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

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

As we look forward to 2015 ( and some of us to having a stable internet connection again!) I am also thinking back to this time last year when we were tentatively releasing the Silver Edition of The Artiste.
Things didn't go the way that we expected and although that was initially disappointing, I now firmly believe that this was a very good thing.
During the last year, Yummy has come up with so many new innovations and the pieces that we have worked on have driven a lot of changes and improvements that I feel have made The Artiste a much tighter and more desirable product than ever before.  I am therefore looking forward to 2015 with much enthusiasm and positive energy.  In particular seeing what new users are going to come up with as they let their imaginations run riot and how that will help define The Artiste as the premier performance (and production) assistant in SL.

So I raise a glass to:

Yummy for her clear sighted vision, genius and razor-sharp wit
Thad for helping shape our work into some beautiful videos that have been much admired
MJ and Nancy for joining us in the campaign with such enthusiasm and creativity
Kat for taking up our banner and waving it proudly in her blogs

And also to all those who have purchased TPT products and are already incorporating them into
their productions..(including those of you with orders pending!)

I look forward to meeting our new "Artistes" and may you all have a Joyous and Prosperous New Year.

Aura

Introducing the Artiste Smart Curtain

Watch the video: ==> The Artiste Smart-Curtain

"Ok ready, curtain. CURTAIN! Whose got the curtain?"

"Who clicked on the curtain again. I already clicked on it. Now its opening an closing. Then i have to open it again. This is all messed up"

"Hey I wasn't ready. Who told you to open the curtain?"

Wow. Talk about having been there and heard that. Catfights and blame-laying.
Ruined performances.

 I also felt sorry for new troupes who aren't aware that with certain minimally configured curtains, anyone can touch their curtain and operate it, ruining a performance either accidentally or intentionally.

So after a lot of back-stage drama over the years, I came up with the Artiste Smart Curtain.

A curtain is meant to hide the stage crews preparation of successive scenes so that it is a surprise and that there is cohesion in the presentation of the 'parts', actors, sets, costumes, starting cues, etc. It also serves as punctuation signalling the beginning and ending and is a separator of show segments like a paragraph.

1 - There are currently two styles: Flat and Split.
2 - There are 4 actions: Sideways, Fade, Raise(move), and Scrunch.
3 - They are mod You can apply your own textures.
4 - They are mod so you can adjust them to your stage size
5 - Their fade times are adjustable.

6 - The open/close time is adjustable
7 - The raise time and raise height is adjustable
8 - You can disable touch.
9 - Six ways to operate a curtain: 
     a) by touch
     b) via Performance HUD(autofx)
     c) via Director
     d) via curtain-Panel
     e) via Curtain Relay
     f) via Stage HUD

10) Only person logged into Director can operate the curtain

11) Current operator must be in same group as director and added to a nc access list.
12) Tipjar is automatically logged into and out of upon Director login.
13) Owners and Managers can 'force logout' on a crashed and frozen avatar.
14) Raised curtain has a bottom-lip view-able only to stage for easy touch access to lower. (Thank you, Wiz).
15) Scrunch has adjutable no. of steps

16) Sideways has adjustable min width.
17) You get an in-progress notice and a completion notice when it has completed its operation. You also get a warning when it is double-clicked before completion. Double clicks ARE NOT cached. The 2nd click is DISCARDED.

18) The Smart Curtains come with both Producer and Performer Series. The backstage stuff comes only with the Producer series. 
19) The Performer series does contain 2 Directors so performers can practice without needing to intrude on a venues resources.

Lat "Yummy" Lovenkraft

First New ARTISTE GOLD User Success Story!

A big shout out of CONGRATULATIONS and SUCCESS to our 1st new Artiste GOLD user  Kat Feldragonne with her 1st completed routine! She was the 1st official owner of the Artiste. She'd been asking for it for a long time and I kept telling her no. From her experience with the SILVER edition I didn't think she would hang in there with the GOLD that was more involved by a magnitude. I was wrong. I stand corrected. Here's to 'second chances'. And it may well be that at the time, the SILVER didn't have enough bells and whistles to command sustained interest so I will put that on me.

Here is a link to her blog which has a video of her routine.

https://akatandamouse.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/success/

What can happen when you hang in there. There is really a light at the tunnel. No its not an oncoming train.

While it may not seem all that whiz-bang visually, realize it forms the foundation of the Artiste and from a performers perspective it was/is a very rewarding experience due to the advanced control. That of coordinating activities with events so that things happen when you want them to with associated significance.

She used 2 Palettes for the dancers and 4 Palettes for the gingerbread men.

1) Also note that this is just one HUD on her screen.
2) Her fade times were adjustable and chosen by her.
3) He speed of rotation was chosen by her.
4) Her speed of the tip-ups were chosen by her
5) She combined tipping up with rotation all in the same Palette but triggered by the HUD to happen at separate times.
6) Curtain was controlled by her. No more depending on others to open the curtain when you want. Curtain has built-in unqueued double-click prevention, filtered-user control, and also gives a busy status and completion status. 
7) She controlled 2 dance sequences (2 groups) using our AB sequencing methodology.

This was a very ambitious first time attempt. Big Kudos. I don't expect everyone's first routine to be this intricate but it does show what drive, determination, and dogged determination can do. And I really must add emphasis and the significance of  her ability to sit down and actually 'read' most of the manuals from cover-to-cover prior to touching any part of the Artiste. I in no way expect that to be the norm. But hats off. Here's to the added rewards of being an English Major. Salutes! That must have helped to fill in a lot of gaps.

So know that...it can be done.

Yummy