Customer Reviews

Odyssey In the Mind's Eye: Luminous Visions

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The computer animation shorts of Yoichiro Kawaguchi have been a feature of the ACM SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater for over 10 years. Some of the shorts are available on VHS through the Association of Computing Machinery, however, this DVD features an extended selection of the Kawaguchi material, that is hard to find anywhere else. The technical quality far exceeds that found on VHS and all the material is presented continuously rather than scattered among various SIGGRAPH tapes. For fans of abstract computer animation and electronic music, it does not get much better than this.

Since another reviewer has already dealt with the visual half of this release, I thought I would review it from the perspective of a long-term Tangerine Dream fan.

This release has several attractions for the TD fan:

- A chance to hear TD write in a more rhythmic, "techno" style. Some of the rhythms are reminiscent of their 70s sequencer material, but with 90s polish and sensibilities. While I doubt we will ever hear any of these tracks on the dance floor, some of it does have that feel. However, the material has quite a bit of variety, with classical elements (a la White Eagle), and a "progressive" feel as well at times. Overall, I rank this at the top of their recent music that I have heard (although there are many recent TD releases that I haven't heard, they are quite prolific!).

- A relatively short but dense interview with TD, including brief clips of a recent concert (I wish they would release a whole DVD of that!), as well as Edgar talking a little bit about everything.

- There really is a full-length CD thrown into the DVD box, which contains about 75 minutes of soundtrack music for this film (thereby providing an additional 30 minutes of music for which there was no corresponding footage). Thus you can listen to the music away from your DVD player (I'm listening to that CD while writing this).

Thus, I can say that any TD fan that has a good number of their releases will want this one as well, especially if their musical taste runs to a bit of techno as well.

By the way, I did find the animation quite enjoyable as well (similar to some of the more abstract videos seen on MTV's "AMP" program).

This video is a great introduction to the animation of Yoichiro Kawaguchi. Unlike many other animations, this one has structures that appear very fluid and organic. Some appear to be modeled from actual organisms (e.g. hydra, manta ray). Everything is moving, growing, changing. Coloring may be subtle or bold, and the viewpoint is often moving as well. All in all, quite entertaining to the eye. When combined with the scintillating music of Tangerine Dream, you have something that can keep you in rapt attention (or just sit back, zone out and enjoy it as 'eye candy'). Included with the DVD is a CD of the music used in this video but with full-length cuts: several (not all) have driving techno-dance rhythms and pulsing bass lines. All have interesting synthesizer and piano melodies and patterns. Too bad the DVD wasn't mixed for Dolby Digital 5.1. Nevertheless, the stereo mix is good, and the tunes kept playing in my head days later, which is rare for instrumental music. If you like Tangerine Dream's music, you'll LOVE this DVD, and the CD is a great bonus!

This presentation is fluid and vibrant, but it is almost entirely sphere-based animation, so there is not a lot of variation on the general theme. Also there are points in the video where it is obvious that the DVD was generated from analog originals. Overall it definately kept my attention and the music was excellent.

This is quite the deal for those searching for a visual treat! Even though Tangerine Dream isn't my bag, it was still a nice perk for purchasing this DVD title. I found this title from the folks of Mind's Eye to be very hypnotic, and it's versatile with just about any genre of music. My only complaint is that some of the images get a little repetitive, hence the 4-star grade.

This DVD goes great with most of the Cd's I've reviewed. Lovely abstractions. I have had this DVD for nearly five years. and it is the best abstract computer animation art out there. Trust me, I have a large collection. The music is not the best but the graphics are phenomenal. Try listening to something like Cafe Del Mar 7 or a Buddha Bar compilation with this dvd playing. Try this an hour or so before you retire for the evening. God Bless You... it looks even more awesome on a digital tv with progressive scanning...

I bought this DVD with the high hopes I be blown away by some very tight, creative 3d morph visuals.

I'm very dissapointed. My friend an I watched it last night, and unfortunately were apalled at the quality, or lack thereof.

Principle complaints in order of irritation level:

1. The compression is horrible throughout many of the sequences. Sometimes the compression is so bad the artifacts cause blurring of the entire scene by as much as 20 percent. This goes away for a few scenes though -maybe 8 minutes of the film has acceptable compression.

2. The rendering framerate of the 3d animation wavers between 15 and 30 fps -with rare leaps to 60 fps, which contrast so much to the choppy parts that you wonder, "oh why couldn't it just all be 60?" It's like watching someone play Quake on a 486.

3. The resolution of the 3d animation was rendered at different sizes. Then they were all scaled to a common DVD resolution. The result is blurred aliasing, which combines with the compression to turn many of the scenes into mud.

4. The textures are very noisy, sometimes so noisy the entire screen looks like snow, making it very hard to watch.

5. The bump maps used in rendering the 3d shapes often don't tile, making obvious borders where they should tile, but don't. It's very distracting.

6. The camera animation is choppy, jerky, and not very fluid.

7. Many of the animations have hitches and pops which are obviously mistakes, but left in.

Ok, I admit I watched this movie sober, but I'm glad I did because I would have been more dissapointed had I been high.

I wish I could return it but now I'm stuck with it... :-(

I purchased this video with all three volumes of X-Mix and was hugely disappointed by all 4 of the videos.

The reason I purchased these videos was because years ago I had purchased Atmospherex Exotic Robotics and absolutely loved the fluid graphics and the way to moved to the music. I wanted more. And bad. So I purchased these expecting the same.

The graphics were horrible and choppy. The visuals didnt seem to respond to the music. I was completely startled because I read such other positive reviews. How can anyone call this mind tingling and fluid? Thus far I think Atmospherex is the only company (of the 3 whose products I've tried) that has it right.

this dvd is ausome !!, the resolution is extremely good, the best ive seen in a dvd, and when i play it in my up converting dvd player it looks amazing on my 32 inch lcd tv...

I was surprised this VHS included a CD. It comes in an amazing package that makes a great collectable and gives me pride to look at on my shelf. Do not buy the CD seperate, buy either the DVD or VHS and the CD comes free in it's own case. The video itself is not really like any of the other Mind's Eye videos (although clips from the first Mind's Eye video are present). You don't go to space, utopia or egypt. This is like a lava lamp with loads of lsd times 1000! It's still very interesting and entertaining to watch. I highly reccomend this video.