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Homework #4: Laban and Human Motion Tracking/Reasoning

Goal:

Assignment Date: 4/10/2010

Due Date: 4/17/2010

Related References:

• http://athena.uccs.edu/~hmtr/doc/Ohioreport.pdf (use hmtr as username; password announced in class)
• http://athena.uccs.edu/~hmtr/doc/laban/
• http://athena.uccs.edu/~hmtr/doc/laban/labanSymbol.pdf
• http://dance.osu.edu/3_research_gallery/laban_writer.html

Description:

Part1: Specifying LabanNotation using LabanWriter

1. You can download the OSU LabanWriter software if you have Mac PC. or El Pomar Library has six nice Mac Pro for you to use. They all install with LabanWriter.
2. Login to the two mac in El Pomar Library Multimedia Development Lab Room #238 or those four behind the stairs with your ufp account. Ask reference desk if you can locate them.
3. Click the upper right corner search tool (the blue icon with magnify glass symbol)  and type laban. It should show LabanWriter 4.6 as one of the application in the list
4. Click the LabanWriter application to launch the application.
5. Note that you can also click the Application folder on the lower right corner (folder with A) and look for LabanWriter Application Folder. It  contains the manual and application program.
   
   
6. Click on the LabanWriter 4.6 f (folder) It shows the content with manual and application program
7. Click on the LabanWriter 4.6 aplication.
8. 
9. Click File | New to create a new Laban file
10. Enter staff mode with icon. … and select New from the staff menu.
11. Enter 4 as number of measures, 4 as Beats/measures, 4 squares/beat, also check “starting Position”
12. Click ok.
13. 
14. In the left main menu, choose the upper left forward symbol, it will open on the set  of direction symbols for selection.
15.  
16. Choose Stationary rectangle symbol and let go the button.  The cursor will change to a retangle one.
17. Then drag/draw the rectangle shape (actually just the length you would like it to be) near the left support column in the starting position.  You should  see a dashed rectanle symbol appear.  To make the specification complete, click attribute menu, select middle as “Level”, “black” as color.  The dash box should turn into a rectangle with a dot in it.
18. Do the same for the right staff. These two symbols represent spread your legs naturally.
19. Draw four right direction symbols on right and left support alternatively, and choose middle level and assign different color to them.
20. To label how the left leg cross either front or back of the right leg during the movement we use the black pins either point forward (0 degree) or backward (180 degree). 
21. To attach black pin right by the direction symbol, we first select the pin menu (3rd on the left column of the main menu). The following pin symbol set submenu appear:
    
22. Click on the black pin, it appears in the middle of the clock. You can then click around the clock circumference area to indicate how many degrees or direction you would the pin to rotate to. For example, click on the 6 o’clock direction will make the pin pointing down and representing 180 degree.
23. After specifying pin and its degree,  the cursor changes to a corresponding pin. You can then move it and click right by the right direction move symbol as shown above.
24. Try to specify a simple dance movement with leg and hand movements.
25. Since the LabanDancer is only running on win7 PC in A210 lab and we will use remote desktop connection to acces them, the easier way is to save the laban files in a remote directory there.
26. To mount a remote directory on Mac PC, click on "GO" menu on the tool bar, select "Connect to Server..." menuitem.
27. Enter "smb://128.198.62.11/" if you are assigned with 128.198.62.11 or se-a210-01 machine. Choose cs525/S2010/<yourlogin> folder to save your files.
    <Chow: Thank Joe Taylor to point out this easier solution. You can complete this exercise in front of El Pomar library mac pc.>
28. Click File | Save as hw4a.lw4 (in labanwrite file format)
29. Click File | Export to save the png file for use in LabanDancer. Choose "include header" and it will generate file name with "hw4a.hw4.png"
30. SFTP these files to your cs525 site on viva for backup and hw4 deliverable.
31. Try to create a few labanotation files and save as hw4b, hw4c, etc.
32. Next we animate these labanwriter files using LabanDancer.

Part2:

• Part 2. Animate dance with LabanDancer

  • We have installed LabanDancer in SE-A201-01~04 machines on C:\LabanDancer.
  • To run labanDancer, first use remote desktop connection on mac proc to those win7 PC in your designated machine using your CSNET account. Same ufp account name but with #a followed by ....you know what. Make sure you type csnet\ before your username.
  • Open the folder C:\LabanDancer
  • You will see the LabanDancer.exe with  Aztec? Sun icon.
  • Double click to start  it.
  • There are quite a few demo dances in C:\faculty\cs525\LabanDancer\LabanDancer\Demo. Try it. Give you a better idea about what a labanNation looks like.
  • Click one of them say ERS 5xCha-Cha.lw4 will open as follows:
  • 
  • You can use open your dancer labanwriter files which is saved in c:\work\cs525\S2010\<yourlogin> and see how it performs and whether it matches your expectation. Try to use the camera angle to change viewpoint.
  • If you are not satisfy the specification, return to your mac window to change it and save it through smb for another round of animation.
  • Capture the image of the labanDance with your dance using SnagIt or windows capture tool as your hw4aDance.png and upload it to your CS525 web site

  Email me the urls to hw4a.lw4, hw4a.png, and hw4aDance.png and your comments on the labanation, labanWrite/labanDancer as your hw4 submission.

Part 3. <pending>

• Question 1. <pending>