You have a cover you like and a song you want people to hear. A square visualizer gives the artwork a sound-on version; a vertical promo gives the same idea a taller frame for a short clip. This example keeps the colors, subject and musical response connected across both.

The finished videos above use Red Current, an original geometric composition made for this case study, and a twelve-second practice passage. It is an example project, not artwork for a released song. Open the square video or open the vertical video to watch either export on its own.

Start with an image that carries the idea

The still artwork has a ribbed red form, a small lime orb and a dark cobalt field. Its contrast gives the sound-driven changes something visible to move, while the open space leaves room to crop.

The original Red Current artwork before Artfkt: stacked red elliptical ribs, a lime orb, and a thin orbital line on cobalt blue.

The original image. The forms and lighting are already in the artwork; Artfkt supplies the grain, color separation and motion.

Your starting point can be a photograph, a painting, a collage or an illustration. Use an image you have permission to publish, and keep the original available. If you are still choosing a direction, our album-cover ideas explores subjects, palettes and textures.

Give the song two visible responses

The cover grows from 100% to 108% with low-frequency energy. RGB Split opens a small color fringe with high-frequency energy, while Film Grain stays still. In the practice passage, the kicks supply the low response and the hi-hats supply the high response.

That separation lets the large form breathe while the edge treatment adds a smaller accent. A full song can put several instruments into either band, so listen to your own passage and reduce the response if the picture becomes hard to read. Frequency bands do not isolate individual instruments.

The starter already connects these controls. If you want to build or understand the mapping yourself, follow the audio-reactive album-art tutorial, which explains Energy, Hits and the optional manually aligned beat grid.

Reframe the artwork for a second video

The square composition is 1080 × 1080. The vertical version is 1080 × 1920 and uses a centered crop of the same original image. The red form stays the subject; the surrounding field changes shape. Both keep the same twelve-second soundtrack passage and motion assignments.

A frame from the vertical Artfkt export, keeping the red form and lime orb within a taller cobalt composition.

A frame from the vertical export. Check the crop with your own artwork; an important detail near an edge may need a different position or a background.

These are sound-on promo examples. Spotify Canvas is a separate silent-loop deliverable with its own requirements; use the Spotify Canvas walkthrough for that task. An aspect ratio alone does not guarantee acceptance by a publishing platform.

Make it your own

Artfkt’s Gumroad downloads include Artfkt-Cover-to-Song-Starter.zip. The current files use project format 19 and require Artfkt desktop 1.10.0 or later. Unzip it and open either .artfkt project. The image and practice soundtrack are embedded, so you can play the example without locating separate source files.

  1. Select Cover in Layers and choose More actions → Replace source to bring in your artwork. Reframe it for the selected canvas.
  2. Open Animate → Sound input, choose Composition audio, and import your song. Choose the passage and composition duration you want to use. The example is twelve seconds; your composition can use another duration.
  3. Under Animate → Properties, adjust Scale and RGB Split Amount while listening. Energy follows the sound without requiring BPM entry.
  4. Save a copy, then open Export and choose Animation → MP4. Check the dimensions and time range, and leave Include audio on. Open the finished file to check its picture and sound. Available codecs depend on your device.

The practical reason to keep an editable project is the next revision: replace the artwork, choose a different passage, or soften a response and export again. The square and vertical projects give you two starting compositions; they do not automatically generate every format from one change.

Artfkt desktop runs on supported Apple Silicon Macs and 64-bit Windows PCs. Check pricing and requirements before buying. The free browser demo lets you try selected effects, layers and silent exports; soundtrack-driven motion and saved projects require desktop.

About the example: Red Current is an original SVG composition by Evolving Curiosity, rasterized before import. The practice passage is original synthesized audio. Both final videos were generated through Artfkt 1.8.0’s rendering and export pipeline and compressed for this page. The download includes source permissions and a replacement guide. These examples do not establish playback performance or Windows hardware verification.