Well, HERE'S a different kind of post to the user showcase! And it's also a different way to use Band in a Box!
A friend of mine on the Muvizu forum is working on a couple of running series, and he needed a theme song for the beginning of each episode, and an instrumental version for the end when the credits roll. I agreed to make his theme songs, and here's a link to the first video that uses it; but first, a little background:
The series is about a little grey alien who keeps getting sent to earth on abduction missions... but he's an idiot and he always screws up. It is very reminiscent of the old Coyote/Roadrunner cartoons from the 60s. The animator is a VERY good 3D modeller, and an awful lot of his props were his own creation... including the moving cows, which don't exist in Muvizu!
Lyrics: He snuck across the border of space and time... he wants to abduct what's your and mine.. from outer space to Roswell he travelled so fast... but when he got to earth you know we kicked his [*****]... He's an Alien Grey.... and he just won't go away!
His leader out in space will always send him back... he screws up every mission, little grey dude don't know jack! he's often seen by earthlings and is frequently reported but there ain't a chance in hell that he'll ever be deported He's an alien grey... he just won't go away! He's an Alien Grey.. I'm afraid he's here to stay!
the video: (posted with permission from the animator)
Thanks Trev! I'll send the Animator (Clay Triche) a link to this thread as I'm sure he will be greatly encouraged by your kind words! The Muvizu forum is pretty supportive in terms of helping with the software, but they aren't as inclined to comment on peoples' projects.
This is so marvelous, Pat. So clever and funny. You did your friend proud with the music. I would think it would be very difficult writing music for a video as it is so vital that the music match the emotion. You nailed it. The one liners are also funny in the clip. The one by the cows after the dog pees on the bush and electrocutes Grey Alien is priceless. "I've heard of electrical shock treatments, but that looked like it hurt." "Yep." Ha, ha, ha...too funny! I am once again amazed by the versatility of BIAB. Magnificent work. Thanks for sharing this. Enjoy your weekend. -Carolyne
great fun. Great musical theme. Perfectly done. The music in the video is good, too. Who made it? I watched two times and enjoyed it a lot.
Guenter
it's my understanding that he acquired the music that plays during the scenes from a royalty free site online. I agree that it is really good for a cartoon video! Stuff like that is outside my pay grade, but there's an opportunity there for somebody!
The software for making pro quality video has EXPLODED recently, and the ability to make original films with amazing special effects has never been more available to the masses.
As a result, there are LOTS of people making original films, and they all need theme songs, etc. With thousands of people hitting the royalty free sites, it doesn't take long to start hearing the same music in multiple films, so...
The historical way to get music into a project was to submit to a library... but now having a presence on a video forum gives you an edge because other users know you by name.
One such software product is HIT FILM... it's miles ahead of everything else, and a presence on their forum would almost certainly lead to some opportunities for collaboration!
This is so marvelous, Pat. So clever and funny. You did your friend proud with the music. I would think it would be very difficult writing music for a video as it is so vital that the music match the emotion. You nailed it. The one liners are also funny in the clip. The one by the cows after the dog pees on the bush and electrocutes Grey Alien is priceless. "I've heard of electrical shock treatments, but that looked like it hurt." "Yep." Ha, ha, ha...too funny! I am once again amazed by the versatility of BIAB. Magnificent work. Thanks for sharing this. Enjoy your weekend. -Carolyne
Thanks Carolyne! You just reminded me that I also need to send a link to this thread to the young lady who provided her voice for the cows! She will enjoy reading your comments I'm sure!
Regarding the task of matching lyrics and character emotions: we did that backwards. The animator took the song and used his own discretion to create scenes that mirror the lyrics!
Kids could be singing this for the rest of their lives! It could become a Jeopardy question. Or at least a drinking-game dare... "Sing Alien Grey!" HA!
It does just what it needs to do (like all those classics) and is the perfect length...
Well done!
(tell Clay that his text screens go away too soon. I was not finished reading any of them before they moved on...) And tell him to make your credit easy to read!!!! You deserve that...
Pat, I think you've found a great niche. You have a feel for this type of thing. I agree with floyd that the screens moved too quickly. I get the feeling your creative juices are just getting started. Great job. Tom
This is cool stuff to be doing, Pat. You could become famous! Seems like you are "in the right place at the right time" - with the right tools.
my minimal contribution aside, I do think that BIAB is the right tool for the job. You start with a theme and match it up with a style, add a hook (in this case it was the spooky whistle that always played in the 60s sci-fi flicks) and add just enough lyrics to describe the story in a nutshell!
Kids could be singing this for the rest of their lives! It could become a Jeopardy question. Or at least a drinking-game dare... "Sing Alien Grey!" HA!
