SIMULATION SYSTEM FOR DANCE GROUPS USING A

GAMEPAD

Asako Soga

and Itsuo Yoshida

Faculty of Science and Technology, Ryukoku University, 1-5 Yokotani, Oe-cho, Seta, Otsu, Japan

Graduate School of Science and Technology, Ryukoku University, 1-5 Yokotani, Oe-cho, Seta, Otsu, Japan

Keywords: Human Animation, Dance, Formation, Simulation, Gamepad.

Abstract: A dance group requires a formation, quite unlike a solo dance, and thus the arrangement on the stage is

critical. We have developed a system to simulate the formations of dance groups. The simulation is

executed by specifying the number of dancers, the formation pattern, and the dancing motion with a

gamepad. Typical formations used for classical ballet pieces were analyzed, and three formation patterns

were obtained. Each dancer’s position is calculated by the number of dancers and the selected formations.

The system arranges dancers on a virtual stage and simulates dance animations by using motion-capture

data obtained from a professional dancer.

1 INTRODUCTION

Our goal is to develop useful tools in dance

education and creation, such as a self-study system

for students and a creation-support system for

choreographers. In this paper, we describe a

simulation system for dance groups.

In recent years, simulation systems for groups

and crowds have been developed (Ulicny, 2004),

(Lai, 2005), (Kwon, 2008), but composing complex

human motions remains a challenge.

A dance group requires a formation, quite unlike

a solo dancer, and thus the arrangement on the stage

is critical. We have been developing simulation

systems for dance groups (Soga, 2010). In this paper,

we describe a simulation system for ballet using a

gamepad. The subject of the simulation is the type of

dance group called a corps de ballet. Our purpose is

to develop a system that allows anyone to easily

create the formation of dance groups.

2 SIMULATION SYSTEM

2.1 System Outline

The system arranges dancers for group dancing, and

can simulate the flow of the dancers on stage

between the dancers’ entry and exit. First, the user

inputs parameters such as the number of dancers and

formation patterns using a gamepad. Next, the user

draws an indication line to arrange dancers

corresponding to the positions on the stage. Then,

the user arranges CG dancers on the stage in the

virtual space. Finally, the simulation results are

obtained by 3D animation.

Typical formations used for classical ballet

pieces were analyzed, and three formation patterns

were obtained. We implemented a function to

arrange the dancers symmetrically because such

arrangement is often used in classical ballet. This

system can also simulate transitions of dancers when

changing formations. Furthermore, users can control

dancers using a gamepad, with which they can easily

arrange the typical classical ballet formations.

2.2 System Structure

The system executes simulations using a personal

computer running Windows OS, and is operated

with a gamepad. Figure 1 shows the system being

operated. We developed the system using Visual

C++ 2008 and DirectX. The DX Library is used to

handle DirectX.

Dance animations are edited from motion-

capture data obtained from a professional dancer.

The system has several motion data sets of classical

ballet steps. The user can arbitrarily select dance

motions of virtual dancers. Dancer models were

created using Maya. The dance motions were

applied to the dancer models, which were outputted

365

Soga A. and Yoshida I..

SIMULATION SYSTEM FOR DANCE GROUPS USING A GAMEPAD.

DOI: 10.5220/0003847803650368

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (GRAPP-2012), pages 365-368

ISBN: 978-989-8565-02-0

 2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

Figure 1: The operation scene of the system.

in DirectX file format.

2.3 GUI and Simulation Procedure

The system is operated by switching between two

modes. The system has an operation mode for

inputting parameters, and a preview mode for

checking the dancers’ formations and CG animation.

Figure 2 shows the GUI (Graphical User

Interface) of the operation mode, which consists of

the number of dancers, main menu, sub menu, a

virtual stage, and the sequence area. The main menu

has items such as parameter settings and commands

to execute the simulation. When the user selects

parameter settings from the main menu, parameters

are displayed on the sub menu. Then the user enters

the parameters. The input parameters are the number

of dancers, formation patterns, etc. Each menu can

be selected using the arrow keys on the gamepad,

and certain buttons are used for setting parameters.

The user draws lines required for the simulation

on the virtual stage. The camera view is fixed from

the top, but users can play CG animation on the

virtual stage. The inputted parameters are displayed

in the sequence area.

The preview mode is for checking the dancers’

formation and CG animation. The CG animation is

displayed in full screen, and the user can see it from

any perspective. The user can zoom in/out and

change the camera view using the joy stick or the

arrow keys of the gamepad.

The simulation procedure is as follows.

1) The user determines the dancers’ initial position

and the number of dancers.

2) The user selects the various parameters such as

formations from the main menu and the sub

menu.

3) The user draws an indication line to arrange

dancers on the stage.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(1)Number of dancers

(2)Main menu

(3)Sub menu

(4)Virtual stage

(5)Sequence area

Figure 2: GUI of the operation mode.

4) The user selects the command to start the

simulation from the main menu, and arranges

the dancers on the virtual stage.

5) When moving to another formation, the user

selects the command to change the formation on

the main menu, and then repeats steps 2)

through 4).

6) When terminating a simulation, the user selects

the command to complete it from the main

menu, and determines the location of the

dancers leaving the virtual stage.

If the user sets the parameters and executes the

simulation, CG dancers appear and assemble in

formation on stage, and then choreographic

animation is played. After the dancers leave, the user

can play the simulation result.

3 ARRANGING DANCERS

3.1 Formation Patterns and Drawing

Methods

Three kinds of typical formation patterns are

prepared; dancers are arranged in a straight line, a

circle, and a curve. The user can freely arrange

dancers on the virtual stage based on the formation

patterns.

The user draws an indication line to arrange the

dancers using a gamepad, and then the system

calculates the position of each dancer and arranges

dancers to create the formation. In the case of the

straight line formation, the user draws a line by

selecting two points. All dancers are arranged at the

same distances. For the circle formation, the user

inputs a center point and another point on the circle.

Then a circle whose radius is the distance between

the two points is drawn. All dancers are arranged at

the same distances. In the case of the curve

formation, the user selects two end points of the

curve and then a temporary line between the points

is shown. Then the user drags the temporary line to

form the curve. The curve is drawn using the third

GRAPP 2012 - International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications

366

P1 P2

(a) straight line (b) circle

P1 P2

Figure 3: Formation patterns.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4: Symmetric arrangement.

Bezier method. The number of control points of a

Bezier curve is 60, and all dancers are arranged with

the same number of control points between dancers.

Figure 3 shows the examples of each formation.

Triangles P1 and P2 in each figure are the selected

points by the user. The red line is the indication line

to arrange the dancers.

3.2 Symmetrical Arrangement

We implemented a function to arrange the dancers

symmetrically because a symmetric arrangement is

often used in classical ballet. Each formation pattern

can be mirrored based on the line at stage center.

When this function is enabled, the reflective

indication line automatically appears according to

the inputted indication line. Half of the virtual

dancers are arranged on the inputted indication line,

and the others are arranged on the reflective line.

Figure 4 shows an example of a symmetrical

arrangement by 16 dancers in a circle formation.

When the user inputs an indication line as shown in

Formation2

Formation1

(a)

Formation1

Formation2

(b)

Figure 5: Transition patterns.

the left part of Figure 4(a), the corresponding line

appears in the right part. After arranging the dancers,

each circle can be formed by eight dancers on both

sides as shown in Figure 4(b).

3.3 Transition Patterns

After arranging the dancers, they can be rearranged

in another formation. This allows users to simulate

the path of each dancer and the transition of

formation. For rearranging dancers, the user draws

the other indication line to arrange the dancers with

the gamepad, and then the system calculates the path

for each dancer from the current position to the next

position. The dancers move along the shown path,

and then enter a new formation. Two types of

transition routes are predefined. The user can select

the type when inputting parameters. One is the

shortest route for each dancer from the current

position to the next position. The other is the route

along the two indication lines.

Figure 5 shows the transition patterns. Figure

5(a) shows the shortest route. In this case, each

dancer moves directly from the current position of

Formation 1 to the next position of Formation 2.

Figure 5(b) shows the route along the indication

lines. In this case, each dancer moves to the end

point of the current indication line, and then to the

next position via the starting point of the next

indication line.

When moving from the current position to the

next position, each dancer’s route is displayed.

Figure 6 is an example of transition from a straight

line formation to a curved line formation. In this

SIMULATION SYSTEM FOR DANCE GROUPS USING A GAMEPAD

367

Figure 6: Transition path.

figure, the shortest route to the next position of each

dancer is displayed. The transition path as well as

indication lines are shown on the virtual stage.

4 SIMULATION RESULTS

The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness

of this system. Figure 7(a) is an example of a circle

formation by 30 dancers. Figure 7(b) is a complex

example of multiple arranging. One circle of 12

dancers is formed in the center, and two symmetrical

lines are each formed by six dancers. In total, 36

dancers are arranged on the virtual stage.

(a)

(b)

Figure 7: Simulation results.

5 CONCLUSIONS

We have developed a system to simulate the

formations of dance groups using a gamepad. From

the results of an experiment, we verified that the

system is easy to use once the user becomes

accustomed to its operation. In future works, we aim

to improve the system’s usability and to reproduce

more complex dancing groups.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My special thanks are due to for providing us with

the motion capture studios in Kanagawa Institute of

Technology to capture ballet motions. We also wish

to thank to Kazuya Kojima for the cooperation. This

research was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Young

Scientists (B), The Ministry of Education, Science,

Sports and Culture, Japan.

REFERENCES

Ulicny, B., Ciechomski, P. H. and Thalmann, D., 2004.

Crowdbrush: Interactive Authoring of Real-time

Crowd Scenes. In SCA '04, Proceedings of the 2004

ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics symposium on

Computer animation, pp. 243-252.

Lai, Y. C., Chenney, S. and Fan, S., 2005. Group Motion

Graphs. In SCA '05, Proceedings of the 2005 ACM

SIGGRAPH/Eurographics symposium on Computer

animation, pp. 281-290.

Kwon, T., Lee, K. H., Lee, J. and Takahashi, S., 2008.

Group Motion Editing. In ACM Transactions on

Graphics, Vol. 27, No. 3, Article 80.

Soga, A., Boulic, R. and Thalmann, D., 2010. Motion

Planning and Animation Variety using Dance Motion

Clips, In CW '10, Proceedings of the 2010

International Conference on Cyberworlds, pp. 421-

424.

GRAPP 2012 - International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications

368