HolliDance

for Be OS




What is it?
Holli Dance is a real time animation program that I intended to look like an MTV video. It depicts a virtual girl who dances. Two virtual camera operators capture the action while a virtual lighting effects person sets the mood. She dances to music played through your computer's microphone, line in jacks, or CD player.

Concept
I originally started this project as a 90 second prerendered dance video, but when I discovered that I could render complex scenes on my Mac in real time, I decided that it would be better to create it has a free-running animation program. This way, I can take advantage of faster computers which can render larger and more realistic scenes without having to rerender the whole sequence every time. The program should also maintain interest longer as no two of its frames look the same.

Requirements
The Be OS version is designed to run on Power Macs and Pentium computers that are running the Be OS. Frame rates vary from 0.5 to 3 with the software Open GL renderer. Hopefully Be will release a hardware accelerated Open GL library soon. Holli Dance also runs on SGI work stations, Power Macintoshes, and Sony Play Stations (Net Yaroze).

NOTE: The Intel version of HolliDance is not available yet, because I have not been successful in getting Be installed on any PC's to which I have access.

Installation
Everything HolliDance needs is contained in the HolliDance directory. HolliDance does not write to any system directories.

User options
Users have the following menu options...

View

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Adjust Camera ...
Manual Camera
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Pause display
About ...
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Quit

The two cameras normally operate automatically, but one may be controlled manually. The Adjust Camera dialog box has controls for 'dolly' in and out, zoom in and out, pan left and right, and pan up and down.



The camera may also be moved be selecting the 3D window and, while holding the primary mouse button, moving the mouse in the direction the camera should be moved. Holding the Shift Key while moving the mouse will change the camera's field of view for left and right mouse motions and change the camera's distance for up and down mouse motions.

You can pause the dance and Holli will try very hard to stand still.


Rendering

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Stats
Solid rendering
Club lighting
Gouraud shading
Club display

An average frame rate can be displayed.

The 3D display can be displayed as a wire frame to provide slight increase in the frame rate.

Three spot lights (one stationary and two moving) normally illuminate the scene, but switching to simple lighting increases rendering speed over 50%.

Gouraud shading determines whether polygons are rendered smoothly or as flat surfaces. Disable it to remind your self of what impressed us in the 80's.

The club may be replaced with a simple background, but this will not significantly increase rendering speed.


Music

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Dance when silent
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Listen to CD
Listen to Line In
Listen to Mic
Listen to Boosted Mic

Select an audio source and play some dance tunes! Choose songs with good consistent beats and Holli will really groove. She will also sway to slower tunes. For best results, use the sound control panel to set the audio levels.

Holli can dance in silence if you don't have any music for her or would rather just watch.

Safety
Holli Dance simulates nightclub lighting and can display a strobe light effect. Unfortunately, some people can be harmed by strobing light, so as a safety feature, I have included a file in the HolliDance directory called 'NoStrobe'. As long as this file is present, the light strobe effect is disabled. To enable the light strobe effect, simply remove or rename the file. Light strobing can be disabled again by creating any file with the name 'NoStrobe' (file size, type, and contents are not important). I apologize for this complication, but some folks can really be injured with strobing lights and it's best not to take chances!

Technical details
Holli is comprised of over 9,100 polygons. Her club is made up of another 1,500 polygons. Holli is fully articulated with 58 segments. Even her fingers are fully flexible. These models were originally modeled on Animation Master (version 3) as roughly 2,300 and 380 curved surface patches respectively.

Future plans
1. Holli dances around her stage rather than dancing in place.
2. Display Holli as a continuous flexible surface rather than rigid segments.
3. Holli varies her expressions and blinks her eyes.
4. Holli Dance displays stereo images via electronic shutter goggles.
5. Holli Dance works with virtual reality head sets.

Contact
I can be reached via my Web page at www.znet.com/~dwhite. You can email me at dwhite2@san.rr.com.