While the big screen is dominated by various blockbusters, music videos are the perfect short-form escape that can be enjoyed on your mobile device.
Consider, for instance, Craig Gowans of 12 Inch Media (12inchmedia.com), who created a new lyric music video for the power metal band Gloryhammer that features art derived from the band’s album cover. Masters of the Galaxy is the band’s fourth video from their third album — the 2019 release “Legends from Beyond the Galactic Terrorvortex.” The band recently started its US tour and will be on the road through February 2020.
Gowans says lyric videos have become more and more popular, for several reasons. They can be cost-effective to produce when budgets are restrictive, and can be made without the band’s presence, as many times they are on tour. Artists benefit by being able to use them as Website content and across social media channels.
In the case of Masters of the Galaxy, Gowans says the process started with him creating a :30 sample for approval from the band and its label. He drew on Gloryhammer’s album artwork for inspiration, cutting out elements and creating stylized layers in Photoshop, remaining true to the original branding. Layered Photoshop files were then brought into After Effects, where he created sequences for each section of the song — intro, verse, chorus, etc.
Masters of the Galaxy tells the story of an epic battle and features alien warriors fighting in a CG universe as the song’s lyrics appear with a laser glow. The CG motion-graphics background is stock, and Gowans says he often uses elements from VideoHive or VideoBlocks, saying they are “super resources” that help save time in production while delivering high-quality results. Lyrical elements were animated in After Effects.
Gowans renders from After Effects and then creates sequences on a Premiere timeline. If there are any changes, he only has to go back to the single sequence and re-render.
Like all of the music video work he’s done over the past seven or eight years, this project was created in HD resolution, knowing it would be consumed primarily on YouTube and mobile devices. In total, he estimates that it took him two weeks to complete the project.