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.