From there went Animusic

Under the cut a brief history of the animated brainchild of Wayne Lytle (Wayne Lytle) - Animusic project. This is a series of videos demonstrating original and amazing virtual musical instruments, the animation of which is generated on the basis of musical MIDI parties (of course, at the head of all efforts is the creation of technology, videos are just its demonstration).

Business Card Animusic - Pipe Dreams:
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Intel even recreated the entire music installation (as an advertisement for the Intel Atom; according to the video description, 7 pieces are used for playback):



Less well-known fans of Wayne's creativity are also eager to fight:



For dessert:

Origins

The idea to use musical parts as the basis for generating visual accompaniment came to Wayne Laytl in 1982. Then he did not yet possess the necessary knowledge and skills to translate the intent. The first real experience Wayne received in 1989, since then he worked on the system, which later became the prototype of Animusic.

A year later, Wayne presents the fruits of his activities on SIGGRAPH 1990 - animation for his own composition More Bells and Whistles:



Even through coarse models and the “behavior” of the instruments, the future actors of the series are easily recognized.
The video receives many awards at various events, including from IBM.

In 1995, Wayne teamed up with computer artist Dave Crognale to work on a commercial order — a 5-minute stereoscopic animation for V-Rex (producer of stereoscopic glasses and projectors):


(comment of the translator: it was then that Visual Music was founded, which later changed its name to Animusic)

In 1998, Uyen and Dave set about creating a video album, which was released in 2001. That was the first Animusic. At the request of distributors, the guys added audio in 5.1 format and a so-called special edition appeared.

After some time they take on the second album, released in 2005. Upon completion of the DVD, Dave decides to take a break. Wayne is full of new ideas and, in addition to everything, he realizes the need for changes in the pipeline.

The company moves to Ithaca (Ithaca, NY). Wayne completely from scratch writes software. He is joined by Steve Westin (Steve Westin), who has made a great contribution to the graphical interface, implementation of shaders and integration with RenderMan for 2 years in the team.

Wayne's impression of the new system:

Sometimes Dave and I make jokes about ANIMUSIC | studio, the complexity and advancement of which reached the level when adding the “Create Animusic 3 DVD” button becomes quite logical our next step - click on it and, after a few months, pick up the finished DVD!

The release date for Animusic 3 was postponed several times due to various difficulties and in support of the DVD, the guys even conducted a successful Kickstarter campaign .


The status of the third DVD is still “in progress”, the release date is “as soon as, so immediately.” Well, wait!

Team

The main team members are Wayne and Dave. Both are busy over9000-fulltime and put all their strength into the current project (Animusic 3).

As the company's founder and ideological inspirer, Wayne controls the process of creating content in and out.
Wayne's main cause is the development of ANIMUSIC | studio, which provides the correct synchronization of musical accompaniment and animation instruments. It is he who creates the prototypes for all the animations and breathes life into the tools. Wayne manages the virtual cameras, setting the angles for “shooting” (rendering), and finalizing the rollers. Animusic music tracks are also written by Wayne using software and hardware synthesizers ( Minimoog Voyager , Nord Lead 2 , Yamaha DX7 , etc.), DAW ( Nuendo / Cubase SX , Reason / Record , Fruity Loops ).

Dave also focuses on the aesthetic side of the issue - the external design of the tools and their environment, sketching ideas and their implementation in Modo, 3ds Max, or XSI. He is responsible for modeling hundreds of elements, which are later easily assembled into a single whole, thanks to ANIMUSIC | studio. In addition to modeling, Dave is involved in the preparation of shaders and materials that give the scenes a finished look (ie, creates dirt, bump, specular textures ) for rendering , and compositing .
Animusic has its own render farm, it works 24/7 and is under the care of Dave.

Promotional materials, printed products - the result of joint efforts (the implementation deals with Dave).

ANIMUSIC | studio and Co.

Wayne is often asked questions about the software being used.

Central to the process of creating content is ANIMUSIC | studio - a MIDI sequencer and animation system based on visual programming (note of the translator: meaning node presentation of data and dependencies). The core of ANIMUSIC | studio is its own animation generation library (now its 5th version) - MIDImotion.

Now written by Wayne software is not available for licensing. Firstly, because the main priority of the company is content creation (in particular, Animusic 3), and not the sale of software. Secondly, the author is depressed by the very idea of ​​writing documentation for the product, in which he himself is sometimes confused. Wayne does not rule out the possibility of an ANIMUSIC | studio release in the future.

Pipeline

Wayne on Pipeline:

Over the years, we have changed the details of the workflow, while adhering to the general scheme: for modeling, creating materials and rendering, we use third-party commercial software, while the animation of scenes is generated procedurally by using our own developments.

