Life Forms experiments

mary-lou (loulou@adam.com.au)
Sun, 07 Mar 1999 11:59:16 +2910

I have tried a couple of things at work using Life Forms which may be of
interest to some:

Firstly I created a simple animation for a group of 6 figures. I took my
computer to school and connected it to a data projector (Epson)... so
that the image would be big. Then using the roation tool in the stage
window I rotated the stage a full 180 degrees so that the figures had
their backs to the students. I have a class of 18, so the students
arranged themselves into three groups of six according to the animation.
It was amazing how easily they did this, every student had a different
colour. For those of you who teach dance this process can take a while,
especially if you want the dancers in an unusual formation. Anyway the
students actually learnt the first part of the animation from the
computer! I put the phrase on repeat for them! Of course I explained the
movements individually for safe dance reasons! But it was a very weird
when the kids begin to watch the screen and I was just observing the
process!

I am currently working on a simple animation which I want to use in
performance... to do this the sound source has to come out of the
computer...
now I've downloaded the sound file (it is not directly from a CD, it is
an
editted sound source), as a quicktime movie. So when I play the
animation the
sound happens at the same time. In performance the sound source has to
be the
computer, as the dancers need to be working in time with the aniation
and the
music! So I connected the computer to an amplifier... and that works...
but the
sound is not as good as it would be if I was playing a CD... is this
because I
don't have a really good sound card? Also the whole screen option will
need to
be used so that the audience will see a clearer picture... but when the
animation stops the screen reverts to its standard layout... fine for
working,
not so good for performance. Does anyone have any suggestions?

That's all
Mary-Lou