The Artiste MasterPiece

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What is the Artiste MasterPiece? 

It's a feature of the Artiste Performer Series that allows a performer to stitch "middle" segments of multiple dances together, simply put. The idea being to skip over unwanted beginnings.

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It is in response to the most requested feature for SL show-dance. A project I started many years ago. (I gave up twice before seeing a light).

It makes starting an animation in the middle a reality. It requires sequencing the dances together which means pre-planning where dances start and stop. Thats what the Artiste Peformance HUD now does. (It cannot be done manually on-the-fly).

It does NOT require that all dances begin at the same time!

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It does come with a few caveats, but ones that are tolerable. 

Technical Caveat A: No. of Dances
The current version allows for 15 dance segments to be pieced together up to 30 seconds each of which only the 1st segment cannot start in the middle. (A future release may allow up to 29 dance segments). 

A dance segment can be: 
  1) a whole dance, 
  2) a dance that starts at the beginning and ends before the end, 
  3) a dance that starts in the middle and plays to its end, 
  4) a dance that starts in the middle and ends prior to its end.


Technical Caveat B: Start Position
You cannot skip more than half of a dance before starting - meaning if a dance is 30 seconds long, you cannot start it beyond 15 seconds into it. If a dance is 20 seconds long, you cannot start it beyond 10 seconds into it. (I may relax this restriction  in a future release)

Technical Caveat C: First Dance Limitation
Cannot  start the 1st dance in the sequence in the middle.

Technical Caveat D: No. of Dancers
Current version only allows for one dancer. A soloist. (A future version may allow for up to 9 dancers depending upon demand.)

Technical Caveat D: Build-Up Delay
It also requires a build-up delay upon which you must mask out the dancing by delaying opening of the curtain or some other solution. The more segments and /or the further into a dance segment you skip, the longer this build-up-time. Think of a build-up as a fancy dance-cache that you don't want the audience to see.

Technical Caveat E: Dance Reusability
You can NOT use the same dance more than once in a MasterPiece if it is named the same. SO if it is mod, then change its name before reusing it, else your results will be unusable.

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And not to steal any of Aura's thunder, nor to overstate the obvious, you must be very very accurate with the information you provide the MasterPiece on its notecard, especially total length of dance.  


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When will it be released? Well technically it is available now via an interim HUD GOLD release upon request, but officially it will be part of the upcoming and final Artiste release (since that's what everyone else is telling me it should be). The PLATINUM release. When?...soon...next month of so.

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Format of MasterPiece Notecard (one entry per Dance-Segment max of 15:

Dance Number
Dance Name
TotalLength of Dance in Seconds and fractions (MUST BE ACCURATE)
StartAt (Number of Seconds into dance to START playing)
StopAt (Number of Seconds into dance to STOP)
PlayFor  (used only if stop-at is zero in which case StopAt is ignored).

Example: 2 | *Cry me a River | 24.20 | 6.7 | 14.50| 0

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Some  history leading up to the MasterPiece

Playing Several Back-2-Back Animations

Starting an Animation in the Middle


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And now I turn the discussion over to Aura Fitzgerald (auricrose) who was generous, persistant, and meticulous enough to make a very noteable video as well as chronicle her ordeal, illustrating  the trials and tribulations of 'thinking MasterPiece'. 

SEE THE VIDEO ==> MasterPiece Video

She presents this dilemma and phenomena with unabashed forthrightness. 

I also wish to thank Sterling Randolph (photobug9000) who conceived of the method for explicit video presentation of the intricate timing. You may have to watch it more than once to fathom whats going on.

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When Yummy first tried to explain the process of MasterPiece to me it was very baffling.  Given that she was essentially trying to re-write the laws of SL physics, it was probably the equivalent of trying to wrap your head around time-travel.  How far we have come in the (probably) 18 months since then.

I will reassure you that once you grasp the principle it all becomes a lot simpler. I am going to talk to you here about the testing process and what I learned from it and I will leave the technical discussion to Yummy although I will refer to some of the caveats that come with the process.

