Rave or Break
by BONZO, HSM team writer
When developing a game, and allowing the characters to interact in a dancing emote, there are a lot of factors to consider. Think about it: if you had been handed the decision of which dances to represent in Home, with only eleven slots, which would you chose? Remember that your decision will affect people from multiple backgrounds, in multiple countries, both genders, and all age groups.
Dancing is very cultural, in both the generational and regional sense. Even though dances sometimes transcend those boundaries, they are still adapted to regional styles. So the decision of which dances to include must have been difficult. The promotional videos of Home before it went into public beta showcase several dances that are now unavailable. There was undoubtedly some trial and error in the decision of which dances to keep.
Take a look at the dances that are available, and ask yourself which is your favorite, and why? Which is your least favorite, and why?
To Home veterans, the standard dances are now routine and old. We crave a change; we want new dances, and a greater variety of dances.
We gained a new dance through an outfit in a Ford promotion, one that gave us a pop and lock dance that you could only perform if you obtained that limited edition item. The dance was tied to that outfit, and like other emotes that are specific to costumes, you must wear that outfit if you wish to perform that dance.
We now have new dances tied to the Raver and Break dancer outfits. The dance outfits come in three designs, with a specific dance for each color. Unfortunately, the outfit descriptions in the store don’t describe the dances.
Among the Rave offerings, the blue male and female outfit includes a few steps of the Melbourne shuffle dance. The male green and female pink outfit include the liquid rave dance. The male red and female green include the jump style dance.
The standard rave dance available to all avatars is really the raver version of a casual dance. The new rave outfits with specific dance emotes include a few more variations of dances that are specific to the raver subculture. Liquid dancing has been around since the late 80s and has continued to adapt with the growing electronic dance music scene. The shuffle is fairly recent to Americans but, as the name suggests, has been around in the Australian dance scene since the 80s; it migrated to the European dance scene some time ago, with YouTube helping to introduce it to the Americans. The same can be said of the Jump Style, which originated in Belgium in the late ’90s. The nature of trends is that they tend to be popular in specific regions before they expand outward to different areas.
A lot of floating
Break dancing has been a part of the American urban subculture since the 70s, really exploding in the 80s with hip hop. The closest the standard dances come to break dancing is the body pop dance; pop and lock is a variation of break dancing.
The B’loon costumes breakdancer has a couple of dances attached to it. So one wonders why the new rave dances have only one dance specifically tied to each color costume, and not three dances bundled into a single costume. Was it a financial decision to make you pay for more dances if you want them, or merely memory restrictions?
What are the memory restrictions? An avatar outfit is tied to a representational skeleton, called a rig. Joints on the rig are manipulated by control nodes, which are scripted in the program to move in specific ways in response to the user input — when you press a series of buttons or move the directional analog stick. Any custom animation either has to work with the standard animation of the avatar, or replace it. Outfits like the Mech Jets, Skater, or B’loon characters replace the standard walk animation with a custom locomotion specific to the costume.
Each animation that is scripted takes up memory. When you see an avatar walk, it repeats a two step walk cycle every time, a step for the left and a step for the right. Each step has at least three motions: a starting point, a middle point where the foot is lifted, and an end point. If it only had two points, the walk would be a slide, not a step. Each key frame in the motion takes up memory. Memory needs to be carefully budgeted in development, since each avatar has a specific allotment of memory space. This has to include the outfit you wear, the customization of avatar features, and all animations the character performs.
The raver and break dancing outfits are costumes and not customizable clothing, so memory is locked in for the outfits. You are tied to those outfits if you want the dances. Mech Jets have three custom animations and a custom locomotion. B’loons have a custom locomotion, a custom stance, and a variation on the dancing. The animation seems a bit more complicated for these outfits than the dance outfits, and yet the dance outfits only have one dance per outfit. But if you take a closer look at the custom animations on Mech Jets and B’loons, you can almost count the key frames. They have more animations, but they are limited animations, as most of it is floating and hovering. When you look at the dancing the raver and break dancing outfits perform, there are multiple steps. With each step requiring a set of key frames, the animation is a little more complicated, so the required memory can quickly add up.
