To start exploring sound visualization, I followed a tutorial by everyone's favorite Blender YouTuber: Ducky3D. His tutorial covered how to create a basic audio visualization waveform, and how to add cool effects in "Compositing" and "Shading" to make the waveform really pop. Although I followed the tutorial along for the whole duration, afterwards I had fun experimenting with different settings and editing the nodes to make the final waveform more interesting and unique to me.
In particular, I added a diagonal fade going from darkest in the back left to brightest in the front right. visually, this makes the piece lean more heavily to the right, which combined with higher light emission, helps to lead the viewer's eye from left to right as the audio plays. I also off-shifted the plane that the lines follow the waveform along, which creates some really interesting shapes that change with the music in a trippy way that almost reminds me of eyes blinking. This added touch really helped to elevate the final animation into being more visually engaging and fun.