2015
Once the prototype MP unit was ready I went away to put together a simple routine with which we could test the MP.   I used a set of 4 ballet dances, being that ballet is made up of formal moves that can be more easily identified rather than free-form dance.  The plan was to alter the length of two of the dances, one at the beginning and another at the beginning and end.  Of course the trick is finding a suitable transition point where you are not too far off center to move from one animation to another. (see caveat 1)  I used a mixture of ballet dances from different makers.

Within a week we had a model that worked, as far as we could see. The bits of animation I did not want were pre-played at the beginning and the animations were played in shortened form.  

 After that there was a hiatus while other developments were happening with The Artiste and I had to wait until Yummy could incorporate the MP into the Artiste HUD for proper testing.

2016
I got my first HUD with built in MP.  Testing could commence again!

The information from the prototype was loaded into the HUD with animations and away we went. At this point everything is still being checked by eye and seems to work.  

1 | *Cry me a River | 24.20 | 0.0 | 24.20| 0
2 | Ballet-1_copy | 23.66 | 6.5 | 17.2 | 0
3 | Ballet-2_copy | 22.70 | 2.0| 22.70| 0
4 | My-BALLET-21 | 29.77 | 0.0 | 29.77| 0

This was my original layout. Animations 1 and 4 would be played in full, either side of 2 which has cuts at both ends and 3 which is cut at the beginning only.

I started to think about how the MP would be used in performance.  The pre-play of unwanted bits has to be masked. They are played in reverse order before the first dance starts, so with a short section like this you can wait to raise the curtain until the first animation starts to play (see caveat 3). We were now ready to film the sequence in full and in its altered form as you see in Sterling's video.  However this was where it got interesting...

I decided that if it was to look like a completed sequence it should really have a pose at the start and finish:

1 | [Black Tulip] Snow Dancer #10| 5.00 | 0.0 | 5.00 | 0
2 | *Cry me a River | 24.20 | 0.0 | 24.20| 0
3 | Ballet-1_copy | 23.66 | 6.5 | 17.2 | 0
4 | Ballet-2_copy | 22.70 | 2.0| 22.70| 0
5 | My-BALLET-21 | 29.77 | 0.0 | 29.77| 0
6 | [Black Tulip] Snow Dancer #10 - Mirror| 12.00 | 0.0 | 12.00

(see caveat 2)

MP started fouling up.  It really didnt like the pose at the beginning. Our filming started to show discrepancies in the timing of dances.  I removed the beginning pose and it seemed to recover. 

 We filmed it again and compared the the versions.  Something was still off.  Now we all know that even if an Animation Maker tells us the time of the animation, it can sometimes be slightly off. I decided to replace one of the dances to see if this was the case.  

1 | *01_Ballet| 22.70 | 0.0 | 22.70| 0
2 | Ballet-1_copy | 23.66 | 6.5 | 17.2 | 0
3 | Ballet-2_copy | 22.70 | 2.0| 22.70| 0
4 | *Cry me a River | 24.20 | 0.0 | 24.20| 0
5 | [Black Tulip] Snow Dancer #10 - Mirror| 12.00 | 0.0 | 12.00 

I won't bore you with how many combinations we tried, but every time we filmed there was still a discrepancy and most with the 3rd and 4th animation not playing correctly.  We were getting very frustrated. We had now been testing for nearly 6 weeks on and off.  

The MasterPiece is started by an *autofx command.  1,MASTERPIECE=play

While we had been filming the last version, I had started to think again about the practical use of MP.  A routine is generally made up of more than 4 animations. Adding in more animations as well has having more animations with changes will  lengthen the time at the beginning that you will have to mask.  This is something that you are meant to use SPARINGLY.  It is NOT meant to be used with a multitude of dances.  Please consider here how incredible this is that we can do it at all!  Do not take it for granted, please.

So my thinking was this, that the MP would be a command like the 1,PLAY_SEQ=1 and so why could you not move from MP to seq and back again?  That way MP would be reserved only for those dances that were to be altered.  We finished another night of filming and disappointment and I went to bed with it on my mind.  I couldn't sleep and the thought was still there.  As with most things, if you give the mind a chance to relax and reflect an answer will come.  

