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Private Notes
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.
Widescreen format of the main feature, "Pipe Dream 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".
Sneak Peak of Animusic 2!
Play all Animusic videos.
Solo cam for the animation "Future Retro!"
Solo cam for the animation "Future Retro!"
Stage construction for the animation "Future Retro!"
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 "Stick Figures!"
Solo cam for the animation "Aqua Harp!"
Stage construction for the animation "Aqua Harp!"
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 "Drum Machine!"
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 "Pipe Dream!"
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 "Acoustic Curves!"
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 "Harmonic Voltage!"
Play all Animusic 2 videos.
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).
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
Interview with Wayne Lytle and David Crognale. Originally released in 2005, it was included in the Animusic HD Blu-ray (2010).
Interview with Wayne Lytle and David Crognale. Originally released in 2005, it was included in the Animusic HD Blu-ray (2010).
Slideshow
As released in the Animusic HD Blu-ray. This single video contains all of the stage constructions from Animusic 1 as well as Cathedral Pictures and Heavy Light from Animusic HD. Future Retro, Stick Figures, Aqua Harp, Drum Machine, Pipe Dream, Acoustic Curves, Harmonic Voltage, Cathedral Pictures, Heavy Light.
Play all Animusic HD videos.
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.
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 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.
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.
This performance begins with the ball firing testing on the bass/bongo double instrument. The vibraphone fountain and the tubular bells appear to be made of gold. Also, this video is the second 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 (equivalent to about a year and a half), including building, calibrating, etc.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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."
As Pipe Dream was by far the favorite from Animusic 1, the instruments return in Pipe Dream 2 – aged and a bit more dented. Out comes a manic tune with even more ball bearings flying everywhere. Instruments from the original play on a room completely surrounded by pipes. They are all played by ball bearings that shoot out of certain pipes.
An organic set resembling the bridge of an alien spacecraft pumps out plasma-enfused prog-techno. The strobed light show (probably) has invisible aliens tapping their feet. We think. Or something. The animation is set in a room bounded by alienistic dark green pipes, with colored tubes and pads that play when light flows through them from fiber-optic cables. The light flows through the cables at a visible speed, and so the cables probably are filled with supercold matter, called a Bose-Einstein condensate, which slows light down to a visible speed. The fact that the drums actually interact with these packets of lights is most likely due to there being glowing matter instead of light coming through their cables, which solidifies on contact with air, and evaporates on impact.
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. This animation has 171 drums, cymbals, and other pieces in total. They are deployed and connected to the main kit over time in different sections.
The closing Finale: Set atop an ancient mountain-top monument on a planet far from here... A massive stone grid comes alive with plasma-emitting satellite dishes, lasers, and percussion rings. We could say the music was out of this world, but it actually may just be from the 80's. Set on a peak in the mountains, the piece is performed on an Aztec-like 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.
A bunch of instruments play on a room completly surrounded by pipes. This animation begins with the ball firing testing on the acoustic guitar/bongo double instrument. The stage is mostly made up of a circular vibraphone fountain, acoustic guitar/bongo/ banjo/bongo double instrument, a drum kit with a slide-bar marimba on top. They are all played by ball bearings that shoot out of certain pipes. The room's walls are ethier white or pink and the floor appears to be made out wood. The instruments are all connected to the pipes.
A robot band kicks out an odd-time, laser-infused techno-rock tune while riding on top of their musical starship.
Pogo Sticks features the return of Mr. Stick, the popular robotic bass from Stick Figures on Animusic 1. This time "he" has been reformatted to include wheels and a second string. He has the ability of bouncing and the capabilities of motion. He also brings along "friends" and "cousins" in the form of similar instruments.
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.
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."
As Pipe Dream was by far the favorite from Animusic 1, the instruments return in Pipe Dream 2 – aged and a bit more dented. Out comes a manic tune with even more ball bearings flying everywhere. Instruments from the original play on a room completely surrounded by pipes. They are all played by ball bearings that shoot out of certain pipes.
An organic set resembling the bridge of an alien spacecraft pumps out plasma-enfused prog-techno. The strobed light show (probably) has invisible aliens tapping their feet. We think. Or something. The animation is set in a room bounded by alienistic dark green pipes, with colored tubes and pads that play when light flows through them from fiber-optic cables. The light flows through the cables at a visible speed, and so the cables probably are filled with supercold matter, called a Bose-Einstein condensate, which slows light down to a visible speed. The fact that the drums actually interact with these packets of lights is most likely due to there being glowing matter instead of light coming through their cables, which solidifies on contact with air, and evaporates on impact.
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. This animation has 171 drums, cymbals, and other pieces in total. They are deployed and connected to the main kit over time in different sections.
The closing Finale: Set atop an ancient mountain-top monument on a planet far from here... A massive stone grid comes alive with plasma-emitting satellite dishes, lasers, and percussion rings. We could say the music was out of this world, but it actually may just be from the 80's. Set on a peak in the mountains, the piece is performed on an Aztec-like 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.
