Just a Note!

How could an eleven-second rendition of a single note score five-figure hits on
YouTube?

A couple of years ago, I was developing the rendering end of a system for
producing animation from digital graphics.   As a means to test it, I tried to
imagine the simplest pilot project that could have real matching audio and video
content.   I wondered, “what could be done with just a single note?”

Devoid of melody, harmony, and rhythm, this struck me as an amusing challenge.
There would be only one main event: the attack of the note onset.   The decay
phase of the note suggested a waveform diminishing in amplitude.   Attack, decay,
and nothing else, might seem a little pointless, lacking in context, so to
induce some anticipation, a reverse waveform could precede the attack as some
sort of build up.

I wanted the decay to seem natural, like ripples on the surface of a pond
receding into the distance.   To render this in a 2-D frame, I imagined wave
projection onto the surface of a paraboloid - with apex closest to viewer,
damped oscillation would appear further, smaller, and denser as it emanates from
the apex.



Well, I never expected this offhand proof-of-concept pilot to turn out to be so
popular, with >11,500 hits to date.    The original has got 1000 hits in the last month
alone!    In response, the above is a revised version.   For best effect,
view in fullscreen at 1080p.