Greetings to you all. I am a dance artist in theuk working in the dance and technology field. I write in reply to theSoftware For Dancersproject and particular the rehearsal notebook as proposed by AshleyPage and Christian Ziegler and detailed by SanjoyRoy. (my apologies for thelength of this posting but i am rebuilding my web page and have noplace to post this on the web) Does software alreadyexist that could be used or adapted? PROPOSAL I believe that existingsoftware can be utilized to achieve many of the concepts embodied inthe rehearsal notebook / C.A.T.Tool (Choreograph/ Annotation/ Transformation) prototype. The software i amproposing is Macromedia Flash, specifically the latest incarnationFlash MX,although earlier versions of flash could also be utilized withadditional software. Those those of you who donot know the program, Flash is a time line based animation /multimedia tool. It has it's own file format .swf that has become andindustry standard and can also export to self playing .exe files.Flash can handle, sound, video, and image files, html, xml and actionscript it's own programing language. using flash as a rehearsaltool would give you the advantages of the story board engine with theability to annotate onto any imported video files as with the imovieannotation plugin. it would even be possible to create animatedannotations, then move the whole video file across the stagefollowing a motion path whilst it was playing. text and image filecan also be animated in similar fashion, or created 'on the fly'. Action scripts could bedeveloped and distributed freely to automate processes such asexecuting 'transformational' algorithms on the source files. Actionscript also can fulfill the possibilities suggested in the'artificial creativity (quirky) layer' as flash is able to simulate3d images with vector graphics, and use source files and algorithmsto generate new output (visuals or text). as flash is and industrystandard collaborating with other artists becomes a simple task. atthe simplest level not additional software is needed to view thestory board, however, if the other artist also have flash the storyboard can be manipulated by each member of an artistic team andredistributed to the other members for evaluation. LEARNING I believe that the basicsof flash that would be needed to use it as a rehearsal tool could betaught in a two week course. This could consist of one week workingon the program and the second week based on practical experience andproblem solving. There are many self help books available on flashand many adult learning centers run night courses. This said howeverflash can be quite complex, especially action scripting. However itwould be possible to provide a data base (on line or cd rom /dvd rom)of various action scripts that would allow differing forms ofcreativity. CONSTRAINTS Flash can only replaysound files, to manipulate them requires the use of other software. Limited 3d ability, nooption to import 3d files in a fully 3d environment. Action script can becomplex to learn and design Only Flash MX nativelyimports avi files, additional software is needed for earlierversions. ADVANTAGES Time line based animationpackage User can define work spaceand tools User can define structureof file database and files are quickly recallable and reusable Ability to import video,sound, text and image files. Video files can bemanipulated (rotated, reversed, repeated, edited, and annotated upon) Basic drawing and texttool native to program OTHER OPTIONS For those of you who wouldwant to use 3d files and work with a real 3d environment the Director8.5 could be used (also from Macromedia and no, i do not work forthem!) Director is however move expensive, and more complex to learnthan Flash and has it's on programming language called Lingo.Director can only use 3d files that have been exported from 3dcreation packages so you would need to have access to and knowledgeof such a package to do this kind of work. It is possible to developa swf creation tool with the functionality that it would need to be asimple rehearsal tool, to hard program action scripts to be used withsliders and check boxes to simplify operation. The ability to writeaction script should be retained as raw coding allows more scope forcreativity. The ability to manipulate sound files, and to capturevideo could be build into this application to allow a smooth workflow. THOUGHTS the ability to work in 3dis useful but requires learning. time can be time consuming but isworth while. All software take some time to learn, but if we want touse technology to aid our process we should put in the time to learnthe techniques and discover possibilities it presents. Simplifyingthe use of a program often restricts the creative possibilities itallows. A rehearsal tool with 3d functionality will be of most usewhen we have real time motion capture available in the rehearsalstudio. MORE? i hope that this will openup some discussion here on not only this issue but the creation /application and use of software for dancers. If any one wishes todiscuss further with me the issues of using the software i haveoutlined you can find my contact details at the end of this mail. finally, a request, cananyone suggest a university at which i might study for a phd that hasdance / performance technology experience and ik / fk animation programing skills or can source them. I have a concept and designfor an advanced animation engine but lack the programming skills torealize its creation. many thanks for you time Matthew Gough email: b_mjumbe@yahoo.com Tel: +44 (0)781 4794 188 --- Scott deLahunta wrote:> Hello,> > For your interest, the two Software for Dancers> articles are now available > On Line at: http://huizen.dds.nl/~sdela/sfd> > best> > Scott deLahunta> --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Greetings - send greetings for Easter, Passover
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