barre

NOTE: This is a re-publication of an article I wrote for an in-world magazine.

Interested in performing in dance shows in Second Life? For those new to the performance dance scene in SL, figuring out where to get started can be confusing and frustrating. Or perhaps you have a dance HUD, but have wondered whether another HUD would be better?

Every dancer has his/her own personal favorite, and there are a variety of options available. After a quick search on Marketplace, I found over 1000 listings for dance HUDs. Some are specialized for certain uses, like cheerleading HUDs.

There are some dance HUDs that have become popular with performance dancers, including the HUDDLES EZ Animator Deluxe, the Barre, the SpotOn Performance Director, and the Artiste HUD. Each HUD has different capabilities, so find one that seems to be the best fit for you and what you want to do.

HUDDLES

The HUDDLES EZ Animator Deluxe has long been the most popular dance HUD in Second Life. In fact, it won an AviChoice award for Favorite Dance Choreography Tool in 2015. The HUDDLES has many attractive features, including dancing multiple dancers, chatting emotes and/or commands, a built-in AO, and the ability to do sequenced choreography.

There is no longer an in-world store for the HUDDLES, but you can still purchase it via the Marketplace for $1499L. The HUDDLES is fairly straightforward to use and there are still many dancers who use the HUDDLES, so finding someone familiar with it shouldn’t be difficult.

The Barre HUD was developed after the HUDDLES, using feedback from performance dancers. The Barre also has the ability to dance multiple dancers, chat emotes and commands, and the ability to do sequenced choreography. However, the Barre introduced the ability to do ‘group’ dancing – where different groups of dancers could do different choreography sequences. Though the ability to do group dancing was cutting-edge, the macros required were rather technical.

The Barre also no longer has an in-world store, but it is available via the Marketplace for $1200L. There is a support group in-world you can join for assistance. Racheal Young, the creator of the Barre, announced on her blog in February of this year that she was leaving Second Life and releasing the Barre to be open-source.

Since the HUDDLES and the Barre, there have been many advances and changes in the world of performance dancing. Instead of ‘stand-alone’ dance HUDs, what we are seeing now are ‘suites’ of products made to work together.

SpotOn

SpotOn released their Choreography Design System and gave performance dancers the ability to plan out routes to move their avatars around the stage. The system was immediately popular and is used by most dance performers. The Choreography Design system is not a dance HUD, but made to be used in conjunction with a dance HUD. Most any dance HUD can be used with the SpotOn mover system.

The SpotOn Choreography Designer is available via their in-world store (where you can demo all their products) as well as on Marketplace for $1999L. SpotOn has continued to release additional products, including the Group Formation System ($1999L), the Performance Director HUD ($999L), the Costume Assistant ($499L), the Smooth Dancer HUD ($999L), and the Stage Manager ($999L). It’s not necessary to buy every product, of course, but since the suite of products all work seamlessly together, it’s easy to buy the pieces that you need.

The Group Formation System is a product that lets you control the formations of your dancers, either using a pre-configured sequence or changing them ‘on the fly.’ SpotOn has two dance HUDs, the Smooth Dancer HUD and the Performance Director HUD. There is a comparison on their website of the two HUDs. The Costume Assistant, through the use of RLV, lets you add/remove costumes and/or attachments from yourself or other dancers (if they also own the Costume Assistant). The Stage Manager is their newest product and is a set rezzer that has the ability to remember multiple stage configurations.

The Artiste

The Artiste HUD is another suite of products that come bundled together. Included in the Artiste GOLD Performer Series are the following: the Artiste GOLD Dance HUD, the Palette, the Set Rezzer, the Director, the Stage Sight (a directed camera HUD), the Stage HUD, the Dance Diva (a group formation system), the Follower Relay (for use with the Dance Diva), and the Message Board. Everything is included in one package for $25000L and is available for purchase from the creator, Lat ‘Yummy’ Lovenkraft.

The Artiste suite of products includes a mover (the Palette), the dance HUD, the ability to do group dancing, a group formation system, and the ability (through the use of RLV) to add/remove costumes and/or attachments directly through the HUD. The Artiste Palette also has other abilities beyond its use as a mover, including the ability to shrink/grow, shatter, oscillate, flash, collide, and throw. The Artiste Rezzer has the ability to rez multiple sets at once and crossfade them, as well as using no copy/no mod items in a set.

Comparison

The big question, of course, is which system is best? The short answer is – it depends. All the HUDs have their pros and cons, and each dancer has his/her own preferences when it comes to HUDs and performing. Some prefer to feel ‘in control’ and have multiple HUDs for different pieces of their performances. Other dancers prefer to be able to have everything controlled by one HUD. Before purchasing a HUD, try out a demo if possible and/or ask others who have used the HUD.

