Using the Artiste

I’ve been busily working away on routines for the last several days.

Several months ago, I began using the Artiste products exclusively to dance, so that I could force myself to learn more about it.

I knew that I had only scratched the surface of what it can do, and it’s been a really fun ride learning more and more.

The last couple of routines I did with it, I heard “That’s amazing!” and “Wow!” and “Fantastic!”

So I am pretty happy with how things are going. 😛

My original goal was to learn/re-learn some basic palette abilities so that I could offer some one-off classes on them.  Since there are currently about 70-some abilities, I figured that would keep me busy.

And it has!

Some of the abilities are things that you can do with many other systems, like tipping an object (or person), or raise/lower (via mover or object-mover).

However, my latest breakthrough had nothing to do with the abilities of the palette itself, and everything to do with making my life easier. 😀

When I first learned to use the Artiste, I learned to create my mover route and trigger it to begin when I pressed play (like every other system out there).

There was an option to have the sequence start after pressing play (a delay), but that seemed tedious and a lot of extra work.  So I would trigger my palette to start moving when I pressed play, and to continue through its series of moves.

This meant figuring out not only my moves (from A to B, B to C, etc.), but also figuring out wait/sleep times (times that my mover would stay in the same position before moving to the next point).  Now, I’m good at math, but I don’t like it.  I did it simply because there was no other way.

No system that I owned (or am familiar with) allowed me to pause/stop my mover after pressing play (without also causing a bunch of other issues that usually involved more math). So, I planned my routes, did the math (yuck!), and went on.

Because I had taught a class on using  the Artiste palette as a mover, I figured I should experiment with some of the options.  One of those options is to trigger your mover/palette via the sequence.  Great, I was already doing that!

But you can also trigger your mover/palette to do only 1 move OR a range of moves, not just the entire route.

Mind blown.

This meant that I could tell the palette to do move 1. Then dance. Then, when I wanted to, tell the palette to do move 2. Or to do moves 2-4.  Then dance some more.  And since you can specify PER MOVE a specific animation that you want to play (not just one default walk, for example), I can, when triggering my moves, have the palette activate a walk I have specified for THAT move.

So I can skip walk on to the stage, dance, use a second walk to move, dance some more, and use a third walk for a subsequent move.  All with the same mover/palette!

And as with all things Artiste, there is always more than one way to do something. I can trigger my moves via my sequence if I wish.  Or I can trigger them via my chat commands.  Having so many options means that I can accomplish more in less time. And best of all?

Less math!!!! 😀

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 # 10: Dancing With The Artiste

We discovered (well I did late in the process) that the easiest thing to learn with the Artiste is ‘dancing’.  It is referred to as “sequencing” in the Artiste world. It is something most everyone who has performed before has done with other tools so it appears easiest to learn and transition into.

A question I get asked often is how many dances will it store? It cannot store 8,000 or anywhere near that amount nor is there intent in the foreseeable future to add mass storage-and-retrieval of SL animations  to its list of credits. It does not have a dance-recorder ability in the normal sense of the term. It does have its own approach to providing information about dances-played and associated times.

A couple of Artiste users have told me that they use other tools that do provide that standard dance-routine-building capability during the creative part of choreography and then migrate their dance choices to the Artiste for final sequencing, so I’ve been told. At least 2 dancers use the Artiste start to finish for building dance sequences and playing them.

How many dances can it hold? Well no-one has run into memory issues yet. Not to say it won’t happen in the future. Should that time come then I will address the issue.

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Number Of Sequences

The Artiste can hold up to 4 dance sequences at a time. A dance sequence is a list of line-entries on a notecard of animations followed by a separator bar followed by a time-to-play or duration.

Example:

DanceName1 | 24.1
DanceName2 | 19.8
DanceName3 | 28.7

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Number of Dancers

The Artiste Performance HUD can dance up to 9 dancers at a time. This can and has been extended to more dancers in a controlled fashion using Palette-based dancing. (example: couples dancing in the background)

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Read-Outs

The round circle in the star on the HUD menu when pressed will give out an elapsed time in an owner-only chat log, (when not used for solo-dance breakout dancing when DanceDiva is enabled)..

When DanceScriptTrace is on, then each dance name will print out with its elapsed time. This helps with timing dances.

Also, we now have (option) automatic ElapsedTime-to-Duration and Duration-to -Elapsed Time conversions upon HUD reset so you no longer need to do the math when converting from on to the other after making modifications to dance times.

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There are many ways to play animations:

1 – Immediate – Play-Sequenced and delayed. Immediately means at time zero upon pressing play.

2 – Play Sequence-Delayed means at least 1 second or more after pressing play triggered by the occurence of one or more events (up to 4, one for each of the 4 possible sequences. the PLAY_SEQ=? where ? is a number between 1 and 4 are used on the *autofx notecard to trigger the playing of a sequence tied to an event.

3 – Toggling the S-button on the face of the HUD, will cause the 1st sequence to start or stop playing.

4 – Pressing a button on the animation-menu page of the HUD that holds up to 11 dance-animations of which you can assign brief pseudonyms to.

5 – Palette-Based playing. You can sequence up to about 20 animations safely by putting them into a palette and associating each one with a move. The moves can then all be played in sequence or you can play any particular animation or you can play a specific-range of animations. If there is no movement associated with the animation as in the case of creating a ‘dummy move’, then you can play the moves in any order.

HUD sequences can also trigger all, one, or a range of moves which can themselves play animations. This is indicated by a command to play a Palette and it has its own duration just like a normal sequenced dance. It is triggered between dances in a sequence. This was inspired by MJ.

Advanced

Animations can now also be assigned to the turn-type move, pause-type move, as well as the move-type move. A Palette can trigger other Palettes to dance via Palette “actions” associated with real or “dummy” moves.

HUDs can chain to other HUDs causing their sequences to play either immediatley or upon waiting on operator action.

6 – Repeat

There is now a new Repeat command that allows all the moves and/or animations associated with them to ‘repeat’ until told to stop. This is handy for things like the running of background or atmosphere animations. Animals, birds, fish, people walking, etc. thruout a routine.

7 – Formations – (DanceDiva)

Dances can be played while changing custom-created formations by using the DanceDiva add-on that comes with the FULL A-250 GOLD package, has its own controller but is now built into the HUD and uses Follower-Relays.

NOTE: The FULL A-250 GOLD package includes 25 FREE Transfer/NoCopy Follower-Relays. These can be used to synchronize many things: Formation changes, stripping, outfit changes, Palette-2-Palette transfer

Includes 4-directional turns and break-away-and-return to formation dancing.

8 – Custom Grouping  – we often refer to this method of dancing by the slang term ofsimply “ABC”, don’t ask me how or why. You  actually can have up to 4 dance-groups called A,B ,C and D.

We have synchronous and asyncrhonous grouping using our Division method.

You can dynamically change group-sets at run-time.

Avatars or Palettes can be assigned to one or more groups.

9 – The Artiste Experience Option – Dance Leaders can offer the option to now provide for the ALLOWance of new Artiste Experience. This means dancers need no longer have to repeatedly accept dance invitations.

ALLOW once, and you are relieved as a ball-sitter. Dancers still need to be invited. They just are not saddled with having to accept an invite. This also helps mitigate failed dance-invites.

This is an option included in the Performance Dance HUD as well as the new Artiste Coupler.  There are some tolerable caveats but it HAS been tested successfully.

10 – The Auric Canon – (completed – testing)

11 – Couples Auto-Alignment and Compartmentalization (completed – testing)

12 – The Artiste MasterPiece – Animation Piecing – (completed – fixing a bug) – Allows for several animations (except the 1st) to start in the middle, played back-to-back.

13 – Segmentation – (in development)

14 – Auto-Dancing – (planned)

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I hope this lends some insight into how the Artiste is and can be used as a show-time dance tool.

Lat “Yummy” Lovenkraft

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Artiste Suite: StageSight

One of the things that drew me to the Artiste Suite of products was the number of products included – so many tools it’s hard to know where to begin. 🙂

One tool included in the Suite is the StageSight.

I had actually forgotten about it and was using the built-in camera tools in Firestorm to do some of the same things.

The product actually has two versions, so I will start with the older version – StageSight 2.5b.

This version is available on the Marketplace for $250L.  It is nc/m/nt.  The StageSight was developed in order to help dancers view what they needed to quickly and easily during a performance.

Using the StageSight, you can configure a ‘quick view’ camera angle of your choosing (generally the stage where you’ll be performing).

This tool can be extremely useful for performers who have trouble camming around at venues.  You can, using this tool, set up a viewing angle that lets you view the stage.  You can then be backstage, and with a simple click, zoom your camera out to view the stage.  Because the tool is doing it, the change is almost instant, and reduces your chances of crashing.

Because people found it so useful, Yummy received many requests for a copiable version.  Having a copy version allows you to set a different angle for each copy. So you could set up a front stage view, a backstage view, and any other angle you might wish.

The copiable version is on MP for $750L.

If you purchase the GOLD version of the Artiste suite, the StageSight is included.  The version you get with the GOLD is different than the other version, however.

The StageSight Plus is nc/m/nt.  (You can also purchase this via MP if you wish.)  It looks a little different than the StageSight and this is because it does more.

The StageSight Plus lets you you set three (3) angles rather than one (1), and it lets you do this for up to 11 venues!  That means you can set up 33 angles – though I doubt you’ll need that many.

You set up one default angle for a wide view of the stage (the cross-hair button).  You then set up a second ‘zoomed-in’ angle for the stage.  Using the +/- buttons, you can step/zoom between those two angles for shots.

You can use the circle arrows to release your camera if you wish.  It just takes one click to recenter the view/camera.  The StageSight Plus also has a tip-jar view.  You set up a view for the tip jar, and when you click the heart button, your camera zooms to the tip jar so you can tip.  You can then reset your view by clicking a button or wait, and after 12 seconds, your view will be returned to the default automatically.

There is some work to do upfront, by using the camera button to capture the info and loading it into the notecard inside the HUD.

You can set up multiple venues and choose them via a blue pop-up menu, handy if you dance/perform at different venues.  You can add up to 11 venues.  If you don’t need 11 venues, you can of course set up additional angles at one venue using multiple buttons.  Just make sure to name the menu buttons something meaningful to you.  To bring up the menu, simply click on the words ‘StageSight.’

Whichever version of the StageSight you use, you will quickly find it is an extremely useful tool.  Whether for photography or dancing or whatever other use you might imagine, it will make changing your camera views easier and faster than ever before.

Tutorial #9: Artiste Grouping

I have personally detected 6 major features for choreographers that dictate visually, movement and space centered around solo and group dancers that can be augmented by tool-featuers:

1. Dance Sequencing –  controls local dancer motion (dance-to-dance)
2. Formation Creation  and Transitioning – controls (non in-place associations)
3. Single-Dancer-Movement – controls global horizontal and vertical stage-space use of a single user
4. Grouping – controls local groupings (in-place associations)
5. Couples Pairing – control pairing and synching of 2 dancers
6. Segmentation

How these are chosen and combined seem to define the characteristics of choreography and level of sophistication. This, again, is just my own personal observation.

This tutorial discuses how the Artiste has chosed to address one of the elements. Grouping.

Grouping evolved in the Artiste from how I detected RL grouping…to how people have chosen to implement it in SL. From binary-grouping in real life to custom-multiple-grouping in SL.

Artiste Grouping

There are a maximum of 4 CORE groups in the Artiste.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D

NOTE: As soon as you provide more “types of something” than what you think anyone would need, someone comes along with a need for more. Aura wanted more groups for an idea she has but fortunately envisioned a solution of using Palettes to proxy new Groups.

Palettes can hold their own dance routines  up to about 20 dances. They can be triggered from autofx or from inside one of the 4 dance-sequences.

 So by naming Palettes with the same name, multiple Palettes can be triggered to dance their own “sequence of dances” disguised in moves that may or may not move anywhere. Triggering from inside a core sequence gives tighter sync control

An advanced method is a Palette triggering one or more other Palettes.

Meanwhile….back at the ranch…

Each group is assigned a dance sequence. 
Group A = Sequence1
Group B = Sequence2
Group C = Sequence3
Group D = Sequence4

Pretty basic.

Dancers are assigned to one group at a time

A particular assignment of groups to dancers is called a “set” or “division”; A division is simply a  series of Groups that will be assigned to dancers depending on the Grouping-Method.

An advanced feature of Grouping is that the set or division can be dynamically changed at showtime midway thru a performance.

So dancers could be assigned thusly (2 couples or boys vs girls)

Division/Set 1 (couples)
Archie  = A
Anne = A
Bob = B
Brenda = B

Division/Set 2 (gender)
Archie  = A
Anne = B
Bob = A
Brenda = B

There are currently a maximum of 9 dancers per HUD so you could assign groups in a division as an example:

From 2 dancers: AC
To 9 dancers:  ABABCABAB
Or in between:  CBABC

NOTE: For completeness  I want to address the issue of Artiste dancing large groups. Because we have employed HUD-2-HUD, a Master HUD can control, say, 11 Slave-HUDs. Each Slave-HUD could dance 9 dancers for a total of 9×11=99 dancers + the Master’s 9 dancers for a total of 108 dancers at a time. The most avatars I have seen on a sim is about 103 at one time.

A second method would be to embed the dance sequence into a Palette and rez 100 Palettes. This avoids the tedium of issuing and accepting invites.

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Meanwhile….back at the ranch…again…

There are 3 ways to assign groupings to avatars:

For simple small groups of 2 or 3 Invit-Order might be the preferred way:

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1 – Invite Order – this always assigns the HUD wearer to the 1st group. So for ecample if our Division is BAC then the HUD wearer would be assgined to Group B (sequence#2) and the 2nd person to accept an invite would be assigned to Group A (sequence#1), etc.

This is a quick and dirty method when you have 2 or 3 dancers in your group and say maybe only 2 groups, you the leader as group A and everyone else group B.  You can change the  Division assignment of the default assignment dynamcially by sending a Division command via *autofx

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2 – Troupe – this hard-assigns groups to avatars by their name/key. So if Mary is assgined Group D then she will perform sequence#4 until there is a GroupSetChange issued during mid-show. Mary can have more than one Group assigned but only ever one at a time.

Example:   Mary,(uuid),DBDA

Here we set an elaborate scheme to allow for 4 DivisionGroupChange alterations during our routine. Mary is assigned to Group D at the start then when DivisionGroupChange is 2, she will dance Group B. DivisionGroupChange 3 she would dance Group D again, and DivisionGroupChange 4 would be Group A. DivisionGroupChange is the command sent via *autofx to change the division assignments dynamically.

The good things about this method are:
1) Independent of invite-order
2) Does NOT require Palettes
3) If Palettes ARE used for other needs, Group assignments are unaffected. This allows for Sit-2-Sit Palette transfers without worry of dance-groups being affected.

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3 – Palette – this method is probably what you are used to. Group assignments based upon your relative position in the ‘line-up’. Each Palette has a letter in its name, A thru H. Divisions are assigned to those letters respectively. Assuming Palettes are laid out left to right A thru H.

So if you had 5 dancers and a Custom Group Division of say  CBABC, then Palette A would be assigned to Group C. Palette B would be assigned to Group B. Palette C would be assigned to Group A, etc.

ABCDE = Palettes
CBABC = Division

Here is a link to a video Aura: Easy As ABC – The Penguinettes
She uses CBABC as the Division and you can plainly see the 3 groups working independently mid-way thru the video.

And here is a write-up from Aura herself on the making of the video:
As Easy as ABC

did that demonstrates the Division CBABC. I forget which method, Troupe or Palette, that was used in this video but i recall we tested both in rehearsal satisfactorily.   UPDATE: She used the Troupe method.

You can change Palette-Division assignments dynamically for the Palette method as well by using the DivisionPaletteChange *autofx command.

 

There is another special command that simplifies group-swapping.

Advanced

ABOrder can flip the assignment of dance-sequences.

ABOrder = AB  (Default) means GroupA dances to Sequence1 and GroupB dances to Sequence2. But if you send an ABOrder dynamically in prior to the next dance change and its value is ABOrder= BA….then GroupA will dance sequence2 and GroupB will dance sequence1.

Same thing can ge done for Groups C & D.   ABOrder = CD and ABOrder = CD.  Of course you could accomplish the same by changing the division accordingly using the dynamic division commands learned above.

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Also new is a notification that an invite failed, even if the invitee accepted. It happens. While it won’t tell you who failed, you will know that you need to re-invite someone.

You can use the Rollcall to see who the HUD has successfully accepted and figure out who needs to be reinvited. There are also 2 other methods as double safety-checks as to which avatars the dancer-scripts believe the groups are assigned to. Rarely will you need this but they can be helpful diagnostics when an invitation fails.

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I hope you are now more comfortable knowing Artiste has a Grouping solution and are a bit more familiar with how it is implemented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, Virginia, you can use the Artiste for that

A month or so ago, I decided to focus on learning/re-learning the Artiste HUD and associated products.

I’d used the Artiste before, both in its incarnation as the SILVER and as the GOLD.  I did a Christmas routine last year with the GOLD (which I’m hoping to revamp and share before the end of this year).

However, after that routine, I wasn’t dancing as much and so the Artiste was left to languish in my inventory.

This year, I began doing routines that were a hybrid – using the Artiste HUD and a different mover.  But I wanted to get to know this system a lot better – learn all the ins/outs, especially since I will be teaching classes on it in 2016.

So I set out to use the Artiste HUD and palette system exclusively for several routines.  I’m proud of how they turned out.

It took a bit of re-learning things I’d used before, as well as learning some new things, as Yummy is always adding new and fancy features.

I managed to find time this weekend to have my husband film one of the routines I created.

If you can’t see the embedded video, click the link here to watch it.

I wanted to see if I could accomplish all the same things with the Artiste that I could using various other products.

In this routine, I wanted to be able to chat commands, in order to fade the sets in/out.

I was going to be adding/removing items, including a costume change, as well as various particle effects.

I would be moving around the stage, so I needed a mover.

I was able to do everything I needed with just the Artiste HUD and the palette.

The HUD handled my dance sequence, my chat commands for fades and particle effects, as well as all of my costuming adds/removes.  If I had done emotes for this routine, it would have handled those as well.

The palette was used as a mover for this routine.

Using the Artiste does require you to do some thinking and planning up front.  I spent probably an hour or so planning out my costume changes and other add/remove items so that the changes would be as seamless as possible.

For those of you who have wondered what you can do with the Artiste system, I hope the video demonstrates what is possible.

And this isn’t even a very complicated routine!  One HUD, one palette, and a rezzer, and you too can make your imagination come to life. 😀

Tutorial #8: The Artiste Turn

Definition
A turn, using the Artiste mover system, is its own entity. A turn describes the direction that an object or seated avatar will be facing. It has no bearing on the direction of movement of the ob ject or seated-avarar. Movement is always from one marker to the next in a straight line.

Turns are a continuous uinteruppted motion. You do not need to create a turn using several discrete partial turns.

A move takes up its very own line-entry on a notecard to describ it.
A turn ALSO takes up its very own line-entry on a notecard to describe it.

Defining Characteristics
Turns essentially have 2 defining characterictics:

1. Number of degrees to rotate
2. Direction (Clockwise or Counterclockwise

Those are inherent.

Additional Artiste-Added Characteristics:
  1. Duration – the longer the duration, the slower the turn.
  2. Animation for Turn (optional) – SL has turn-animations
that work well
  3. Pause-After-Turn – (optional) this is
number of seconds to rest after a turn just like Duration
  4. Animation for Pause-After-Turns – (optional)

Turn Elimination
Using the marker system (Method #2) the Artiste assumes you want to do a turn after every move. You can instruct it not to turn (as in… do 2 moves in a row) by simply setting the duration of the turn to zero.

Turn Creation
The easiest way to create a turn is to simply
1) Edit a marker and rotate it physically, eyeballing it. Something you are          probably already used to.
 2) You can type in a number of degrees in the Edit-Object tab

You can also click on the marker to bring up a menu and then choose:1) 3)   3) TurnLeft (counter-clockwise) or
4) TurnRight (clockwise)  or
5) Type in a specific number of degrees .

Or

6) Press AutoRotate – and every marker will immediately rotate in the direction of the next marker. A timesaver for the majority of cases. You can of course tweak any of the turn-info after the AutoRotate

Pre-Move and Post-Move
An important distinction is that with Artiste turns, they happen AFTER the move. You might be used to turns happening BEFORE the move.

Our logic is that if you walk down the street, you want to look forward while you are walking and only turn the corner when you get to the actual corner. Not better or worse…just different.

Turn-While-Moving

I also included a special type of turn for visual variety…at your discretion. It is a turn-while-moving, feature. The turn will be gradual over the duration of the move so that the turn is complete when the move ends.

It is an all-or-nothing switch for a given Palette(mover). All turns will behave that way or none will behave that way. In this case you would not have an explicit turn. The turn is embedded and implied.

Adjusting
You can use the marker-menu to adust turn-related information or you can edit the notecard directly that contains the move/turn information.

Relative vs Absolute
FYI: Turns or rotations are “relative” to where the markers prior rotation and are not absolute degrees.

==============
NOTE: The Controller does NOT serve as an anitial marker and plays no part in defining the route, unlike some other systems you might be familiar with so as not to be confused.

Scale
A reminder that you have control over the size of markers generated by the Controller using the Scale line-entry

Saving Moves and Turns Back Into the Palette

There are 2 ways to save your designed route, unlike the single standard method of Copy and Paste chat-output.

1) DumpMoves –  Pressing the DumpMoves button on the Controller will translate the markers movement and rotations into local owner-only chat so you can then copy and paste it into a notecard in the Palette. This is the standard way. You changes will be permanent after you save the notecard and will surive a Palette Reset. Simply Reset your Palette and then test it tracing your route with the press of one button.

2) UpdatePalett  – We have added as 2nd time-saver method of saving your moves and turns into the Palette. Press the UpdatePalett button and the moves and turns are sent directly tot he Palette. Same results as copying and pasting but without taxing your manual labor.

The only caveat is that your changes are temporary and last as long as the Palette is NOT Reset, else your changes revert back to what was hard-coded for moves prior, if any were at all. This speeds up testing quickly by saving time, allowing you to make several quick minor tweaks and testing them without extra labor and also reduces possible copy/paste errors.

Level of Effort

How Fast and Easy Can You Actually Create a New Route?

1) Press RezMarkers – Choose number of markers to rez
2) Press UpdatePalett
3) Done!

Test your route pressing one button on Palette.

OR

A more practical approach would be:

1) Press RezMarkers  – Choose number of markers to rez
or
1) Press AddMarker – reposition and rerotate each marker
2) Press AutoRotate
3) Adjust specific Durations of  the moves
4) Press UpdatePalett or press DumpMoves & Copy/Paste, save & reset
3) Done!

Test your route pressing one button on Palette.

============
I think this is enough to wet your appetite and familiarize yourself enough with the Movement system so that you are not as intimidated by its ‘newness’ or ‘different-ness’.

There are 8 ways to learn or re-learn what has been presented in these tutorials as well as with new material not covered.

Ways to Learn
  1) This Ongoing Tutorial
2) Kat’s Classes – Tailored for new users & users from other systems
3) The Manuals – in-depth coverage
4) Demo Videos & Live Show Videos
5) Friendly User Group
6) BlogSite
7) WebSite
8) One-On-One assistance from me.

 

 

 

Tutorial #7: The Artiste Mover – Part 2 – Method #2

In Tutorial #6 I introduced you to our long-standing unique simplified approach to implementing object and avatar movement.

This tutorial will introduce you to our new Advanced Mover System.aka Method #2.

This method uses what we call “markers” to create a “route” of movement. It is meant to add visual acuity to lengthier routines as well as routines that include more than 1 route for either extra objects/avatars or for just 1 avatar traversing more than one route via sit-2-sit (Palette transfer);

Controller – You rez a Controller. The Controller controls creating, adding, and inserting markers plus other features. Controllers now match the color or their ‘”markers”.

There are 8 colors of Controllers and their matching Markers that match the Palette names(A-H). It is intended that colors be used to distinguish between object or avatar routes. But nothing prevents you from using more than 1 color to represent more than 1 route for a given object or avatar Palette(mover).

There are 3 types of Markers. as opposed to the traditional 1 type. I chose to distingusish the first and last marker with a different textured-face for easy locating. The maximum markers you can have is 11. This allows for 10 move-turn pairs for a given Controller. That is one Palettes(movers) worth of moves.

So you could have 1 First Marker, 1 Last Marker(at a minimum) and from 0 to 9 Normal Markers. You don’t have to worry about determining them. Their creation and choice is automatic when you create or add or insert markers.

=========

The following illustration shows how we can get an additiona 10 move-pairs for a total of 20 move-pairs using the same color. After 20, we would need to use an additonal color. 20 requires 2 Palettes(movers). We would use Sit-2-SIt Palette Transfer during runtime to seemlessly transition between the 2 Palettes thus creating an illusion of 20-move-turn pairs. Lets hope this more than suffices most of your needs but know that the number of possible moves is technically infinite using Sit-2-Sit.

I think I will keep this post short. And let these key elements sink in. I hope the visuals give you some idea of what your experience would be like as well as a more informed basis for which to consider whether it suits your current or future needs.

Next tutorial I will talk about the Artiste Turn. A seemingly unique feature to the Artiste Mover.

======================

Below are highlighted features that I feel, at this writing, uniquely identify the Artiste Mover System.

======================

1 – One of the  most  differentiating features is that the Artiste treats a Palette move as a special type of action that includes an optional move-type, a smooth rotation called a TURN, as opposed to a succession of short moves. Turns can have their own animation, duration, and pause-after time.

2 – Each move can have its own unique animation.

3 – Each move can trigger an associated ‘action‘ (like fading another palette) and as such a move can identify as a mini-event.

4 – A move-set (10 move-turn pairs) can be extended to subsequent move-sets via Sit-2-Sit.

5 – There is virtually no limit to the number of moves an object or avatar can make, nor is there a limit on distance.

6 – You can execute multiple move-ranges and are not limited to just one range.

7 – Moves can be triggered from the HUD at the beginning or end of a given dance when the HUD is used to sequence dances.

8 – Movers can be used for couples dancing via paired-palette naming as well as unique-palette naming..

9 – Movers can have 2 types of labels. One for the BallSitter if used as an avatar mover, and another called a NickName that indicates the purpose of a particular move in a set of moves.

10 – Artiste Movers can function as multiple type sof devices. Example: A mover could ALSO be a fader or a light or a host of other types of devices all while functioning as a mover.

11 – Movers can be part of our rezzer as our rezzer has special intelligence built in to handle the peculiarity of our mover.

12 – The Artiste Mover system has intelligence to augment reorientation between various direction-facing venues. This also facilitates the ability to MIRROR movers by using either EAST and WEST or NORTH and SOUTH oriented movers.AS WELL AS normal X and Y mirroring centering on the Anchor.

13 – There is a shortcut way of creating movers that doesn’t require the use of ‘breadcrumbs’ (Controller and Markers). Just pressing menu buttons then a copy/paste in the end. This is referred to as theMenu Method

14 – It is possible to avoid copy/paste when using the Marker Method of creating moves. This facilitates quick testing of changes to the routes for a given Palette-Mover.

15 – You can easily scale the size of the marker up or down via an entry in a notecard inside the Marker-Controller

16 – There exists the ability to REPEAT all moves for either: 1) a given number repeats, 2) a given length of time, or 3) the total length of the HUD events, 4) or when you specificially tell it to stop repeating..

17 – You can now move the root/first Marker and the others will follow using the new GroupOffset feature in design.

18 – You can reassign (Regroup) a Marker-Set to a different ArtisteID (color A-H)  along with its corresponding Controller. This allows you to easily offset dancers on different movers and then easily dump the move/turn vectors with new identifiers).

19 – Individual Color Coding of HoverText for each marker to more easily identify matching marker-points for different ArtisteIDs (Avatar-Movers)

20 – Marker HoverText now contains total  move times (move-time, pause-after-move-time, turn-time, and pause-after-turn-time)  and accumulated marker times.

21 – MarkerTrails – see markers light up and glow in order of execution. You can specify how long they remain lit and if you want all markers or just a particular group to light up. Odds glow white. (ACEG) and Even glow yellow (BDFH).

22 – Pauses can have their own animation

23 – Nearly completed is our new auto-alignment for couples-animation. No manual-intervention required.

Tutorial #6: The Artiste Mover – Part 1

The main motivator for a person to try the Artiste has been “if they have a friend who uses it”. That has been the leading buying pattern; a personal testimonial.

Such was one case where a person was somewhat impressed with the long laudtry list of features, although they candidly admitted that they didnt know what half the features did. They were cajoled to consider trying it out aided by a strong unrelenting recommendation from a long-time user. But the new potential user made an eerie remark to me, something to the affect of: “If your system does not have a mover, I will never use it…but if it has a does have a mover, then I know I will never use anything else”. The Artiste had a mover system at the time, albeit, simplistic, so I was not sure if it would suffice. Turns out it did the trick.

The topic of ‘mover’ is a very weighty one. It is so deep that I won’t even entertain the thought of covering it all in one blogpost. If it wasnt for the keen interest and existing wide base of user-awareness, I probably would not consider it as a topic for non-Artiste owners.

==============
The Artiste offers 2 primary ways to create object/avatar movers. I call them Method #1 (Palette Menu) and Method #2 (Marker-Controller).

There is an illustrated manual on the topic…the longest manual at 122 pages…but…I did gave a mock one-on-one familiarity class to Aura and I was able to cover the whole book in one hour, albeit without any hands-on or Q&A.

I suspect in reality that it might be broken up into 2 or 3 classes to allow for hands-on, Q&A, homework, etc.

==============
Method #1 just uses a single Artiste Palette and Artiste  Anchor.

Method #2 uses an Artiste Controller and Artiste Anchor and the Controller generates 2 to 11 Artiste Markers that define the route.

Method #1 was born during the video entitled The Battle . The Battle (video). I got the idea that it would be cool to have chess pieces move as part of the routine while it was in development. I wasnt sure it would work as envisioned but it did.

It was even at that point that I decided that this thing, at the time called an Artiste Gadget and later renamed to Artiste Palette, would do more than just ‘move’.  I didnt want to create a new ‘thing’ everytime I got a new idea or need.

Three videos later the need arose to plan and see a route visually identified at key points along the way during a video called Sisters Sisters (video). This need came from Aura and so I whisked up something quick to faciliate the mapping out of 2 mirrored routes. Each avatar route consisted of 6 or 7 moves including a turn and descension down stairs. And thus theMethod #2 (Controller-Marker) system was born, albeit crude in its design, it was the 1st and last time I believe that it was used.

(A sidenote: I had developed a moving system about 3 years ago back in 2012 while at Orchids, abeit clunky in its design, it worked, going up and down stairs with animated walk and turn and I was excited but didnt garner the enthusiasm from peers enough for me to make it a paramount endeavor at the time and so the idea died. Little did I know it would garner such interest later on)

Meanwhile, the Controller-Marker system sat on the shelf until summer of this year when I decided to revamp it and combine it with a couple of other features. I was able to kill 3 birds with one stone in the redesign. It took the whole summer but I managed to trudge thru it.

And thus was born the new Advanced Mover System. I don’t claim it as advanced over other systems. The adavanced moniker applies to being advanced over what we already had.

Method #1 covers the 1st 25 pages in the manual. Method #2 covers the next 97 pages.

Sounds scary I bet?

But…I am able to create a working moving object-mover Palette in 8 seconds using Method #2, albeit using default values.

I just like to go slow and spell things out and try not to leave any gaps in the learing process when I create manuals and it is very feature-rich compared to its former incarnation.

And those who have been using Method #1 don’t seem interested in the new Method #2 because they say Method #1 is so easy. But they posit that people coming from other mover systems would find Method #2 an easier transition.

I agree that Method #1 is easy and the way to go and recommended by me if you have about 3 or less moves of which I think covers 95% of mover situations. A beginning move followed by a turn and an ending move usually suffices most needs, from what I have seen.

========================

Method #1: Creating a single object-move

1) Rez Palette and Anchor. Move Palette to its  first position relative to the Anchor…press the  DumpInitial button

2)  Press  StartMove button, move the palette,  then press EndMove button. Then press DumpMove.

3) Copy and Paste the owner-only chat output into the *moves nc, change NoOfMoves from 0 to  1. Change Moveable,off to Moveable,on in *palette nc. Save nc and Reset the Palette. Palette will move and rotate to its home position and rotation orientation.

Done!

To test, press TestAllMoves. Your Palette will move

=================================
Method #1: Creating a 2nd object-move

To add a 2nd move to the end of this 1st move

1) Press EditMove. Press the 2 button

2) Repeat steps 2 and 3 (change NoOfMoves to 2 and dont need to set Moveable because its already changed)

Done!

To test, press TestAllMoves. Your Palette will move 1st move then 2nd move.

Making it into an Avatar-Mover takes a few more steps.

======================
I kept this simple and short as I could. And yes it uses default values but it is easy to edit new values into the nc to change the duration or add a pause time at the end.

Adding a turn is as easy and will be covered  in another Tutorial. I just wanted to introduce you to how Artiste approaches moves and the level of effort involved.

Pressing buttons, moving the Palette, editing a nc, and copy/pasting are the 4 primary operations.

Lat “Yummy” Lovenkraft

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tutorial #5: Artiste Events

I hope those who’ve been following my tutorials have come away knowing more than they knew before about the Artiste.

In real  life one could think of an event as a meanrngful, memorable, milestone in a persons life.  When you got married, , birth of a child, high-school graduation, major surgery, entering the military, getting engaged, your wedding, your honeymoon, an illicit affair, separation, divorce,  auto-accident, death, funeral, an arrest,  drunk-and-passed out, a physical altercation, your first-love, close-calls, fired-from-job, awards, etc.

I think we remember events more than dates. we can sort of put these in some sort of meaningful order…as to how they relate to each other…easier than we can assign exact dates or even years to them.  Example: I had to have surgery after my accident which was a day before Thanksgiving day. They brought me turkey from home.

