Artiste SmartDancer - Formations, Canons, Junes, and the Artiste Weave

I was asked  how the Artiste Weave was accomplished.  It uses 3 TurnIns with a HALF grouping. Probably means nothing if you are not a user 

See the video -->> The Artiste Weave - SmartDancer

It was discovered by accident and seems to require a wide-reaching animation.

This quick and dirty routine exemplifies Order to Chaos to Order

This video is very, very basic as far as Canons go.  I have a whole article on Canons on our website but essentially it allows dancers (in this case animesh) to Solo dance/and or turn.  This example they solo the same dance as the backing routine BUT they use turns which gives them a wider separation of the backing line.  

The newest version of the SmartDancer has a built-in sequencer meaning that it can run standalone without the need for the Artiste Performance HUD. People asked for timed animations, a log, and ability to solo. All of those are in. Even have a snapshot ability.

All features can be experimented at design time just by pressing buttons. Then you can create a sequence nc for repeated automatic performance. Just about every value can be changed on the fly for extreme experimentation.  The permutations are endless.

Oh, the subtle things...

Video: Blade Runner Tribute

There are so many wonderful things that The Artiste can do for live performance, but I can't stress stronly enough what an incredible tool it is for machinima in Secondlife too.

I think I have mentioned before how valuable is is to have an action sequencer which is so precise that you can run it over and over again with true results while you cover different camera angles.

What I perhaps went unsaid is the little things that you would take for granted in making a real life video.  With human beings, you can just instruct them what to do.  Sit here, stand here, walk from A to B.  Most of the time they do exactly what you ask.

Our little replicants in SL are not so pliable.  Trying to get someone to walk in a particular way AND smoothly is a nightmare without any kind of set up.  So that one little clip where Rachel walks towards Deckard with her iconic wiggle is all down to the Artiste.  The frame rate wibbled a bit, but that actual mover walk she did was perfect everytime.  No sliding, no skipping.

And that owl?   An owl texture from Sanna Animated Textures, attached to a palette.

Standing "actors" where you want them to be, making them sit exactly as you want; all the subtle things that make your life easier.

Now go create something wonderful.

Artiste Animesh - 2 Groups - A & B

This next demo describes the use of using 2 groups, A & B.

We start out doing the same animation then we take turns doing different animations at the same time.

WE make use of DivisionPaletteChange twice.  Once to switch to non-synced dances and then again before we sync back at the end.

Makes a big difference.


Watch Video--> Artiste Animesh - 2 Groups - A & B

*sequences
Division,CUSTOM_AAAAAAAAA


*sequences1
TRACE,off
*Bodhisattva | 10
*Mysti | 10
Bolly-15 Dollarbie | 10
*Satyagraha | 10 
*Ya Sayyidi | 10
END

*sequences2
TRACE,off
*Bodhisattva | 10
*Mysti | 10
*Samia | 10
Bolly-15 Dollarbie | 10 
*Ya Sayyidi | 10
END

*events
TRACE,off
ELAPSED
1,"Change to AAAABBBB",15
2,"Change back to AAAAAAAA",35
END

*autofx
1,DPC=AAAABBBB$
2,DPC=AAAAAAAA$

END

Artiste Animesh Desert - One Group "A"

The following is a quick video proof-of-concept demo of the integration of Animesh and 
Artiste.


With one HUD you can control a mixture of up to 9 avatars and Animesh in any combination.

With 2 HUDS you can control up to 18 avatars and Animesh. 

Artiste Animesh Desert - One Group "A"

There are 3 posts at our website on the implementation of Animesh with Artiste to introduce you to our chosen method of implementation

Animesh 101
Animesh 102

Animesh 103

The appeal to me of Animesh is the ease with which to choreograph routines with a lot of dancers without imposing on our friends to help us out or be available while we are experimenting and learning.

One downside is that the Animesh are prim-heavy.  These particular Animesh characters were 58 prims each.

Also there are currently not a lot of Animesh types or choices of costumes and outfits for them so we are currently limited.

There was a challenge to syncing Animesh and avatars.  We use Division Palette Change (dynamic grouping change) over long running dance sequences to mitigate the problem.

Different Animesh can be doing different dance sequences at the same time.  In this demo they are all doing the same dance sequence at the same time.

Stripping with BOM

It occured to me when the BOM enabled Firestorm was released that the "strip" function of The Artiste might once again be viable.  I've been testing it out this weekend and you can see my results in the video HERE: https://vimeo.com/367829869

As I say, the stripping of attachments has never been an issue as it still works perfectly, but the change-over to mesh bodies was a disaster as far as stripping went.   Are we all still stripping out there with Applier HUDs or have you given up?   Whipping your mesh bra off might have worked, but managing to take off a mesh corset and then having to use your body hud to make sure you didn't look like an Ex-magicians assistant was tricky...even with auto-hide.

I'm no expert on BOM by any stretch.  I didnt even try it until this weekend.  I watched my husband having a go on his avatar last week and decided to give it a shot.  Hopefully, by the time everyone has the BOM enabled viewer we might have started to move forward.  Remember when Bento mesh hands came in?  Everyone wanted to use them but to people who didnt have the Bento viewer you looked like a replicator from Stargate Atlantis.   Possibly there will be a work around but we will have to see.

If you are interested in Bakes on Mesh, take a look at this blog from Skell,  who is a great photographer and quite good at explaining things!
http://www.virtualbloke.com/archives/3358

Its one of the better articles I have found.

Strutting the Catwalk

Yummy and I have had many conversations about uses for The Artiste outside of dance, and often talked about fashion shows.

Well I finally did it :p

Check out the video here

No Sliding...smooth locomotions and turns.  All done with one palette - once you have your measurements in place all you have to do is change the animations :)