Animusic


Animusic is an American company specializing in the 3D visualization of MIDI-based music. Founded by Wayne Lytle, it was incorporated in New York, with offices in Texas and California. The initial name of the company was Visual Music, but was changed to Animusic in 1995.
The company is known for its Animusic compilations of computer-generated animations, based on MIDI events processed to simultaneously drive the music and on-screen action, leading to and corresponding to every sound. The animated short "Pipe Dream" showed at SIGGRAPH's Electronic Theater in 2001.
Unlike many other music visualizations, the music drives the animation. While other productions may animate figures or characters to the music, the animated models in Animusic are created first, and are then programmed to follow what the music instructs them to do. 'Solo cams' featured on the Animusic DVD shows how each instrument plays through a piece of music from beginning to end.
Many of the instruments appear to be robotic or play themselves using seemingly curious methods to produce and visualize the original compositions. The animations typically feature dramatically-lit rooms or landscapes.
The music of Animusic is principally pop-rock based, consisting of straightforward sequences of triggered samples and digital patches mostly played "dry". There are no lyrics or voices, save for the occasional chorus synthesizer. According to the director's comments on Animusic 2, most instrument sounds are generated with software synthesizers on a music workstation. Many sounds resemble stock patches available on digital keyboards, subjected to some manipulation, such as pitch or playback speed, to enhance the appeal of their timbre.

Compilations

, three video albums have been released:
All Animusic DVDs are set to Region 0, meaning they are playable in all DVD players worldwide.
Animusic was released in 2001 on VHS, and later DVD, with a special edition DVD being released later, in 2004. This special edition included extra material, such as Animusic's first animation, "Beyond the Walls". A second album, Animusic 2, was released in the United States in 2005. Later, in 2008, this volume was released in Japan through a distribution deal with Japanese company Jorudan, Co. Ltd. In a company newsletter, it was announced that the Animusic company would also be producing a high-definition version of Animusic 2 on Blu-ray, to be released sometime before their third major album, Animusic 3. This HD compilation was eventually released in November 2010, featuring all of the animations featured in Animusic 2, as well as the animation "Pipe Dream" from Animusic encoded at a high bitrate. In a later newsletter, the working titles of three animations in Animusic 3, “Sonic Warfare”, “Paddle Ball” and “Super Pipe Dream”, were revealed. In 2012, a Kickstarter campaign for Animusic 3 was successfully launched and funded. "The Sound of Twelve," a music-only album made using similar harmonics as Animusic, was released in March 2015.

Publicity

Animusic has been promoted at SIGGRAPH since 1990, and has been promoted on Public Broadcasting Service and other television networks such as CNN. Wayne Lytle and his works have also been featured on Fox News and over 30 other local stations in January 2007. Animusic's "Pipe Dream" was released as a real-time demo for ATI's Radeon 9700 series graphics cards. Animusic also rendered "Resonant Chamber" and "Starship Groove" in HD resolution for Apple's QuickTime HD Gallery. A popular tourist destination located in Fredericksburg, Texas, the Rockbox Theater, has often played the Animusic DVDs either before shows or during an intermission.
There was an internet rumor that suggested that the "Pipe Dream" video was actually a machine created at the University of Iowa from farm machinery parts. Although this has been proven false, the rumor is still considered "pretty amusing" to the Animusic staff. Intel later commissioned a version of the machine to be built which was demonstrated at IDF 2011.

Software programs

According to the company's FAQ, animation is created procedurally with their own proprietary MIDImotion engine. Discreet 3D Studio Max was used for modeling, lighting, cameras, and rendering. Maps were painted with Corel Painter, Deep Paint 3D, and Photoshop. They have also created their own software called ANIMUSIC|studio that is based on scene-graph technology. According to an August 2015 newsletter, Animusic was using Unreal Engine 4 for rendering since Animusic 3.

Animations

  1. Instruments in the order they're presented:
  2. *Percussion, including:
  3. **A marimba
  4. **Four wood blocks
  5. **Four cowbells
  6. **Five drum synthesizer pads
  7. **Two "light tower" cymbals
  8. **A two-part acoustic drum kit
  9. *A set of pan flutes
  10. *A circular vibraphone fountain
  11. *3 church bells
  12. *Eleven green bulb shaped "wow"-effect bass synthesizers
  13. *Pink electric guitar laser

    Beyond The Walls/Concerto In 3D (stereoscopic version)