LOL! I like the way you think! And I hope it works out well for Clay
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It does just what it needs to do (like all those classics) and is the perfect length...
Well done!
I thought the length was about right, but after watching the first video, I'll be removing a verse... and probably clean it up a bit for kids.
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(tell Clay that his text screens go away too soon. I was not finished reading any of them before they moved on...) And tell him to make your credit easy to read!!!! You deserve that...
yes, he's heard that from several people already... at the moment he's a talented amateur, and he has a learning curve ahead of him to bump it up a notch. If he's the kind of guy who can take constructive criticism without getting offended, he'll do well. Regarding my credit, I've already told him to ditch it completely or at most make it a small note in the final credits.
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Fun stuff.
floyd
Thanks for the detailed and interesting review... Clay asked me to thank you and everybody else who responded!
Very cool Pat!! Great song. Perfect feel for such a cartoon. Who did the vocal? It was very well done! Take care. Greg
FWIW, I did the vocal Greg. As a cover song musician I try to adapt my voice to each song, and that was my Tom Petty voice (more or less)
I struggled with style selection... (what does a country style have to do with aliens?)... but Clay lives in Texas, and I hoped his friends, the ones he most hopes will like his series, would latch onto it.
There is also an implied hook to the illegal alien sub theme, which in Texas is a topic about which some people have strong opinions. I hope the C&W style will be a good match for his target audience. Thanks for weighing in... I always enjoy hearing your thoughts.. not just on my songs but on everybody's!
How do you do this ? I´m awed at both animation and that little cute rockabilly !!!
Cheers Dani
Hi Dani, The animator is a young man named Clay Triche from Texas, so any kind words about the story can go to him! It's hard to describe his accomplishments here... an awful lot of what's cool in this video is NOT part of Muvizu at all.. it's stuff he either created or added with post processing special effects.
And regarding the rockabilly theme... any praise should go directly to PGMusic... I pretty much picked a 3 chord progression and hit the GO button. Although I was fairly pleased with the lyrics... that's about all I can claim as original content in the song. Oh, I also played the spooky whistle on my synthesizer. ;-)
Pat, I think you've found a great niche. You have a feel for this type of thing. I agree with floyd that the screens moved too quickly. I get the feeling your creative juices are just getting started. Great job. Tom
Thanks for the encouraging words and helpful observations, Tommy! I like to think that the learning curve for both of us is somewhere along the lines of "90% down, 90% to go" (the last 10% seems to take as long or longer than the first 90%)
Whether or not I make any more themes for Clay remains to be seen.. but I'll be watching for others who are making good films and using stock audio. It is an interesting niche, and I'd like to see more BIAB enthusiasts getting involved.
My son plays in a jazz band. Several of the songs that are most enthusiastically received by the audience at every gig are theme songs from movies and TV shows.
I've been at gigs where there was very little audience interaction going on until the band played a theme song (The Jeffersons, The Pink Panther, etc) and the room filled up instantly with people who were singing along!
STRONG audience identification! And it seems to be predictable and consistent.
Well, first...... the Alien Grey Theme: That sounds really cool! The animation: we love it, loads of fun, it's obvious you really know how to master Muvizu in a very advanced way. (Could we download the moving cows somewhere?) Definitely a great job from the both of you!
We are Rob Meulman and Anne-Marie Bovenkamp from The Netherlands.
Well, first...... the Alien Grey Theme: That sounds really cool!
thank you for the kind words.. I'm hearing them a bit sheepishly since I didn't invest much time in this (yet) Clay actually took my rough draft and ran with it... hopefully I'll get it cleaned up soon..
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The animation: we love it, loads of fun, it's obvious you really know how to master Muvizu in a very advanced way. (Could we download the moving cows somewhere?) Definitely a great job from the both of you!
Clay (who goes by the name CLAYSTER2012 on the Muvizu forum) has been very generous about sharing his models. But up until now he has done spoofs of other peoples' intellectual property, so he wasn't really invested in what he gave away.
I have a feeling that he might be a bit more protective of his proprietary characters. If you are on the Muvizu forum, you could message him and ask.
If he doesn't want to let them go, I'd be happy to model just about anything you want... provided I can work on it as time allows.
Muvizu doesn't include ANY 4 legged creatures... so Clay modelled his cows in pieces then creates movement with keyframes... (Keyframes are part of an inexpensive add-on pack which I recommend strongly... maybe not yet, but once you've gotten more familiar with the core features, you'll find that keyframes open up a lot of new capability. You would need the Keyframing expansion pack before Clay's cow would be useful)
Pat Nice project - obviously having some fun with that. (His Star Wars spoofs are Lots of work in that - nice use of sound effects and of course a catchy theme song. Can't go wrong.
Great theme song and your 'tom petty' voice was a good match for the song.