I split the routine into two.  
this was now the MP notecard:
1 | *01_Ballet| 22.70 | 0.0 | 22.70| 0
2 | Ballet-1_copy | 23.66 | 6.5 | 17.2 | 0
3 | Ballet-2_copy | 22.70 | 2.0| 22.70| 0

and on the *sequence 1 notecard:

*Cry me a River | 24.20
[Black Tulip] Snow Dancer #10 - Mirror | 12.00

*autofx:
TRACE,on
1,MASTERPIECE=play
2,PLAY_SEQ=1
END

I added up the times of the dances and used those to create the *events timings. For some unknown reason, SL balks at going back to a full, unchanged animation once the preceding animations have been tinkered with.  This way we could bypass what was happening.  The event time is calculated by adding together the FULL time of all dances on the MP notecard. As I use ELAPSED time, I then added the 5 seconds from event 1.  We know that timings in SL are slightly elastic, so I added a second onto that time to be sure.  Once you can see the break between the MP ending and the Seq1 beginning you can easily work backwards to trim the time to where you want it precisely.  The great thing is, once you have the MP in place these alterations are only to events so you can do a quick save from the first menu while you are figuring it all out.   No having to reset the HUD and re-Build. 

The other beauty of this method is, it reduces the pre-play  time considerably.  From 29.7 seconds I was now down to 15 seconds, therefore less to mask.

N.B.  Using palettes to adjust for movements from center: I did actually implement this at one stage but decided to omit it from the final video.  Not exactly a caveat but please remember that as the dances are coming from the MP notecard, it is not as easy as when the dances are on the *seq NC. They have to be triggered from *autofx and that means painstaking timing of the moves.  Oh yes. Pain...


Caveat 1 = you MUST use looped-dances of identifiable length - as precise as possible - otherwise it will not work properly

Caveat 2 = Animations/poses in the MP cannot have the same name.  You either have to use a mirror, load the dance twice, and rename it...if that is possible.

Caveat 3 = Masking the pre-play of unwanted animations will mean that you have to time carefully where your music starts, where the dance starts and when you open the curtain!  Not impossible, just takes some thought.


Have fun and please remember, yet again...less is more!

FREE - The ArtisteSimplePoseball

FREE - Artiste SimplePoseball

While I assume most veterans have something they use to pre-position dancers, it occurred to me that some newbies to the dance world might not. So keeping in the holiday spirit, I am offering a gift to the Dance Queens communities newest members. 

It iis a very basic poseball that has a single pose in it that you can replace with your own.

1) When you sit on it, it goes invisible
2) You can adjust your height using the PgUp/PgDn keys
3) You can change the hover text
4) It is Mod/Copy so you can change its color, size, and shape
5) You can change the animation.
6) FREE updates for life for it.

Happy Holidays to All 

Yummy

As Easy as ABC

Watch our video Christmas card HERE

Our last show of the year at Sinner's Burlesque turned out to be a very special one. Every act was performed using The Artiste. 

Skye has took up the baton only a week ago and used her sequencer for the dance routines.  Sanne has been using the Silver for a long time now for sequencing but she has upgraded to the Gold and did her first palette fade on part of the set.  WTG girls!  I am sure we will see some very creative ideas in the coming months and its very thrilling.

Even though I have now been using The Artiste for 3 years (where did the time go?) it's still a buzz to try out something for the first time and get it right.  This time it was the new ABC feature of the Advanced Mover System.  It meant that I could divide the 5 of us up into 3 groups, each with their own sequence.  I chose not to use dances as I thought there was enough going on in the routine already. Instead I wanted to add an accent that would be memorable and so chose poses as a highlight in the dance where it fitted the music.

On the stage we are placed in a subtle V-shape with myself at the point.  I am assigned the A position which in this case was the lead.  Skye and Sanne, either side of me were assigned to B and Pepper and Yummy took C.  

I could have used different poses for each sequence but I had been demonstrating an idea to Yummy, during testing, involving timing offsets.  So instead of differentiating with movement the groups are each offset slightly in time to give a "Mexican Wave" effect.

