Wow..an absolute plethora of shows this weekend – and I’m leading dances in four of them! (Yes, four – told ya my insanity has reached epic levels…) Four different dances – costumes flying this way and that! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
Actually, there will be a sacrifice but not in my dance…ha! ~counts on fingers~ 1. Elysium matinee, 2. Phoenix guest, 3. Paramount Night Players show, 4. Milky Way Cabaret on Sunday. Fun dances, great venues with their own uniqueness, wonderful people – great weekend to be had! I couldn’t ask for better people to dance with – they deserve a medal, or a holiday or at least a cuddle from somebody!
That’s TWO movie quotes so far if you happened to notice..because..YES! It’s movie night! It’s my turn to pick a movie, grab movie snacks, and have fun. https://www.rottentomatoes.com is my go to place when it’s my turn to pick – and they have the tomatometer! How cool is that…and it’s fun to say too! If you asked, I’d have to say my favorite movie changes over time. Right now, I’m totally stuck on Crimson Peak. Dark, Victorian, ghosts, amazing costuming and sets…delicious! I am a Scorpio – I do love the dark mysterious stuff. Ghosts, old houses and buildings, cemeteries, secret passageways…skeletons in the closet. Bring ’em on! The Woman in Black is a favored movie too…yet to see the sequels.
Needed some play time, so still in this train of thought, I skipped on down to the Victorian LEA 10 sim to take another wander and absorb some inspiration. I’m honored to have been asked to create an act for this sim – in it all the things I love! When I’m inspired, the dancers appear in my head – I can envision the sets, the movements, costumes. Sometimes they even become quite demanding.. just dancing around when I’m trying to do other things! Still a bit foggy up there with this one but I slowly see it forming. Doesn’t hurt I have an entire closet full of Victorian clothing from my role playing days on a now closed dark Victorian sim. Sometimes if I close my eyes, it seems as if the whole village is still there, the characters, the stories. Alas, the sim is nothing but dust now and the people scattered to the winds. A few videos were made by a most wonderful woman and good friend, freezing those moments in time. It’s nice to visit the past once in while, to see it for what it was, then return to the present moment and what exists now – in THIS moment. I will never recapture the past, never recapture the feelings or what had been as nothing is ever the same again, but will always feel the echoes of memory and smile.
I loved role playing, especially here in SL, where we can not only write a story through role play but actually live in it. Different threads woven together as we write with others through role play, they adding their own actions and reactions. The best role play was when it began to take on a life of its own ~ without thought the story would begin to develop and take turns I didn’t intentionally plan. Pure imagination.
I don’t role play anymore because of the time demands, though I will always appreciate knowing how to treat flayed skin, remove an arrow, and serve a tavern of customers ~ keeping an eye on the vampires in the corner!
If you think about it, to me the best dances tell a story or express an emotion. You can feel it, nearly see the dancers breathing. Those 4 minutes just slide by so quickly as you’re caught up in the movement, the music, the experience. That is the ultimate in creativity – whether it’s dance, or art, or music, or role play, or a good book. Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cry, or think, or feel…but you feel…something. Do I have dances that do this? I think so. Do I have dances that don’t? Yep. I’m not afraid to try. I’m not afraid to fail when I create. If I was afraid, it would hold me back from delving into new things, new ideas, new methods.
It is our experiences, our willingness to try that help shape our creations – no matter what our instrument of creation is. Welcome to my thoughts, and the meandering path they can take. If I let them flow freely, they often arrive at where they were meant to go. The Victorian act I’m creating is a very new concept for me, a blend of dance and role play. I realize I should trust in the act of creation and enjoy the expression, it will form and I will finesse it. In conversing with someone long ago, I said that the best dances are like a love affair between the creation and the creator. Energy shared, neither one being quite the same after. When a creator creates something they are passionate about, they pour a piece of themselves into it…and the creation changes them. A touch, the finessing, the trust, feeling, light, fulfillment. This is art, to me.
