Giving new (hawt!) meaning to virtual dancing

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

When fine jeweler Random Calliope wrote to say that he was onto something really novel that would transform the way couples dance in Second Life®, I hardly knew what to expect. Standard procedure has required that each partner hop on a set of pose balls (traditionally pink for her and blue for him). More often than not, each set has enabled them to dance one kind of dance, such as salsa, tango, or the waltz. Some time ago, people began packing several dance animations into one gizmo that when touched, offered a HUD from which couples could choose between salsa, tango or the waltz, for example. Typically, the avatars begin to dance while their typists become engrossed in conversation, with an occasional glance at the whirling dancers.

Random was right. Through avid collection and study, his friend Ashen Coalcliff has organized the best couples dances in Second Life in a new way that enables us to communicate with our partner through dance, while we are dancing. I'd call it "active" virtual dancing. The gist of it is in the naming of the dances, or rather the mood and tempo of the dances.



In the accompanying notecard, Ashen explains it this way:

The first part of the name refers to the tempo (speed of the rhythm) which is expressed as:

S - Slow
MS - Medium Slow
M - Medium
MF - Medium Fast
F - Fast

In order to discover the tempo of the song you are listening to, just start tapping your toe. Most songs are Medium tempo. Once you have a feel for what "medium" means all the other tempo speeds reveal themselves. Simple enough.

The second part is choosing the mood of the song, or what you want to communicate to your partner. Is it a sexy song or a fun, fun song? Or is it a fun song and you just want to be sexy? You can choose that, too. As long as you choose your tempo correctly you will choose right.



Dance is interpretation. There is no wrong way. But finally you have control of the dances and you will never again have to remember the name of a dance or accidentally grind up against that new dance partner you want to impress.

Most of the best ideas are the simplest ones, aren't they? I shared Ashen's SyncDancer with machinimator and Second Life veteran Osprey Therian and wondered out loud if others would find it as innovative as I did and if there was a way to demonstrate it via machinima. To my delight, Osprey's reply was "yes," and "yes." Then Straylight/Botanical creator of the wonderful trees Kriss Lehmann agreed to be my dance partner, we donned outfits by his Real and Second Life partner Shai Delacroix (Casa del Shai) and this is what happened...


Many, many thanks to Elizabeth Tinsley who represented Ashen and the SyncDancer during the production, helping out in numerous ways

I think that's some of Osprey's best work, don't you?

I've never met Ashen but we exchanged emails.

To what do you attribute your fascination with virtual dancing and how many animations do you have?!

Ashen: My friend Random Calliope is the first dance collector I ever knew. He had all the couples dances dating back to when Second Life started. They were not good at all by today's standards but at that time they were fascinating. Singles dances actually moved my avatar so I became hooked on them, but I didn't know back then what quality was. When Sine Wave brought motion capture (mocap) dances to SL, I was giddy just like everybody else. I already had hundreds of the "other" dances and had become frustrated at some vendors' dishonest duplication of them.

I have 987 singles mocap dances, and another 300 or so that aren't, and they are often duplicates from various vendors that they sell by other names. They are mostly free uploads that someone has turned into a business and the quality is nowhere near motion capture. There has been a kind of renaissance in motion capture dance this last year. When Henmations came along, they set the bar higher than Sine Wave had. Then Studio 4D came behind them and pushed it even higher.

I don't know how many couple's dances I have. I have all the motion capture and Bits & Bobs ones. I include Bits & Bobs in there because they are of similar quality to motion capture, although Craig Altman masterfully puts them together frame by frame in Poser.

Who made most of the dance animations now available in your SyncDancer?

Ashen: It is a toss-up between 3FX and Henmations. They are different styles, but together they have set the standard to beat in motion capture couples dances.

Empowering a couple with the ability to communicate their moods with each other through dance is certainly an innovation in SL.

Ashen: I think this is what everyone wants to do on the dance floor anyway. Dance is communication like any other art.

Will it be available in a chimera or something that one of the dancers might wear?

Ashen: That has been a dream of mine for a long time. There just is no dance HUD in SL that can handle what I have all the information for. I am told that it would be a significant challenge even for the best known scripters, and I am not even a novice scripter. All I've done with the SyncDancer Couple's Dance configuration is apply what I know about SL dance to the popular Intan Eksotics product.

What's next for Ashen Coalcliff and the SyncDancer?

Ashen: I really want to see the day when everything I know about singles dancing will be at everybody's fingertips. I want people to experience that next level that dancing gives us and feel the music with SL.

~*~

The SyncDancer is pricey, to say the least, but if you like to dance with a partner in Second Life, I can't imagine being without it. There are four versions: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and the Light Fantastic.

Ashen: I couldn't bring myself to put dances in these dance balls that did not meet the highest of standards. There are only 58 dances in all of SL that meet the high standards I demand. The Platinum SyncDancer Ball contains all 58 of those.

