Advanced Topics in Drill Design
and Pyware
Music 226
Key Issues With Finals....
Pathways and Matching
Impossible meshes/ people running into each other
Instrument Placement
Use of the ‘Power Zone’
Did a good job - Thinking between the pictures and
interpreting the music
Segmentation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VM1IURrjD8
The separation or addition of sections to either build to a full
band sound or relaxation of the visual to call attention to a
soloist or section.
Example - If mellos and saxes have melody or a feature,
separate the sections from the rest of the band to call attention
to that feature.
Mixing of different sections and different forms at different
velocities can build a segmented visual crescendo for an
impact point. ( See youtube above)
Visual Variety
Make sure the visuals on the field match the mood of the music
Focus movement to different parts of the field
Use different movement/form concepts in show (ex. not too much
curvilinear flow/ line manipulation)
Impacts should have a unique formal texture and should visually
call attention to the part of the show. Here is an example of
Carolina Crown calling attention to impact points through unique
company front builds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shqVOUkRlok
Use a variety of guard staging - not just arcs in the back!
Designing Backwards
This is effective if you have a specific impact point you
want to hit early in your show
Remember when charting backwards to think of the
movement in the correct direction. Always check step
size.
Copy/Paste
Great tool for editing pathways and fixing collisions
Mostly, you will use paste with a different matching order
and then manually set paths
Delete
Delete in the edit menu is used to reset performers
locations (creating a mark time), or to delete them entirely
from the drill.
Select the positions and then select delete
You will have the option to delete the transition or delete
the performers. If editing you will mostly be using this to
delete transitions.
Manual Matching
Drill movement is all about flow and pathways.
Pyware is dumb sometimes when matching pathways. It
likes to flip people around or have them run into each
other.
You have to tell the computer exactly where you want
people a lot of the time.
Examples - A line of 16 to a block of 16. Two lines
meshing into one.
Drill ReWrite
Drill Rewrite is in the Utilities menu and is used to add or delete
performers from a drill that is already written.
When removing performers, choose the top option to review
the changes in each page tab. You can either equalize the
interval or leave a hole. Just click on the performer you would
like to delete.
Equalize on curvilinear groups. Leave a hole for blocks and
odd groupings.
You can also insert new performers between two adjacent
positions. Don’t forget to label and color!
Other Tools
Arrow Tool - Call attention to something or show
pathways and special instructions
Count Editor - Inserts or removes counts from the drill
You can even add counts to the end of the drill
Adding or subtracting will sometimes give you an
animation glitch. Tip - to remove glitch across the
transition, select all, hit morph tool, then choose accept.
Always watch step sizes if you are removing counts
Other Tools
Figurine Editor - makes your perspective view look like
you have an actual band. Takes a while to load so be
patient
Cast List Editor - add names and figurine definitions to
your positions. Sort to get to proper order. Enter
instrument and label
Grid Designer - Design your field markings
Print Coordinates. Also - new professional version has
the option of creating drill books. This is an awesome
feature.
Other Cool Things
Hide Selection (display) - clears up clutter on the field if you
want to concentrate on working with a specific section without
another one getting in the way.
Adjuster Editing Tool - The easy way to play God without
messing with the point/scatter tool. You’re welcome.
Set Reference points - Call attention in the drill to the folks who
are locked to great points in the drill or who are centers of
rotation.
Things kind of off in the block you just set? Try Snap To in the
edit menu and set them to the whole step.
Drill Segments
Lets look at some Drill Segments and examples of
movement.