Character Skeleton Rig
Dancing is a vital part of Home. It’s good to see new variations, and a representation of a long-running and still growing subculture. Compared to real dancing, though, the animation is jerky. This was clearly not motion captured, but probably manually animated. The dances, particularly the liquid rave dance, should be fluid and smooth, as the name suggests, and not as convulsive as it appears on the avatar. The Jump style is probably the best represented, and best animated. Jump Style is very bouncy and energetic. The animation on the shuffle is not bad, but it it is more twitchy than it should be.
Technological limitations prevent the smooth transition of motions, but for a cycled animated emote they are actually pretty good. Dancing is all about improvisation, particularly rave and break dancing, and while we don’t have animation control to improvise as we dance, the cycled animations are a good fix for those starving for more rhythmic expression in Home.
It is unfortunate that we can only acquire them through restrictive outfits. Perhaps the technology behind Home prevents purchasing scripted animations you can add to your avatar. But, for whatever reason, we can’t purchase dances individually to apply to custom outfits. Ravers should be able to appreciate the outfit designs, but it is unfortunate that you can’t pick and choose which dance to apply to which outfit. If you purchase a raver outfit based on the design, you are stuck with the dance; if you purchase it based on the dance you are stuck with the color of the outfit.
The designs of the male outfits aren’t bad. The bright colors are apt to the theme, and the urban appearance of the male break dancers is subtle and minimal, as the outfits appear more casual than specific to any subculture. Depending on your preference, it may either be a virtue or a flaw that they avoided the cliché of the hip hop jump suit on the break dancer. But the casual urban look is more contemporary.
The female rave outfits are a little more flamboyant, with much brighter colors. You may even notice a hint of the Sodium bartender outfits in them, particularly the pink. The b-girl break dancer outfit is a little more customized and specific, which may be off-putting if you don’t like the colors or design of the attire.
New dances are great, and if specific restrictive outfits are the only way we can currently obtain them, then so be it — I really hope we see more of them. It wouldn’t surprise me if a C-walk dance emote were being developed as we speak. For now, enjoy breaking, shuffling, bouncing, and jumping your way into more rhythm with these new outfits.
- NEW DANCES - YEA!
- More raver gear
- More urban style gear
- Male Break dancer outfits are casual and look good
- Animation is not perfect but really not bad
- Very specific outfits
- Female outfits are very flamboyant
- Store doesn't specify which dance you are getting
- No customization in outfits
June 27th, 2012 by BONZO | 5 comments
BONZO is an editor and artist for HomeStation Magazine.
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It is a welcome to see new dances out there, couldn’t there be a TRY before you BUY option? (A TRIAL Outfit that lasts maybe a day or so) this could maybe help with your buying decision and whether the dancing animation and outfit is really for you.
at least they could have let us put our own avatars faces on them
I won’t buy these as they are a bit too strange looking for me. I think it is time that the original dance moves we have get an overhaul. There are several in the current repertoire that could go, like Cabbage Patch and the rock one that make you look like you would get a headache in 2 minutes if you did it in real life. We need a slow dance for people to do together, by creating one where each individual has to pick the same dance to do it as a couple it eliminates problems of personal space invasion. I don’t know if this is feasible technologically, but if it is it needs to happen.
I think that the developers have been so busy working on all of the amazing new stuff they are bringing to Home, they have put changing out some of the older stuff on the back burner. I hope they eventually decide to do this, it is sorely needed as dancing is a major staple of the Home environment. Nice read Bonzo.
Like Burbie I am not too big on these items. I wonder what it would be like if they tied a dance capability to a public space instead of an individual av. I wonder if it would make a difference in memory. Sort of like the Flirt game in x7 or the Marriage thing in Granzilla. I mean what if they had a dance floor that held the dances that the avs could preform. Like a game instead of a movement. They you could have dances appropriate to the spaces as well as dances that an individual av could hold. -well its something to think about… Thank you for the article Bonzo -I am beginning to see that you have a great knowledge of the technical aspects of the HOME universe. It is great to get insight into this sort of stuff, because it helps us understand the limitations that the developers face.
IMVU has the option to put actions on your own avatar, so you can rave, breakdance, rumba, MJ’s thriller, twist, mosh, basically any dance you can think off, home is so far behind with that, we should be able to edit our actions.