The problem: artwork can hold still while the song moves.
psycho.sys.exe has a strong visual identity: a gaunt hooded figure, luminous magenta eyes, skeletal hands and a coarse pixel-art surface. The production challenge was to make that world participate in the music while keeping the character readable.
The later Signal Cinema pass retained an 80-shot picture edit with 42 compositions. Its new layer followed the recording’s changing frequency content, attacks and stereo waveforms. Instead of replacing the artwork every time the music changed, the surrounding geometry could carry part of the movement.
Start with the complete mix.
The analysis divided the stereo recording into 128 logarithmically spaced frequency bands spanning 20 Hz to 20 kHz. A longer analysis window followed sustained energy. A shorter one tracked faster changes across eight transient regions. The stereo channels were combined as power for the spectral analysis, so opposing-phase content would not simply cancel out of the visual signal.
Different signals had different jobs. Lower-frequency activity affected depth and pressure around the picture. Frequency-local attacks left travelling contours. Sustained energy fed individual ribs and particles, while the actual left and right PCM waveforms formed separate foreground strands.
This operates on a mixed recording. A bass note and a kick can both contribute energy to the low bands. The method describes frequency regions and events; assigning each event to a named instrument would require additional analysis.
Three forms, one world.
The geometry moved between an iris, a diamond lattice and a rectangular signal chamber. At picture cuts, forms interpolated over 1.4 seconds. That gave the sequence changing architecture while keeping its palette and character identity connected.
The picture edit was decoded at 30 frames per second. The reactive graphics updated at 60 frames per second. The extra updates belonged to the audio-reactive layer, while the underlying edit kept its existing timing.
Rendering started on a 640 × 360 graphics grid, expanded exactly four times to 2560 × 1440 with nearest-neighbour scaling. The coarse surface was a deliberate pixel-art choice. A smooth scaling filter would have changed the character of the original work.
