Thinking about the attraction, to me, of the SmartDancer.
Categories of influence:
Order and Chaos
I think that the satisfaction of SD (SmartDancer) creation is going from Order to Chaos to Order. Sort of emulating the universe cycle. Creation, Randomness, Destruction. Or in human life-cycle, Birth, Life, Death where Birth and Death have the fewest choices so they have the most order.
SD allows for order and symmetry and then by using Grouping and Divisioning, with different lengths of animations, you get ever-changing chaos sometimes interwoven but it automatically returns to order once a specific time has expired.
Space
There are 3 ways to think about use of space.
Global
Local
Static
Global is how dancers (animesh and/or avatars) appear in relation to one another. This is accomplished using Formations. But then it is taken to another level with the addition of Junes (form rotation) and Canons (staggered turns and animation starts). Then it can be taken to another level yet by using targets that vary who in the global formation will act upon turns and animation. Compound that with Grouping and you get an infinite offering of possibilities not to mention dynamic run-time options.
Local is how dancers change in place without relationship to others. This has to do with Turns and variations in turn speed. And also the animations (dances, poses, AOs, etc) that they choose to do as well as WHEN they choose to use them.
Static relates to the appearance of a dancer without regard to any motion. Paramount is if they are there are not. SD allows you to Vanish or Appear or FadeIn or FadeOut an Animesh dancer. Since animesh do not have mandatory name tags this effect is more dramatic and convincing. You can also change color, transparency, and glow of not only animesh but of clothing and other links.
Sectioning
If you asked me what makes SD unique, I would have to say that:
#1 is that it syncs ANIMESH. This means that you would be more inclined to do group dancing because you are not relying on others being present.
#2 Sectioning (see below)
#3 is you can try different functions in various ways as it sections off dancers moves and animations DYNAMICALLY at run-time. There are 3 key ways.
Grouping – there are 2 groups we call X and Y. There are 2 ways to assign dancers to X and Y. By HALFing and by ALTERNATing. You can also FLIP those with one button or command. This assignment can be done dynamically at design time and run time. Grouping is how we assign formation moves. So we can assign a formation to all the dancers or to just half of the dancers
Divisioning – While Grouping is a way we assign formation moves to dancers, Divisioning is how we assign animations to dancers. This allows for many more permutations of formations moves and animations. You can choose up to 9 predefined divisions by you at design-time..or…an infinite amount at run-time. There are 4 divisions (A,B,C, and D). An example of a Division might be #AAAABBBBC
Targeting – This sectioning offer allows you to specify any combination of the up to 9 dancers by letter to receive special effects like transparency, coloring of animesh body or coloring of animesh clothing, or adding differing amounts of glow. BUT..the most amazing feature of targeting is the ability to determine which dancers will take part in a Canon (break-out soloing). Examples might be:
j-r
n-q
jklm
alta is shorthand for: aceg
altb is shorthand for: bdfh
Independence
This newly revised edition of SD now runs autonomously without the need for the Artiste Performance HUD. SD’s heartbeat is the SmartDancer Controller. So using SD only requires a newer version of the Artiste Anchor and of course scripts and ncs that go inside the animesh, or avatar-palette, if using avatars.
Modes
There are 2 modes. Design-Time and Run-Time.
For Design-Time, you can press buttons and experiment, making things happen instantly by using the SmartDancer Controller and its integrated menu system.
Diagnostics
Then you can use SD’s 2 diagnostic tools, DumpSettings for snapshots of settings in time as well as DumpLog that sends you a list, in order, of the last so-many commands in sequence that you pressed.
Then for Run-Time, we have the new Embedded Sequencer. You create a nc of commands, parameters, and durations much like the typical dance ncs used only you have more options than just dance names and times. So SD can run independently and alone on its own or it can be triggered by the Artiste Performance HUD or triggered by chat commands send by other choreography systems.
Uniqueness
I think what sets SD apart from other systems is that you can experiment and try things on the fly without the necessity for using ncs. You can choose, formations, dances, groupings, divisions, turns, junes, canons, targets, target specific dancers, change times on the fly, make dancers appear or vanish, change animesh colors and clothing colors. You can also use multiple SD controllers to perform complex advanced tasks like overlapping Junes.
After some reflection, probably the most immediately noticeable unique feature of the SmartDancer is the ability to do formations with Animesh.
Times
There are 3 types of times that you can specify on ncs OR dynamically change and assign at design-time.
MoveSpeed – this is how long it takes for a formation to transition form an existing formation to a new formation. This ALSO dictates how long a June lasts.
TurnSpeed – this is how long it takes for an individual animesh/avatar turn to complete. (Max. of 5 seconds).
CanonInterval – the interval of time between staggered turns and/or canon animations between multiple animesh/avatars. It is very important to distinguish between normal animations and canon-animations. This allows for contrast as well as order-chaos-order because each dancer returns to the normal animation once they complete their CanonAnimation. ALSO, know that each animesh/avatar can be assigned their own unique animation using their embedded nc. ALSO, know that you can change an overriding CanonAnimation on the fly so you can conveniently test out different animations for the CanonAnimation cycle. And it bears repeating that you can TARGET which dancers will participate in the Canon other than the default of ALL. This can be changed on the fly.
Filtered Dance Selection
Though you are limited to 8 dances per page, we have 5 dance groups so you can filter the dances to choose from by: ALL, Dances,, Poses, AOs, Favorites, Other. And currently you can have up to 64 dances (8 pages of 8); You tag the dances to the group you want at same time as you specify duration.
Dance Selection is another factor when using SD. The more space the dance consumes, the more interactive the dance groups can become. Experiment.
CanonAnimationOverride
This lets you change the animation done when doing canons dynamically at design-time or run-time. Canon animations are a way for dancers to solo a new dance in turn while the other dances to a different same dance in the background.
Double-Coupling
This late subtle feature provides the ability to send 2 simultaneous actions at the same time.
For Animations we can send 2 different animations sent to 2 different divisions at the same time. This greatly aids in the ability to sync couples-dancing when used in conjunction with the ALTERNATE grouping and aligned using the left/right alignment features of the special SmartDancer Poseball. This new command is Dance2
For Formations, we can send 2 different formations at the same time. One applies to dancers from A to I, the other formation applies to dancers J-R. And these can be limited by Grouping and the June Targeting
For Juning, we can effect 2 different June rotations by using the new JuneAI offset command. This creates a 2nd ghost controller for dancers AI to rotate around at the same time as J-R