How Do I Make a Cinematic Music Visualizer With Camera Cuts on the Beat?
To make a cinematic music visualizer in BeamTracer Model Pulse, load your song, frame each shot, and save it with SAVE CURRENT VIEW at the moment it should start. Choose CUT for the musical hits and EASE IN/OUT or ARC AROUND AIM for slow moves. Then render the whole song in native 4K with RENDER.
Play this 15-second excerpt with sound. On the third brass hit the camera cuts inside the mouth and pulls straight back, so the fangs pass the lens. Then the full anglerfish appears as the drums arrive.
Here is the finished film, Beneath the Last Light, rendered entirely in BeamTracer:
The 60-second vertical version is composed separately for Shorts and Reels:
I wanted the film to work like a short horror story: a beautiful light in the dark, then a little more of what holds it, then teeth on the brass hits, and only then the whole creature. Every cut, camera move, glow and audio reaction you see is a saved setting in the app on the song's own clock.
What's the fastest way to make this exact film?
Start from the film's own preset. BENEATH · FILM loads the Zorag anglerfish, its lighting and audio routes, the lure fade-out and all 28 saved camera cues. BENEATH · REEL loads the 18 portrait cues for the vertical version.
- Open Model Pulse and load your song from the audio settings with CHANGE → AUDIO FILE.
- Under PRESETS, choose BENEATH · FILM for 16:9 or BENEATH · REEL for 9:16.
- Press play to rehearse; seeking replays the same shots.
- Open RENDER, choose 16:9, 4K, 30 FPS and INCLUDE AUDIO, then RENDER VIDEO and SAVE VIDEO to download the MP4.
The camera times in the preset match Beneath the Last Light. With your own song, keep the look and move each cue to your song's hits, as described below.
How do I make the camera cut exactly on the music's hits?
Save a view at each hit and set its arrival to CUT. Find the hit first: play the song, pause just before the attack, and step forward until you hear it. Cutting on, or one frame before, the attack makes the change land with the sound.
- Open CAMERA → SAVED CAMERA CUES.
- Frame the shot by dragging to orbit and scrolling to zoom.
- Pause the song at the hit and choose SAVE CURRENT VIEW.
- Give the view a NAME and type the exact START SECONDS.
- Set ARRIVAL to CUT.
- Choose PLAY SAVED CUES, play the passage, and adjust START SECONDS until the cut lands with the sound.
In this film the three brass hits land at 37.27, 47.27 and 50.57 seconds, and the full creature appears at 57.03 seconds, when the drums arrive. Give each hit a different direction and scale, such as a side close-up, a low angle and a frontal shot. Three similar zooms in a row read as one idea repeated.
How do I keep a shot moving after the cut?
Save a second view of the same subject one frame later, set its ARRIVAL to EASE IN/OUT, and set TRANSITION SECONDS to the length of the shot. The camera cuts on the hit, then drifts slowly until the next one.
How do I fly the camera straight out of the mouth?
Start the shot inside the subject and ease straight back along one line. Put the camera between the front fangs, aim it into the throat, then save a second view farther back on the same axis with EASE IN/OUT. The fangs pass the lens like trees before the whole jaw appears.
Under FRAMING, keep AIM X and AIM Y the same on both views and change only the distance along the mouth. This film uses an 8.5-second ease, longer than the shot, so the camera is still moving when the next cut arrives.
How do I circle the camera from below to above?
Use ARC AROUND AIM. A normal ease travels in a straight line, so a move from beneath a model to above it would pass through it. ARC AROUND AIM travels around the aim point instead, changing the angle and height while it eases.
- Save the starting view beneath the subject, looking up.
- Save the ending view above and to one side, looking down.
- Set the ending view's ARRIVAL to ARC AROUND AIM.
- Set TRANSITION SECONDS to the length of the musical phrase, 13.43 seconds in this film.
Why do my particle close-ups look blurry, and how do I sharpen them?
