Click on images in preview to expand.

NOTE: This new version will be in  7.5

SELECTIVE TARGETING

New for SmartDancer is ‘Selective Targeting’.

By default, all bots/palettes are targeted to receive commands based on which controller is sending commands.

Example: Controller RED defaults to sending commands to bots/palettes ending in A thru I. Controller BLUE defaults to sending commands to bots/palettes ending in J thru R.

Now you can choose which specific bots/palettes will receive commands from a given controller based upon the NAMING of the controller.  Controllers are named PE18??? where ??? now dictates which bots/palettes are to be targeted.  Example:  PE18a-i means this controller sends commands to bots/palettes ending in any letter between A and I.  You could name your controller PE18a-d or PE18c-h or PE18m-m as examples.

So even if your formations are set for, say, 9 bots/palettes, if your name only targets, say, 2 bots/palettes, i.e.  PE18a-b, then only those 2 bots/palettes will move in formation or turn or june or  change speed or change division, etc.

This is insanely off-the-charts powerful.

You can have 1 controller controlling 8) bots/palettes.
Another 2 controllers controlling 4 bots/palettes each.
And another 4 controllers controlling 2 bots/palettes each.
So with 7 controllers you can select how different groupings of bots/palettes will function.

HOVER TEXT

I have added hover-text that shows the name of the bots.  They will display when you press SHOW and go away when you press HIDE.

ACTIVATION IDs

By default, the Activation IDs are set to 1 for the RED controller and 2 for the BLUE controller.

If you want additional controllers, you can copy the  RED or BLUE controller.  You can change its color and assign it new activation IDs by changing the first entry in the *channels nc.

ActivationId,3

Now when sending commands from the Artiste Performance HUD, you set the controller that will receive subsequent commands by sending an ActivationId command.

SD=IDx (x = number matching ActivationId in *channels nc)

Of course you can give more than one controller the same ActivationId in the *channels nc.

And if you send an SD=ID0  command (zero), then ALL controllers will receive subsequent commands.

RESET_SMART_DANCER

SD=RESET_SMART_DANCER is a new command you can send from the Artiste Performance HUD to reset the SmartDancer script in the bot or Palette.

Resetting from the SmartDancer Controller or from AutoFX , automatically Registers you with the SmartDancer Controller and Bot-Positioners and sends the formation-vectors to them so they know how to move based on just a formation name.

REGISTER and UNREGISTER

Registering is automatic upon SmartDancer Controller reset.  Registering restricts control of the SmartDancer Controller to just ONE person at a time. It also sends the formation-vectors to bots/Palettes so they know how to move based on just a formation name.

If you have several controllers, you must Register each one, one at a time.

Also, SD=UNREGISTER has been fixed

There are many actions you can do in design mode using the SmartDancer Controller to preview how it might perform in a live production.  We make them happen by using commands.

The most powerful command is Formations. It causes the bots/palettes/avatars/pose-ball to change from the current position  to the new position stored in a *formations note-card prefixed by the same name as the clicked-on formation, taking into consideration any previous Divisioning,Send, and Speed commands.

FORMATION SELECTION

You click on the SmartDancer Controller and press the Formations button.  This will bring up a menu offering up to 11 named formations that you have created.

In this example we have selected STAIRSFRONT by clicking on it.

This will be part of a sequence of formations we plan to use in a routine.

FORMATION CREATION

We created this particular formation by pressing [Settings] from the

Main Menu and then pressing CapturePosJR.

This produces a chat-log of the positions of the  9 tall-bots.

Copy and Paste this line into the *formations notecard found in the SmartDancer Controller and pre-pend it with a NAME you want to refer to this position by followed by a comma [,].

In this case we chose StairsFront.  It will automatically be capitalized upon menu-display.

Reset the SmartDancer Controller in order to read in the newly added formation and have it sent to the bots/palettes/poseball so that they know how to move when they receive a formation-name at design or show-time.

The Reset is on a sub-menu command and accessed via the [Settings] button from the Main Menu.

ACTIVATION ID

Activation Id tells the indicates which SmartDancer Controller will be receiving subsequent commands from the Artiste Performance HUD. This is necessary when there are multiple SmartDancer Controllers.

It is also required at design time to match a particular SmartDancer Controller to the bots/palettes/poseballs.  Only design with either A thru I OR J thru R.  Attempting to design with both sets at the same time  will cause conflicts.

If you choose bots labelled J thru R then you will need to make sure that the Id To Activate selected on the controller matches the My Activation Id in the SmartDancer Controller or you may get an error.

The My Activation Id is found in the *channel notecard inside the SmartDancer Controller.   For the BLUE controller it defaults to 2.

ActivationId,2

Bots are Copy/Mod so you can copy them and make another set labeled A thru I

I chose J thru R as your default set so as not to conflict since most people have already assigned A,B,C etc for palettes for other things.
I don’t recommend using SmartDancer Palettes for anything other than SmartDancer Formation moves and dancing as there will be conflicts trying to make standard movers out of them as well, as an example.

i.e.

ArtistePalette_01_A
 ArtistePalette_01_B
ArtistePalette_01_C

etc.

The 19th position of the name must be a letter between A and R.

Since these will likely become Palettes used for dancing then it is suggested that you stick to standard palette naming.

StairsTop

StairsBack

Clicking on the SmartDancer Controller brings up this menu.

SendX, SendY, and SendZ tell subsequent commands which bots/avatars/palettes will receive their actions.

