Collaborative Computer-Aided Parameter Exploration for Music and Animation

Although many artists have worked to create associations between music and animation, this has traditionally be done by developing one to suit the pre-existing other, as in visualization or sonification. The approach we employ in this work is to enable the simultaneous development of both music and sound from a common and rather generic central parameter variation, which may simply indicate a structure for periodic repetitions. This central parameter variation is then simultaneously mapped to appropriate musical and graphical variables by the musician and the animator, thereby contributing their own interpretations. The result of this mapping is then rendered in an intermediate form where music and animation are allowed to iteratively influence each other. The main piece of software in this development is the system which allows exploration of parameter mappings. The software interface allows both musician and animator to meaningfully experiment with the other’s mappings since the interface permits access in a common form, without requiring additional skills to interpret.