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I'm trying to make (or at least understand how to) something like this image sort of like a giants causeway and have it move up and down on a per column basis to sound. I know the idea of getting an object to work with sound what I'm not sure about is if there's a quicker way to get the columns to move up and down to sound than animating each one individually.

I suppose i'm imagining it like there'd be a plane underneath that would push columns up in waves. I found this post on lattices I'm wondering if I could use a combination of array modifiers and the lattice modifier? Or is there a better way?

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Using Sound Drivers Addon

Some images of a quick sample.

enter image description here

Install Addon. Drag the sound_drivers folder into one of your addons folders. It can be found under Testing Support Level Animation Category.

Add speaker to scene, associate music file, then bake to 1000 splits of frequency range. (Make a cuppa while it bakes) These are baked to custom properties AA0 to AA999 on the speaker.

Add a torus (or group of objects) to the scene. Set up a sounddriver using channel 0 (AA0 in this case). Multiple drivers can be used with multiple bakes. Select all objects you want as a "unit". As a simple example I've added one sounddriver using channel AA0 to drive the z scale of the torus. Any object being driven by channel 0 (eg AA0, AB0, ) will be converted to approp channel.

enter image description here

From the 3d toolbar SoundDrive panel, choose visualiser type grid and the size you desire, I've chosen 25 rows x 40 columns, a grid is created with each unit being driven by the assoc. sound bake. Use the Offset sliders to arrange, much like the array modifier.

enter image description here

Each unit is parented to an empty and all to a master empty "ST_Handle". Which can be moved / scaled to suit. Reorganizing can be achieved using a simple script.

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice one thanks. I'm halfway through the tutorial above but I'll give this a go afterwards as well :) $\endgroup$
    – cshelswell
    Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 4:57
  • $\begingroup$ can't seem to get this to install for some reason. I'm on the latest version of Blender, have tried every plugin in the pack but not one installs unfortunately which kind of sucks since I'm struggling with the above solution. $\endgroup$
    – cshelswell
    Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 9:28
  • $\begingroup$ I'm a mac man (don't judge me, I still understand linux and terminal ;) ) - yeah I didn't drag them there but installed from zip. A check of that folder though and the files are there they just don't appear as addons. I've even tried copying all the addons from that file over but nothing shows in blender - thanks for the help :) $\endgroup$
    – cshelswell
    Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 10:09
  • $\begingroup$ weird it's not loving me at all. I've installed plugs before with no issue. I presume once installed I should be looking for something along the lines of "sounddriver"? I'm not just missing something? Tried the "testing" option but there's just nothing in there. Strange it would work on linux and I can't install on mac, being so similar... $\endgroup$
    – cshelswell
    Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 10:23
  • $\begingroup$ It may happen some times that Blender Python API changes over time and breaks compatibility with some addons, so if these were not updated recently they may no longer be compatible with the latest version, unfortunately $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos ♦
    Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 15:36
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This kind of effect is generally achieved with a displacement map affecting a subdivided plane.

The plane is subdivided into a grid with vertex following whatever pattern suits your particularity style (orthogonal grid, exagonal grid, etc)

An animation curve is baked from the sound file you wish to drive the animation.

You then generally use dupliverts, duplifaces or a particle system to place an array of objects over the plane has it moves to the sound of your audio source.

This may be the effect you are looking for

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    $\begingroup$ Great thanks that's just what I was looking for, and gives me an excuse to get in to some python. I'm reasonably fresh to blender so trying to learn as much as I can. I'll just like to try and integrate this effect in to a music video I'm trying to make for a release of mine. - Thanks for the help and links $\endgroup$
    – cshelswell
    Commented Feb 23, 2016 at 4:35
  • $\begingroup$ Ok I've given this a go but I keep getting errors "see console" which shows nothing. I've plenty of knowledge of PHP, Javascript etc so this isn't really new to me. I can't even get it to work when substituting my track into the tutorials code. I don't know if anyone can spot what I'm missing (I think the track should be packed, i'm not sure how that affects the linking in the text editor) hireahenchman.co.nz/downloads/… $\endgroup$
    – cshelswell
    Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 8:26
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry I updated the answer to the sounddrivers solution simply because I couldn't get the script to work even in the demo file. I'm sure someone who knows python better than me can figure it out. I guess in the end both offer solutions. I think once I get it going though sounddriver will be the easier option. $\endgroup$
    – cshelswell
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 6:35
  • $\begingroup$ Packing the sound should have no effect. Packing files is generally used for moving projects for sharing or distribution, and joint it all into a single file. Python errors may mean the addon is not compatible with the version of Blender you are using, it can happen if the addon hasn't been updated for a while. I am not a coder nor an animator myself, I have never used any of those addons. If you get any errors you probably should contact the addon authors $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos ♦
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 16:53
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    $\begingroup$ It's not actually an addon. Just a tutorial on how to write the python code. There were a couple of caveats due to blender being updated that I managed to fix. But python (in blender anyway) doesn't seem to give you errors that are in anyway informative so I found it really hard to debug. I may revisit it though - The links you gave were certainly very useful :) $\endgroup$
    – cshelswell
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 22:36

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