Matt Gough Blog [closed]: dynamics kinematics / force motion
Tuesday, Apr 6 2004, 03:10
dynamics is the force, kinematics is the motion - I have already discussed motion description in 'pitch, roll, yaw, angle of axis' with the impulse attribute [1], the dynamics / force is described using laban's effort terms with the dynamics attribute.
here we place the dynamics attribute 'd' inside the effort tag so we can examine it in isolation
direct / indirect [direction]
strong / light [weight]
sudden / sustained [duration]
bound / free [flow]
if we wanted to notate a punching action in dynamic terms we write
dynamics can also be described using the text attribute 'txt' this usage should be confined to situations when a more descriptive approach is needed; t="coiled spring releasing" I think this speaks for itself. the text attribute can be used in most of the elements and facilitates descriptive notation when no other solution can be found [3].
lets go back to motion for a moment. we have looked at impulse which can be used to imply movement direction but what about transformations? [translations, reflections and rotations], in terms of a movement context think about notating a stereotyped mime act. rather than use a separate element I propose to embed translations under the paths attribute 'path' and alongside the impulse 'i' attribute. this decision is based on making best use of existing elements for speed of notation.
the xyz and rotation values from the impulse attribute are used to infer the type and direction of transformation. although a single value could suffice three values are given for speed of reading. trans [translation], refl [refelection, rota [rotation] for example;
is a hand waving from the wrist in a right to left motion [remember that these tags are open to interpretation, they imply not instruct]
at this time there are about 100 elements, attributes and values in total. most of these words are familiar vocabulary in shortened form and are therefore easy to pick up. consider for a moment that osu's laban writer has 700+ symbols so i don't think that 100 is a great deal.
two short notes; thanks to article 19 for the 'heads up' and my next post on the notation will be about weight, and weight transference.
[1] the term attribute is used in the development stage. as it is envisaged that this form of dance notation will be xml based they well may become elements. I believe that an xml based schema would allow the complexity of choreographic and movement notation to be more simply 'read' by software. although is suggest a specific type of xml implementation for the 'new' notation it should also be possible to devise an xml based approach for laban notation.
[2] the short form of the dynamics values have not been defined at this time, so an example is given.
[3] the effort words used are designed to fit into the emote model and software. while it is possible that shape words may become path attributes i do not agree with the emote approach to gesture or the layering of directable motion texture on existing movement. this new notation should work with a system capable of generating autonomus movemnent in real time - without the aid of a motion capture library, somthing these aproachs are unable to do.
Filed by Article19 at 3:10 PM | 
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