The average couple's dance in SL costs L$500, and with 58 dances, plus the dance ball, plus the singles dances that play when you're waiting for your partner to join you, just one of these Platinum balls is a commitment in Linden Dollars (L$39,900). That said, it was important to create something that anyone can own, not just the biggest clubs. So the Bronze version (L$9,900) with 15 dances was created, giving the owners something that will match any song, but without the intensity of the more expensive and expansive collections.

You can try out the SyncDancer and order your own copy by teleporting directly from here. Each SyncDancer is handmade as the dances need to be purchased on your behalf or, alternatively, your own dances can be loaded and customized.

Virtual friendships are jewels in the hands of Random Calliope

Ever wonder how your relationships in Second Life stack up against your Real Life ones? How meaningful are they, really? It seems you are in good shape if you are friends with virtual jeweler extraordinaire, Random Calliope.

I attended the gala unveiling of Pretty in Prims - a retrospective of his work - at Tayzia Abattoir's Crescent Moon Museum last Sunday. A master of micro-prim manipulation, Random's jewelry is the most coveted and prized in virtual worlds; his limited edition sets often selling at auction for $50,000L or more. Every piece of jewelry is 100% prim work. No textures, no scripts... just hundreds of beautiful prims placed with precision and an artful eye.

While Random's jewelry is, more often than not, Possible in Real Life (PIRL), it's how he goes about releasing it into the world that makes it Not Possible in Real Life (NPIRL). Consider how his fan-base obsessively attends Random's butterfly hunts, where hundreds of the butterflies - not all! - contain pieces of jewelry from the Ode Collection. And there was his Winter Solstice release of the Amandote! collection, costing exactly one hug, a price everyone can afford.

For the retrospective at the Crescent Moon, and as a memento, Random gave each attendee a set of his newest collection, The Pearl. I eagerly unpacked my set and then stopped in my tracks when I read the accompanying notecard. I invite you to share this with every friend on that list of yours whom you value. It's a gem.



===The Pearl===
by Random Calliope

Sometimes I'm a idiot.

One of my best friends, whose time I can't seem to get enough of, is Italia Villota. Tali is an energetic DJ seeking opportunities to do what she loves. She and I have grown closer as friends over the months, and I thank Jacks, her boyfriend, for being both understanding and trusting about that.

In early December 2007 Tali came to me excited with some news. She said she was SL pregnant! She said it in such a way that I knew she was very excited, but also tentative. Her friends began giving her a hard time about it. Tali has never been a mother in RL, although she has dedicated her profession to children.

Just like everyone else in SL, I have been in groups where SL fetuses announce to the world that they are pressing on their mommy's bladder, or want apple juice, and I found it as annoying as the next guy or gal.

My reaction to Italia's news was exactly what she didn't need. It was not the reaction of a friend who understands her excitement, rather one who prepared to be annoyed by chat messages from her belly.

Tali was understandably upset with me. She had already become very sensitive as one after another she received the same reaction from her "friends". She stopped communicating with me. I mean she stopped really communicating, although she would speak with me she stopped sharing her thoughts like we had come to do.

I knew I had some growing up to do.

Why, I asked myself, would a young lady want to be SL pregnant? What is it about the experience that is so important to them that they'd risk snide comments from friends and strangers? The moment I asked myself the question the answer was obvious.

A woman's entire body is dedicated to the creation and nurturing of children, of course their mind and instincts would be also. SL is a place to try what you haven't ever experienced in RL.

I immediately made my apologies to Tali and let her know that I not only understood, but also deeply respect her decision. Of course she accepted my apology, but it didn't go far in helping me make amends to myself for my immaturity that caused a friend discomfort.

Although I realize that as a man I can never quite fully comprehend the pregnancy experience (nor would I want the reality of it wreaking havoc on my body), I began talking with my friends who have young RL children about what it's like to make a life.

Harper Beresford gave me an outstanding explanation I listened to intently and thought about for hours.

Alanna Vantelli created an experience on the posing stand as we talked about the instincts and feelings she has for her son, and what it was like for her to be pregnant with him. How the work connected to itself took shape.

My main goal was to try to capture the glow that women have when they are building a life. As Alanna stood there she mentioned that her mother knew she was pregnant before she did by the glow in her eyes.

To me, the glow is pearlesque, which shines from within and only appears through the surface. As I built the piece, I tried to describe both men and women, the emergence of matriarchy from novice motherhood as love matures into pride, the constant evolution of generations, the glow of the woman whose entire being is made to create what she is creating.

The necklace was modeled to exactly match the dip of the collar in front of the neck where the heat from the body lights up the face as if it were an uplight. Over the shoulders where in the piece individuals become anticipating couples, I draped the necklace to highlight the shoulders there.

