority of the video (where it significantly enhances the music) that the exceptions are conspicuous when IMHO the transitions work against the music.

I've only had a quick look, just after I woke up in the morning. I'll watch again on a big screen before commenting in more detail.

Once again, well done.
Very inspiring

[Terry Payman]

I've just watched again on my TV.
The blend/transition itself is wonderful. Most of the following is my feedback on the overall music video.

With regard to the timing of the transitions IMHO they were sometimes missing when expected at a significant change point in the music and generally too frequent in the calmer sections.

For a further refinement of the video my first priority would be at the beginning. The thumbnail for the video has glowing red eyes. Very striking. The opening scene has a blue sweep across that increases in brightness and partially illuminates the head. More impactful if the eyes glowed red as the blue swept across. Certainly I'd then use the transition as the voice comes in.

More thoughts to follow. I've just been tasked with cooking lunch!

[TKS]

Thanks a ton for your really detailed feedback, Terry.
MUCH appreciated!

The timing is the main problem at the moment.
Of course I _could_ do it by hand, but my main reason for using MMV is not to do too many things by hand.
What I would need is an Rand() function that has a trigger (instead of firing at the frame rate) so that I can switch to the next (random) frame at will.
Since my song has a lot of dynamics and also parts without drums, I'm still tinkering with how I can trigger a change based on the audio that fits the song.

As for the thumbnail, I've given YouTube three to choose from. If the red-eyed one wins, I might reuse it in this way somewhere in the future.
Good idea, thanks again.

[Terry Payman]

I'm very glad to help if I can. I found your transition/blend very inspiring and it has revived my interest in automating music video timing in Magic. I occasionally use Magic for music videos and timing is one of my main challenges.

... my main reason for using MMV is not to do too many things by hand ... Since my song has a lot of dynamics and also parts without drums, I'm still tinkering with how I can trigger a change based on the audio that fits the song ...

I need to do more work to develop my workflow, but my aim is to be able to trigger and modulate effects and scene changes in a realtime "performance" which I can later edit and fine trim.

One simple technique I found very useful is to create one or more audio control tracks which I use to trigger and modulate parameters. I add the control tracks to the Input Sources files along with the main music mix and mute all but the main mix. There's no hard limit to the number of audio files in Magic, and a low bitrate MP3 is sufficient.

A control track can have a tick any time you want to trigger something or a tone of varying volume to modulate an effect. I've used Audacity as a simple audio editor for control tracks. I've sometimes just audio edited a copy of the main mix, silencing sections where I don't want a particular effect.

A DAW can make the job much easier - especially if you have all the tracks or stems of the song available separately as additional control sources.
There are lots of variations possible. Adding MIDI tracks on the DAW hugely extends the control possibilities, and you can then easily program Magic scene changes at chosen points in a song. If you add multichannel software audio and MIDI routing from the DAW to Magic you can run realtime and effectively slave Magic to the DAW timeline. Export the DAW tracks and use them as the Magic Input Sources when you want to do the final Magic export.

[TKS]

One simple technique I found very useful is to create one or more audio control tracks which I use to trigger and modulate parameters. I add the control tracks to the Input Sources files along with the main music mix and mute all but the main mix. There's no hard limit to the number of audio files in Magic, and a low bitrate MP3 is sufficient.

That's exactly what I usually do (using stems), but with this song and technique it didn't work as easily as usual.
I think I'll go the MIDI route, and even if I have to add the trigger points in the MIDI track (more or less) by hand in my DAW, I only have to do it once, and it's probably the easiest approach to just play the song and hit my MIDI keyboard in the right places and export the MIDI track.

Thanks again, Terry.