Blast from the Past: Animusic
One of my all-time favorite DVDs that I used to show my students was Animusic. There were two editions of the DVDs - Animusic and Animusic 2 - and my students would sit there mesmerized at the incredible computer graphics that were magically synced to the really cool music for each track.
Created by Wayne Lytle and originally released on VHS tape back in 2001, the truly amazing part of the series was that it was actually created by software that synced the music to the animations. According to Wikipedia:
Unlike many other music visualizations, Animusic uses MIDI information to drive the animation, while other software programs animate figures or characters to the music. Any animated models in Animusic are created first, and are then programmed to follow what the music, or MIDI information, instructs them to do.
Super cool. Here’s a link to the Animusic Studio if you’d like to find out more.
When Animusic 2 was released, I was asked by Wayne to create an educator guide to the DVD. With Animusic 1 there was already a guide and they wanted me to write something similar. These guides are complete with lesson plans and concepts that music teachers might focus on when showing the DVDs. I spent quite some time looking for these guides recently. You simply can’t find them on the internet and the current Animusic site doesn’t have a link to them. After a week or two of searching, I actually found them on an old hard drive that I rarely look at. So if you like these DVDs as much as I do, you’re in luck! Here they are:
I hope that you find these guides useful. Now - here’s the BEST part - what about those of you who don’t have these DVDs in your library? Well the folks at Animusic have VERY graciously posted many of the original videos on YouTube. They even have their own YouTube Channel you can check out. Here are two of my all-time favorites:
To watch the ENTIRE Animusic 1 (with Directors Commentary) click HERE.
To watch the ENTIRE Animusic 2 DVD, click HERE.
A few years back there was a Kickstarter campaign for the third edition of Animusic, but sadly, it was never released. There was quite a bit of controversy over this Kickstarter campaign (you can read all of the updates and comments for yourself).
Check out these videos and let me know what you think. Better yet - show them to your students and see what THEY think. Enjoy!
