Sensology

August 8, 2010 8:32 AM

Animator and comic book artist Michel Gagné has released his short film Sensology.

"Sensology is a short animated film by Michel Gagné that visualizes in abstract form, an improvised musical session by two leaders of the avant-guarde jazz movement, Paul Plimley (piano) and Barry Guy (bass). The music was recorded on November 9th, 1995, at the Western Front in Vancouver, Canada"

"Sensology was handdrawn (painted) with a Wacon tablet at first, and later, a Cintiq, using Photoshop. The drawings and frames where then composited and manipulated in a 2D software called Animo. There is no vector animation at any point in the film."

posted by bonobothegreat (10 comments total)

It's pretty interesting work, though I found myself again and again thinking of this little bit from my childhood.
posted by Mooski at 9:13 AM on August 8, 2010

There is no vector animation at any point in the film.
That seems such an arbitrary restriction. Surely it would have been loads easier to do with vector animation?

Also, animations by Michal Levy for those who've not seen them.
posted by juv3nal at 10:35 AM on August 8, 2010

I'm anxiously awaiting his next work: vuvuzelas at the world cup
posted by Xurando at 11:36 AM on August 8, 2010

Very nice; I have a couple of Barry Guy records (his scores are amazing too), but hadn't been familiar with Plimley. I wouldn't mind getting the Sensology CD.
posted by languagehat at 2:30 PM on August 8, 2010

My hat goes off to this animator for really engaging me. I honestly have never been able to figure out how to derive any emotional or intellectual stimulation from music like this before. Maybe people who "get it," have experiences like what this gave me, but they don't need the visual aid to arrive there.
posted by YouDontSmellBad at 4:52 PM on August 8, 2010

Very nice! And I also was reminded of Chuck Jones at various points along the way.

Texture is usually my favorite part of music, and Michel Gagne did a great job of ... capturing? echoing? .. portraying the textures of this piece.
posted by aubilenon at 10:33 PM on August 8, 2010

Gagne is also behind the upcoming Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, which looks amazing.
posted by archagon at 11:22 PM on August 8, 2010

This is phenomenal, by the way. I don't normally like this kind of music, but the domain transformation into animation makes it suddenly fascinating.
posted by archagon at 11:44 PM on August 8, 2010

Snazzy I guess, but the animation's relationship with the music is typically, woefully literal. Dancers do that sort of thing when faced with improvised music all too often.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:32 AM on August 9, 2010

yay! I bought my daughter Gagne's book Odd Numbers for her birthday, and am looking forward to his upcoming xbox game, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet.
posted by luvcraft at 9:37 AM on August 9, 2010