We often express events in terms of other events. I plan to start a family 2 years after I am married. I plan to enter the military upon high-school graduation. I lost my job during the recession. I plan to take college-prep courses prior to entering college.

This is the  approach taken to demark when things are to happen in a performance of scheduled events. Its a different mindset but one I find more meaningful than an “arbitrary timeline of things”.

=================================
Performance Events You Already Know

I first got the idea from Nottoo who blogged on usng song-structure changes to identify when dances should transition from one to another. Example: Song intro, chorus, verse, bridge, solo

For performing, those are good arbitrary event markers when nothing else comes to mind because we have already identified them as events, having  assigned names to them. We know when they happen relative to each other.

As you progress from song-changes, obvious other events come to mind…curtain open, curtain close, special lyrics or sound-fx embedded in a song. Song endings/beginnings from a medley of songs.

Artiste uses events at its core. Nothing that is sequenced can really happen without events. All the fun interesting stuff you do will be tied to events.

===============
The Artiste Event

Events are defined on a notecard. One event per line. Each HUD event has a number from 1 to 20 assigned to it.  You can use less than 20.

Each event has a name you give it.

And each event has a time value in seconds.

This can be duration or elapsed time.

The 2 examples below are identical but are 2 different ways to express the same sequence of events. If you can understand the difference then you know how to create events in the Artiste.  Event #1 happens 10 seconds after pressing PLAY. Event #2 happens 15 seconds after pressing play.  This about as technical as these Tutorials will get.

Example #1:

DURATION
1,”Event #1″,10.0
2,”Event #2″,5.0

Example #2:

ELAPSED
1,”Event #1″,10.0
2,”Event #2″,15.0

So now your HUD notecards (for emoting, adorning, stripping, auto-special-fx, audience-directed-camming, announcing, dance-sequencing, outfit-changes), that express when things are to happen, use the event number, (just 1 or 2) in this example, to tell when things will happen. The beauty is that by changing the event times (10 & 5  OR 10 & 15), all things attached to that event automatically move with it in time either forward or backward.

==============================
The AutoFX Function and Notecard

Most notecards limit what you can do to one thing per line on a notecard (i.e. dances, emotes).

But for the special-FX notecard (we call it AutoFX), you can specify multiple things to happen at nearly the same time for a given event. AutoFX controls things external to the HUD like movers, Palettes, etc. Your only limit is 255 characters for a given notecard line. And using the special WAIT command, when you specify multiple things to happen at the same event, you can create fine  adjustments and offsets BETWEEN the  multiple things that happen for a given event so they all don’t have to happen at the exact same time.

In fact, a special defining feature of the Artiste is built-in redudancy that helps you get out of tight spots. Did you know that using our powerful AutoFX, you can emulate all of the other functions as well?

Yep!  This list includes: Playing a dance sequence, emoting, adorning, outfit-changes, audience-directed-camming, stripping, as well as…!!!ALL of the 80 to 90 action-features of the Palette!!!.

There are also other subtle features assignable to AutoFX, like singalling a change in choreagraphy-grouping, dance-formation changing, curtain control, HUD chaining….and the list goes on.

======================
Palette-based Mini-Events

One last notable ADVANCED feature on the topic of telling performance-stuff when to happen is…the Palette “action” or mini-event.

You already know you can have up to 20 major events per HUD and each major event can trigger one (or more) Palettes to move as well as do a zillion other things.

Well you can define about 20 moves inside of one Palette (not to be confused with the 20 HUD events). Each of those moves can serve as a mini-event meaning you can attach what we call an “action” to the move. And also realize that a move can be a dummy move or place-holder for an action. Each dummy move would ahve a duration associated with it  but no distance to travel or rotation to turn.

So when, say, HUD event #1 tells a given Palette (or more) to perform all (or a range) of its moves, then that Palette can begin to perform mini-events in the form of actions attached to moves,  one-after-the other and do actions and not just moves, or actions in concert with moves.

What this offers is finer granularity as well as being economcial with your 20 major events by passing off extra event-work to a Palette.

This Action can be any of the 80-90 cool action-feature thingys that  Palette can do. So this means that within one HUD event, you can have several Palette-based-mini events that do things. And, a palette-action can and often does contol what other Palettes do.

20×20 = 400 major and minor events so this ability could address the needs of someone who wanted to put on an uninterrupted hour long presentation…theoretically. And by using HUD chaining, you can introduce manual intervention where you could have manual control over say a few different major acts within a given hour-long show.

Of course you probally wouldnt start ouit this advanced.

Keep it simple.

Grow slowly.

One event talks to one palette and tells it to perform just one move and then graduate and tell it to perforam all of its moves. Then graduate to telling it to do a ‘range of moves‘. And then graduate to Palette-actions.

——
I hope I didnt overwhelm you. There are a few more nice features that I didn’t cover.  What I covered here are the basics.

We have a manual on events that goes over what I just talked about here and classes will go over events as well. And you can ask for one-on-one help on top of the manual and classes.

Artiste events are powerful, flexible, precise, and are at the core of  how Artiste operates best.