Tutorial #11: Artiste Outfit-Change

The Artiste started out as a tool to facilitate the removal and subsequently the addition of items that could be worn as layers or attached items to an avatar during a live show. The procedure started out as a manual one. Then one morning I got an epihnany to schedule the changes. Why become manually involved at all? That was when I began to think that everything that could be scheduled should be scheduled .

And thus the term “Auto” was born.

We started with removal of all items from a particular body part like say the “skull” or “pelvis”. Then was born the need to remove a single layer or attachment when several are worn on the same body part. This required the use of RLV. I had not heard of RLV being used in a way other than as a method to faciliate BDSM play. It was just an idea I had that it could facilitate non-sexual applications. It had a history of association of ‘bad’ as well as a ‘fear’ that it could be used against a persons wishes.

There is a lot of depth to the process of stripping and outfit-change. I treat the 2 topics separately. In fact there is a manual on AutoStripping and one on Outfit-Change. And they both have their own enable/disable lights on the face of the HUD.

There are many advanced disciplines to the Artiste. Each one should be seen as something special and worthy of concerted effort and time to master in order to maximize its feature set; like spending a week on nothing else but just exploring the discipline in depth and becoming deeply familiar with it. The motivation for mastering them is that they are empowering and either expand your abilities to control your performance beyond normal means or to solve performance issues and challenges…or both.

Advanced disciplines include but are not limited to:  Outfit-Change (with SmartChange), Artiste Rezzer, Advanced Mover, Adorning, Grouping, Particles, AutoCam, Formations(DanceDiva) , MasterPiece, to name a few.

You should add your own personal notes to yourself of important discoveries ore perferences of usage. You should also keep a folder of successful experiences including notecards, HUDs, Palettes, Rezzers, snapshots of inventory, or anything else that can help jog your memory as to how you were successful in the past. You want to be able to quickly repeat a discipline with confidence and without relearning or fear of remembering .

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One area of major concern with people is that of troubled outfit-changes during a live show. In fact I have heard from at least 2 people in the last week on major concerns on recent “fitting” issues  as well as expended effort to facilitate multiple outfit-changes in one routine. It seems good enough is no longer the case. People seem to want answers. Solutions.

We spent a LOT of time on the issue of the wearing and unwearing of outfits over the years. We even discovered certain SL issues years ago prior to LL acknowledging just recently what we had already surmised…that of items with a lot of links.

We had to address issues of: unrezzed, double-rezzed, or stuck (as in unremovable) costume-changes, especially during laggy conditions. We also addressed the issue of alphas.

There are many, many features at your disposal to control an outfit-change cycle. We provide for an automated way to micro-manage an outfit-change process and allow for up t0 5 of these micro-managed outfit-changes to occur  for a given HUD during a set.

WearUnwear 

We call an outfit-change WearUnwear, as a reminder of what is happening. We wear or add the new outfit prior to unwearing the the old outfit so as to minimize any embarrassment of unneeded skin-exposure. It also looks better aesthetically when performd in this order as opposed to unwearing prior to wearing. You can also perform a Wear and Unwear cycle separately. You can do them manually or scheduled via the AutoFX feature of the Artiste PerformanceHUD.

Simply add the items you want to wear in one RLV folder and the items you want to unwear in another RLV folder.

So WearUnwear are attached to events via AutoFX just like moves or fades or particles or any other special process.

There is also a Replace option for certain special situations (nocopy) but is not recommended if WearUnwear could be used…as it is not as controllable.

Anchoring

At this juncture you have the ability to Anchor certain body-parts so they are NOT removed.

Also Anchoring , avoids the unecessary step of removing the same layer or attachment if you are simply going to rewear it in the new outfit. This is performed automatically if you turn AutoAnchor to “on”. Example: The currently worn hair is the same as the new hair you are going wear. Why add an extra redundant step that could help clog the process?

You can anchor manually thru the menu for quick experimentation or via the main configuation notecard of the Artiste Performance HUD.

Also, by default, all HUD  areas on the screen are Anchored. So in order to replace a HUD you would have to un-anchor its screen area.  Usually you want to keep HUDS worn via an outfit change process which is why it is the default.

Exclusions

You can exclude certain bodyparts from being affected by removal or addtion. These are like Anchors only they are PERMANENT. Bra and panties for example insure that under NO conditions are these layers removed.

Retries

When attaching new items we found often that repeated attempts helped to vastly improve success. You can set the number of automatic attach-retries along with the amount of time to ‘wait’ in beween retries via the main configuration notecard. We even set the number of retries to 2 by default as insurance as we notice it is better to have it than not have it. We were able to improve 100% failure scenarios  down to about  20% failure rate by adding in auto-retries of high-link items (hair, jewelry).

SmartChange – troubled-Item wearing and unwearing

Over time we discovered that items with a lot of links as well as alphas and to a lesser degree, heavily scripted items, caused certain problems that were exacerbated as laggy conditions increased. These included: stuck items (unable to remove or detach), double-rezzed body-parts, failed rez layers, and alpha-related (also alpha-on-alpha) issues.

We created a process by which you have more granular control of WHEN certain body-parts were addressed during an outfit-change process to help unclog the process and space out activity.

UPDATE: SmartChange may well come in handy  when addressing the touchy issue of MESH, although not much has been done to explore how best to deal with MESH.

We made this process automated.

A WearUnwear process can be replaced by a SmartChange which does pre-processing prior to a normal WearUnwear cycle followed by post-processing that happens after the normal WearUnwear cycle.

You can have up to 5 SmartChange Sets.

You set them up on a special notecard.

You can execute them by number (1 thru 5) at the appropriate times in your routine.

AutoChange needs to be enabled as does AutoFX.

Each SmartChange Set will change an outfit with added special instructions to do pre and post processing targeting of body parts in certain folders with given delay times.

What you gain is the ability to PRE-WEAR, PRE-UNWEAR, POST-WEAR, and POST-UNWEAR specified trouble items so they are performed in a less clogged client-server communication. We give you 3 RLV folders to drop troubled items into.

They are named: Shoes, Hair, and Jewelry but you can put ANYTHING in them that you want as it does not check.

There are 3 folders that address the PRE WearUnwear cycle to the main WearUnwear cycle and 3 folders that address the POST WearUnwear cycle.

We found troubled items work best addressed in the PRE WearUnwear cycle  We found that alpha layers work best when addressed in the POST WearUnwear cycle.

You can also adjust the delay times up or down to allow these PRE and POST cycles to do their thing.

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ADVANCED

Tattoo Layers

You can address tattoo-layers separately and cause them to automatcially be removed and added in optimal order. They have been known to cause issues when not removed prior to everything else and not added back in after everything else.  We have automated this feature should you ‘turn it on’. It requires some minor preparation on your part regarding RLV folder loading.

ME folder

You can specify items that you ALWAYS wear to automatically be worn using the ME folder option. This way you dont have to always repeatedly add them to the WEAR folder. It requires some minor preparation on your part regarding RLV folder loading.

Invisibility Folder

You can cause your avatar to automatically go invisible as the result of an intentional effect by adding 1 or 2 special invisibility items in a special folder. It knows to perform this feature after an (optional) particle-effect emission. AutoInvis needs to be “on”. It requires some minor preparation on your part regarding RLV folder loading.

Rebake

Place a temporary body part that forces a rebake, like noob hair or skin into one Rebake  subfolder.  Place the real skin or hair you want to wear in a different Rebake subfolder. We found this process helped circumvent another type of outfit-change issuedwe came across. It is optional but recommended as a safety measure. It requires some minor preparation on your part regarding RLV folder loading.

Teleport

We have up to 5 entries that control teleporting out and back into a sim as we found this to sometimes be the only solution to extreme rez issues in super laggy sims.

It automates the procedure of masking the change, teleporting the avatar out to another sim, performing the outfit-change at a less-laggy sim and then returning them back to the same spot they lef.

This is where auto-particle effect-emission comes into play to help mask the outfit change procedure. You can specify where to teleport to, where to teleport back to (often a forced teleport landing spot) and then to the  2nd more specific onstage location to return you to the specific stage-spot where you left. All of this is  automatable as part of a SmartChange operation. This is extreme but is provided as an option. It requires some preparation on your part.

OuttifChange AnimationsDances

You can specify particular animations to  lead into an outfit-change and out of an outfit change, separate from other normal ways of  dancing via HUD animation-sequencing or Palette-based animation or Coupler animation. It requires some minor preparation on your part.

AutoEmission of Outfit-Change Masking via Particle-Effects

You can cause auto-generation of a few built-in particle effects to be generated during an outfit change. It requires some minor preparation on your part.

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Outfit-Change Cycles

The cycle of outfit-change process has been explored so in depth that we have itemized many  cycles that you can consider and control for advanced outfit-change situations.

The WearUnwear Cycle – tentative

1) Optionally BeginDance Into outfit-change
2) Optionally insures !Me1 folder contents are added
3) Optionally goes invisible if folder exists and AutoInvis is toggled
4) Optionally Rezzes a particle Effects Shield (if on)
5) Optionally Rezzes a rez object shield (if on)
6) Optionally Removes Tattoo Layers (if folder exists and removal is toggled on
7) Adds trouble items separately (Before phase — recommended)
8) Wears (adds) new outfit
9) Unwears (removes) old outfit
10) Wears new outfit
11) Optionally wears new outfit again x times
12) Optionally Adds trouble items separately (After phase)
13) Optionally Rebakes old then new body part
14) Optionally Removes Particle Effects (if exists)
15) Optionally Removes Shield (if exists)
16) Optionally Adds back in Tattoo layers if it applies
17) Optionally Animates EndDance if it applies
18) Optionally LAST THING Removes invisibility

Customizable Delays

SecondsAfterStartDance,5
SecondsAfterEndDance,3
SecondsAfterEffects,2
SecondsAfterMe1,4
SecondsAfterInvis,3
SecondsAfterRezObject,1
SecondsAfterUndress,5
SecondsBeforeRebake,1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tutorial #2 – Artiste Suite Overview

Trying to wrap one’s mind around the Artiste can be challenging so hopefully this will help you see the bigger picture. The main 2 pieces to understand at this point is the Artiste Performance HUD and the Palette. Not listed in the chart, for brevity sake, are other entities like the Master Rezzer (for sets) and the Artiste Curtain, and something HUGE coming in 2016..

As you can see, the HUD can communicate to many entities, not the least of which is that it can communicate to another Artiste Performance HUD.
It has 2 ways to talk to itself. By loading another HUD and then waiting for the HUD wearer to tell the newly loaded HUD to run. Or…it can autorun the new HUD without any operator-interevention and then old HUD and deatch itself. We call this HUD-chaining.

HUD-chaining allows for an infinite number of control stages when one runs out of HUD resources: like events, emotes, dances, etc. This is handy for those 1 hour-plus productions.

99%  of the time you can get by with extending a HUD’s capabilities by using one or more Palettes. While the HUD has about a dozen or more primary funtions, its abilities are extended to about 100 more what I call, action-features, by using a Palette.

Think of a Palette as the friend or source you go to when you need a special script. Maybe a fader script, as an example. Well now you can bypass the friend and the need to acquire a script .

The Palette can be that fader, one of the 100 or so things it can be or do.

You no longer need to settle for a fader scripts fixed settings. You can customize your fader using the Palette notecards. Oscillation, transparency limits, intervals, single-shot (credit to little Zed from whom I got the idea) …to name a few.

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A Palette is copyable so you can have a HUD control more than 1 Palette.

A Palette can can control another Palette.

A Palette can create another Palette.

A Palette can communicate back to the HUD.

A Palette can talk to products from other creators.

Anything that is modifiable can be a Palette. It is not restricted to the object you get that is a single-prim box. No linking required although it is not prohibited from linking.

Many of you are now familiar  with movers. The Palette is what becomes a mover in the Artiste world. It can be an Object-Mover. It can be an Avatar-Mover.

The Artiste Palette can be a mover AND other things (if that is your choice)  at the same time. And you can tweak the characteristics of the ‘other things’ it can be.

Here is a link to a video where 12 Palettes are in use. I wish to to direct your attention to the opening. A Palette is: An avatar-mover AND an animated-texture AND an Artiste-Light.  Later on in this video, the same Palette-based-Avatar-Mover morphs into an Palette-based- Object-Mover and is instructed at precise times, from the HUD, to follow the moves of the animation. Insane. More crazy stuff happens near the end of the video but for now focus on its ability to: 1) behave like multiple items and 2) to change what it is and how it behaves dynamically. NOTE: A Palette as a mover can perform different selected ranges of moves from a given move-sequence and is not restricted to all-or-nothing execution of all-moves.

Credit to Aura Fitzgerald (auricrose Resident) for: Concept, Choreography, Design, and Execution

State-Of-Shock Video (compound Palette)

For a more in-depth analysis of the techniques, see this link:

State-Of-Shock (Behind the Scenes)

and scroll down to where it says: “STATE OF SHOCK –  Video  – Watch the video ==>“

It goes without saying that this is an advanced adaptation of Artiste technology and not something one could expect to master over-night or even a few nights but it does show what is possible with “imagination” and perserverance married with technological innovation.

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One person told me after hearing of the wide berth of offerings, “wow, you’d better have good support“.

That is an understatement with the weight of this offering. Thats why support doesnt end with a website, manuals, and videos.  So very key is ‘attitude‘. So very key is ‘patience‘. So very key is ‘availability‘. As are ‘product knowledge‘ and ‘product experience‘.

You will ask what you feel are stupid questions. Its ok. Not to me. Fine by me. Used to it. There are no stupid questions because that is the state of a new person learning.

You may ask the same question over and over. Its ok. Fine by me. I am us used to it.  I will answer you again.

In fact, I dont feel users elicit personal one-on-one help often enough. It is often pride or fear of feeling stupid or a determination to figure things out on their own. But this can lead to wasteful hours especially if its a simple thing like a typo, systax, or a rule they may be unaware of. I have seen and solved so many issues. Even issues that are not the fault of the Artiste but are an anomaly of SL. I still try to offer a solution. Quite a few Artiste abilities are the result of overcoming SL limitations and anomalies. I go out of my way not rely on “It’s SL, live with it”.

And yes, sometimes you will be doing everything right and its really a bug. That’s why its important not to ‘beat yourself up’ needlessly. I am very attentive to fixing bugs and 95% are solved same day, Often within the 1st hour.

And the best time to ask questions is in the beginning when you are trying to get a foothold and gain confidence.

You can ask anything you want in group from other users. I encourage people helping people. Our users are very eager to lend assistance.

 

I will keep this 2nd in a series of tutorials short and brief and let this material sink in. Hope you gained some insight.

Lat “Yummy” Lovenkraft

P.S.

I don’t want to overwhelm people with a myriad of information about the Artiste. The purpose of the tutorial series is to deliver byte-sized and digestable portions of information and ease people into the Artiste. But at the suggestion of a few others,  I will provide a link to our blog-site that has more information, however I would hope you would try your best to hold off going there unless you are unable to contain your curiosity.

The Artiste Blogsite

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tutorial #1: Introduction to the Artiste Performance HUD & Suite for Non-Owners

Attitudes seem to be changing about the Artiste or maybe attitudes towards interest in ‘new dance-community technology’. There was a time when few knew or seemed to want to know about the Artiste or the applicability of modernized-dance-tools. I take partial responsibility because 1) its steep price-tag and 2) it not having a store presence or MP presence like my other products. However a store presence does not always insure a safety-blanket of support, as in the case of the Huddles and a few other dance HUDs. I have been in SL 8 years daily, missing only a few  days due to illness or internet availability. I am approachable, helpful, and very patient .

Due to its price and intricacy, it is preferred to have a short casual Q&A interview with prospective buyers to make sure the product has a fair chance to meet their expectations as opposed to people buying it off the shelf without having their questions  answered and have some confidence that their specific needs are cared for.

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Times have changed and people seem accustomed to a ‘process’ of using one or more tools, sometimes tools in concert with each other, to help aid in  presenting a cohesive and more professional solo or group stage performance.

Also there are so many new performers in SL that were not here a year or more ago so this is a good time to introduce the Artiste to the ‘new’ as well as reintroduce it to those who were or are vaguely familiar with it.

The goal is, of course, in presenting a comprehensive tool is to witness  and enable people to simply do cool, great, fun, and creative things via technological ingenuity!

I think there is currently an ongoing hunger for something new or a ‘next new(big?) thing’ as has been hinted in several interactions with people in the dance community.

Kat and I discussed what seemed to be a prevailing malaise of creative energy for many, but of course not everyone.

There are so many venues and so many acts and performers that there are a lot of recurring themes, sets, costumes, dances, songs…and all justifiable because they are learning firsts for those newcomers who have just as much right to travel down the roads of  discovery as their forebearers. It is hoped that a new tool might go a long ways to invigorating the creative process. I like to think of the Artiste as a tool able to help unleash the creative-centers  and amplify a person’s ideas to new heights and expanses. Something to kickstart one’s imagination.

We also shared the view that although new-technology is good and a timely ‘new shiny’, that without a passionate creative-center, few if any new cool-tools will make a person a ‘next performing-wonder’ nor bring a modicum of self-satisfaction.

And people also seem very amenable to learning new things as well as relearning what they think they already know, with the sudden explosion of training and classes on a wide variety of dance-related topics.

It seems the time is right for a ‘something else’. Not  necessarily a replacement but an adjunct to the tools one is already successful with.

Some have asked that I offer a class on Artiste along-side of other product offerings taught in classes that have been offered as well as future classes.

Others have offered to help teach the Artiste.

And more than a few people have suggested that I present an on-going digestible tutorial on the Artiste for non-owners who wonder what it is all about.

It appears all signs point to an emergence of information presented to help close the gap of knowledge about it.

And that is what this series of articles will be about. A presentation specially tailored for the non-owner of the Artiste.

So that means that it will be much less technical than previous offerings and more general.

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PRODUCT PRICING

GREAT NEWS!

First let me announce that there are now 4 NEW price-tier offerings lest you turn off now due to its former prohibitive lofty single price tag. More than a few people have requested partial-product offerings.

A-50: 1 NOCOPY/NOTRANS/MOD HUD      5,000L
A-75: 1 NOCOPY/NOTRANS/MOD HUD & COPY/MOD Palette      7,500L
A-100: 2 NOCOPY/NOTRANS/MOD HUDs & COPY/MOD Palette  10,000L

A-250: The Standard Artiste Performer Series. 25,000 L

The A-50, A-75, and A-100 are only guaranteed valid From December 1st, 2015 thru December 31st, 2015.

I will expand on the differences in a subsequent post.

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NOTE: The Palette is required in order to create object-movers and avatar-movers as well as all of the special-extended show-effects.

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The new pared-down package offerings are meant to be entry-level affordable and provide accessible and practical learning models. The HUDs and Palettes are fully functional and are not intentionally crippled in functionality. The Standard package may be more than what many people need. These product offerings allow people to ease-in to the Artiste mind-set.

You also get the same level of support, access to all information and educational sources including our: group, blog, website, classes, and unlimited one-on-one support.

All future upgrades are FREE.

And YES, what you pay for the 3 low-tier offerings are 100% applicable should you decide to upgrade to a higher tier-level at a later date. And YES, your upgrade offers survive the 2016 deadlin.e

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Who is the Artiste targeted for?

1) Advanced Choreographers/Performers who are ready to take that ‘next step’. Those looking for ‘a next big thing’. Those who like to position themselves on a leading edge.

2) Those who are patient and determined

3) Those who are reasonably technically savvy.

4) I don’t recommend the Artiste to someone who has never used any dance-hud prior and/or never edited a note-card unless you are very tech-savvy and accustomed to picking up new technoligies with ease and acumen.

5) Those accustomed to scheduling their in-show activities to occur at specific pre-planned times. This means everything is sequenced.

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The Artiste

Ok so what can be said about the Artiste to those new to it or unfamiliar that it even exists? The following descriptives come to mind:

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HUD-Centric

It is an all-encompassing precision performance suite for burlesque and cabaret stage soloists and groups, the heart of which is the Artiste Performance HUD. The HUD tells the other parts of the suite what to do, how to do it, where to do it, and when to do it.

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Features-List

The Artiste has an ungodly amount of features so I won’t even attempt to enumerate them as it would serve no good purpose now and likely do more harm than good.

I will attempt to highlight the most important and popular ones in coming tutorials.

The good news is you can do a lot with just a few features and pick and choose which of the various other features you want to focus your energies on.

Many are easy to use. You dont need to learn or master all of them or even most of them in order to find utility and usefulness from the product.

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Analogies

The Artiste Suite can be likened to:

– a science laboratory kit-experimrent with mixing chemicals

– a Lego-kit, with the Palette likened to a transformer-toy that can be a say, a robot or car or weapon.

– an iceberg. Only maybe 25% of its capabilities have been tapped, 3/4ths of it abilites remain unchartered.

– the difference between power-steering and the gas pedal in car. Some tools you may be familiar and comfortable with you expend very little effort, comparatively speaking, and get a many times the results, albeit that you are not moving forward but side to side. The Artiste is like a gas pedal.. The more pressure you apply the faster it goes and the farther it goes …but you need to keep applying pressure to keep going.

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Discovery

It is a discovery tool. You can make unique personal discoveries using imagination, experimentation, perseverance, and patience.

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Identifying Strategy

You can combine more than 2 or more features to create a new hybrid feature.

By imaginative ordering of the execution of 2 or more features, you can also create dynamic run-time cause-and-effects. I will demonstrate in a subsequent tutorial.

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Pre-Scheduler/Sequencer

While it does have some ‘press-this-button, make-this-happen-now‘ features it was engineered to pre-schedule a wide variety of activities in close coordination with one another. This is familiar with the way you sequence dances to occur one afte ther other by pressing a button. THe idea with Artiste is to sequence everything else as well, emotes, special-fx, outfit-modifications, etc.

To the dismay of some, it is not a primary-support-tool for those who like to dynamically make things happen during show-time, though there are some measures that can be taken to accomplish immediacy with some imaginative effort.

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Reminder

It is an all-in-one-tool by choice. The reason being that from the layout of the HUD to the concept of ‘Palette abilities‘ to the simple long laundry list of features and Palette-Actions, it is meant to be a constant reminder of ‘other things it can do‘. Its ever-present array of offerings is meant to help stimulate you into being more creative.

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Dedication

I strongly do not recommend it for someone ladened with having to put out 1 or more shows a week as others have fallen into the trap of thinking they can learn a cool new Artiste-technique and implement it in one weeks time ready for their upcoming show as an adjunct to what they were are already doing with other tools.

While it does have a history of playing well with some others, I would not expect to inject new coolness quickly. Allow time to learn and make way for typical growing pains. Give your self time for trial-and-error without the pressures of having to be productive almost over-night.  Patience.

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Familiaity

You will find many things simple (emoting)…

..and familiar like the way an animation is identified:

Example:
name-of-animation1 | time
name-of-animation2 | time

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Reliable Timing Engine

It has a pretty tight timing-engine that seems to perform consistently and reliably as you can see from some of the many show and demo videos. Many cool-things depend on reliable close-proximity-executions of various tasks in conjunction with one another.

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Plays Well With Others

It has been show-tested to have worked successfully with some other popular tools.

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Single-HUD Solution

One popular attraction is that those used to having a screen full of HUDs have found a lot of screen-space freed up because the Artiste presents as a one-HUD solution.

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Optimized Work-Flow

Our note-cards are grouped into sections so you only ever reload just the section you’ve made changes to. (i.e. dances, emotes, stripping, outfit changes, special fx, etc). This provides for very fast reload work-flow as we call it. (reading the notecard info into the HUD.

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Selective Testing

Using the buttons on the HUD face you can enable and disable functions so that you confine your testing to a limited set of features at a time…allowing you to focus with simplification and isolation of functionality.

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Time-Tested

The Artiste 5 years in the making.
The SILVER version, two-and-a-half years in test and live usage.
The GOLD version, just celebrated one-year live-usage.

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Built-In Redundancy

Users have found there are usually multiple ways to accomplish a given task or challenge which provides for flexibility when you run into a dead-end.

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Challenge

The Artiste is an advanced-performance-tool ideal for those who are
ready to ‘push boundaries‘ to paraphrase how Kat has characterized it.

It reportedly has a steep learning curve and I won’t argue with that majority opinion from actual users.

It is not a magic bullet. It requires imagination and perseverance to make it jump thru hoops so to speak.  However, it is an enabling suite of tools.

It is important to take baby steps, take pride in small accomplishments, and to persevere.

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FUN!

I really think its FUN to use and create with. Its a joy if you like experiment, solve  puzzles, and come up with solutions to your creative dilemmas.

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ACTION!

If at some point during these ongoing tutorials you find your interested peeked enough to take action in acquiring or at least investigating into an Artiste product offering as part of your creative compliment then send me an IM or notecard conveying your interest and/or concerns.

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First Artiste Show

Yesterday I had the pleasure of dancing in a show at Yummy’s new venue, Le Artiste.

It’s a small, intimate, casual theater and I love the vibe of it.

There were, of course, technical glitches, but the show went wonderfully well.

I started off by swinging from a chandelier (it was a ton of fun, and not nearly as complicated to work out as I had thought).

Lil was an adorable Tinkerbell who took us on a dark journey to Never Never Land.

Aura’s number was incredible – she danced, she crawled on the ceiling, she floated – just amazing. 🙂

I am in love with the creative freedom that I have with the Artiste.

Things that I would never have attempted before suddenly seem possible – easy, even.

Yes, sometimes it has been incredibly frustrating, trying to learn a new way of doing things.

I still struggle with it.

But I am in awe at the things people are able to do with it.

I can’t wait to see what marvelous things will be at the next show.

I wanted to post a picture from the show, but unfortunately, I was so busy I forgot to snap some!

So, you’ll just have to come see for yourself. 😀

Avi Choice Awards

Image Source: avichoiceawards.com

A quick update on winners so far in the dance world:

Best Venue – Rose Theater

Best Set Design – Rose Theater

Animations – Humanoid

Choreography Tool – HUDDLES

Dance Troupe – Guerilla Burlesque

They announced the best choreographer winner, but I couldn’t understand the name. 

Will update when I have the info.

An All Artiste Show

I had the pleasure of dancing this weekend at a show at MJ’s Burlesque Review.

I used to dance regularly with these lovely ladies and it was a joy to get the opportunity to dance with them again.

They are talented, creative, and always entertaining.

And for the first time (to my knowledge), the show was an ‘all Artiste’ show.

MJ was one of the first dancers to adopt the Artiste system.

She and Nancy have been using it for a while now and doing amazing things with it.

I am just learning, but I was able to make movers, rezz my sets, crossfade my sets, run my dance sequence, my emotes, and my costume changes – all through my HUD.

One click and I was off. 🙂

The shows went very well and if you missed them, you missed out.

I started off the show as the guest dancer and was introduced by one of the funniest MC’s on the grid.

Zed has a terrific (or is that twisted?) sense of humor and she always keeps me in stitches.

If you’re interested in dancing, contact MJ (Imajica Wonder) or Nancy (Nancy Toocool) for more information.

They are looking for guest dancers for upcoming shows.

You’ll have a terrific time – the ladies are amazing, and the crowds are as well.

After me was MJ, dancing in her lonely apartment after a masquerade party.

I love the little touches on their sets – notice the mask on the piano bench.

MJ’s always has emotes, and I love the stories that each dance tells.

Following MJ, was Nancy, who always leaves the audience picking up their jaws off the floor.

She did an amazing number about self-love (not that kind . . . well, maybe).

The set was very well done – the rising columns, the words scrawled on the pillars – I have no idea where her creative ideas come from, but I am sooo jealous.

She rose, she fell, she rotated, she stripped – and left the audience begging for more.

MJ’s is an adult venue, so if nudity offends, it’s not the place for you.

If you like it, don’t miss the next show!

MJ did a second number about flower girls who dance alone in the woods – I was so entranced I forgot to take a photo of it.

Which was probably just as well, because I don’t think there was an angle that wouldn’t be considered NSFW. 😛

The last act of the show was Nancy in an adorable number as the Ramen noodle girl.

I have no idea where she finds her music, but that song will be stuck in my head for days!

It was a terrific show as usual.

Hope to see you at the next one!

*wanders off singing, ‘Miso, Shoyu, da da da ta da, Ramen!’*

Persistence Pays

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I’ve been so busy over the last few days that I’ve even neglected my writing.

I have a performance coming up, and I was determined to make my routine my first real ‘all Artiste’ performance.

I did a short routine while initially learning the system, so technically this counts as my second ‘all Artiste’ routine.

But this will be the first one in front of a real audience.

It wasn’t easy.

When moving from one system to another, there is always a learning curve.

The Artiste system has a pretty steep one.

It does so many things that learning how each piece/part interacts with the others is sometimes overwhelming.

So I set about to learn a piece at a time.

I made my first routine (the gingerbread cookies in the oven) and felt hugely successful.

I used palettes as movers, I made things tip and rotate, I faded things in and out, I danced, I moved, I used dance groups – and it wasn’t THAT hard.

This time, it’s a solo routine.

I learned to use the Artiste rezzer – which offers so many capabilities that other rezzers don’t.

I can rezz sets, fade sets, crossfade sets, de-rezz sets – all with commands from my HUD.

And you can rezz more than 1 set at once!

I can even have the HUD tell the rezzer to kill all my rezzed items after my performance – so clean up is a snap!

For the solo, I built the set, put in the rezzer, set up my fades, run my emotes, do costume changes, run my dance sequence, open/close the curtains – but I was struggling with the movers.

After a couple of hours of banging my head against the wall and failing to get the movers to do what I wanted, I finally, out of desperation, IM’d a friend who uses it and asked for help.

She asked a couple of questions and – BAM.

We realized what the issue was.

Rotations.

The Artiste does rotations differently than any other system I’ve used.

Which is good, in my opinion.

But it was bad, because, although I knew that, I didn’t really understand how it worked in practice.

As an example, I used to use the HUDDLES dance HUD.

For emotes, I could insert an emote during a dance animation, and my animation would not be interrupted.

So my sequence could look like this:

dance 1|13.0|/me emotes something here|dance 1|15.0

With the HUDDLES, I would begin dance 1 and 13 seconds into the animation, the emote would fire.  I would then continue dance 1 for another 15 seconds.

When I switched to the Barre HUD, that no longer worked.

