Here’s a visualization of what rhythm games/music trainers of the future might look like:
There’s currently a trainer/game for midi keyboards called Synthesia that is already similar. What we have here though is visualization of integration of an augmented reality heads-up display for the “piano roll” style of note scrolling. Bemani’s Keyboardmania is also very similar – it would be interesting to see if any Keyboardmania players picked up real piano skills, but my money’s on the fact that most players of that game probably had some previous piano instruction to begin with (look it’s an Asian thing ok).
I’m not sure if the guitar/bass visualization would necessarily work without a wider fretboard that could be projected above the real fretboard for note comprehension. Additionally, the bars might benefit from having numbers to reinforce which fret needs to be fretted. Also, this method does not address what bends, pinch harmonics, or other more advanced guitar techniques would look like. If we’re working in 3d space, a bend might be represented by the note “widening” as it goes into the fretboard, but it would be difficult to convey exactly how far the bend needs to go.
Drums face the problem of a single plane of reference for where the downbeat is. This visualization is admittedly almost unusable as a training technique, but golly it sure looks cool.
Production on this video was pretty basic – just shot some plates from a rough POV perspective of me running through the various instruments of the song. Then, in Photoshop, I created a super long image for Brandon to lay in for the correct notes. The song is composed very specifically in such a way to minimize a lot of work in the post production (guitar solo basically sticks to one note, e.g.). Post wise, it’s simply a matter of matching the notes with the plate, where I played along to the song.
Here’s a link to the Zazzle store for a poster of Power Hour: http://bit.ly/PowerHourPoster
I recommend the large size – it’s what I’ve designed it for. Also, I strongly don’t believe in crap like our YouTube channel URL all over our products – that ruins the design. This poster is 100% pure – no extraneous branding, no extraneous self promotion. Just promise to tell people where you got if they ever ask (nobody will ever ask)
Also, for those of you who have COMPUTERS, check out a desktop image (massive resolution – 2560 x 1440, which is 16:9)
I got an email from Logan, fellow Jedi A-Hole, a few days ago wherein he suggested we do a parody of Kanye West’s Power video. We kicked around some ideas and settled on the idea of Power Hour, i.e. the drinking game where you take a shot of beer every minute for an hour. Rather than the religious symbolism that’s all over the original video, we would have party dudes, frat guys, popped collars, and keg stands.
Rather than start out with my visage, we thought Logan, who looks like the ultimate party dude frat guy anyway, was far better suited to be the centerpiece of this hedonistic moving painting. I shot an email to Destorm, the Coolest Dude on YouTube, who hooked us up with the song parody track. A quick trip to Ramirez’s (an awesome liquor store nearby) for the keg and Smirnoff Ices and we were set to shoot.
Since I don’t actually drink, I had to have a lot of the various drinking games and terms explained to me. All in all, it was a very educational video!
