My greatest fascination as a kid was robots that could transform into vehicles. That's right; I loved Transformers, and I still do. One of the reasons why this passion lasted so long was due the fans that expressed this love through the things they created. To me, one person in particular stood above all, and that was Randall Ng.
In the Transformers community, Randall Ng is a famous animator that bases his animations on the original Transformers show, which aired back in the 80s. He references a lot of elements from the old cartoon and from time to time pokes fun at what the franchise has become today.
Take it from my standpoint: I was amazed how people invested their time into projects based on what they loved, especially cartoons. In some sense, I followed in his footsteps, creating music content related to what I loved.
So imagine my surprise when he messaged me and asked me to create a music track for his upcoming animation.
Sometime around July-August, 2014, I was contacted by him to compose a song for an animation that focused on the female characters of the series. This wasn't only a great opportunity to explore the range of my creativity, but also a privilege to be working with someone who acts as an inspiration in my life. So of course, I accepted the challenge.
The request was to compose a track to the rough animation draft he had sent me. I had more creative control as to what I wanted it to sound like, so I decided to make it not only reminiscent of the old series (hence the first few notes being the Transformers' 80s Theme Song), but also add a bit of the exciting elements which made these characters the femme fatales in the Transformers show.
I scoured through the old Transformers movie soundtrack to get a bit of an idea of how I wanted my song to be. As the 80s marked the era of orchestral rock and synth music, I decided to mix the best of both worlds, but add also hint of something from modern times. Since I was using multiple instruments, from strings to brass, from eletric guitars to a variety of synths, it was tough to keep track of how I wanted the song to be.
The entire composition - from coming up with ideas to the final mixdown - took altogether maybe 3-4 weeks tops. It was the first time I worked on an animation as a composer, so it was a great deal to me to deliver quality material. I believe I had to send in three versions before Randall was satisfied with it.
Later on in September, the animation was broadcast during a session with voice actors of the old Transformers show at Alamo City Comic Con 2014. I felt very accomplished for having achieved that feat, because not only could I contribute my work to some beautiful animation that involved some voices of my childhood, but I could work together with one of my inspirations.
Below you'll find the track that was composed for the animation:
And here, the animation to see how the music was introduced there.
According to Randall and the comments on the Youtube video, the response he'd received was beyond positive: people, most of them women, enjoyed the focus on the female-only cast, which was never done in this franchise. Since its upload on Youtube back in October 2014, the short film has amounted to 46'000 views up to this day, an incredible feat which I am proud to be part of.
As I am still an amateur musician, I know there are some technicalities that I can improve with this song. I do struggle with the mixing at times, but knowing that I made it this far and kept a "customer" I looked up to satisfied, I can safely say that this has become an experience that I will always look back to as I build my part-time career as a composer.
Now, having your music featured in an animation already feels like an incredible accomplishment to me. It's another thing entirely to see another geeky dream of mine coming true:
Me, Jayhan, being a Transformer.
You read right. In other words, I was asked to record myself and talk about what I do. Randall used the recording and animated to it, resulting in this really awesome video here:
Randall made short video interviews about the members of this project and their role in it. This was done exclusively for us; he didn't have to spend those additional hours animating, but he did it nonetheless because he loved working with other talented people. That's one of the many reasons why he stands out in this community as a passionate content-creator.
When fans gather for a project like this one, there are always risks of something going wrong. Nothing of the sort happened here. As a project leader, Randall allowed creativity and passion to collide, turning "The Energ0n Shuffle" into a fun opportunity for an amateur like me to show how I can be more than meets the eye.
Therefore, this blog entry will end with a message to those who are a mix of aspiring musicians/composers/singers and fans of the franchise: if you are looking for a chance to show the world what you've got, all you gotta do is reach out to others in a community you're part of. I didn't think I'd have an opportunity to work with great talents, yet here I am! That chance of yours to shine is out there. Just remember to never let that passion of yours die and to always
Keep on rockin'!
~Jayhan~