My polar bear is a palette..in fact he is two palettes, one for the body and one for the head, so that I could get him to shake his head.  As he wasn't going to do that for very long I just used ordinary movements rather than repeated motion.  This also allowed me to make the moves slightly different each time so it had a more natural look.  The quips from the polar bear were just me going "Hang on, what am I doing..penguins are South Pole..."

We did also have a Santa in a sleigh zooming across the sky in the live performance but someone *coughs and looks a bit coy* forgot to send the palette back home between takes :P  *shrugs*  It happens!

Oh, and in case you are wondering, the music was originally from the cast of Glee...but we had to make it sound a bit different for upload so Sterling did his magic.  Just think Penguins, not chipmunks...

I was really pleased with the choreography on this piece, it all fitted together really nicely and I just love the little shoulder shrug just as they come out of the poses.  

So, THANK YOU to everyone who has supported Sinner's and promoted The Artiste in 2015. There is so much fun yet to come and we can all share it together.  I am just thankful to be a part of it all and to be surrounded by such amazing people who inspire me.

Special Thanks to:

Yummy for being such fun to bounce ideas around with..the inside of your mind is my Disneyland!
Sanne and Skye for letting me boss them around on a deadline and being such great fun to work with :)
Sterling for being patient with me and so creative and just...well Sterling!
MJ, Nancy and Zed for flying The Artiste Flag at MJ's Burlesque and letting me perform with them!
Kat Feldragonne for her promotion of The Artiste on her blog and elsewhere :)
The "Sexy Brits" for their incredible support at shows...always love having you guys there!


And many thanks to all of you who have watched our videos, visited the blog, read the FB posts and so much more.  I may not have named you all but your contribution is every bit as valued.

Happy Holidays and a Merry Solstice to all of you and here's to a very exciting 2016.  The best is yet to come!
Much love to you all,

Aura x

Artiste Performer GOLD - 2015 Series Available

Sale days are couting down towards the end of December 2015.

 I have provided detailed features lists for all of the packages for those interested. I had one inquirey so i assume others may have as keen of an interest

Option #1:    $5,000L   - A-50 -  Features List 

Option #2:    $7,500L   - A-75 -   Features List

Option #3:  $10,000L   - A-100 - Features List  

Option #4:  $25,000L   - A-250 - Features List


Feel free to contact Lat Lovenkraft directly.
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I've Got A Rocket...

"I'VE GOT A ROCKET..."

I've Got A Rocket VIDEO

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Sometimes an idea comes along that you are burning to do and it just seems like its going to be a superhuman effort to pull it off.  Thanks to more  forward-leaps  in the development of The Artiste this year, I managed to make this one a {virtual} reality.

The idea for "Rocket" first came about  a couple of years ago when Jemma showed me a stage set that she had built with the "Sillywet" built into it.  The "Sillywet" is essentially just two prims linked together using transparency, which through a glitch of SL creates a silhouette image of the avatar.

I begged her for the stage, fired up with ideas of what I wanted to do with it, but it then sat on the shelf for a long time.  I periodically brought it out and looked at ideas again, but at the time the Artiste was not far enough along to accomplish all the things I wanted to do.

Eventually it was ready, with the first incarnation of Yummy's rezzer, which allowed a transition fade between one set and another.  It was all set up to go at the Artiste Venue but then other priorities took precedence and once again it was put away.

Although the transition between the sets in this video is done with camera fade, it gives a good representation of what it would have looked like as a live piece.  

Specific techniques:

Avatar mover:
Use of the palette mover to direct the avatar from behind the "Sillywet" and to the middle of the stage.

Doors and Lights:
Originally, the opening of the doors and the on/off switch for the down-lights was controlled with a separate HUD built by Jemma to go with the set.   By the time I put the routine together we were able to move doors and have the lights not only going on and off but flickering, by replacing them with palettes. The doors are on a simple MOVE command and the lights have a flicker and an on/off.

Planting the bomb:
Unfortunately this is one area where things have not caught up to us yet.  There are not sufficient subtle animations available to cover every eventuality of motion so I had to settle for a mere suggestion with a crouch. The mover palette was used to adjust for height differences in the avatar between the dances and the couch animation.

The bomb is detached from her hip by strip function and then appears on the floor in front of her.  The front of the bomb on the floor is an animated palette texture and the bomb "appears" with show/hide.  It then slides across the floor and bounces off the barrels (palette move).