We made it cap’n – through the eye of the storm! I can see the light and am coming up for a few quick breaths before plunging back into the deep. Makes me think I should be wearing a scuba suit and oxygen tank for these long dives into creating! I’ve passed the stressful bend with my current project. Scientific diagrams demonstrating my creative process have been painstakingly prepared and appended below…
and don’t forget this one…
Yep, I’ve made it to bullet point #5! Oh yeah, if you haven’t figured it out I’m talking about a dance I’m creating – Echoes in Rain by Enya. Well, that’s the one receiving my focus at the moment! Please do NOT look on my building platforms and judge me!
~ waggles brows, daring ya~
If you show me yours THEN I may show you my…unfinished projects. A little wine and dining first at least if you were looking for more. If you can make socks, that’s a bonus
OK, you may have seen those images before, retrieved from the almighty google. Should it scare me or be a relief that I’m not the only one who gets in this boat?! I have a plan…yes, a plan! for streamlining my calendar. No…it does not include a trip to the Bahamas unless one of you very generous, wonderful people want to spring for an all-inclusive trip? No? Actually I’ve begun starting to question WHY I’m creating a dance. Is it because I can see it, feel it, NEED to do it? Is it because I feel challenged to try something new or to create something better than I have before? Or is it because I found a song that fits a dance slot I need to fill? Know what I realized? The dances I made just to fill a slot usually end up on my “re-work” pile never to be seen again…and often I rushed one of the first two to start on the one that’s now hidden in the back of the closet. It’s the first two that feed my creative drive and encourage me to try new things in Photoshop, Blender, spend my family’s inheritance on marketplace. That’s where I’m refocusing my efforts.
In creating my current dance I also started thinking about inspiration. Not just for dance, but anything worth doing. What inspires someone? How to re-charge when we just don’t really feel the spark to get started or keep going, especially through the “this is crap” moments? Being the impulsive creature I can be, I packed my bags, hopped a train, and set up a little choreo corner on a beautiful sim. Just me, a stay pad, huds on my screen, and nothing else in a beautiful naturist sim. You know what? It worked! I pulled out my dusty titler, put “Lost in Dance ~ feel free to watch” over my head and just let ‘er rip. Well, golly be! I DID draw a small and very quiet audience as I worked, I DID enjoy and finished roughing out my choreography, and when I came up for breaks I answered questions from non-dancers about the world of dance in SL. Bonus! ~channel Wayne’s guitar riff here~
I did mention I was working at a very beautiful naturist sim didn’t I? Grins.
Allows you to save your camera positions so you can easily change views to different areas on a sim. I keep multiple copies in named folders – one for each venue/sim where it’s helpful. Bottom row – click and save current camera position to up to 8 view slots. Top row – change current view to the saved view for whichever view slot you select. Click again to release your camera view. If you used your arrows to cam around, use escape to return to the selected camera view.
Misc stray thoughts before I slap my flippers back on and play with fades and movers…
On-a-Roll is a super addicting game
Spot On came out with a super cool update to Choreo Designer! I’m having withdrawal symptoms already, leaving my waypoint calculation spreadsheets behind… Seriously though, who gets attached to spreadsheets??
Duck races seem like eons ago! Time for a new adventure!
Blender class on Udemy is waiting for me to start it…what wicked things will I be able to create? Woot!
Commune, movie, kidnapping besties, and dance coming soon. Only mint ice cream could make it better!
ORANGE – Color of the day, and something to contemplate
Will be a great week! Ride the wave and avoid the sharks! ~ Eva
Motorcycle burnouts…GOOD…Dance burnouts…BAD! In the SL dance world, burnout is an extreme possibility. For me, it can sometimes be like a kid in a candy store – there’s so much I want to create, and so many opportunities to share my creations. I love the dancers I dance with – the enthusiasm, the camaraderie. I love the venues I dance at – each with their own vibe and style, other choreographers, management. It feels great to share with people who just “get it”…that passion, drive, and imagination.
Where is that limit? Where are you starting to hit the edge when it starts to become a race from deadline to deadline…when you no longer have time to create great stuff that truly brings you satisfaction? That doesn’t immediately get tossed on the re-work pile for “later”. When do you no longer have time to help or talk to others? Or even do something NOT [gasp] DANCE RELATED! This leads to that other “B” word…balance.
