Animusic

Dave Kent

I stumbled onto this company while browsing youtube. They are called animusic and they create computer animated video albums. They do this by using software of their own design that doubles as both 3D animation software as well as midi sequencing software. This allows them to create animations that can be programmed to trigger midi notes. The result is an animation that seems like it's creating the music rather than reacting to it.

The team is made up of two guys: Wayne Lytle and Dave Crognale. Dave is responsible for the artistic aspects of each piece, mainly the set design. He is responsible for creating all of the instruments in each set. All of the instruments that he comes up with are quite incredible such as a guitar with three necks complete with robot fingers, he also adds pipes onto it to create flute sounds.

Wayne is in charge of the mechanical aspects of each set. He is in charge of figuring out how the instruments created by Dave should move, as well as how all the virtual cameras in each set should move. He is also the one who composes the music using the midi sequencing aspect of their software.

In the end everything is computer generated including the music which is midi. However, thanks to their amazing software you still get a very realistic experience that is both fun to watch and listen to. They currently have two DVDs out and it sounds like they are working on a third.

Here are some pieces they have made: