Playing Several Back-2-Back Animations That All Start After the Beginning

Wow thank you for your persoanl IMs and inquiries into this topic that I hinted at in my recent blog.


My how time has passed since I first introduced the 1st device to start an animation in the middle.
I had predicted I would create a product that allows you to start "successive animations" in the middle.

Boy my mouth almost wrote a check my *** couldn't cash. My *** said to me, "Next time consult with me before you go off half-cocked promising the near impossible. I'm gonna bail you out this time but let your shattered nerves be a lesson for next time you go shooting your mouth off promising the moon"


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Well as I read thru the interview from June 16, 2012, nearly 2 years ago, I find things
worth commenting on.

Here is a link: http://sldancequeens.blogspot.com/2012/06/piecemaker-starting-dance-in-middle.html


The PieceMaker is a product that I gave away promotionally as a way to introduce myself and meet
members face-2-face from the DQ community. It helps you to automate the stitching
of 2 dances together as in matching animations. It gave you the choice of matching a point
BEYOND the beginning.


The current system does let you choose animations from the menu as I had predicted I would.


This was never truer: "09:39:11] Yummy (lat.lovenkraft): it involves very very complex algorithm based on song lengths and delay times and playtimes"


Since unlike today, then I didnt have a dance sequencer so there was speculation about
how dance HUDS would work with it. Today I do have a dance sequencer built-in and I use it
to play the MasterPiece. The challenge of course was not in starting a single animation in the middle
but it stitching together multiple segments together that started in the middle. The MasterPiece does the starting and stopping of the proper dances at the proper times after precalculating based on input from a nc.


"09:41:31] Yummy (lat.lovenkraft): now the next HUD I call the MasterPiece will stitch the output from this HUD together "


This (MasterPiece) ended up being a submenu in the Artiste Performance HUD, ALONG with the PieceMaker


"yes this hud can now be called from Huddles. it has a channel so you can experiment"


My HUD CAN except commands externally but many people have reported to me, sluggish behavior when mixing products from multiple vendors so I suggest staying homogenous with one-tool-maker,if possible, whoever you end up choosing.


" if dance 1 is 30 seconds and dance 2 is 25 seconds, the difference is 5 seconds. so the 2nd dance can not have its piece start any sooner than 5 seconds in to it. so what I will do have the hud tell you how soon you can choose " "so the closer dances are in length then the more dance-segment there is to choose from
"
These restrictions are no longer applicable in the MasterPiece version because it uses an advanced algorithm.

"[09:52:54] Nottoo Wise: but not for a club dance when u dont know the music that is coming
[09:53:20] Yummy (lat.lovenkraft): yes not good for clubs or adhoc dancing....as in freestyling"
Yes this still holds true. My solution is definitely not meant for club dancing.


"[09:57:55] Yummy (lat.lovenkraft): this hud have sequencing built into it"
Well I predicted correctly again here with the sequencing as a part of the HUD that orchestrates the MasterPiece.


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The PieceMaker algorithm was complicated enough. The MasterPiece algorithm was 10 times as hard.  But it now will do the heavy lifting for you and will play the stitched dance segments, up to 29 (but i think i will limit it to 20 for the initial release so people dont get carried away.), one after the other thru my sequencer.

There are a few issues worth bringing to bear based on what I have learned since then.


1 - There will be more opportunities to match dances which brings with it more decisions to make that require more time.


2 - I found that a critical part that I took for granted, is that my algorithm relies heavily on the
accuracy of the dance-length. When it is off, the results will be off and my require some detailed massaging


3 - I am convinced that it should be used sparingly as increasing the number of dance segments increases the initial pre-roll time, not unlike the time you spend now to cache-dances


4 - There are ways to choose dance segments that reduce this 'lead-time'. My algorithm will calculate it for you and you can decide ahead of time how to proceed based upon whether the lead-time is acceptable or not.




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Here are some predictions I made 2 years ago.

8-12-12


"BIGGER.
Ok so bigger is implying, more performers/dancers/actors possibly over a larger timespan. At least an hour...maybe longer... and most definitely playing several/mulitple runs over time.
Expect to see larger and more lavish sets."
"
THEME & STORY

The biggest and most noticeable difference will be an overall "theme" that ties the acts together.
The other will be the concept of "story" which means one or more performers will be seen as characters with a will to be motivated to do or try to do something. There is a direction or purpose to this 'production' within a theme that is supplanted by music, costume, sets, text, dance, all working in concert.