Choreography

Resources

My general thoughts…

It’s a good idea to create a build platform in the sky.

Make sure that it is aligned the same as our home theater’s stage. This way, objects will rotate the same in your build platform, rehearsal, and the home theatre.

Ask Laura and Sev for the coordinates of both the rehearsal and home theatre stage. You will need rez rights for the rehearsal and home theatre.

Also, get the stage template from them.

It is a good idea to test the routine in the rehearsal and the home theatre to make sure that it fits, that it runs properly, and that any items you plan to go out into the audience or come in from the audience will rez properly. The parcel boundaries are limited to the building, so anything coming into the building such as a plane or ghost might end up returned when it rezzes.

When you put down the Stage Manager, set it to the side with Laura and Sev’s Stage Managers.

TIP: If you’re nervous, you haven’t tested and practiced enough. Keep testing and practicing until you’re sick and bored of it. Then you know you’re ready.

Caching

Hide the textures of particles within the set (but behind a set piece) so they render and don’t appear as squares when they’re triggered for real.

You can do that with animated objects and textures, too.

Any slideshows? Have the slideshow render the next texture in the series on the back side of the slideshow. It will cache in viewers and render quickly when it’s on the front of the slideshow.

Do costume changes offstage when possible, or cover them with particle poofs.

Building an Act

This is the outline I made from a year of classes by Elayn, Eva Harley, KLARK, Delaney, Spot On, and others.

I tend to learn through a combination of watching, doing, and reading.
Then I synthesize it all into a procedure.
As I get comfortable with the procedure, I don’t think as much in terms of cookbook, but the tools become extensions of the creative process.
This procedure assumes that I’m using a dedicated Smooth Dancer, Stage Manager, and Performance Director for a single performance named Performance without backstage movers.

The Tools

SMOOTH DANCER
Smooth Dancer HUD for putting the dances together.
Do your dance first, then move on to the rest.
Not needed, but helpful for beginners.

CHOREOGRAPHY DESIGNER HUD – RINGS
Set the times, routes, and waypoints.
Then put these into a mover.

STAGE MANAGER – TEARDROP
Rezzes the set
Center marker finds rotation and position of stage.

PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR HUD
Brings all the other tools together.
Sets the times and such, groups them as appropriate.
Builds the dance and routine.

FORMATION DANCER
Preset formations
You can extract info and put it in the other components.
Not needed

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

MUSIC

Buy music.
Edit music in Audacity to add count-in sequence.
Time out music in spreadsheet.

THINK

Plot out dance moves.
Sketch out stage and moves on paper. Use playing pieces if necessary.

PREP SMOOTH DANCER

(This thing controls the animations each dancer performs.)
Copy Smooth Dancer.
Rename copy of Smooth Dancer something meaningful.
Rez Smooth Dancer.
Open Smooth Dancer.
Drop in animations (poses, walks, dances)
Take Smooth Dancer.
Wear Smooth Dancer.
Open Smooth Dancer.
Open !!Sequences notecard
Add @button1=RS:CHANNEL:COMMAND TO SHOUT as necessary

RECORD SEQUENCE

?? I’ll add something here about sequence recording.
(Or make it manually)
(Round out the decimal places in recordings to reasonable numbers)

SAVE SEQUENCE

Open !!Sequences notecard.
Add LABEL= with meaningful label.
Paste sequence results and adjust as needed:

LABEL= 00|Dance1 00|Dance2 00|Dance3

At least .2 seconds between moves or changes!
Save and play to test with music.
Adjust as needed.
Generate additional sequences for each group.

OUTFITS

Consider something that fits well.
Flexi can be a nightmare.
Cheaper the better for dancers.
Full copy and then hand out works too.
Can you add scripts for hide and reveal?

COSTUME ASSISTANT

Costume assistant is best for taking off, not putting on.
Instead use a pair of hide and show scripts, usually on same channel.
Same goes with moddable hair instead of take off and add.
When changing, hide from audience with particle poof, barrier, bait and switch with others coming on while you walk off, etc.
Cover with an animesh figure or outline prim, too.
There will be lag. Embrace it.

CUSTOMIZE STAGE MANAGER

( This thing contains and rezzes stuff.)
Rez Stage Manager at platform.
Drop texture into Stage Manager to set image.
Open Stage Manager.
Change name to something meaningful.
Click Stage Manager, click reset.

GET BUILD PLATFORM LOCATION

( This thing finds the centerpoint of a stage.)
Rez stage template on build platform.
Rez position tool.
Arrange position tool to cover stage template dimensions.
Click position tool.
Copy info from chat.
Delete position tool.
Open Stage Manager.
Open !!Stage Locations notecard.
Add info from location.
Set label to Platform.
Save notecard.
Click Stage Manager, click reset.