I’m still finding my balance – sometimes my calendar runs away from me and I have to pull things back in. Sometimes several rare opportunities pile on at the same time. This is when I start to juggle, re-evaluate, scale back. I’m especially notorious for tossing a lot into my dances – movers, scripts, spending an hour looking for a certain pose… ^^ So what do I remind myself of? Simplify, streamline, focus on the important things – like choreo. You can have a dance with good choreo and no effects…but you don’t have a dance with good effects and no choreo!
My motto – if it’s not fun anymore, why do it? Learn your limits, try to work ahead…maybe even keep a “spare” dance or two finished and in the hopper “just in case”. I do repeat dances – too much work and investment not to, but I’m trying to let them “rest” longer (i.e. – put them in the closet between performances) to keep my acts fresh. If you haven’t figured it out…I’m giving myself a pep talk here! Yep, my March calendar is INSANE – in part because of a RL emergency…but that’s life. Sooo…if I don’t come up for air in the next few days, I’ll be hiding in my secret cave – dancing my heart out and reminding myself to have fun while I do it! Dancing should be fun, something you look forward to doing. If it’s become stress…time to take a pause and re-think.
Thank you all for the comments! I really do appreciate them, and I hope that maybe people can get as much out of reading and commenting as I do writing this.
Whew…I feel better now! Don’t you? Of course, I have a dance I need to work on – an incredible one that I hope to bring to life like I feel it. But first….
Stores I personally use are listed below. Except for the rare couples dance animation, I only buy copy versions. Unless a store sells copy animations, I won’t use them or recommend them. Feel free to suggest others in comments!
4/13/2022 – Animation Store List Update in Progress!
Dance Animations (* = favorites):
Watch your movement – should be smooth, watch your joints – that they don’t look “cut”, unnatural, or overextended.
O’Licia – still debating, some of these animations seem too familiar (copybotted versions?), some are old MoM/old Sinewave/misc. Iffy.
any store from which I wouldn’t personally use their dance animations – too clubby, choppy, etc.
store sells copybotted animations, stealing from the original creator PLUS SL may inactivate copybotted animations at any time
store sells old Ministry of Motion animations. MoM sold their animations full perm before they went out of business, but animations are very old and most not very good.
Dance creators pay for motion capture – equipment, editors, dancers, etc. If the price seems too good, there’s probably a catch. Most animations from legitimate creators cost 249L – 349L each for single animations unless they’re having a sale.
First stores I recommend for new choreographers:
Dances – Abranimations https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Animations/141/138/26
Smooth transitions into and out of, can be used to link animations, low cost compared to other dance animation stores, most packs include mirror dance animations, expressive, great variety and overall quality, all animations are copy.
Animations – Kuso https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuso/226/214/227 Excellent variety of animations from standard to unique, make sure to check out all 4 animations rooms – especially the RP room. Low cost – 10L for non-bento, 20L for bento. All animations are copy. Watch buying packs – they may include some duplicates to others, such as the swim animation.
Poses – Nantra https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pouncival/61/164/2509
Excellent variety, frequent sales, store credit is given for each purchase, mirror animations available for almost every single animation – purchased separately or included in the animation pack
Don’t forget! You can easily copy animations from furniture and other objects if you have copy rights! Cars, couches, props, ballet barres, etc – copy the animations to your inventory and use them in your dances.
I’m a huge fan of meditating…can feel when I haven’t. My favorite is the Android app One Mind. It’s a 30 day challenge, and can be silent or play soothing meditative music. The focus on clearing your mind, letting thoughts drift. Amazing sometimes what comes to you when you let the world slow down for a while. My daily meditation habit has slipped, so I’m starting at day one. Best thing to do is brush off and get right back on the train again!
I visited a new sim to meditate this morning. During the gentle meditation, the dancer in my head began moving to the gentle rhythm. That’s a first – what does that mean I wonder? LOL
At first I wasn’t so sure about the sim, it seems barren at first – but it’s bigger than you think and opens up into surprises as you wander. The very cool thing is that you can rez there too!
