Animusic: A Computer Animated Video Album (Special Edition)
August 2004 Reviewed by: Anthony Di Marco Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Artistic expression takes different forms. Many styles of art involve patterns that occur naturally in life, while others exhibit an intuitive design that belies their artificial roots. For those of you who are not familiar with the computer-animated creations of Wayne Lytle, Animusic combines two art forms into one cohesive and surprisingly entertaining whole. By combining synthesized music and computer animation, Lytle builds a virtual band that not only performs music, but also appears to conceive it. The result is a very compelling and organic synergy of computer graphics imagery (CGI) and David Benoit-like contemporary jazz.

While this may sound like some sort of gimmick, it’s actually quite complicated and computationally intensive. Timing, an expert’s grasp of musical composition, knowledge of how instruments function, and gobs of processing power are critical in making the visuals work in simpatico with the sound.

My favorites were "Drum Machine" and "Pipe Dream." Both cuts combined images and music that are not only hypnotic but also very relaxing. The enveloping surround sound pulsated with refined mechanical sounds that had an effect similar to the gentle hum of a precise mechanism. They triggered memories I had listening to the musical sounds my father’s printing presses made, as ink came in contact with numerous sheets of paper.

Video quality is good from a technical point of view. Images are colorful and alive. Each image did exhibit an irritating amount of edge shimmer, and I found that my eyes got tired if I watched more than three songs at a time. I’m guessing this was an artifact of MPEG compression having difficulty with the complex, non-stop motion.

Audio is technically good as well. Every song exhibits frightening dynamic snap and excellent detail. The 5.1 mix is very good. As the virtual camera swooped and panned, so did the sound. I especially liked the effect on "Drum Machine." I felt as if I was in the middle of the complex system of gears that kept the drums in time with one another. What I didn’t care for was the distracting amount of tonal sheen. Many of the sounds were uncomfortably bright. I understand that the music was digitally recorded; however, it would have been more enjoyable if the timbre were smoother.

It would have been less confusing if the special features were not split up into two locations. The "Behind-the-Scenes Set Construction Short" and the "300 Production Stills" offered good insight into the vast amount of effort that went into each song. A widescreen version of "Pipe Dream" and Animusic’s first effort, "Behind the Walls," offered the same ingenious musical visualizations as the main track list. Wayne Lytle’s interesting remarks made up for long pauses in the "Director’s Commentary." His recollection of how his team dealt with problems in the software logic, and timing between music and image, gave me a lot of respect for the unique approach of Animusic’s art.

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