Close views enlarge every particle, so the points overlap into a soft haze. Lower CLOSE-UP POINT GROWTH to keep them as distinct points with dark gaps between them, and lower PARTICLE SIZE if they still touch. Then turn off AUTOFOCUS so the sharp plane sits on each saved view's aim point.
| Control | Film value | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| PARTICLE SIZE | 0.72 | Smaller, crisper points |
| CLOSE-UP POINT GROWTH | 0.35 | Points stay separate up close |
| DEPTH OF FIELD | 0.15 | Gentle softening away from focus |
| AUTOFOCUS | Off | Focus follows each view's aim point |
| DEPTH FALLOFF | 0.30 | Darkens what lies behind the focus plane and far away |
DEPTH FALLOFF also keeps the inside of a mouth dark behind the teeth, and keeps a distant creature a faint silhouette rather than a bright blob.
How do I make the anglerfish's teeth look menacing?
Raise TOOTH DETAIL and TOOTH LENGTH. On the Zorag anglerfish, TOOTH DETAIL adds dense pale points along each fang so it reads as a separate, sharp outline. TOOTH LENGTH grows each fang from its own root toward a needle tip and curves it forward. The points stay on the moving teeth as the fish animates.
This film uses TOOTH DETAIL 1.00 and TOOTH LENGTH 0.50. Light the teeth by the angle you shoot them from: a side view shows their curve, and a low angle lets them hang against the light from above.
How do I add a lens flare to the glowing lure?
Raise LURE FLARE. It adds a hot core, a soft halo, fine streaks and faint lens ghosts that follow the lit bait across the frame. To make the glare pulse with the soft, high sounds, open Assign modulation on LURE FLARE, choose High amplitude, and set the anchor to From slider.
This film uses LURE FLARE 0.80 with an amount of 0.70.
How do I make each shot react to the music differently?
Set RESPONSE on the shot's saved cue. Choose TRAVELING WAVE to send ripples through the model, EXCITEMENT to flash every point in place on each bass hit, or BOTH. Cues set to SETTING keep the previous shot's choice.
In this film the lure close-up and the first teeth shot use EXCITEMENT, so the points spark on the hits. The stalk and the shot of the lure and jaws use TRAVELING WAVE, and the reveal uses BOTH. To keep the ripples glowing without swelling the body, lower DEFORMATION: this film uses 0.025.
How do I turn the lure off at the end of the song?
Fade LURE GLOW with a drawn automation curve. Open Assign modulation on LURE GLOW, choose Drawn automation with the anchor Range min to slider, and add points that hold at 1 until just before the end, then fall to 0.
This film holds the glow until 117.2 seconds and reaches 0 at 117.9, as the last boom fades. The flare goes out with the lure.
How do I recall saved views live during a performance?
Give a view a LIVE SLOT from VIEW 1 to VIEW 8. The matching VIEW button in CAMERA then travels to that composition with the view's own cut or ease. Map a VIEW button to a key, MIDI note or OSC address like any other control.
RECALL VIEW in the cue editor does the same for the selected view. Recalling another view during a move continues smoothly from where the camera is. SHOT SWITCHING → SAVED VIEWS (LIVE) steps through your views in order with NEXT SHOT. Drag the canvas to take over at any time, and choose PLAY SAVED CUES to return to the song.
How do I render the full film and a vertical reel?
Render the full song at 16:9 and a separate 9:16 version with its own portrait cues. A portrait frame is much narrower, so place each view farther back and keep the subject centered rather than cropping the 16:9 film.
- For the reel, choose BENEATH · REEL, or reframe your own cues for a tall frame.
- Open RENDER and choose 9:16, 4K, 30 FPS and INCLUDE AUDIO.
- Open RENDER RANGE, select RENDER A SELECTED RANGE, and set START (SECONDS) to 10.266667 and LENGTH (SECONDS) to 60.
- Choose RENDER VIDEO, wait for the file, then SAVE VIDEO to download the 2160 × 3840 MP4.
Cue times stay on the song's clock when you render a range, so the reel's cuts land on the same hits as the full film. Play the downloaded file with sound and check every cut before you upload it.
The Zorag anglerfish model is by HighPolyDensity, under CC BY 4.0. BeamTracer renders it as particles and adds the lighting, water, audio response and camera. Music: “Beneath the Last Light,” by BeamTracer.
Give your song a camera that moves with the music.
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