Visual Music

Visual Music

I recently came across a blog post Carlos Baena wrote for AnimationMentor. In the post he compares music with animation and talks about ‘visual music’. Music and animation, according to Baena, are similar in so many ways and can be used in a combination of ways either for inspiration, for pacing or for timing purposes.

The concept of ‘visual music’ interests me greatly. Baena defines visual music as the end result of what animators do in animation. In the post he also explains how musical terms have animation synonyms, for example, Tempo in music will be Pacing in animation. Musical timing and performance timing basically entails exactly the same thing just in different mediums. He also compares posing elements with musical instruments stating that sometimes in a concert you need a solo performer and in other parts the whole orchestra joins in. In animation the solo artist will be, for example, one part of a character’s body where the orchestra will be the whole character including all of his/her body parts.

He concludes by saying how he also uses music as a source of inspiration for character design and how he often imagine characters doing certain actions to the beat of the music; as the music grows the characters’ movements change and progress.

I agree with Baena that many elements or animation principles can be equated to musical elements. 


Reference: Baena, Carlos. "Animation as Visual Music." AnimationMentor. 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.