I thought the cartoon was well written and wonderfully produced. The animator is very talented.
Good job all around. Don't be afraid to follow this niche market. You are well placed to take advantage of it and have the talent and knowledge of the video process to quickly rise to the top -- and stay there!!!
You have expertize in both worlds. You could be to animation music what Col. Sanders is to chicken.
Pat Nice project - obviously having some fun with that. (His Star Wars spoofs are Lots of work in that - nice use of sound effects and of course a catchy theme song. Can't go wrong.
Hi Peter! The fact that you know about Clayster's famous Star War's Spoofs tells me you've been on the Muvizu forum recently! I'd have to agree that he has verifiable talent as an animator, which is why I wanted to provide him with his own proprietary theme songs to nudge him in the direction of pursuing his own projects.
People love anything related to Star Wars, and he gets lots of praise for his spoofs... but in the final analysis, all the time he invests can't be developed into an enterprise because he doesn't own the intellectual rights to Star Wars. If anything, his success could become a legal liability!
With his own theme songs, his own ideas and an incredible natural talent coupled with youthful zeal, I'm interested in watching to see how Clayster's videos build a following. He deserves to be rewarded for all his efforts, and I hope life deals him some aces.
This is very cool Pat. You have found your niche with these types of projects.
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Great theme song and your 'tom petty' voice was a good match for the song.
Hey Charlie! Good to hear from you! I owe you and your lovely wife a steak dinner, and sometime this year I plan to pay up! Maybe September? Thanks for your VERY kind (generous even!) comment on my "Tom Petty voice" (really, any comment that isn't a flat-out request to shut up is greatly appreciated!) ;-)
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I thought the cartoon was well written and wonderfully produced. The animator is very talented.
I agree, and I hope he visits this forum to see the praise he's getting... the other forum tends to be more critical. Lots of people post their original stuff on the Muvizu forum.. and there are some VERY talented people there... but I think Clay is particularly talented and with a little cultivating could develop very quickly into a pro
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Good job all around. Don't be afraid to follow this niche market. You are well placed to take advantage of it and have the talent and knowledge of the video process to quickly rise to the top -- and stay there!!!
I agree that it's a GREAT niche market and I'll add that it is absolutely on FIRE right now with all the new activity in film making software!
But I'm not a contender for success. I'm more of a trend watcher. I will hang around the edges of both forums and make observations that I hope other people (with much more talent, but who are so focused on their art that they might not notice the trends) might recognize an opportunity in one of my observations and use their talent to actualize it.
It has been said that "those who can..DO; those who can't... TEACH"; I'll add "Those who can't do or teach hang out in forums and do whatever it is that I do" ;-)
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You have expertize in both worlds. You could be to animation music what Col. Sanders is to chicken.
HAHAHAH! Charlie... you are the quote master! You should be in advertising!
This is very cool Pat. You have found your niche with these types of projects.
Thanks Josie! It's a niche that works for me, and I'm having fun with it!
I think that BIAB is useful in more ways than the user showcase might suggest to potential customers. The showcase has done a GREAT job of showing that high quality original songs can be created with BIAB.
But above and beyond singer-song writer stuff, there is a music marketplace for Jingles, ads for radio, TV and the internet, Music for TV and movies... and now an explosion of opportunity to provide music for an almost unlimited number of amateur video and game producers
All of these software booms have a common denominator: SPEED + QUALITY wins.
BIAB is head and shoulders above all the other music making solutions because it enables us to actualize reasonably polished demos almost immediately. Once the prototype is presented and accepted, you can take whatever time is necessary to polish it. But EVERYBODY wants (and needs) to move quickly.
I'm just laying that very obvious thought on the table for anybody with the talent and drive to run with it.
This is so great and marvelous. And very nice musical theme fitted to the video very well. As Josie said, I also think you have found your niche with these types of projects. Big fun and cool. This animation reminded me of Tim Burton’s film “Mars Attacks!” a little bit. Enjoyed my watching this cartoon movie a lot.
This is so great and marvelous. And very nice musical theme fitted to the video very well. As Josie said, I also think you have found your niche with these types of projects. Big fun and cool. This animation reminded me of Tim Burton’s film “Mars Attacks!” a little bit. Enjoyed my watching this cartoon movie a lot.
Best Regards.
Shigeki Adachi
Thanks for taking time to listen and comment! I know the animator appreciates your kind words about his work, and I certainly do too!
I agree with your observation about the film "MARS ATTACKS"
Pat, this is very cool! What a great use for BIAB! It makes TOTAL sense to me to use it for projects like this. But it's not just "a good idea" now. You made it happen! Great job! I have to say as well, it's REALLY catchy! It's stuck in my head now!