We switched to XSI (and partly Z-Brush) for modeling and returned to RenderMan as a rendering engine. All parts are written directly to ANIMUSIC | studio (note: translator: previously, the sequencer was performed by Steinberg Cubase SX), so the headache of constantly importing / exporting MIDI files is now in the past. Instead, at the end of a job, MIDI is sent over a gigabit channel to a second workstation, where the final audio track in the host application with software synthesizers connected is rendered (note of translator: usually VST ).

MIDImotion

Animating instruments with classic keyframing without MIDImotion is a time consuming operation. The library includes about 12 basic algorithms (receiving input from 10 to 50 parameters) and generates animation with extreme precision. The music has changed - the generation process starts anew, without any extra effort!

The principles laid down in MIDImotion are different from reactive imaging technologies that have become popular due to their use in audio players. The generation is preceded by the stage of analysis and pre-processing of musical parts. The instruments do not just play the notes that are assigned to a MIDI sequencer at a given time, but also take into account previous and subsequent transitions to recreate more natural movement.

Animusic eyes of its creator

Interview with Wayne for midi.org ( original ):

Interviewer : How did it all begin?
Wayne Lightl : In the 70s, even before the advent of MIDI, I met with synthesizers like MiniMoog , etc. With the onset of the early 80s, I vaguely guessed about the existence of something like MIDI and only made sketches in a notebook, portraying my own vision of music-driven animation. Once a friend told me about a thing called MIDI, and suddenly my two worlds merged into one. Perhaps it was the most amazing and beautiful discovery in my life.
However, my first experiences began only in 1989. I tried to analyze the MIDI files with which sequencers operate, and generate animation based on the data.

Interviewer : Are you a keyboard player by nature?
Wayne Lightl : I started with piano and drums. In spite of the classical piano music education I received in college, there were no outstanding successes in my playing skills. Much more I was interested in activities in music groups. I'm not a very neat performer, and am very pleased with the existence of MIDI and sequencers. It is enough for me to “think” about the notes and voila, they have already taken their place. In this case, keyboards can either be used or not used. Thank God, for this I don’t have to be extremely accurate in execution.

Interviewer : How many people work on the project?
Wayne Laytl : Three people are engaged in the main development, a couple of freelancers are engaged in minor projects. The team also has one developer hired for a full working shift. Dave and I are engaged in generating ideas, modeling and writing music. On the one hand, it is difficult to be a small team, but on the other hand, it is not easier to be a big one. Although we have no problems with communication between team members, when there are so few people, the chances of getting burned out are quite large.

Interviewer : How much time is spent on a project?
Wayne Lightl : It took about three years to release each of the first two DVDs. We are on the way to reducing the period to a year, at the moment software is being written for this, which will allow optimizing the development process. Our task is to reach the point where we can spend more time playing with tools and creativity, rather than programming and debugging code.

Interviewer : Are you an animator who likes to play music, or an animation musician?
Wayne Lightl : I myself have often asked myself this difficult question! Actually: Am I a programmer or a programmer trying to be a musician? I guess I tried for quite a long time to achieve success even in one of the fields, feeling that it was worthwhile to stop and concentrate on one thing. However, this did not happen and now both hobbies perfectly complement each other.
Definitely a lot of fun. It is wonderful to do your favorite thing, and also to have your own company. We think we are very lucky.

Interviewer : Is there any message behind your work?
Wayne Lightl : An excellent question, and I am glad that he sounded because he is rarely asked. At the very beginning, the project was completely personal - it reflected what I wanted to do, and what I was thinking all day long. Definitely, it was my passion that became the starting point. But after the release of the first DVD, when we saw the reaction of people, our motives and goals changed somewhat. It seems that the results of our works really gave people pleasure, making them smile and feel joy. Children and the elderly are especially imbued with our creativity. There were even teachers who used Animusic as an auxiliary material in teaching musical rhythm, mathematics and social interaction in teaching physically handicapped children.
The above was a complete surprise for us and, of course, a pleasant surprise. Now we are determined to move on and “fan the flames”. Generally speaking, on the agenda we have not an attempt to carry enlightenment, but a desire to make a positive contribution to the electronic media and entertainment industry, in our view, full of low-quality products, violence and simply disgusting content. We are trying to show people the good side of the industry - we create something cool while avoiding stupidity and banality.

