Harmonic Convergence

In his 11 years as a computer graphics designer, Noriaki Kaneko has never had a client as old-school as the Los Angeles Philharmonic. After all, this season’s Phil program features works by such composers as 265-year-old Joseph Haydn and 227-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven.

But in a bid to reach out to the generations of Angelenos who have grown up with the visual stimulation of movies and television, the Phil is employing computer graphics and other technologies in creating a “Filmharmonic” series that combines newly commissioned symphonic works with 20-minute visual presentations.

About 50 artists are working on the inaugural production called “1,001 Nights,” an Arabian-inspired fairy tale that will debut this spring. The challenge for Kaneko and his computer graphics team is to use a high-tech palette to create fine art.

“The easiest thing to do in computer graphics is to make shiny things like robots and spaceships and make it look like a video game,” said Kaneko, president of Inertia Pictures in Venice. “Most of these drawings are pretty flat, and we have to make a conscious effort to keep it two-dimensional. It doesn’t come naturally to computer animators. They have never seen this before.”

Unlike Hollywood--which generally believes that more is better when it comes to digital effects--”1,001 Nights” director Mike Smith is determined to blend painting and traditional animation techniques with computer graphics to produce a mixed-media piece that utilizes the best aspects of each approach.

“I want to express certain atmospheres and emotions at different points using different techniques,” said Smith, who works at Hyperion Studio in Glendale, the firm that is overseeing the production. “The computer is just a medium like any other form of art. The trick is to find areas where the computer is going to benefit the art.”

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For example, Smith said, a dramatic conflict between the story’s two main characters will require the visual fireworks made possible by computer graphics, while a more tender scene will be illustrated with hand-painted images based on the work of Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano, who created and designed the project.

The nature of the image will dictate which medium is used, Smith said. Flowing line drawings of people are generally the domain of painted and cut-out animation. But renderings of three-dimensional structures--such as a seashell used to transport the two characters and the spiky star where the story begins and ends--are created using computer programs like Kinetics 3D Studio MAX from Autodesk.

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David Newman, who is writing the “1,001 Nights” score, is no stranger to technology. The composer uses PC software (“a music word processor”) to write down the notes he composes and another program to synchronize the music with visual cues in the film.

The first draft of his score will not be completed until the end of the year, but it is likely to include some special effects that “take the sound of an acoustic instrument and make it sound really bizarre and beautiful and dreamy,” he said. Although harmonizers are often used for this purpose, enhancing the music in a live setting is much more challenging.

“We’re using every available technology in service of the story, not as an end but as a means,” Newman said.

A trio of Japanese companies, led by the marketing and communications services firm Bellsystem24 of Tokyo, is funding “1,001 Nights,” although they won’t say how much is being spent. The L.A. Phil will not have to dip into its own coffers to pay for this production, which was first announced about a year ago. Four other Filmharmonics are in the works.

Originally, the “1,001 Nights” project was to be 100% computer graphics, but Kaneko and Smith soon scaled back the digital elements. Now the high-tech techniques are slated to compose less than half the film, and they are carefully designed so that they won’t upstage the traditional animation.

“I will be unhappy if someone walked out and said, ‘I noticed the computer graphics part and it was great,’ ” Kaneko said. “I want them to see it as one whole experience.”

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Karen Kaplan covers technology and telecommunications. She can be reached at karen.kaplan@latimes.com