SendX and SendY ONLY have meaning if you have previously chosen a Division that is either HALF or ALTERNATE.

SendC is the default.

SendZ sends to ALL bots/avatars/palettes, etc.
SendZ sends to RED and BLUE headed bots.
SendZ sends to BLACK headed bots.

SendX sends subsequent commands only to bots with RED heads.

SendY sends subsequent commands only to bots with BLUE heads.

Lets assume you are in a Wing formation and have chosen HALF as your Division.

If you choose SendX, AND THEN press a LINE formation, then only the RED bots will transition into a LINE.

This flexibility increases the number of maximum formations from 11 to over 11,000 by just using variations of Divisions, Sends, and Commands, not to mention variations in Move-Times.

SmartDancer has 2 controllers.

CONTROLLERS

The main reason for SmartDancer controllers is to be able to control 2 halves of a set of bots (or dancing avatars) at the same time but in different ways.  You can send commands to 2 halves using just 1 controller but when sending to controller zero, it sends commands to ALL controllers so this way you can insure tighter timing by sending 1 command to control both halves in different ways at the same exact pinpoint time using multiple controllers.  We will explain that method in more detail later.

You can control up to 9 bots/avatars with one controller.

If you have 9 bots/avatars, you could control 5 with 1 controller and 4 with the other controller.  If you had 6 then you could control 3 with 1 controller and 3 with the other controller…etc, etc.

You need at least 1 controller rezzed at design and showtime.

The controller talks to the bots (or Palettes, or Special Poseball) and makes them move or turn or June or change speed, or flip, or combinations there of.

A major purpose for the controller is to SEND the formation positions to the  bots (or Palettes, or Special Poseball).  This is done by resetting the controller, a very important first step. Only needs to be done once.

If you have the Artiste HUD then it talks to the controller telling it what to tell the  bots (or Palettes, or Special Poseball) to do.

GROUPING

HALF vs ALTERNATE vs NO_GROUPING

You can tell the controller which group-ing methodology you will be using coming up.

Lets look at HALF vs ALTERNATE.  The bots kindly use RED and BLUE coloring of the bot-head to let you easily follow which bots are affected by which controller

Using just one controller you can quickly send commands to the RED bots AND a different  set (or same) commands to the BLUE bots.

You would use the SENDA button to tell the controller that subsequent commands would go to RED.

You would use the SENDB button to tell the controller that subsequent commands would go to RED.

You would use the SENDC button to tell the controller that subsequent commands would go to both RED and BLUE (or BLACK if NO_GROUPing).

OR

you could use 2 controllers with one sending to RED and the other sending to BLUE

HALF

Imagine a formation change applying to just the RED or BLUE bots instead of ALL the bots. That could make for some unusual and interesting bot/avatar movement.

ALTERNATE

Imagine a formation change applying to just the RED or BLUE bots instead of ALL the bots. That could make for some unusual and interesting bot/avatar movement.

This coloring choice of making the middle bot RED instead of blue makes more sense because the other 8 will be in sync since the middle bot is usually doing something different or differentiated from the rest WHEN here is an ODD number of bots/dancers.

So next you tell the controller WHICH half (red or blue) that the
subsequent commands will go to.

NO_DIVISION

ALL subsequent commands apply to ALL the bots.

This is the mode other formation tools use.

Not only do we have formation commands but we ALSO have turns and Junes, flips, and speed-assignment,  all of which can apply to divisions as well as ALL the bots.  We will talk about the commands in an upcoming post.

NOTE: Juneing  (a term i made up in respect to June Taylor of the June Taylor dancers) is rotating a formation around the center-point or center avatar of a formation.

I am back after over a year hiatus.

SmartDancer is a formation tool used to preview formation design  and formation transitions much like DanceDiva only in 3-Dimensions.  Also DanceDiva required you to wear an attachment.  SmartDancer requires you to sit on a palette during the live performance but also allows you to visually see how your formations will perform using “tall-bot-objects“.  They are simply tall avatar-height cylinders with balls for heads.

DanceDiva allows each dancer to break away and solo dance against the others and then easily auto-return in formation line.  SmartDancer does NOT have that ability but it does have its own special features.

Also note that SmartDancer DOES NOT replace DanceDiva and that DanceDiva is still operational as stand alone or via the Artiste Performance HUD.

Once you have designed your formations with SmartDancer, they can easily be implemented using the Artiste Performance HUD AutoFX and Artiste Palettes.

SmartDancer is meant to be fun to use and create with.

Technically, SmartDancer should be able to be used with other dance systems. (I could be wrong). If someone would like to try it, let me know and I will assist in the trial and transition.  If, uccessful, I will release SmartDancer as a stand-alone product for non-Artistas to own and use.

This is what comes in the SmartDancerBox

8 Tall Bots (a cluster named ArtistePalette_01_R Palette in the box)
a Red SmartDancer Controller
a Blue SmartDancer Controller
a ArtitsteSimplePoseBall w/SmartDancer script

a *smartdancer notecard
an Artiste SmartDancer script (place this in Palettes)
a SmartDancer Help notecard

I will be slowly going into depth with accommodating video on whats in the HELP and what it means and how to apply it and how to use SmartDancer standalone to design formations and transitions as well as during a live performance using Palettes in subsequent posts here.

If you are a seasoned user then you can likely get by just using the HELP and a short one-on-one introduction from me.