I truly am insane, I know it. So many creations spinning around in my head – things that I want to do and figure out how to do! I love pushing the tools and finding new ones, being different, that thrill when I’ve figured out how to make something happen and it all pulls together.
Yep, if you haven’t figured it out I’m talking about SL dance! I will never be a flashy choreographer with a bigger than life presence. I’m just me, and I do it for the love of creativity and imagination. I dance with Elysium…with Virtuoso…with Terpsi-Corps…music tech at Moonstone…one of the managers at Paramount…and have my own troupe – Harleyquin. It’s amazing how different each one is and I like it that way! I’m very grateful to have had a very strong foundation in learning to dance in SL. Ahh, now I need to learn better time management!
Elysium as always demonstrates such diverse creativity. It also stirs up my animation envy! My dance – In My Head. A bit different for me, a challenge, and one that still doesn’t feel finished yet…. Ever notice how animations look different when used with different music, different costumes? I spent hours and hours and hours and hours on this choreography. To me, choreography is the key to a dance – everything else enhancing, supporting, and bringing it all together. There’s more I want to do with it, it doesn’t feel fully “shaped” yet.
I told someone the other day, my method of creation is anything but a straight line…but my general flow for choreographing a dance:
find the costumes, or something similar to your vision of the costume. For women especially, I find animations look very different depending on the costume.
I go through all my animations, listening to the music over and over and over again as I do. I pull anything that “feels” like it may fit. I don’t think – it’s a quick yes or no.
I put all the “maybe” animations into a dance HUD…sometimes even 200 or more.
I attach that choreo hud and look at how many pages it shows. If it says there are 7 pages, I make 6 more copies of the HUD. Then I wear all 7 copies, and turn each hud to a page. Hud 1 is page 1, Hud 2 is page 2, Hud 3 is page 3, etc.
Now that I can see all those animations, I listen to the song over and over and over again (it better be a song you like!), and I start freestyling it. When it feels like it’s starting to come together and feel natural, I start creating an untimed sequence card listing the animations in order.
I use Audacity – often I will work on choreography for sections of the music at a time, keep making my sequence card. With the Spot On Smooth Dancer, you can leave blank lines in your card! I leave a blank line in my card between the sections, so that I remember which animations I thought would work together for verse 1, the chorus etc. Before I started doing that, I was doing a lot of facepalming and asking myself “what was that animation for??? What was I thinking??????”. Now I know what I was thinking for the different sections, and I almost ALWAYS use less animations than I originally thought as I smooth it out.
Once I’ve finished drafting out my untimed sequence card, I practice the choreography, smoothing it out, removing animations, adding additional if I need to until it feels smooth and it’s feeling goooood.
Then I record it!!! This can take a while – but if I don’t let myself stress, if I walk away and take my time, this is actually my favorite part – smoothing it out and recording. I believe the feeling you have when you dance comes across to those who see it. Always have fun! If a dance isn’t “talking” to you – maybe it’s not the right one for that time!
If I have different groups of dancers, this is the time I’ll go back and work on their sections – using the same “choreo huds” – the 7 on my screen.
Tip: for my screen size, I resized a smooth dancer hud and added “CHOREO” to the name. It’s sized so I can fit 2 high on my screen. I have a # DANCE folder in my inventory, and a New Dance Build folder in that. That’s where I keep prepared copies of huds, scripts, etc., so that it’s easier to create a dance. Focus on the fun stuff!
Later perhaps I’ll share my first adventure! But first…I have a dance to make, and a show order to sort!! ~ always dance, even if it’s just in your head
I love videos of kittens, silly dogs, and cute babies, but I’ll leave them to my facebook page. As time moves on, my thirst for knowledge and feeling grows. To feel art, to feel music, to be moved, to be introduced to something I didn’t know before then let my thoughts build from there.