  14. Instruments in the order they're presented:
  15. *Bubble Machine
  16. *Gong
  17. *Two Trumpets
  18. *Tuba
  19. *Clash cymbals
  20. *Three-part Drum kit with wheels and arms: first a bass drum and a hi-hat, second a snare drum and a cowbell, third a crash cymbal
  21. *Blue bass Synthesizer
  22. *Four red Sawtooth wave lasers
  23. *Yellow lead laser
  24. *Eight airplane tom-tom drums and a helicopter clash cymbal
  25. *Synthesizer bass blue laser chorus
  26. *Synthesizer treble green laser chorus
  27. *Pyrotechnics
  28. This animation starts with a musical bubble machine on the wall. It blows different sizes of purple bubbles and it shows that the biggest bubble has the lowest pitch and the smallest bubble has the highest pitch. Next, the gong rings twice and the harmonious trumpets and tuba play the fanfare with vertical clash cymbals striking four times. Then, the bass drum with a hi-hat on top of, big wheel below and two arms attached to it comes out of the door with a yellow star on it and begins to play. A two-armed snare drum with a cowbell on top and a medium wheel below comes out of its doors and joins its bass drum friend for a beat. As the walls begin to open, their one-armed friend the crash cymbal joins in as well and the percussion instruments get in their positions in front of the musical light/laser machine that first plays the bass lights with all the lasers joining in with harmony. A group of these instruments continue playing as they move towards the doors and the yellow laser, along with one of the red ones, opens the doors with all the airplane tom-toms and the helicopter clash cymbals taking off for the percussive solo pattern. The flying percussion instruments move aside as the choir lasers solve the puzzle to open the ship's doors and for the grand finale, as the white fireworks pop up, all the moving instruments fly into the starry sky far away.

    Animusic: A Computer Animation Video Album

Track listing:
  1. Future Retro
  2. *BPM=112
  3. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  4. **Triple-Necked Rock Electric Guitar – a combination of a
  5. ***2-stringed bass guitar
  6. ***Synth Bass pulse ring
  7. ***Blue bass lasers
  8. ***Pan Flute
  9. ***3-stringed electric jazz guitar
  10. ***4-stringed electric guitar
  11. ***Green power chord laser
  12. **Percussion including a drum kit, vibraphone and gong
  13. **Four Red synth Sawtooth Lead Lasers
  14. **Violet Chorus Beams
  15. * The bands of the Rock 'n' Roll in a Heavy metal. The robotic drummer has four arms and one bass drum mallet foot; two of the arms hold 2B Drum sticks while the other two hold the vibraphone mallets. The Three-Necked Electric Guitar has metallic fingers that pluck the strings of the rock bass, and a metallic arm that strums the strings of the lead and rhythm guitars in both plucked and arpeggiated styles. As a whole instrument, the body is colored green and sports various plugs and lights. There are also giant loudspeakers in the background, connected to the electronic instruments, with VU displays that light up when the instruments are played.
  16. Stick Figures
  17. *BPM=188
  18. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  19. **Hammered one string fretless chapman stick
  20. **Percussion including a Drum Kit, triangle, Slapstick, and Gong
  21. **Trumpet and baritone horn tower
  22. **Sawtooth Lead red synth laser
  23. **3-stringed acoustic guitar
  24. **Pan Flute
  25. **Vibraphone
  26. **Backup Sawtooth pink synth laser
  27. **Double Bass
  28. **Three 1-stringed Violins
  29. *It is seen on the cover. In this animation, "Mr. Stick" the instrument, the 3-stringed acoustic guitar, the double bass, and the violins all have "arms" which they use to play themselves.
  30. Aqua Harp
  31. *BPM=87
  32. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  33. **26-stringed Harp
  34. **Pan Flute
  35. **Tubular Bells
  36. **1-stringed Cello
  37. **1-stringed Violin
  38. *The room in which this animation takes place is completely enclosed. Its ceiling is painted a dark blue or black with a crescent moon and stars that appear to glow. The room is filled with about one foot of water in which the harp sits right in the middle. Between instrumental refrains, the lighting changes between warm-toned lamps on the wall and cool-toned, blue-ish underwater lights. All of the instruments are connected to the harp.
  39. *In the background, water gently ripples throughout the piece. Some lights are set on top of the wooden columns.
  40. Drum Machine
  41. *BPM=120, 185
  42. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  43. **Background gear-grinding noises
  44. **A drum kit with a hi-hat, a snare drum, a bass drum, a small crash cymbal, a cowbell, and a large crash cymbal
  45. **Twelve toms in a 3x4 arrangement
  46. **A second drum kit with four timbales, four timpani, four wood blocks, a vibraslap and two agogô bells
  47. **A third kit with three church bells approximating B♭, E♭ and C, and two tamtams
  48. *Like machines in the factory, the gears rotate automatically to play the percussion instruments. As the drum kit keeps playing, two more kits descend with the control of the chains. At the end of the performance, the gears stop moving.
  49. Pipe Dream
  50. *BPM=148
  51. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  52. **Acoustic guitar/Bongo double instrument
  53. **Banjo/Bongo double instrument
  54. **Percussion, including:
  55. ***A drum kit
  56. ***A circular vibraphone fountain
  57. ***Tubular bells
  58. ***A Slide-bar Marimba
  59. *This performance begins with the ball firing testing on the acoustic guitar/bongo double instrument. The golden vibraphone fountain that looks like a flower and the tubular bells appear to be made of gold.
  60. *This video is likely the most famous Animusic animation, partially in thanks to an email hoax stating that the set was a real machine built at the University of Iowa using farm equipment. The hoax mail also said that it took 13,000 hours to make the performance, including building, calibrating, etc.
  61. *In 2012, Intel made a real version with 2,300 balls, taking 90 days.
  62. Acoustic Curves
  63. *BPM=120-180, 112, 108
  64. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  65. **Pink Acoustic guitar
  66. **Yellow Hammered dulcimer
  67. **Blue Bass Guitar
  68. **Drum kit, including a snare, bass drum, cymbals, and toms
  69. **Pink Vibraphone
  70. **Yellow Tubular bells
  71. *In the beginning of this animation, the instruments are introduced one at a time, coming from either the ceiling or the abyss floor, and disappear at the end. They seem to play automatically.
  72. Harmonic Voltage
  73. *BPM=114
  74. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  75. **Background synth strings
  76. **Red synth tower laser
  77. **Percussion instruments, with 2 cymbals, a hi-hat, a bass drum, 4 tom-toms, 3 hexagon-shaped electronic drums, and 2 electronic bongos
  78. **Taurus Bass Pedals with bass chorus
  79. **Green Slide Circles
  80. **Green electric guitar laser
  81. **Flash Yellow pulses
  82. **Bass synth in the "tower"
  83. **Four sawtooth lights
  84. *This animation's lead instrument is an electronic laser conducted by a tower. Curiously, in this animation, the electronic drums seem to be supported entirely by wires, which act like springs when these drums are struck.