Noxious fumes:
The "bomb" triggers a reaction with the "toxic" material in the containers and the "fumes" are particles from palettes, triggered by *autofx.  The one point I would have changed was the rising "green screen" which was meant to be the level of fumes rising up from the floor but perhaps a fading screen would have worked better. Our fearless astro-girl has adorned her gas-mask by this point and then by adorning a tunnel particle stream she teleports out of the doomed ship.

Safely back on board:
I took a copy of Jemma's set and redesigned it to make the interior of another ship, which was the target destination for the teleport.  In the live setting there was a fade between the two sets at this point, using the rezzer fade ability, so the two sets were aligned with each other for a smooth transition.  Our heroine gets to do her celebratory dance while we see the first ship in the window behind her shortly before it explodes.  The "ship" was a textured palette against a moving background. which then used fade/hide to "vanish" and had triggered particles to announce its destruction.

There were quite a lot of subtle effects used to create one routine.  I ended up with 10 palettes in all and it took a lot of planning and tweaking.  I think all the effort was well worth it from the feedback I have had from people who have seen the video.  

Many thanks to Jemma for the use of her set; to Yummy for answering so many technical questions and to Sterling who filmed and edited the project with a real vision and made it something really "awesome-sauce" as Jemz would say!

Letters from the Sky - Aura Fitzgerald

Letters from the Sky

I first heard this song on a TV show and had to go looking for it on You Tube because it was so emotive.  The first time I heard it in full the images were just there, fully formed in my mind.  I knew this was a routine that had to be made.  How I was going to achieve this was another matter.

The swan dive from the cliff was a pivotal moment in the action but it was so close to the beginning there had to be other things going on to balance it out so it wasn't front heavy.  Once again the tip function came in very useful!

I used a 180 turn on the palette to position myself the right way for the backward fall.  There had to be a trade-off between how close to the edge I could dance and how far in I could be so that the tip back would look legitimate.

The moving background was a "leap of faith" (no pun intended) as I ended up with a 20 prim palette, which moved with ease to my surprise.  The Whole back section on the stage, with the cliff edge and the ground below moves upwards to create the illusion of me falling downwards.  The cloud generators move up as well to create a layer for the planes to move through later.

As I "landed",I then had to "jump" from the tipped back palette (a) to a grounded palette (b) using the sit-2-sit.  Timing was the issue here to have a soft landing.

I used various adorns and a negative adorn to wear and un-wear wings and the dove, but it ended up being more efficient to use the swap RLV folders which Yummy developed for SOS.

The real backbone of the routine was the movers which behaved very precisely even with lag in a live performance.  Apart from the background, I had two movers to seat me and one each for the planes and the flying dove.  Quite a lot of motion for so few movers, really.

I had thought to put the end title on a mover of its own, but I thought it was more economical to fasten it to the adorned "light beams" so that as I rose up, the words appeared on the screen.

Once again, there were lots of baby steps, building on the backbone of the dance itself and taking my cues from the song and the emotional vibe of the whole piece.

I think one of my favorite comments was from a male audience member in London audience who, when he saw me fall, said he got the urge to jump up and catch me.

That's what I call suspension of disbelief! 

Watch the video:   https://vimeo.com/143194445

Success ?

To all purposes, being a dancer in SL is easy.  Jump on someone's HUD, line up, start dancing. People dancing in synch look cool.  Admit it!

It's not like you have put in years of training in tap, ballet or modern jazz, torn your ligaments and your ankles, damaged your knees and your back learning this stuff. The people who model for your MOCAP dances probably did.  But hey, this is SL. This is what it is all about, having fun and realising your dreams. No-one says it has to be hard work.  It's not real life....right?

Much like any other interaction in SL, dance is an emotional and creative response; an outpouring of energy that results in something that could be a cabaret, a striptease or even a piece of performance art.  Doing it WELL is a personal choice. Your child's finger-painting may not be a Rembrandt but the intention behind it is just as important to the recipient of that gift.

