Classification of Dances
and Animations 111020
Dance Details contains a basic set of information on the thousands of dances and animations in SL (Second lIfe).
If you have ever looked for just the right dance or animation for a sequence or a show, you know this can take a while. Additional classification of the dances and anims would increase the usefulness in finding dances and animations in the database. This post describes where I am going on classifying dances and animations. I welcome your comments.
A review of the classification of dances in SL shows that there is not consistency in how different makers and dancers choose to classify dances. Standards of classification are needed so we can enter the data and retrieve it effectively.
To get us started on this I am proposing a classification system for dances and animations in SL (at least the dancing not the sex part of it, hahaha). It consists of four levels of information:
====================
ANIMATION TYPES
There are four types of animations of interest to dancing: individual dances, couples dances, animated poses and static poses. These I call animation TYPES. I have made the names of these four short, because as you will see, space will be needed for all the information. So the abbreviated versions of TYPES are:
Although I know about some types of dances, I know nothing about others. I think most if not all DANCE QUEENS members are the same. So, to subdivide the dances further I found a very helpful dance classification Wiki article with references. This article provides a basis for defining the next level of dance classification into CATEGORIES, such as hiphop, latin, performance, etc. Each of these CATEGORIES is further divided into what I am calling a STYLE, for example in the House CATEGORY there are STYLES: Footwork, Hustle, Jacking, etc. The really helpful part of the Wiki classification is there are references which describe the dances and may limit the disagreements we are sure to have when we classify dances.
I modified the list from the Wiki for several reasons. First, I wanted to simplify it a bit. Second, as thorough as it is, there are missing dances, for example, pole dances, the Twist, chair dances and more. I did find a list of dances on another Wiki and expanded the list based on this list. Third, the list has duplicate STYLE entries and I put a dance STYLE in only one CATEGORY. Finally, SL is not RL. We have some unique dances here such as mermaid and air dances.So, here is my first proposal for classifying SL dances into CATEGORIES and STYLES:
CHARACTERISTICS is a term I want to use to describe the most prominent unusual feature of a dance, if there are any. For example, a dance may be one that is on the floor. This "on the floor" CHARACTERISTIC is useful to know if that is what you are looking for. I am not sure what these CHARACTERISTICS will be until we make progress on classifying dances, but I expect 10 to 20 different CHARACTERISTICS that we will find.
====================
COUPLES CATEGORIES, STYLES, CHARACTERISTICS
The couples dances can be classified by the same CATEGORIES, STYLES and CHARACTERISTICS defined for Dances. I expect fewer STYLES. For example, I don't imagine a limbo couples dance or a Geisha couples dance.
====================
ANIM CATEGORIES, STYLES, CHARACTERISTICS
In classifying anims the CATEGORIES I chose are based on the position of an avatar while doing something:
Some anims move the avatar from one position to another, for example, an anim for going from standing to lying. I placed these in the CATEGORY in which the anim starts, Standing in this example.
One problem with this classification scheme is that obvious anims such as those made for mermaids or for ballet are not easily found. In the anim TYPE, I propose using the CHARACTERISTICS to identify these uses of the anims. Although it seems contradictory to put Mermaid as a STYLE in the Dance TYPE and as a CHARACTERISTIC in the Anim TYPE, the alternative does not work. Having a STYLE of Mermaid in Anims would miss what the anim is doing, for example, spin-turn.
====================
POSE CATEGORIES, STYLES, CHARACTERISTICS
We do not use static poses often in dancing. Occasionally, a POSE may be used as a starting position or as a finish dance, if the ease-in time is reasonable. At this point I am not offering any classification of POSES. This will be done later.
====================
REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelty_dance
====================
xxx
Nottoo
Dance Details contains a basic set of information on the thousands of dances and animations in SL (Second lIfe).
- Name - Spelled correctly with the loop time added using the "|" symbol
- Type - Dance or Animation
- Speed - An arbitrary judgment of the dance's speed as Slow, Medium or Fast
- Time - The loop time of the dance or animation
- Rating - The rating of the dance by DANCE QUEENS members on a scale of 1 to 10 (best)
- Source - The creator of the dance or anim
If you have ever looked for just the right dance or animation for a sequence or a show, you know this can take a while. Additional classification of the dances and anims would increase the usefulness in finding dances and animations in the database. This post describes where I am going on classifying dances and animations. I welcome your comments.
A review of the classification of dances in SL shows that there is not consistency in how different makers and dancers choose to classify dances. Standards of classification are needed so we can enter the data and retrieve it effectively.
To get us started on this I am proposing a classification system for dances and animations in SL (at least the dancing not the sex part of it, hahaha). It consists of four levels of information:
- TYPE
- CATEGORY
- STYLE
- CHARACTERISTIC
====================
ANIMATION TYPES
There are four types of animations of interest to dancing: individual dances, couples dances, animated poses and static poses. These I call animation TYPES. I have made the names of these four short, because as you will see, space will be needed for all the information. So the abbreviated versions of TYPES are:
- Dance
- Couples
- Anim
- Pose
====================
DANCE CATEGORIES, STYLES, CHARACTERISTICS
DANCE CATEGORIES, STYLES, CHARACTERISTICS
Although I know about some types of dances, I know nothing about others. I think most if not all DANCE QUEENS members are the same. So, to subdivide the dances further I found a very helpful dance classification Wiki article with references. This article provides a basis for defining the next level of dance classification into CATEGORIES, such as hiphop, latin, performance, etc. Each of these CATEGORIES is further divided into what I am calling a STYLE, for example in the House CATEGORY there are STYLES: Footwork, Hustle, Jacking, etc. The really helpful part of the Wiki classification is there are references which describe the dances and may limit the disagreements we are sure to have when we classify dances.
