From the title you might think that this post is about anime. Well, it’s true that there is a lot of anime mentioned in this post, but that’s not where the title comes from. “AniMe Matrix” is ASUS’ name for the programmable LED matrix display on the rear of the lid of certain Zephyrus G14 models. ASUS include some nice graphics and animations you can display on this by default (I’m particularly fond of the “SEE YA” animation that plays whenever you shut down the laptop) but given that ASUS pitch the AniMe Matrix as a tool for self-expression, the intention seems to be that you will create your own content for it.
In practice, I found that authoring content for the matrix is trickier than you might expect. The matrix itself is low resolution, greyscale only, skewed, and has significant light bleed between neighbouring “pixels”. Images are also rescaled before they appear on the matrix, and this rescaling also tweaks the aspect ratio. Due to all of these factors, content often ends up appearing blurry and indistinct on the panel.
Clearly a better understanding of how the matrix works would allow for authoring higher quality content. After a lot of trial and error, I might not understand everything there is to know about the AniMe Matrix, but I understand enough to create images and animations that meet my standards for quality.