About a year ago I had a hair brained scheme that it might be possible to use Poser as an interface between the various forms of dance notation (choreographers write movement down!) and actual animation. Some of the guys with us over on Chris Derochie's Yahoo list came up with some suggestions for dance or movement 'phonemes' the idea sort of died a death when the list went phut. I wonder whether it's time to resurrect it now. Imagine the possibilites, using your keyboard to 'write' an animation. Come on someone's got to say it's impossible...

Come on it must get someone going....

'Come on it must get someone going.... ' Hehe Saxon :) I got going and bumped into a dead-end. ;) Trying to imagine what you mean ...'movement phonemes', sounds intriguing if mysterious. In classical ballet where you have set positions i can sort of see what you might mean, you have plies (sp) arabesques as well as the positions, but in modern dancing which is full of contortions...? Care to elaborate? :) I was one half of a balancing/adagio duo for some years and worked in LV style productions etc, but wasn't aware that choreographers write movement down (other than mapping out movements across the stage perhaps)but maybe you mean classical? Wouldn't even know where to start How far did that project go? Cheers, Masha

I'm trying to remember what the various, um, languages were. I did buy a book from the Royal Ballet so we're talking classical I suppose. I'll have to hunt that out from wherever it got tidy'd up to. I think the biggest thing was the realisation that it was a language, and, therefore must have grammatical rules, syntax and so on. Since if it's written it must also have an alphabet and that must equate to a keyboard (albeit with a unique font) and if it can be written through a keyboard it can enter a computer. The interface problem would be the link between the font and the positions the dancer assumes - the equivalent of phonemes and an alphabet of dance. Picking and plonking various sections of a dance sentence onto a poser figure might need python's help. If I remember rightly, that's were we came unstuck none of us were bright enough to work the bloody thing out! Presumably it doesn't have to be purely classical doesn't modern ballet have some extreme moves too? Since then I've come to the conclusion the ballet's relatively simple to animate but only because of the way it's portrayed by the media. Whenever I see ballet, the movements are followed with care by the cameraman anything more upbeat and there's closeups of nostrils and inventive use of transparency to contend with. Imagine tring to rotoscope tapdancing or Riverdance when all you get is someone grinning to camera! Umm, forgive an innocent Brit but does LV stand for Las Vegas? Didn't think it could be luncheon vouchers! I've got this idea in my head that you ran away to join a circus, all sequinned costumes and ... or am I completely off target?