I modified the list from the Wiki for several reasons. First, I wanted to simplify it a bit. Second, as thorough as it is, there are missing dances, for example, pole dances, the Twist, chair dances and more. I did find a list of dances on another Wiki and expanded the list based on this list. Third, the list has duplicate STYLE entries and I put a dance STYLE in only one CATEGORY. Finally, SL is not RL. We have some unique dances here such as mermaid and air dances.So, here is my first proposal for classifying SL dances into CATEGORIES and STYLES:
Included are links
to the description of most of the Dance STYLES with a YouTube video reference if
I could find one.
I know that
this list is both incomplete and wrong and I welcome your input on improving
this first attempt to classify dances.
CHARACTERISTICS is a term I want to use to describe the most prominent unusual feature of a dance, if there are any. For example, a dance may be one that is on the floor. This "on the floor" CHARACTERISTIC is useful to know if that is what you are looking for. I am not sure what these CHARACTERISTICS will be until we make progress on classifying dances, but I expect 10 to 20 different CHARACTERISTICS that we will find.
====================
COUPLES CATEGORIES, STYLES, CHARACTERISTICS
The couples dances can be classified by the same CATEGORIES, STYLES and CHARACTERISTICS defined for Dances. I expect fewer STYLES. For example, I don't imagine a limbo couples dance or a Geisha couples dance.
====================
ANIM CATEGORIES, STYLES, CHARACTERISTICS
In classifying anims the CATEGORIES I chose are based on the position of an avatar while doing something:
- Standing
- Sitting
- Ground Sitting
- Lying
- Jumping
- Flying
- Hovering
- Swimming
- Stand
- Sit
- GSit
- Lie
- Jump
- Fly
- Hover
- Swim
| TYPE | CATEGORY | STYLE |
| Anim | Stand | *Air |
| *Anger | ||
| *Anxious | ||
| *Applaud | ||
| *Arm Swing | ||
| *Arms Crossed | ||
| *Arms Folded | ||
| *Batting | ||
| *Beg | ||
| *Bored | ||
| *Bow | ||
| *Box | ||
| *Call | ||
| *Cheerleader | ||
| *Cheesecake | ||
| *Clean | ||
| *Cleavage | ||
| *Conductor | ||
| *Cough | ||
| *Crawl | ||
| *Crazy | ||
| *Crouch | ||
| *DJ | ||
| *Drunk | ||
| *Exercise | ||
| *Exhausted | ||
| *Express Love | ||
| *Fight | ||
| *Finish | ||
| *Flip-Cartwheel | ||
| *Flirt | ||
| *Greet | ||
| *Guitar | ||
| *Hail Cab | ||
| *Hand at Side | ||
| *Hand on Breast | ||
| *Hand on Elbow | ||
| *Hand on Groin | ||
| *Hand on Hair | ||
| *Hand on Hip | ||
| *Hands Behind | ||
| *Hands Folded | ||
| *Hands Over Head | ||
| *Hang | ||
| *Head Movement | ||
| *Hide | ||
| *Hold Something | ||
| *Jump Rope | ||
| *Kill Bug | ||
| *Knee Wiggle | ||
| *Laugh | ||
| *Lean Forward | ||
| *Listen | ||
| *Look at Nails | ||
| *Macho | ||
| *Meditate | ||
| *Military | ||
| *Model | ||
| *Moon | ||
| *Pace | ||
| *Palms Facing Out | ||
| *Palms Together | ||
| *Peace | ||
| *Point | ||
| *Read | ||
| *Religious | ||
| *Robot | ||
| *Sad-Cry | ||
| *Scratch | ||
| *Search | ||
| *Shake Fist | ||
| *Shot | ||
| *Shout | ||
| *Shy | ||
| *Sing | ||
| *Sleepy | ||
| *Smoke | ||
| *Snap Fingers | ||
| *Sneeze | ||
| *Snow Angel | ||
| *Spin-Turn | ||
| *Step Aside | ||
| *Stop | ||
| *Sway | ||
| *Talk | ||
| *Think | ||
| *Throw Up | ||
| *Throw Up | ||
| *Tie Up-Bind | ||
| *To Ground Sitting | ||
| *To Lying | ||
| *To Sitting | ||
| *Toilet | ||
| *Touch Foot | ||
| *Wait | ||
| *Wash | ||
| *Wave-Bye | ||
| *Wiggle Hips | ||
| *Win | ||
| *Zombie | ||
| Sit | * | |
| Ground Sit | * | |
| Lie | * | |
| Fly | * | |
| Swim | * | |
| Fly | * | |
| Jump | * | |
| Hover | * |
Some anims move the avatar from one position to another, for example, an anim for going from standing to lying. I placed these in the CATEGORY in which the anim starts, Standing in this example.
One problem with this classification scheme is that obvious anims such as those made for mermaids or for ballet are not easily found. In the anim TYPE, I propose using the CHARACTERISTICS to identify these uses of the anims. Although it seems contradictory to put Mermaid as a STYLE in the Dance TYPE and as a CHARACTERISTIC in the Anim TYPE, the alternative does not work. Having a STYLE of Mermaid in Anims would miss what the anim is doing, for example, spin-turn.
====================
POSE CATEGORIES, STYLES, CHARACTERISTICS
We do not use static poses often in dancing. Occasionally, a POSE may be used as a starting position or as a finish dance, if the ease-in time is reasonable. At this point I am not offering any classification of POSES. This will be done later.
====================
REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelty_dance
====================
xxx
Nottoo