~ Future Retro ~

[Jeanway 0]

[Jeanway 0]

 

AQUAHARP

 

Edited October 9, 2004 by Jeanway

[Jeanway 0]

THIS IS THE VIDEO

 

 

[Jeanway 0]

~ Animusic ~

 

Animation and Music have always been great partners. In fact, some would have to say that many times they complement each other. Music and the addition of other sounds to pictures, in one way or another, redirected the entire animation medium. With music, the viewer can have an entirely new experience that would have been missing without the score. Try to envision what your favorite, non-silent, animated feature would have felt like without the musical score. Over the years, there have been several attempts to unite the two mediums in a way that would let the music drive the story. There was Fantasia, Peter and the Wolf, and many others shorts and features. Some were successful, and others strayed away from their essence. Perhaps the most ambitious project would be for someone to try to animate something as abstract as music.

 

I would not be stretching the truth by saying that Wayne Lytle and the rest of the people at ANIMUSIC have been able to capture the essence of animating music. Their computer animation video album achieves this task with seven unique animated concerts. By having computer animated instruments play themselves, they have been able to expand what we envisioned musical animation could do. In this DVD, they include seven animated concerts: Future Retro, Stick Figures, Aqua Harp, Drum Machine, Pipe Dream, Acoustic Curves, and Harmonic Voltage.

 

In 1982, Wayne Lytle, the founder of ANIMUSIC, started to think of a way to synchronize music and animation, and in 1989, he found that computers were a great tool to achieve this dream. More Bells and Whistles premiered in 1990, and it was his first multi-instrument animation. In 1995, Lytle joined forces with computer artist David Crognale to produce animation for a commercial client. It was also in 1995, that the company’s name changed from Visual Music to ANIMUSIC. Their goal was to create a 3D computer animated video album where they would have various instruments playing the music that they created. They started on this ambitious project in 1998 and ended up with the seven pieces in this set.

 

Unlike many other animations, in ANIMUSIC, music is what literally drives the animation. They use motion generation software called MIDImotion that makes the process easier (MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface). What this means is that they run these MIDI files through the software that analyzes the notes to determine how the instruments will move. They then run it through the program that determines when the music happens, how loud it will be, and which instrument goes with what sound. All of this enables the computer to move the instruments in relation to the sound being fed into it. The actual animation, as far as the visual of the instruments and their virtual environment, is made into 3D plans first and they make a prototype to test music with until they have the entire piece made. What makes this different from the Plenoptic visualizations on my media player that I am mesmerized by? The difference is that the software enables the creator to prepare the visualization for notes that are about to appear, those that are appearing, and those that have passed. In this sense, the music is not visualized in real time, but rather pre-visualized.

 

Future Retro

 

The first concert is set in a sound room with high tech materials all around. The central instrument in the concert is an electric guitar-looking instrument. It is actually a combination of a two-string bass, a three-string guitar, a four-string guitar, a pipe-organ flute thing, a set of base blue laser guns, a wrist green laser gun, and a plasma ring at its base. According to Lytle this is the most complex instrument in the series because of the many different instruments and because of many robot hands that are all linked with one pick mechanism. There is also a set of drums, cymbals, as well as lasers and lights all over the place. The music is reminiscent of rock from the eighties but with a very futuristic edge. Everything is played by robot hands and fingers. Perhaps the most interesting combination in this piece is the synchronization of the horn, guitar, and pipe organ. The camera angles give you a great view of every inch of the room.

 

Stick Figures

 

As Future Retro fades out, we move away to a room where an anthropomorphic one-string bass instrument awakens and begins tapping his one string with its ‘finger.’ Lytle calls him “The Stick” and he is soon joined by a variety of other string characters. This piece, just like Future Retro, was not written for ANIMUSIC, but was later introduced when they decided that strings would be a good idea to play with. There are also some lasers, horns, drums, and many more instruments. They make a beautiful melody that starts out jazzy and changes midway into something more dramatic, and returns to jazz with the stick. It is interesting to see certain ways that Lytle managed to visualize the sound. We know that horns do not really stretch out when playing a note, and that lasers do not really make noises, but they are great ways to visualize the animation that is going on.

 

Aqua Harp

 

Aqua Harp opens up in a beautiful starry night, from the end of the previous piece, and lowers to calm room with night sky images on the walls, a reflective pool, and a harp in the center. This is one the most beautiful and mellow pieces and the water sounds in the back are truly relaxing. As the picks pluck away at the harp, we are transported to somewhere calm and quiet. The harp, flute, and chimes, are all aligned in notes and it is interesting to see how they all play the same notes at the same time. Visually, one of the most interesting things about this piece is the water that does set much of the mood for the piece with its soft blue hue. Lytle mentions how it took them three weeks to get it right and that they had to use three different water surfaces (reflection, refraction, and surface) to finally get the final look we see.