Let me just say, I am NOT criticising anyone for their method or level of involvement. Dancing, like any other creative pursuit should be personally rewarding above all else.  If it makes you happy then all is good.

Performing for other people "professionally" however, is another matter.   Making something that other people want to not only watch but appreciate takes a bit more effort.
"Oh yeah, you mean all the scenery and costumes and stuff, right?"

Nope.

Whilst all of that is part of the package, I am talking about attributes and traits that you need in spades if you want to achieve something WELL.

When we do the Sinner's Shows, we get a lot of people saying to us "Wow, I would love to do what you guys do.."  Like the picture above they are only seeing the tip of the iceberg which has been polished until it shines like a diamond!

So lets have a look at some of the bits underneath that make the difference:
(and these principles work for just about any project you can mention)

Dedication/Motivation

You really have to WANT to do something to make a success of it. That hunger is all important.  It doesn't have to be there 24/7 - we all have off-days, but it needs to be there sufficiently and consistently enough that you hang on to your idea and see it through to the end.   You have to believe in it too.  That's quite hard in SL.  You aren't going to get rich from it, you are not going to become a celebrity.  You do it because you believe it's important, if only to yourself.
The easily distracted need not apply...oh and it's not for quitters.

Sacrifice

There are times when I would much rather be hanging out with my friends and having a good laugh.  Recently  have forced myself to take breaks and do that for my sanity's sake, but there have been lots of times when I have had to say "No, I can't, I'm working on something".  You might want to spend all your lindens on shoes but your budget is up the creek because you had to buy things for your set or new dances.  Be prepared to be single minded sometimes.

Hard Work/Persistence

Are you prepared to do something over and over again until you get it right?  You can sit for hours perfecting something and maybe you are just at that point where you have to finish one bit before you can leave it alone for a while.  Going that extra 30 minutes when you have been sitting working on something for 2 hours can be a pain in the ass (literally). More importantly, taking the time to LEARN something like The Artiste or other tools thoroughly; know what they can do and what is the most efficient way of doing it.  You don't learn things like this overnight.  It takes time.  I have been learning for over 3 years and I still don't know the full potential of the HUD.  I still have to think hard about how to implement things properly  AND I still have to kick myself up the ass sometimes to get on with it.  No-one is perfect!

Disappointment/Frustration/Failure

Guess what?  You don't always get what you want and especially not when you want it.  Browning said "a man's reach should exceed his grasp". Wanting things that we can't quite reach can keep us on our toes.

Sometimes we suffer frustration trying to get something to do what we want. SL may offer us the possibilities to do a lot more than the real world, but there are still restrictions and all you can do is try to circumvent them.

As for Failure, it is only a matter of perspective. As long as you learn from what you have done and it allows you to do something better next time then where is the problem?

Good Habits

You want to minimise your chances of frustration?  Get some good habits.
(put the nuns down, Yummy)

1. Have a realistic idea of what can be done:
That means what YOU can do. If you want to feel an achievement, do it yourself. If people want to help you out that great, but don't base what you are doing on what other people are good at.  This doesn't mean you can't ask for help.  Sharing the burden is another good habit, but support is not the same as foundation.

2. Keep it SIMPLE:
Not all good ideas have to be complex.  In fact even the complex ones follow the same rule. It's called Occams Razor - Google it!

3. Break it down into  s m a l l e r   b i t s:
Don't think everything has to fall fully formed from the head of Zeus. Take baby steps, both in learning and planning.  Make sure you understand the basics before you rush into advanced techniques. Remember that quote? Well if you reach too far you fall over...flat on your face.

4. Pace yourself:
Never rush things. Plan your time properly.  Try to do little bits everyday so you are constantly moving forward but also leave time for you to put the project away for a couple of days and look at it fresh.

5. Don't say "Oh, it will do":
Best maxim ever "if a job's worth doing, its worth doing well"  'Nuff said.

6. Be true to yourself:

Does it matter what other people are doing?  Listen to your heart. Let it guide your imagination to a place that is original and yours.  Just because Josie Bloggs is doing a killer routine with 20 dancers in the club one sim over, don't think that's what you have to do.  Learn to appreciate what other people do without judging yourself against it. You are your own person.

Now go Boogie!