A friend introduced me to Ted talks and the Ted website – https://www.ted.com. It hosts an amazing collection of videos on almost any topic. I’ve watched videos on topics from creating bamboo houses to art made of air and the habits of happiness. I made goals this year, and habits…and well – some are sticking better than others but I keep on keeping on. 🙂 Today, there are two Ted videos that move me. One just viewed for the first time, the other I find inspiring and watch once in a while.
You know, this is my first blog…I’m just going to pretend like you’re a long lost friend and roll with it. Some I’m very close with in SL know how I love to write long rambling notes, share my thoughts (sometimes to my own detriment), and also be silly at times. One day perhaps, I will tell you of my RL secret santa adventures. A surprise present you say? Nooo….mine included an egg with a clue inside…and that is only the beginning. Another time, alas, for I am in a creative mood yet need inspiration too…
So..this first video is new to me. Flash mobs are kind of passe’ but while they were at the height of popularity I did participate in a few. I couldn’t help grinning as I watched this – and once again was reminded that life is short, have fun, have experiences.
Some of the Ted talk videos I watch are serious, thought inspiring, moving in a deep way. Some are funny, some pure creativity. Dance in SL let’s me bring my imagination to life…and guess who got ideas from this video?! I’m so very grateful for anyone who dances with me in SL – for my creative process is anything but a straight line.
What would this world be without a little adventure? What would LIFE be without adventure? On a mission, I dig out my spiffy adventure outfit and re-christen my little hut as “Adventure Headquarters” with a bottle of champagne. (Ok, ok, it was a bottle of orange soda from the fridge…imagination people!)
Why have I started this grand adventure, you wonder? With so many things swimming in my head – SL dance, teaching, goals, reading, learning..I sometimes forget that child-like wonder. I want to slowly explore the magical world of SL! Find the off-beat places, wherever my whims take me and my feet wander! This blog will be filled with all sorts of things, but let us begin with adventure – shall we?
Welcome one and all! I, Eva Harley, will be your flight attendant, pilot, and in-flight entertainment during this most interesting ride into the cosmos…or truly of the virtual reality world of Second Life and my inner mind. Scary indeed. Please fasten those seat belts for even I do not know where this adventure will take us!
Why a blog you ask? Because the voices in my head demand a new medium. Perhaps there are things to share, to inspire, but also because sometimes creativity is found when I just put finger to keyboard and type freely without thinking. Sometimes thoughts just swirl in my head, unsatisfied until they are written. I ramble, always have, make no apology for it any longer. It is how I process things, how I share when something excites me. I like to write, like to think, and create. So many different things, always more to learn and explore. I discover new things about the world and myself, every day. This is a story of that journey… or pieces of it.
What will you find here? I dance in SL, very passionately. There is such creativity, potential for expression, diversity in it for me. When it feels like work, I remind myself to step back and remember why I do what I do. I believe in universal spirit, energy in all things, that when people cross our path it is for a reason. In this life there are lessons to be learned, experiences to be had, some good, some not so good, but all have a reason. I believe that everyone has something special to share, that I am no better than anyone else, and that we all see life through our own perception, our own thoughts, our own realities. I read nearly anything I get my hands on, like to push experiences, to learn new ways to do things, and thrive on new ideas and creative thoughts…then bringing them to life.
What precipitated creating this blog? First, a song shared by a good friend that resonates deeply with me. It is so easy to stop seeing the magic, stop exploring all that is new and different, to fall into the same patterns, to forget. Listening, it moves me. I feel deeply, feel the flow of the universe when I stop and fall quiet. I embark on new adventures in all worlds. This is my canvas to paint. Welcome to a piece of my world.
Eva Harley is the person behind the avatar, or is that the avatar behind the person? I exist in all worlds, I am simply me. Find here random thoughts, feelings, information, ideas, possibly inspiration, and hopefully laughter and smiles. I embrace the unusual, long to be within the world yet also outside of it, watching and marching to my own drum, creating my own beat. This is my canvas, Second Life the world between worlds that is my playground. My life is what I make of it, and here I share for both you and I alike.
If you can make socks, that’s a bonus
Madness, Matter, and Rambling Thoughts 