Interviewer : What is primary - the visual or musical component?
Wayne Laytl : Both that, and another. We practice both approaches. For some animations, I previously completely wrote and brought together musical accompaniment, before even thinking about visualization. In other cases, it all started with the design of tools and animation testing, after which we proceeded to writing music.
In the idea - and we adhere to a similar approach when creating Animusic 3 - we are talking about the symbiosis of both components, that is, the simultaneous work on the creation of tools and the study of how best to use them. We find out what the instrument is capable of, whether it is more suitable for fast passages or slow parts, for heavy riffs or bass. How many notes can be played, or have something to throw away and you get an 8-note bass machine, or an instrument with a range of forty notes? As you progress, the musical palette changes, and the development of the composition can affect the appearance of the instrument. The perfect option, again, implies an even greater degree of integration and the reduction of the priority of any of the components of creativity.

Interviewer : Have you ever collaborated with DAW manufacturers?
Wayne Lightl : Not yet. We are trying to focus only on content. Our product is a DVD, not software written, although this may change in the future. In fact, we have gone from using commercial sequencers. Not because they are bad - modern DAWs are constantly being improved - just a year or two ago I decided to write my own sequencer (note of the translator: MIDIMotion), which could be integrated into the process of music visualization so organically that you could call it the writing of animations and animating music.

Interviewer : Is MIDIMotion available for purchase?
Wayne Laytl : It was discussed, however, while the sequencer is not in the public domain. It’s quite difficult to release low-cost software and provide support at a good level, so MIDIMotion is still exclusively an internal Animusic instrument to this day.
We also have a complex software for animation ANIMUSIC | Studio, in which MIDIMotion is used as the engine responsible for the musical component of the animation.

Interviewer : What, in your opinion, are the strengths of modern software synthesizers compared to the hardware ones?
Wayne Laytl : I, first of all, am glad about the current state of things, and I have almost no reasons to complain. Now you can use fantastically sounding synthesizers in any quantity. It used to be problematic to go and buy 6 MiniMoogs . Now I can open, say, several windows in Reason and just switch between them, depending on what composition I'm working on at the moment. And at the same time, everything is already configured. To tell you the truth, I don't often notice nostalgia for the past.
However, I have warm memories of ELP 's performance at Madison Square Garden, where I saw mountains of equipment and Emerson’s knives stuck in his Hammond and other instruments. It was fun!

Interviewer : How does MIDI fit into the modern music making idiom?
Wayne Lightl : The fact that MIDI is as clear as possible is an incredible success. Yes, he has great potential, and at the same time it is not necessary to study it completely. Unlike the past era of the old modular synthesizers, when you simply sank in questions, not understanding where and what to connect. Now much is hidden behind the curtain. MIDI is also used in computers, even if there are no cables nearby, since MIDI is not only an interface, but also a protocol, which many people do not realize.
I do not see a big problem in this, although it would be nice to develop a standard more, because there are things that are missing. Not noticeable people pushing MIDI forward. One of my personal ones is the possibility of a controlled transition from one note to another, as when using a ribbon controller on an old synthesizer, which allows you to smoothly return to the previous note.

Interviewer : Does it make sense to delve into the subtleties of MIDI?
Wayne Lightl : Perhaps, but how well do you want to understand the structure of your instruments? You can use musical equipment without thoroughly studying the principles of its operation. The artist does not need to know everything about the wood from which his brush is made, or where the bristles were made. This does not prevent him from creating truly beautiful work. If you wish, you can dig even deeper and learn something new.
Obviously, for people involved in software development for creating music, understanding MIDI is critical, moreover, it must be continuously expanded. In the end, knowledge has not hurt anyone.

Interviewer : How many details of the development process are you ready to reveal?
Wayne Lightl : You know, we would prefer to keep the recipe of our sauce a secret, but I think at some point it will be necessary to share what is happening behind the scenes. It is important for us to find out how it is clear to convey the details to people and to avoid a reaction like “oh how difficult it all is. And these guys are brainy! ”, Because our goal is different. With the right approach to explaining everything becomes easier.
First of all, we want to show what power is hidden in MIDI. Perhaps this will happen simultaneously with the opening of access to the software (note of the translator: this is about Animotion, now ANIMUSIC | studio). For the moment, our attention is mostly focused on the next DVD.

Interviewer : Do you think a “average” person can do a lot with your software?
Wayne Laytl : With software in the form in which it is now, probably not a lot. Just like in the old days, when synthesizers were controlled by guys in lab coats from the university; stuck all sorts of wires in ... Now with the help of a laptop you can do everything your heart desires. I think that this is how software should develop; and this concerns music with animation - people should have the opportunity to drag-n-drop to create new instruments and assign them musical parts. The user is not obliged to bother about the technologies used in our product. Our goal is to provide a simple and enjoyable creative process, without crashing and falling every few minutes, allowing people to create cool things!

The materials of the following resources were used when creating the publication:

• MIDI Manufacturers Association
• Animusic official website