    Animusic audio CD bonus tracks

There were also 3 other music pieces only available on the Animusic audio CD.
  1. Seventh Alloy
  2. *Instruments
  3. **Electric Guitar
  4. **Drum Kit
  5. **Bass guitar
  6. **Synth Chorus
  7. **Synth Sawtooth Lead Laser
  8. **Tubular Bells
  9. **Calliope
  10. A Slight Delay
  11. *Instruments
  12. **Marimba
  13. **Mute Guitar
  14. **Bass guitar
  15. ** Drum Kit
  16. **Percussion with a cowbell and cabasa
  17. **Lead Synth with 2 backups
  18. **Reed organ
  19. ** Rock Organ
  20. **Harmonica
  21. **Lute
  22. **Tuba
  23. **Electric Guitar
  24. The Harvester
  25. *Instruments
  26. **Cellos
  27. **Electric Guitar
  28. **Acoustic Guitar
  29. **Drum Kit
  30. **Percussion
  31. **Trumpets
  32. **Bass guitar
  33. **Synth Sawtooth Lead Lasers
  34. **Harpsichord
Since they were never animated, it is difficult to determine the shapes of the instruments, although they may strongly resemble many seen in the two Animusic albums.

Animusic 2: A New Computer Animation Video Album

Track listing:
  1. Starship Groove
  2. *BPM=111
  3. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  4. **Blue bass synth robot
  5. **Two blinking light towers, notating the 7/4 time signature as purely visual metronomes
  6. **Two-player drum kit robots
  7. **Red lead synth robot
  8. **Two low-pitched power chord accent flashes
  9. **Yellow synth robot
  10. **Two high-pitched power chord accent flashes
  11. *Most of these instruments are played by the five starship robots. While they perform, the starship travels steadily through space. In the commentary, Wayne Lytle states that the robot that plays the red lead synth pad set looks like a female. "She" is also capable of actions and body language. The Blue robot and the Red robot played together.
  12. *The spaceship whirs throughout the piece, although not heard during the music itself, but at the beginning and end.
  13. Pogo Sticks
  14. *BPM=107
  15. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  16. **Two hammered chapman sticks
  17. **Hammered bass guitar
  18. **A two-part drum kit, including:
  19. ***A bass drum, 2 toms, and a snare drum
  20. ***2 cymbals, 3 hi-hats and a cowbell
  21. **Two xylophones
  22. ***The Gold Marimba
  23. ***The Blue Metallophone
  24. *It has been revealed that the stick bass has "cousins," which are the hammered guitars. His "friends" are the drum kit playing sticks and the two stick xylophones, one as a marimba and another as a metallophone. They also have green lights that glow when they go through tunnels. Throughout the performance, they travel around the wooden course at sunset, stopping at stages intermittently.
  25. *This animation has actually been evolved from the "Stick Figures" animation from the first Animusic. On the stills seen on the DVD, it is revealed that the instruments are actually the original stick bass, with appropriate changes. The "Stick Figures" stage was copied several times and appears as the stages the band stops on.
  26. Resonant Chamber
  27. *BPM=120, 155,180
  28. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  29. **Eight-stringed Classical guitar
  30. **Seven-string Autoharp
  31. **Two-string bass guitar
  32. **Four-stringed tapping Guitar
  33. **Two-string Guitar
  34. **Three-stringed mandolin
  35. *Across the circle-shaped resonator are the strings of the classical guitar and a bass guitar which cross each other.
  36. *In this animation, it can be noted that there is only one dark sky with four windows and four different moons. One of them is the thick crescent moon, another is the full moon, third is the waning gibbous and the last one is the thin crescent moon. Inside the room, there are four lanterns already lit up.
  37. Cathedral Pictures
  38. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  39. **Trumpet
  40. **Percussion instrument, including a drum kit and gongs
  41. **Pipe Organ
  42. **One-string Bass guitar
  43. **Large Arc Harpsichord