GET STAGE LOCATION(S)

Go to location of performance
Rez position tool.
Arrange position tool to cover stage template dimensions.
Click position tool.
Copy info from chat.
Delete position tool.
Return to build platform
Open Stage Manager.
Open !!Stage Locations notecard.
Add info from location.
Set label to Stage.
Save notecard.
Click Stage Manager, click reset.
(REPEAT FOR EACH LOCATION)

BUILD SET

Build set.
Link as much of it together as possible.
Make it phantom.
Make everything visible so textures will cache.
– Add fader script to things that need fade control.
– Customize channels for fader script in each object.
Add Object Script to each object in set.

SET CHOREOGRAPHY DESIGNERS (aka rings)

(This thing controls the movement path of a dancer and creates waypoints for their path.)
Drop rings on to set.
Allow permissions.
Aim line towards front.
Click ring, Rez Mover.
Change name of mover to something unique (1,2,3,4,5)
Open mover.
(This thing is what a dancer sits on and gets moved.)
Rename notecard to Performance.
Add to top of notecard:

@spot_dancer 1 <- the unique name of the mover, increment number for each successive mover. @text <- the hovertext label of the mover @height_offset @silent_mode

Click ring, Click Advanced, Click Get Stats.
- Click ring, Rez waypoint.
- Edit linked object, Edit triangle.
- Drag into position.
- Set rotation.
-- If you do a full circle, you need to use at least 3 waypoints with smooth turns.

- Set sleep and travel time.
- Set turn time (default .5s)
- Repeat for each waypoint.
- Repeat for each ring.
-- To make a mirrored path: Copy ring, move into position, click ring, Advanced, Mirror, Get Notecard, Rez Mover, Paste into mover notecard, Give mover unique identity, put in notecard.
-- To make an object move
--- Link the object to the mover. Mover must be root prim.
--- Add fader script to things that need fade control.
--- Add @invisible to mover notecard.

-- Smooth out paths between groups movers with Normalize time. START:END:TIME

Click ring, Get Notecard
Copy text from chat
Open mover.
Paste text from chat to mover notecard.
Drag object script into mover.
To test path, put on HUD and hit Play.

After you make the movers, you can delete the rings. And you can rebuild the rings easily by pulling the notecard, putting it into a new ring, and then using read notecard option from menu.

When setting up backstage movers, put a prim under the movers to let the dancers know where the stage level is. Easier for judging hoverheight.

LOAD PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR

(This thing contains the sequences, the groups of movers, and controls the timing of the performance.)

Copy Performance Director.
Rename Performance Director something meaningful.
Copy animations into Performance Director.(You can also zdrop)
Wear Performance Director.
Create Performance notecard.
Open Performance Director.
Drop Performance notecard into Performance Director.
Add @anklelock to lock ankles.
Add @precache to automatically cache animations when the notecard loads.
Add @button1=RS:CHANNEL:COMMAND TO SHOUT as necessary
Set @groups with

@group GROUPLABEL|Mover,Mover,Mover,Mover @group GROUPLABEL2|Mover,Mover,Mover,Mover @group EMOTES/


   - Yes, a mover can be in more than one group.
Then set sequences with:
GROUPLABEL=

   0|ANIMATION

   1|ANIMATION

   GROUPLABEL2=

   0|ANIMATION

   1|ANIMATION
Create sequence dedicated to effects:
EMOTES=

   0|RS:CHANNEL:COMMAND

   1|RS:CHANNEL:COMMAND
Save notecard

Wear Performance Director HUD

Stand on movers.

To test dances and paths, hit Play.
LOAD SET INTO STAGE MANAGER
Click Stage Manager, Get Notecard.

Copy info from chat.

Create notecard called Performance.

Add info from chat into notecard.

Open Stage Manager.

Drop notecard into stage manager.

Take copy of each object from set.

Remove position and rotation offsets from movers.

Take copy of each mover.

Drop copy of each object from set into stage manager.

Drop copy of each mover into stage manager.

Click Stage Manager, Reset.

Click Stage Manager, Clear set.

Click Stage Manager, Rez set, select Performance.
As you make changes to your performance director and stage manager, make progressive saves. Tack on YYYYMMDDa to version them. Then if you fuck up, you can quickly see what the last backup was.

Great for avoiding an "old" version during a show.
PERFORMANCE:
Rez Stage Manager.

Click Stage Manager, Rez Set.

Cache particles

Wear Performance Director.

Everyone get on movers.

Cache animation

Test any outfit changes.

Wait for music cue.

Hit Play.
(RETURN TO MAIN PAGE)