Animusic

Instruments set inside a cathedral play three movements of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" played on a light-beam pipe organ with drums, bass, many other instruments... and pyrotechnics! These sections include "Promenade" and parts of "Hut on Fowls Legs" or "Baba Yaga" and "The Great Gate of Kiev."

Resonant Chamber is a very mellow song from Animusic 2. It could be the follow-up of Aqua Harp. It is a purely acoustic piece performed by a complex multi-neck stringed instrument. Set in a peaceful inner chamber, high in a sky somewhere, a different moon is seen out each window.

The Stick bass from Animusic 1 returns as an upgraded model: sporting wheels and double strings. He brings friends and cousins who cruise the wooden tracks playing on 3 separate stages and passing thru 3 tunnels all in the course of one tune.

The stars of the DVD (gracing the cover and the menus), a robot band kicks out an odd-time, laser-infused techno-rock tune while riding on top of their musical starship.

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. In the background, water gently ripples throughout the piece. Some lights are set on top of the wooden columns.

This is the most famous Animusic animation. It's also seen on the cover. In this animation, "Mr. Stick" (aka "Mr. Bass Man") the instrument, the 3-stringed acoustic guitar, the double bass, and the violins all have "arms" (fingers for the guitar) which they use to play themselves.

The robotic drummer (surrounded by a percussion set) 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 electric 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.

Trailer for the Animusic 2 DVD.

Trailer for the Animusic 1 DVD.

Animusic HD bonus feature of a higher bitrate SD version of Harmonic Voltage. 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 HD bonus feature of a higher bitrate SD version of Drum Machine. 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.

Animusic HD bonus feature of a higher bitrate SD version of Aqua Harp. 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. In the background, water gently ripples throughout the piece. Some lights are set on top of the wooden columns.

Three animations from Animusic 1 as a bonus feature on Animusic HD.

Play all Animusic HD videos.

Wayne Lytle's favorite section of Heavy Light is seen from cameras showing some extreme close-ups of the instruments as they play. As these models were never intended to be viewed from this close, you get a “behind-the-scenes” peek at their structure.

Each of the hundreds of stones and instrument components is inserted in its place. Then the sky evolves over four different versions, ending with the final image used in the animation (that sky is also used on the DVD printed insert.)

Watch the entire animation from 4 different viewpoints symultaneously. The upper right quad-view window shows the entire rig, while the upper left camera is locked on to the inner core player. The bottom two windows show each of the satellite players. All three player cameras move as if attached to their respective player, so (from that perspective) the "world" seems to move and rotate while the players seem stationary.

A unique application of multiple "angles" and audio streams: four different video blends/audio mixes, from a single front-on camera view. In the first three you only hear and see certain instruments. The last blend/mix shows everything combined together like the completed animation.

A unique application of multiple "angles" and audio streams: four different video blends/audio mixes, from a single front-on camera view. In the first three you only hear and see certain instruments. The last blend/mix shows everything combined together like the completed animation.

A unique application of multiple "angles" and audio streams: four different video blends/audio mixes, from a single front-on camera view. In the first three you only hear and see certain instruments. The last blend/mix shows everything combined together like the completed animation.

A unique application of multiple "angles" and audio streams: four different video blends/audio mixes, from a single front-on camera view. In the first three you only hear and see certain instruments. The last blend/mix shows everything combined together like the completed animation.

The entire music animation plays while cycling through wireframe (see-through), white plastic, and final shaded renders, smoothly transitioning from one format to the next. Midway through this feature, it switches to a 3-way split screen to show a simultaneous comparison of all three render styles.

The cathedral structure and major instrument groups are faded on one at a time to reveal the construction of the set, concluding with some unusual camera angles not used in the actual animation. For the audio track a distant organ plays the music from Mussorgsky's "Promenade".

The full instrument model is very complex and has many obstructions, making it difficult to simultaneously view all six instrument components. In this special feature, each component is shown in its own window allowing you to clearly see each part, and how they play together. The music begins right after the intro, and is mixed to clearly bring out each musical part.

The band runs through the entire piece in a backstage rehearsal room before going onstage. Each performer is present from the start, rather than being introduced one at a time as in the main animation. The music fades out later on this rehearsal version, revealing a little extra flailing at the end.

Each camera is a single shot for the entire animation, locked on to follow one performer (or two, in the case of the drummers).

Each camera is a single shot for the entire animation, locked on to follow one performer (or two, in the case of the drummers).

Each camera is a single shot for the entire animation, locked on to follow one performer (or two, in the case of the drummers).

Play all Animusic 2 videos.

Stage construction for the animation "Harmonic Voltage!"

Solo cam for the animation "Harmonic Voltage!"

Solo cam for the animation "Harmonic Voltage!"

Solo cam for the animation "Harmonic Voltage!

Stage construction for the animation "Acoustic Curves!"

Solo cam for the animation "Acoustic Curves!"

Solo cam for the animation "Acoustic Curves!"

Solo cam for the animation "Acoustic Curves!"

Stage construction for the animation "Pipe Dream!"

Solo cam for the animation "Pipe Dream!"

Solo cam for the animation "Pipe Dream!"

Solo cam for the animation "Pipe Dream!"

Stage construction for the animation "Drum Machine!"

Solo cam for the animation "Drum Machine!"

Solo cam for the animation "Drum Machine!"

Solo cam for the animation "Drum Machine!"

Stage construction for the animation "Aqua Harp!"

Solo cam for the animation "Aqua Harp!"

Stage construction for the animation "Stick Figures!"

Solo cam for the animation "Stick Figures!"

Solo cam for the animation "Stick Figures!"

Solo cam for the animation "Stick Figures!"

Stage construction for the animation "Future Retro!"

Solo cam for the animation "Future Retro!"

Solo cam for the animation "Future Retro!"

Play all Animusic videos.

Sneak Peak of Animusic 2!

In 1995 Lytle brought computer artist David Crognale on board to produce a music animation for a commercial client. Animusic produced a 5-minute stereoscopic music animation for VRex, a manufacturer of stereoscopic glasses and projectors. The award-winning stereoscopic version was entitled "Concerto in 3D", while the regular version was called "Beyond the Walls".

Widescreen format of the main feature, "Pipe Dream 2!"

More Bells and Whistles was a computer animation created by Wayne Lytle in 1990. Wayne Lytle now owns and operates a company called Animusic, creating music-driven animation similar to the techniques demonstrated in the More Bells & Whistles video. Compared to the newer videos, however, this video is primitive. This piece was created using Wavefront version 2.7. Wayne created it while he was an employee at Cornell University Theory Center. This institution owns all rights to the piece.