Introducing the Artiste Consult

I got brainstorm and initial enthusiastic support. I will be offering FREE, for a limited time,...Artiste Consults.

How it works is you get an idea for a routine: song, set, animations, costume. Then schedule a consult with me to see how the myriad of apparent and not-so-apparent features of the Artiste Suite could be applied alone and/or in conjunction with on another to help reinvent and present your routine from a different perspective,...if that's what you want.  I will try to present you with viable options and then even help you implement them. No, I have no idea of the results due to the number of variables, but it will be a fun adventure. Nothing to lose but time invested.

Sometimes the results may may "pop" it, other times it might be subtle, and other times it may not be apparent at all to the viewer but very obvious to you with regards to ease in multi-tasking, scheduling, and timing.

Who knows its abilities better than me? Its a lot to comprehend. Most of its features have never been used and you are unlikely to use something you may not understand as to what it is, what it does, why you would use it, or how or even when. Almost every current user has found themselves in a 'rut'. Comfortable in the few things they know it can do and have gotten it to do. I will try and help to clear some of the brush, fog, and cobwebs away.


Lat "Yummy" Lovenkraft

Summary of the Introduction to The Artiste posted

I have posted a summary of what was taught in our introduction class,
"Introduction to the Artiste". This is for those who have taken it to reinforce or untangle what was taught or what I thought I taught. And its a chance for those who missed he class to not feel they are left out in the dark and at a disadvantage.

http://artistedancediva.co.uk/wp/?p=266

Also a word on minimum event times. A lot of confusion exists between event time minimums.

Both of the examples #1 and #2  below will throw an error IF you have AutoStrip or AutoEmote or AutoAnnounce enabled. I could say to NEVER use a 1 second interval just to be safe, but that wouldn't be true in all cases.

Example #1:

1,"Start-Dancing",1

Example #2:

1,"Start-Dancing",4
2,"Start-Dancing",5

So to be safe, a good habit is to have at least 2 seconds between events as below in 3 and #4.

Example #3:
 
1,"Start-Dancing",2
 
Example #4:
 
1,"Start-Dancing",4
2,"Start-Dancing",6

Now that's a good start, but the true rule is this: the smallest interval between events must be greater than the largest lead or delay time. The good thing about this rule is that: its so easy to violate that you will get a warning message upon HUD-Reset. I put a check in.

1,"Start-Dancing",10
2,"Event-2",20
3,"Event-3",25
4,"Event-4",28
5,"Stop-Dancing",37

The smallest interval is between event #3 and event #4  (28-25=3) three seconds.

Lets say you had these 4 lines in your *config

AutoAnnounceLeadTime,0

AutoEmoteLeadTime,3
AutoFXLeadTime,2
AutoFXHoldTime,0

You would get an error upon HUD reset telling you that things are unlikely to work like you expect them to because of the AutoEmoteLeadTime,3 (the largest lead/delay time) is not less than the smallest interval.
 
So to fix this error you must either make AutoEmoteLeadTime,2 or 3,"Event-3",25 changed to 3,"Event-3",24  or 4,"Event-4",28 to at least 4,"Event-4",29

Either change will make the smallest interval 4 which is greater than the largest lead time (3) in your config. Yeah I know...its tricky.

Introducing the Artiste Gear

Gears

View the Demo Video of the Artiste Gear

This device was created to extend the abilities of a normal Artiste Rotator.

It is FREE to current and future owners of the Artiste Performer Series.

It allows for segmented moves comparable to that of watch-movements with configurable intervals and movement slices around a circle.

It also provides for inter-dependent movement triggering.

Gears can of course can be stopped, started, paused, and resumed via AutoFX.  This allows for coordinated stopping of say tires on a car when the car stops or a slowing down of the rotation as the car slows. It could allow for those ‘rims that keep spinning’ to continue on after a car stops. Graduated moments can be pronounced enough to add drama to a backwards countdown.. Can create a stopwatch. Can show impending doom and doom-avoidance with simulated ‘gauge’ movements. You could create a different time setup for an alien world where there are 3 hours to the day, 10 minutes in and hour and 30 seconds to a minute...for example.

There is a “prime” function that pre-syncs the gears so they can all resume at the same time in sync from whence they left off.

It deprecates the:
 RotationStopEvery,0.0
 RotationStopFor,0.0in the Palette

Each gear contains 1 script and one notecard.

Gears can also be Palettized for additional functionality.

Each gear's direction is configurable.

Configurable channel-to-channel communications.

They are copy/mod.

You can add custom textures.

You can re-size them.

They can rotate independent or inter-dependent of each other.

Artiste Compound Creations #101 Class - Making an Explosion From Scratch

The Artiste Suite does a lot of cool things right out of the box. Much of its marvel is lost on the general public who often sees little pizzaz over routines they are used to seeing. However, if you are a performer the benefits are night and day. It was told to me recently, and I am paraphrasing, "With product xyz I wouldn't even have thought of trying this".

Could you do 'these things' with other products? In all fairness I'd wager to say 'yes'... with some hoop jumping. Its just not germane to their design. Not their primary focus. They allow for it. You just have to do the heavy lifting and go out and acquire the needed special ingredients.

What I had been foreseeing as the Artistes badge of honor is not what the it does out of the box but what it can do when one applies their own imagination and ingenuity.

 An example is the Artiste Thrower. It started out as a means to toss a hat onto a rack. What I forced myself to do was to push the concept of throwing to encompass different types of extended throwing behavior. With the exception of the boomerang and ricochet, it doesn't manifest itself out of the box to do any of the special adaptions I created, like carom and matrix, for example. You have to combine parameters and notecard settings and do those feats in a certain order and within certain proximities. Thats 'added value' that has its roots based in a solid 'original idea'. Art, of which dance is a type, is a means to convey something inside of us we feel is unique and worthy of externalizing. It is a manifestation an 'interior' into an 'exterior'.

So I want to propose a project that Artiste-Owners can opt to take part in. That of combining Artiste features to create a new composite feature.  We will attempt to create the Artiste Explosion. I will be holding a class on the weekend of Jan 17th-18th. Probably that Sunday 1pm (18th).

Its a thought process of seeing what ingredients the Artiste offers that could go into making an explosion. Each participant will make their own using their own choice of ingredients. We will go thru the various choices and you will decide which ones you want. Then I will guide you as to how to put them together. 

What you will come away with is a template which you can use in the future when you need an explosion along with the know-how to change its behavior and characteristics for a given situation. The Artiste Palette has all the primitives. Its a matter of which you choose and how you choose to mix them: particle-creations, palette-feature-choices, autofx-triggering-order, interval-timing, overlapping, measures, etc.. 

It will start out as a brainstorming session as we discuss ideas and approaches and then I will demonstrate "Palette primitives" that could be used. If you are jazzed about this idea, I suggest you examine explosions and enumerate what to you are identifying chacharacteristics that will arm you with talking points and ideas. (i.e. timer, fuse, attack, velocity, velocity-variations, rotations, directions, flash, flame, fire, smoke, color-change, sparks, mushroom clouds, dust, streamers, debris, blow-back, multiple-mini-explosions, collapsibles, damage, topples etc). Then we will start building it from the ground up.

The completion of the project will take place over many meetings. Don't expect to have an acceptable working explosion after the first class.

Also, its a thinking exercise more than doing. It's not so important that you create a successful working explosion but that you go thru the 'mental gymnastics' of thinking about it within the framework of the Artiste Suite. This is an exercise you can recall for future needs when you want to 'create something that doesn't exist out of the box' of which I hope there will be many more to come.

Yummy