Chad (Hope that makes it easier)
TEMPO TANTRUM: What a lead singer has when they can't stay in time.
It's about time you started showcasing your talents on the user showcase
I always admire folks who can create on demand. The worst possible scenario for me to attempt creativity would be if I were given certain parameters and had to produce something that worked.
For folks able to do this I certainly agree that new avenues lie ahead. BTW, I read yesterday that Dick Van Dyke at 90 is working daily with animation software (and he goes to the gym every morning).
This is really great to watch and all of the background information makes it even more so. With your knowledge of the software and musical talents including BiaB skills you outghta be well positioned to explore these opportunities.
Pat, this is very cool! What a great use for BIAB! It makes TOTAL sense to me to use it for projects like this. But it's not just "a good idea" now. You made it happen! Great job! I have to say as well, it's REALLY catchy! It's stuck in my head now!
I was especially interested in hearing your thoughts, Caaron, since I know that you are one who uses BIAB for Jingles and other presentations that are more like "Band Outside The Box". Glad to hear your observation about catchiness... because it is totally earwormed here, and I figured that was just because of all the time spent playing it over and over and over again trying to dial it in.
Thanks for taking time to watch and comment! The animator has asked me to pass his thanks along to everybody... (I sent him the thread's link so he can check in and reads the comments)
It's about time you started showcasing your talents on the user showcase
well... at least I'm finally posting something... the talent part is still debatable... ;-)
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I always admire folks who can create on demand. The worst possible scenario for me to attempt creativity would be if I were given certain parameters and had to produce something that worked. For folks able to do this I certainly agree that new avenues lie ahead.
interesting perspective... I have tried MANY times to write serious songs, and so far have not been successful. Goofy songs flow like water, however, and that may be because I give myself permission to take liberties because they're disposable in a way. Quickly heard, quickly forgotten. If listenin' music ain't good it offends the soul, and I don't want that much responsibility!
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BTW, I read yesterday that Dick Van Dyke at 90 is working daily with animation software (and he goes to the gym every morning).
sounds like somebody else I know who works with music software and rides bikes up the sides of mountains! (I won't name names...)
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This is really great to watch and all of the background information makes it even more so. With your knowledge of the software and musical talents including BiaB skills you outghta be well positioned to explore these opportunities.
it's true that I'm an explorer, but I'm not much of a discoverer. I seem to lack the ability to figure out the things everybody else learns and masters quickly. But that's OK, because for me its the journey more than the destination.
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Again, very very cool!!! Kudos to the two of you.
J&B
Your encouragement is greatly appreciated, and I mean that sincerely.
You know the expression LOL? It actually applied here! THAT was funny!
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Glad to hear your observation about catchiness... because it is totally earwormed here, and I figured that was just because of all the time spent playing it over and over and over again trying to dial it in.
Two things-
1st it's catchy without having to hear it over and over. I only had time to listen to it the one time at first, and it was caught in my head!
2nd-I feel for you having to hear something catching over and over! I've gone to be TRYING to get earworms out of my head.
You surely have a gift in writing "catchy" to ad into your many other talents. Impressive Pat! Thank you for sharing this!
Chad (Hope that makes it easier)
TEMPO TANTRUM: What a lead singer has when they can't stay in time.
Great to see and hear another one from you. Very well done. You captured the vibe of the characters - funny and fun.
It's a pleasure to be an audience to all of the creativity on display here.
Give in to the muse.
OK, NOW I know why I identify with your music! You know about giving in to the muse! ;-)
Thanks for the kind words! I may not have replied to the comments you left on the Skwerlefest song, and if that's the case, it's only because I didn't want to bump it back to the top again... it had already been around a while by the time you saw it. But I hope you know that I really appreciate any and all thoughts you have to offer. I like everything you write, so naturally your observations are valued and appreciated.
Tommy, my partner in humorous crime! Thanks for weighing in! The guy who animated it sends his thanks, and I appreciate your taking time to comment on the song!
I'm currently wrapping up another cartoon theme song (next one is for a western) and then your project is next! I'm still trying to decide how to animate yours... whether to use the same software or try a different one.
Either way... the end result is probably a couple weeks out
Hi Pat, I enjoyed the video a lot. Beautiful the scenes of the cows and of the alien that comes down from the flying disc.
The rhythm of the starting song remember me "Subterrean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan. Very good.
Sergio
Thanks for the review, Sergio! I'm sure the animator (Clay Triche) appreciates your thoughts... and I certainly appreciate your observation about the theme song! (Now I'll have to go and listen to the Dylan song.. I'm not familiar with it!)
User Video: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box®
The Bob Doyle Media YouTube channel is known for demonstrating how you can creatively incorporate AI into your projects - from your song projects to avatar building to face swapping, and more!
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A few excerpts:
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