So you took the plunge and are eager to get to work creating your first show set?  You went full speed ahead and bought everything you think you'll need.....but...where and how do you start?  In what order should you learn the tools?   ​We were recently asked this question and thought more could benefit from a full answer.  

First, things first.  It's fine if you buy them all at once, but DON'T try to learn them all at once!  In fact, we recommend you start small.  The minimum for a good stage set is really a mover system and an animation HUD.  Which of those you buy depends on what you want to do.   

Don't worry if you've already bought them all!  You WILL use them all, we promise!

Do you want to start with dancing a group of people or just yourself?  You can dance yourself and others with both dance HUDs and you can move yourself and others around the stage with both mover systems!  It's just HOW you do it that is different.  Look at both of these pages and figure out which you want to start with. 

Hopefully you've decided what you want to do first!  Now, for ease of making a logical list here, let's assume you've got several (again, no need to!).  Again, for a good stage show, you'll need a MOVER system and a DANCE HUD. 

You can use 3rd party Dance HUDs or mover systems with all but our Performance Director.  We highly recommend you use our Spot On systems together as they work together seamlessly and we cannot guarantee how 3rd party systems will behave. 

JOIN THE GROUP!  We have a lot of helpful dancers who will gladly answer your questions.  Just be sure to phrase your questions as specifically as you can.  If there is an error message, copy and paste it into group chat, etc. 

Let's start....

This is all-purpose dance HUD and you'll be using it much more than just on a stage!  Of the two dance HUDs, this is the easiest to learn and has the added benefit of recording a sequence that you can use in it or later in a Performance Director HUD.  It helps you learn the timeline.  You can also use it later to identify which dances you'd like to use in your dance sets to put into your Performance Director.  If you are a dancer, you will use this HUD every day, everywhere!   You can use Smooth Dancer without any mover system. 

Really a drop and go system for 3 to 10 (or more!) dancers.  Drop the controller, rez the movers, hop on and go!  It may be easy to use, but it is very powerful!  You can use Group Formation System with any brand of animation HUD. 

You'll need to learn at least the beginnings of this system (videos and web) so that you can properly configure a mover to work with Performance Director.  Be sure to go back and watch all of the videos AND go through all the web links so that you know what it and YOU can do.  The system is very powerful and not hard to learn.  It even does math for you!

Actually it's much more than a dance HUD.  You can control the entire scene with it!   You and your dancers must be standing on properly configured movers, either Group or Choreography systems, to be animated so learning one of the mover systems is essential here. 

Add or remove outfit pieces to you and your dancers!  EACH dancer will need to be wearing one. 

All set and ready to go?  After building your set, pack it up and rez it at the venue. In fact, rez it correctly at any venue you will dance at just by "marking" the stage.  No, not like a cat would mark its territory, like a professional who can rez their set and be ready to start in seconds! 

How fabulous would you and your dancers look coming out of this vintage stage frame?  The frame comes in 3 versions so you can fit your build - full stage walls, wide front wall only and tall front wall only.  All with resize scripts.  

Get the frame with 16 color choices or the curtains with 6 color choices.  OR, save Lindens and get the packaged set!  Low land impact, low script count, and fully compatible with all of Spot On tools.  

Please come by the store to see the demo and test out the HUDs.  We hope you enjoy!

Lights, camera, action!  
Store:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Martian/115/144/22
Marketplace:
​https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/SO-Gem-8-Colors/12579581

Update 1.22 to the Choreography Design System has been sent via Caspervend.  The store also has a redelivery terminal at the landing zone.  Click the laptop on the table.  

NEW RELEASE!

Genre "East Asian" edition is now open!  Our Sakura Leg Vines are available there for 25% off.   Head on over now until July 12 to snap them up along with other East Asian influence goodies.  

Teleport to Genre

Today we are sending out version 1.21 for the Choreography Design System with a couple of bug fixes and an enhancement.  

Your package will be automatically delivered and you can go to the store and slap the redelivery terminal at any time!

1.21 - BUGFIX - When a design ring is copied in world via shift-drag, sometimes the Statistics features will fail to function on the new copy.  This has been corrected.

1.21 - BUGFIX - The design ring will now throw an error message and attempt to recover if waypoints are incorrectly unlinked manually from the design ring.   In previous versions, this behavior would create an unusable design ring.  IMPORTANT:  This is NOT the supported way to delete waypoints (please use the menu!) and the design rings won't always be able to recover from this kind of error.

1.21 - ENHANCEMENT - The Time and SleepTime menus now accept times in minute:second notation.   Times can still be used as seconds only, just as before.   Example:  Entering 1:30 or entering 90 will result in a one and a half minute time.

The annual Vintage Fair is finally open!  Jun 9 through the 25th.  Two sims of exclusive items for all sorts of decades.  Please keep your Avatar Complexity below 100K and reduce scripts before going as it is a popular fair and will be crowded.  

Shopping Guide (not complete)

Available at Genre - Single and Fatpack - 25% OFF

Be a Cosmic Cutie and shoot your friends with the scripted Raygun and retro scifi phrases!  The complete set comes with top, panties, skirt, collar, holster, raygun, armbands and shoes.

Single colors come with a HUD to change to one of four trim colors.  The  Fatpack comes with all four main colors and all trim colors.

Genre Scifi edition - May 15 to June 12
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Analog%20Dog%20Hair/32/234/3159

More full-perm curtains.  :)