Open-source mechanical pianist plays any MIDI file with research-based fingering and IK
enamore22 · reddit · 2026-11-03
An open-source project called mechanical-pianist renders any MIDI file as two robotic hands playing an upright piano with cinematic cameras, inspired by the Westworld intro. Fingering is based on Parncutt's research on hand/finger assignment, with inverse kinematics positioning the joints, plus details like key travel, release bounce, and hand collision avoidance. Animation is deterministic so you can scrub through a song, and the post-processing pipeline includes per-pixel motion blur, depth-of-field/bokeh, and volumetric god rays. Built with Claude Opus 5.5; feed it Rush E and it goes a little nuts.
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