The long answer would take up more space than I could cover in one article, unfortunately. There was an in-depth HUD comparison done by Nottoo Wise (founder of Dance Queens) and the information is still available on the DQ blog. The comparison, however, was done before the release of the SpotOn and Artiste products.

As stated previously, each dance HUD (mentioned here or not) has its own pros and cons. The best way to decide which one you like is to try them yourself. However, that isn’t always possible (or affordable). I have personally used each of the four HUDs in performances, so I do have experience with all of them. One of the biggest questions users have is how easy it is to learn to use the HUD.

For the HUDDLES and Barre, there are still a large number of users (or people like me who have previously used the HUD), so it may not be difficult to find help. However, neither HUDDLES nor Barre offer much customer support. There are support groups in-world, but generally consist of users helping each other. The Barre creator has ceased customer support, and I could not locate any customer support for the HUDDLES. (The person listed on the creator’s profile for support is apparently no longer in SL.)

Neither HUD is particularly difficult to use, though the macros needed for group dancing with the Barre can be confusing. But for ‘wear and go’ use, any of the dance HUDs covered here work well.

Ease of use applies when learning the more advanced features of the HUDs, particularly with the Artiste suite of products. It simply does so many different things that there is a fairly steep learning curve. However, both SpotOn and the Artiste offer ongoing customer support, including one-on-one help.

One other consideration is how the HUD performs under laggy conditions. Every creator has done their best to make sure that their HUDs are as low-lag as possible. However, given the multitude of variables during performances (including the many different computer/viewer configurations), it is sometimes hard to say which product performs better.

I have tried to come up with a short list to compare some of the major features of the HUDs mentioned here. This, of course, does not cover all the features of the different HUDs, but is offered solely as a means of comparing some of the more pertinent features.

HUD Table

*Price reflects the entire suite of products

+The ability to dance groups using different dance sequences

~The ability to ‘layer’ animations in order to use only parts of animations in a sequence

This has been a brief overview of some of the more popular dance HUDs in Second Life. There are so many features and capabilities that it isn’t possible to compare them all in depth here. Decide what features are ‘must-haves’ and find a HUD that works for you. Any of the HUDs discussed here work for performance dancing, so experiment and have fun!

EDIT 11/10/2015: Rachael Young, creator of the Barre, has announced recently that it will not be released open-source and is again under development.

Did you know you can record a dance sequence?

I’ve been doing this for years, and it can really save you time when you are working on choreography.

I first discovered recording sequences in 2012, when Nottoo Wise was doing a comparison of dance HUDs.

I was introduced to the Fleursoft HUD, which had a feature that let you record your sequence as you danced it manually (pushing the button to play each dance in the order you want).

I fell in love with the feature and would often pull out the Fleur HUD just to record sequences with it.

Later, when the Group version of the Barre was released, it too had a recording feature.

However, recording was kind of a pain for me.

With over 700 dances loaded into the HUD, I had to click through pages and pages of dances to get to the ones I wanted, and do it quickly enough that my sequence worked.

A short time later, an update was released that changed the recording feature.

I could now put the dances I wanted to use on a notecard, load that notecard, and then only the dances I needed would be available to click.

Yay!

For years, that was how I would do my rough choreography – I would pick out the dances I thought I might use, and then load them up on a notecard.

I would load that notecard, play my music, and figure out which dances I wanted to use, and where my transitions needed to be.

Then, I would record the sequence and voilá – the Barre spits out a link that gives you a sequence, complete with timings and dance names, that you can copy into a sequence notecard.

After I had that rough sequence, I could go back and make any adjustments as needed.

There is a Barre HUD video with information about how to use the record button:

If you can’t see the embedded video, click here for a link.

The information about the record button is in the first couple of minutes of the video.

When SpotOn came out with their Performance Director HUD, I stopped recording sequences as much, because I choreograph differently with it.

Given that many times I am including walks, poses, and sits, in addition to just dance animations, recording a sequence for use with the PD HUD just didn’t make much sense, as it would take more time than it saved.

When SpotOn released their club dance HUD, the Smooth Dancer, I saw that it too had a recording feature.

However, it was like the original Barre – you had to page through everything loaded in order to record.

So, I continued to use the Barre when I needed to record a sequence.

SpotOn has recently updated the Smooth Dancer, and you can now load your animations onto a notecard so you can easily record sequences just like you can with the Barre and Fleursoft.

If you want to use the recording feature and you already own the Barre, the Smooth Dancer, or the Fleursoft, you’re all set!!