Animusic 2 Review!

Animusic 2 is the sequel to Wayne Lytle's 3D computer animated music masterpiece Animusic. If you've never seen Animusic, you are in for a treat. You will see fantastic virtual instruments playing music in a very realistic way due to the way the animations are created. Being a fan of music and 3D animation, this stuff is right up my alley. All the music is written by Lytle and played through very realistic sounding MIDI instruments. This digital information is then used to "drive " the motion in the 3D animation software. This technique allows for the physics to be controlled in a very detailed, precise, yet automated way that looks natural. The Animusic team explains it this way: "Rather than reacting to sound with undulating shapes, our animation is correlated to the music at a note-for-note granularity, based on a non-real-time analysis pre-process. Animusic instruments generally appear to generate the music heard, rather than respond to it. At any given instant, not only do we take into account the notes currently being played, but also notes recently played and those coming up soon. These factors are combined to derive "intelligent," natural-moving, self-playing instruments." That about says it all I guess. Lets get on to my review then.



Five robots "get their groove on" in Starship Groove.

Starship Groove:
This selection is the first on the DVD. The characters from this piece are featured in the DVD menus and on its cover. Basically, they are the "face" of Animusic 2. These guys play on a stage that is actually a starship floating through space (hence the title). Two robots roll around playing synth pads attached to their chests, tapping them with their hands. Two more bots are attached to drum set and provide the percussion for the song. A fifth guy in the back plays some kind of electric harp thing. As the robot musicians play their instruments, different things light up around the spaceship stage. These guys are cooler than the average Animusic "instruments" because they seem to have more personality. As they play, these guys bop around and shake their heads as if they are real people digging the music they are playing. When certain musicians stop playing, they still bop around until their turn comes up to be more active. The song is happy sounding, but does have some minor key sections and odd time signatures here and there.



The Mr. Stick character gets a little more versatile adding wheels and pogo action in Pogo Sticks.

Pogo Sticks:
This selection features familiar Mr. Stick type characters, but with an upgrade... these guys are on wheels! Also, the character is no longer limited to stringed instruments as percussion instruments (drums, xylophones) are incorporated. These guys roll around on a wood track bouncing and playing. Changes in the music sections correspond with the characters making a trip through a dark tunnel where they begin to glow. Not a lot of lasers or lighting special effects here, but the environment they travel through is complicated. The song is dynamic and percussive, with slow and fast parts. The xylophone introduction section has a funk feel.



This crazy stringed instrument looks like a living thing as it plays in Resonant Chamber.

Resonant Chamber:
OK... this one is kind of creepy in a way. There is a weird instrument featured in this one that is wooden and resembles a cello, guitar, asian instrument, and a couple fretless basses all mashed together. There are places where strings overlap and necks and the resonant wooden bodies of the instrument meld together. So what's so creepy? Well, the wooden "fingers" that strum the strings or hammer-on the frets look very organic. Picture a crab or tarantula walking on the neck of a guitar. The instrument seems very organic... like it is alive. The playing is very accurately depicted as well. The dominant section of the song features an alternating 4/4 - 6/4 tempo with a "walking" feel. There's a mix of heavy and tranquil sections throughout.



Catherdral Pictures is a blend of a famous classical piece and some eerie Danny Elfman sounding stuff.

Cathedral Pictures:
This piece is set in a cathedral with a pipe organ on steroids. This thing is huge and fires light out of it sound holes. There are other wind instruments as well as harpsichords style ones, a large xylophone, a rock bass and a rock drum set. This is especially cool since this piece is a reprise of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." The peaceful classical standard changes feel to an unsettling progressively arranged orchestral score. I thought of Danny Elfman's stuff during this one. Eventually, the peaceful classical mood returns to the music and is emphasized by some pyrotechnics inside the church. Man, if there were fireworks in my church, I'd probably go more often!



Pipe Dream Two is a new song with the same instruments from the infamous Pipe Dream piece in the original Animusic.

Pipe Dream 2:
The original pipe dream was such a cool idea, I guess it is a no wonder why Wayne Lytle felt the urge to bring it back for Animusic 2. He uses the same virtual set and instruments, but the song they play is different. In Pipe Dream, all the instruments are assembled out of PVC looking frames and balls fire out of other pipes to play the strings or percussive instruments. These balls bounce off the instruments and fall into another open pipe somewhere on the set, presumably to be recycled into the system. A circular gold xylophone is the trademark instrument here and it is joined by a travelling wood xylophone, a spinning drum mount, chimes and some odd instruments where one ball bounces off a string, another string and a bongo drum during its travel time. Very cool song, very complicated physics.



Fiber Bundles uses flowing light to make music... one of the coolest tracks on the DVD.

Fiber Bundles:
This has to be my favorite one! In this piece, a bunch of fibers hang from the ceiling and make their way down to connect to the various instruments on the stage. Through these tubes come light that triggers the instruments. This works sort of like fiber optics in that the fibers glow, but the lights appear more like flowing liquid that glows. As this liquid "pours" into the container that is the instrument, it makes a sound. Enough liquid light flows to carry out the length of the note. This proces gets pretty crazy during sections where there are rapid notes playing because it creates a visually overloading (in a good way) light show. Some of the light actually fires out of the fibers to run the drum set in the center. The song sounds very ambient but eventually rocks out. There is even a techno/trance secion here and the light show aspect makes it look like a rave party. Very cool song, extremely complicated lighting effects and physics. Like I said... this one is my favorite.



This mind boggling drum solo features three gyroscopic drummers navigating around a complicated drum kit structure.

Gyro Drums:
Unbelievable... cant really explain this one... you have to see it. A drum set connected to multiple levels of rings is played by three drummers who are also connected to rings. These rings are arranged in different levels and rotate around each other like an atom's electron shells. The drummers rotate on their rings and play a dizzying coordinated solo that would make drummer Mike Portnoy motion sick. This one is too complicated to digest in one viewing. The quad view (full scene from one angle, and a camera centered on each of the three drummers) makes for an even more complex viewing experience. Please focus on one of the four screen sections unless you have a barf bag near by... you have been warned.



An ancient temple comes alive with lasers, lights and progressive rock in Heavy Light.

Heavy Light:
An ancient Aztec looking temple forms the stage for this piece. It extrudes to reveal lazers and other beam generators beneath the stone. These play a very mystical song with a heavily synthesized progressive rock sound. There is a lot going on as usual. Stone blocks raise and lower, revealing instruments below the surface. Lasers and lights fire into the night sky. Glowing masses of light (think ball lightning) fire to trigger drums and gongs.

The Animusic series is awesome and a must have for any animation or music fan. It is no wonder that a member of Yes, the producer of Pink Floyd and members of Kansas are on the record praising the work of Wayne and his team. The style of music he writes is very progressive sounding and created in a very progressive way... digitally. So look this stuff up on www.animusic.com and buy some DVDs! You will not be disappointed. Please help to send some monetary support to this renaissance artist and his company. He deserves it and besides, I want there to be an Animusic 3!