 

Drum Machine

 

Previously called Gear World, this piece starts out in a factory-like setting with many different gears just switching to a beat. The beat is similar to a clock beat, and soon the sounds of the drum set, all being moved by interconnected gears, add to the beat. There are two sets of beat-driven gears and they all are connected to drum sticks that hit it in a synchronized beat. It is interesting to see the detail that the animators provided. The places where the drum sticks have been hitting are even darkened as if to suggest repeated use. Midway through, warning lights flash to change to a faster tempo as more percussion is added. This also causes the gears to speed up. This entire machine with all of its gears got me to thinking about people actually creating an instrument such as this in real life, but, as Lytle points out in the commentary, it would probably be impossible to make such an instrument without preventing it from collapsing under its own weight.

 

Pipe Dream

 

By this point in the album, I was not sure if animators could outdo themselves, and I was completely surprised by the next concert. Here, animators have different pinball-like balls being shot out of pipes to strike strings, drums, and other percussion instruments. This shot also gets bigger and bigger as the music keeps adding more and more instruments to the beat. There are more and more balls flying through the air and it is very awe-inspiring. Camera shots are also impressive as we go from riding with sticks on a conveyor belt to swooping over a circular xylophone. This is probably a good place to see the example of how the animation is not real time since we need to see the balls flying out before the sound and then have them fall back into the pipes after their note is played.

 

Acoustic Curves

 

This is Lytle’s first animated piece and it has several strings being hit and plucked by various sticks. It all looks very similar to the inside of a piano. The sound is truly beautiful and the strings play out to a great tune. This tune stuck in my mind even after I had watched the video. Midway through it, drums are added and more things swoop into the room to join the music. They work very well together and make a great harmonic band. I found it interesting to see how the different instruments are calmly added to the orchestra, such as a xylophone.

 

 

Harmonic Voltage

 

Harmonic Voltage is, sadly, the last of the videos. It begins with sounds of electricity and high voltage wires that set the mood for this futuristic setting. It seems to be set in outer space and has many power lines and lasers in the background. It is also probably the most abstract of the videos since the guitar-like sounds are emitted from a metal pole. The pole has laser beams moving up and down its front. These beams are shaped in spyrographic patters that oscillate and change color as the volume and intensity changes. Besides that, there is a drum set at its base, plasma filled base emitters, and an abstract cloud of smoke (depicting the synth chords in the background). It is probably one of the most brilliant pieces and I like it more the more I listen to it. Its futuristic tone and music certainly remind you that what you are seeing is something that is very advanced. It gives you a glimpse of what more can be done with this technology.

 

Video

 

ANIMUSIC is presented in the full screen 4:3 aspect ratio. With up to nearly thirty frames per second, the animation is nearly perfect. The 3D surroundings are great and they make a great combination with the music. The colors are vibrant and alive, especially with the laser beams. You can watch the concerts in two different ways. You can choose the original version with all the camera movements and changes, or the multi-angle version where you can choose up to three different cameras to view a single instrument. There are thirty-three minutes of the video album music, but about seventy-six in the other footage from the multi-camera angles.

 

Audio

 

The audio for ANIMUSIC is presented in the Dolby Digital Stereo Mix. While I noticed some parts of the audio that seemed to slightly fade in and out, the mix is impressive. The songs are vibrant and energetic and make the entire album great. The DVD also comes with director Wayne Lytle’s audio commentary. I found the commentary interesting for those who want to know the details on how they achieved their vision and about ANIMUSIC.

 

Special Features

 

Other than the multi-camera angles, and the director’s commentary, there is also production stills included. Each different concert has its own gallery showing the evolution of the instruments, and concepts in it. There are over 250 production stills and it is interesting to see how the visualization developed. It would have been intersting to see some behind the scenes stuff, but I understand the disc was full.

 

DVD-ROM

 

There are no DVD-ROM features, but there is the website link on the cover: www.animusic.com

 

Final Word

 

This has been one of the few DVDs that I was gladly surprised by. After just a few seconds into it, my jaw dropped and it remained that way until the end. What they have achieved here can only be called amazing. The visualizations are spectacular, the mood perfect, and the music astounding. I loved every minute of it. My favorite videos are Aqua Harp (for its soothingness), Pipe Dream (for the ingenious visualizations), and Harmonic Voltage (for the futuristic and abstract mood). Lytle and his crew have done a wonderful job and have truly managed to animate music in an interesting, creative, and unique way.