In the back the necklace ends with two more glorious pregnant bodies laying down across the back of the shoulders at such an angle as to bring attention to the curves of the back. In this way hoping to explain that a woman's entire body - front, back, top, bottom, mind and soul, are dedicated to the task of creating life for us all.

And they glow naturally, even when there's a tiny elbow pressing on their bladder. There is no ring or bracelet. She would only have to take them off because of the swelling.

Tali, I understand and not only respect your decision and your new experience, but I also hope your SL pregnancy has given you the experience you are looking for.

Thank you for clearing my mind up on the topic of SL pregnancy. I think now I understand better.

You can see The Pearl, as well as Random Calliope's entire collection - every single prim beautifully displayed - at the Crescent Moon Museum now through Sunday, January 20, by teleporting directly from here.

Random Calliope's Worthwhile Gallery can be visited by teleporting from here.

Not Possible IRL has a logo - and the winner is Seifert Surface

Seifert Surface, a postdoctoral mathematician and a member of NPIRL, created the winning logo for our competition in just a couple of hours the day after the competition was announced. Thank you and congratulations, Seifert!

A thousand thanks to our patient and accomplished Judges who were tasked with selecting the five finalists: Sugar Seville, Random Calliope, Douglas Story and Gary Hazlitt, and thanks, too, to Jopsy Pendragon for creating the fab polling system needed for the final phase of the competition where all NPIRLers voted for the winner. We appreciate and thank every one of the participants in our competition for their time and creativity!

I'm going to fiddle a bit with the background color and the blog layout before I put the logo on our masthead, but wanted to show it to you right away... the Impossible Triangle, and now the symbol of our group, which today is four months old.

Second Life's art M.O.M gets new digs; parties on...

It's not M.O.M.A.... it's M.O.M. Yep, the Crescent Moon Museum, the longest-continously running art house in Second Life (ne February 2005), is the true mommy of art in the metaverse. In fact, many Not Possible in Real Life members' works had their first showing at this venue.

And this weekend's festivities are all about giving the Crescent Moon a house warming worthy of this beloved art institution, which has moved to its new, much larger location at the Fairchang Village Island.

So pay your respects to M.O.M. - and Tayzia Abattoir who founded her - and get your handsome tushies over to the Crescent Moon today at 5pm SLT, when saxophone player Anakin Gallacher will perform, followed by a 6pm SLT performance by pianist Enniv Zarf (yesh, he's that art champion from Krystal Epic y'all know and love). And... Random Calliope will make available and free to all his "Dedicatory Gatsby" pearls!

Then tomorrow, Sunday at 10am and again at 5pm SLT, Random's gonna release hundreds of those butterflies that often contain pieces from his stunning Ode Collection.

But partying aside, come and see the new and one-of-a-kind pieces that Tayzia's rezzed, including the El Catrin, a bass-relief painting located just behind the grand piano by Red Randt, the Multiple Bag of Secrets by Elros Tuominen, the amazingly built/textured Marat by AM Radio, as well as the Tree by Kalt.

Me? I'll be the one shamelessly waving her butterfly net up and down the sim. Advance apologies for the all the bumping that is sure to take place.
Slurl: Crescent Moon Museum - that's M.O.M. to you!

A butterfly hunt that results in fabulous jewelry = charming NPIRL, the Random Calliope way

A few days ago Tayzia Abattoir - NPIRL'er and the gentle lady general of SL's first museum (etabli August, 2004), the Crescent Moon, as well as curator of the Aho Museum on the NMC campus - introduced us to a delightful gentleman, Random Calliope . He is the artist and creator behind the most exquisite 100% prim based, untextured jewelry, all of it originally designed. Calliope also reigns supreme over what is undoubtedly Second Life's highest fashion house of jewelry, the Worthwhile Gallery. Slurl: Worthwhile Gallery.

Naturally, we hastened to join him to our group on the spot. Welcome, Random!

Soon after, Random kindly extended an invitation to the NPIRL'ers to participate in the Ode to Caledon Butterfly Hunt on the estate of the Duchess of Loch Avie, Her Grace, Eva Bellambi. This lovely, very Victorian, yet NPIRL thing to do which took place Wednesday last, was an homage to the once very popular community butterfly hunts of days gone by, but the virtual twist was that hundreds of the butterflies - not all! - contained pieces of jewelry from Random's Ode Collection. Oh oh oh!

Unfortunately, yours truly was too caught up with the excitement and completely forgot to photograph the event, but here is a pic of another butterfly hunt, to give you some idea.

While there, we spotted several of our members, including longtime Caledonian and adventurer Hotspur O'toole.

If you are short on funds but still appreciate beautiful things, Random offers a collection of over 190 pieces, all of the best quality, free of charge, to visitors of his fine establishment.