Digital Dance Lesson Held at Ingle Auditorium

This morning, guests from Rochester Institute of Technology and the surrounding area gathered in Ingle auditorium at RIT Central, also known as the Student Alumni Union, to view Marla Schweppe’s brainchild, a virtual dance lesson between human and 3-D avatars. The exhibit, coordinated by Schweppe, simulated a dance lesson between the choreographer/dancer and three simulated dance student avatars.

As music played through the auditorium, Tomas Warfield, a dance instructor for National Technical Institute for the Deaf took the stage. Behind him, three female dancers projected on a screen swayed to the song. Using previously modeled and registered motions, the on screen virtual dancers modeled Warfield’s dance moves in the appearance that he was “teaching” the avatars, or “the girls” as they call them,
the choreography with the help of Kirk Lansman, a student in the 3D digital graphics program. Lansman connected Warfield’s live, on-stage motions with the pre-recorded dance motions of the avatars. The characters on screen were modeled and rigged previously by another participant of the team, Laura Wyeme.

The exhibit was created with use of an organic motion capture system. Schweppe, the chair of the 3-D digital graphics in computer graphics design, has worked on this project with the assistance of a grant for women in technology. All motions for the event were recorded in the motion capture studio in building 7A, Room A450. Throughout the day, the studio will be open for visitors. Beginning at 1pm, a live performance will be held in the studio using the same technology and at 3pm, the dance lesson group will hold another performance at the NTID Zone on Stage 4.