If I entered my emotes in that way, not only was there a few second lag for the emotes to fire, after 13 seconds of dance 1, rather than playing for an additional 15 seconds, the dance 1 animation would restart from the beginning and then run for 15 seconds.

Not the effect I wanted.

So, I had to learn a new way of thinking and doing things with the Barre.

Not bad, or worse, just a different way of thinking.

I thought I had adjusted my thinking with the Artiste.

I was wrong.

So I had to ‘undo’ my thinking about rotations and positions and how they work and learn a new way of doing with the Artiste.

Once I did, things went pretty quickly.

Because I was feeling so successful at accomplishing all the other pieces of my dance, I wanted to not only use palettes as movers, I wanted to use the powerful ‘sit2sit’ function of the Artiste.

This function allows you to jump seamlessly from one mover/palette to another during your routine.

Stop and take a moment and reread the sentence above.

Soak it in.

You can CHANGE MOVERS during a dance routine.

There are challenges, yes, but it IS possible.

I’ve done it.

Successfully.

It took hours.

And hours.

And hours.

But I did it.  (With help, of course.)

After a long, sometimes theoretical conversation with Yummy, I had another ‘aha’ moment.

I asked her how she would have approached my routine, given what I was trying to do, using the Artiste.

Her answers were eye-opening.

Because I have been so used to certain ‘can’s’ and ‘can’ts’ with the other systems I’ve used, I was unknowingly making some of those same assumptions with Artiste.

Big mistake.

I think that is why I have been so persistent at trying to learn all I can about the Artiste system.

It offers me so many possibilities – many of which I am sure I am still unaware of.

With it, I am empowered to create things I thought were impossible.

And with it, I am once again finding joy in the creation of dance. 😀

HUD Preferences

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While surfing my twitter feed the other day, I saw a post with someone’s screen shot.

It had a ton of windows open, but what caught my eye was the placement of the dance HUD.

It was floating around the middle right area of the screen.

I thought, ‘Wow – that is totally not at all where I would park my dance (or other) HUD.”

I like to have as much screen space open as possible, so I generally park my HUD’s off to the side of the screen, as out of the way as I can get them.

But then I got to wondering – where do other dancers put their HUD’s?

This is how my screen generally looks (although I don’t normally have 3 HUD’s attached at once!).

So I can have my HUDs accessible, but they are enough out of the way that I can still see what I’m doing.

Is there a reason you place your HUD where you do?

Do you just use the default location and never move it?

I Can Make Stuff Blow Up??!!

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Well, Yummy says you can, so it must be true. 😀

I am still experimenting and learning the Artiste HUD.

It does so many things, it’s kind of hard to wrap your head around all of it at once.

So far, I’ve made a short routine using the various pieces to dance a group, move avatars around, move objects around, and set off special fx.

I’ve attended two classes so far on learning to ‘throw’ objects.

It’s a lot of information to take in.

However, Yummy is always willing to take the time to explain things.

So when she announced a class on learning to make ‘explosions,’ I immediately signed up.

The inner pyro in me is having a party as we speak.  😀

Success!!

This is how I felt after finishing this routine!
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As many of you know, I have spent the last several weeks trying to learn a new system.

I was going to call it a HUD, but it’s really so much more than that.

The Artiste is a suite of products to help you, as a performer, do more.

Is it easy?

No.

Is it fast?

No.

Is it rewarding?

YES!!!!!

For me, this is a trailblazing product.  With the tools provided in the Artiste suite of products, I now have so many more creative options at my disposal.

Things that, previously, I would have had to either purchase, beg, borrow, steal, or sleep with a scripter to get.  😛

I have spent the few weeks on a roller coaster – up when I was successful at something, and down again when things didn’t go right.

Sometimes the downs weren’t my fault, most times they were.

I persevered.  Pure stubbornness.  Refusal to give up.

Sometimes I would have to walk away.

But I always came back.

After finally completing a routine, I am so excited about the many tools I still have left to learn.

What I accomplished may not seem like much to some.  I am so proud of this routine – because when I watch it, I see all the successes and failures, and how much I learned along the way.

Plus, I finally get to use these ADORABLE gingerbread avatars I got from the MadPea Scrumptious Sweets hunt.  (Created by Chandra Meehan at deviousMind – the hunt is still on, so head over there and pick them up yourself.  The HUD is $100L, but well worth the price, for these avatars alone!)

I hope you enjoy this little holiday routine as much as I do.

It’s Cold Outside

Merry Christmas!