  44. **Light-emitting Clarinet
  45. **Large Arc Xylophone
  46. **Tuba
  47. **Pipe organ expression louvres
  48. **Lime Electric arc sound Laser
  49. **Light-emitting Flute
  50. **Pyrotechnics
  51. *This animation performance plays a medley of three selected tunes written by Mussorgsky in Lytle's arrangement. They are "Promenade", "Hut of Baba-Yaga" and "The Great Gate of Kiev". In front of the robotic drummer is a drum kit with two bass drums. It also demonstrates a drumroll on the snare drum in transmission from the "Hut of Baba Yaga" to the "Great Gate of Kiev".
  52. Pipe Dream 2
  53. *BPM=140
  54. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  55. **Acoustic guitar/Bongo double instrument
  56. **Banjo/Bongo double instrument
  57. **Percussion, including:
  58. ***A drum kit
  59. ***A circular vibraphone fountain
  60. ***Tubular bells
  61. ***A Slide-bar Marimba
  62. *To contrast the two different performances on this set, the Acoustic Guitar/Bongo double instrument next to the wall is lit by a blue light in the second version, as opposed to a magenta light in the first version. The golden vibraphone fountain now glows orange when struck instead of white. The back wall from the first animation has been removed to reveal a large empty space filled with pipes. The tubular bells also have a little more detail, partially due to the fact that they spend more time onscreen.
  63. Fiber Bundles
  64. *BPM=112
  65. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  66. **Green Bass Chorus Synth
  67. **White Echo light Synth Pulses
  68. **Violet Synth Bass
  69. **Electric drum set
  70. **Red Synth Lead
  71. **Yellow treble Chorus Synth
  72. **Blue-green Synthesizer Flash light Pulses
  73. *Towards the end of this piece's commentary on the DVD, Wayne Lytle remarks that the music in the Ratchet & Clank series, written by David Bergeaud, may have had some influence over this piece.
  74. Gyro Drums
  75. *BPM=80, 110, 180, 140, 145
  76. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  77. **Drum kit
  78. ***Four snare drums
  79. ***Four bass drums
  80. ***Four hi-hats
  81. ***Seven tom-toms
  82. ***Six bongos
  83. ***Eight buzz synthesizers
  84. ***Eight cymbals – four crashes, two rides, one splash and one China
  85. **Second Drum kit
  86. ***Eight hi-hats
  87. ***Two cowbells
  88. ***Two woodblocks
  89. ***Two timbales
  90. ***Four bongos
  91. ***Eight tom-toms
  92. ***Four cymbals – Two rides and two splashes
  93. **Third drum kit
  94. ***Four gongs
  95. ***Four ride cymbals
  96. ***Four bass drums
  97. ***52 tom-toms
  98. **Fourth drum kit
  99. ***Eight maracas
  100. ***Eight cabasa
  101. ***Four bass drums
  102. ***Eight snare drums
  103. ***Four Crash cymbals
  104. ***Four Hi-hats
  105. **171 drums, cymbals, etc. in total.
  106. *There are three robotic drummer players in this animation. The first one is inside a spherical cage of percussion instruments with limited movement along a straight pole. The other two "satellite" players move around the outside of the drum kit along two large circular tracks.
  107. Heavy Light
  108. *BPM=100-135
  109. *Instruments in the order they're presented:
  110. **Blue Chorus synth Lasers
  111. **Violet Synth Bass Beams
  112. **Yellow Lead Synth Lasers
  113. **Drums and cymbals
  114. **Orange String Beams
  115. **Red synth sawtooth Lasers
  116. **White Chorus Floodlights
  117. **Green flash Chirp Laser
  118. **Three Gongs
  119. *Set on a peak in the mountains, the piece is performed on an pyramid, with a long series of small stairs leading up to it. The performance starts with the blue chorus beams appearing to trigger the transformation of the pyramid into the musical temple. At least three other planets or moons can be seen in the sky, one of which bears a strong resemblance to the planet Jupiter. At the end, the soundings of gongs mark the reversal of the initial transformation, as the doorway-like structure retracts.

    Animusic 2 audio CD bonus tracks

The bonus audio tracks on this CD consist of reduced versions of Heavy Light and Fiber Bundles:
  1. Heavy Light – Drum/Bass Submix
  2. Fiber Bundles – Drum/Bass Submix
  3. Fiber Bundles – Synth/Ambient Submix

    Animusic 3: The Next Computer Animation Video Album

Animusic was working on the third volume of the Animusic series for over 10 years. It was initially intended to be released sometime in 2010, featuring animations such as "Sonic Warfare", "Paddle Ball", and "Super Pipe Dream". However, this release date passed with no word regarding the volume's progress. A year later in November 2010, Animusic attributed this delay to a complete restructuring of their modeling and rendering software.
On August 6, 2012, the company began a Kickstarter campaign aimed at raising $200,000 to fund the completion of the Animusic 3 DVD. This campaign was featured on several websites such as Animation World Network. A rough mix from the newly revealed album The Sound of 12, titled "Glarpedge," was released online on August 28, 2012. This album has been described by the company as "the soul of Animusic 3." On August 31, 2012, two more mixes were released: "Emoticondria" and "EchoKrunch." The Kickstarter page was later updated to confirm that a Blu-ray edition of Animusic 3 would be released shortly following the DVD's completion.
On September 5, 2012, the Kickstarter campaign ended successfully, with a final backing amount of $223,123, surpassing the goal and should have put Animusic 3 into its "final production stages". Animusic posted expected shipping dates of October 2013 for the DVD, and February 2014 for the Blu-ray disc. However, both dates passed without either product being released.
On a Kickstarter update in August 2015, Wayne Lytle announced some other factors that have delayed the project, including Dave Crognale's departure from the project, personal struggles, physical stress and injury, and the distribution of supplemental prizes for backers. However, he insisted on his determination to finish the project, expressing his excitement about the abilities of the newly-implemented Unreal Engine 4 and his gratitude for those who have invested in him. Lytle stated that he had withheld from posting an update until he had a completion date, but did not give one in the update.
Since the 2015 kickstarter update, no further updates have been posted. Many Kickstarter backers have expressed their frustration with the company's continued lack of communication about the project, inferring that it is suffering from a lack of personnel in its production team, along with other issues.
In August 2017, the Animusic headquarters, including Animusic's office space and the Lytle residence, was sold to RP Solutions, Inc.
In August 2019, the Animusic website at was taken down briefly and replaced by a generic template with a small explanation that the site is undergoing a redesign. A quote from the new site states that "The ANIMUSIC website is being rebuilt from scratch, using Squarespace. Our previous website was ancient, dating back to the early days of ANIMUSIC.." As of August 9, 2019, the new website contains a collection of screenshots from Animusic 2, along with one picture from Animusic 1 and three work in progress images that appear to be from Animusic 3. The website's About page references the site being "A Fresh Start" for Animusic.
Although the release of Animusic 3 has been continually postponed, others have created and released tribute animations and fan-made versions of the Animusic concept through YouTube. Over time, hundreds of these homemade animations have been produced and shared. The bulk of these have been created since shortly after the release of Animusic 2.

Trivia