Quadro

Are you still using a Chimera attachment for your dances? Sister, that is so 2007.

I recently acquired two fantastic dance HUDs from Animazoo, the Quadro Ladies Dancefloor and the Quadro Stage Performer. According to Dave Bellman, the creator of the Quadro HUD and owner of Animazoo, “the HUD has been in development for many years now, incorporating the feedback from many, many customers.” All this development of the HUD really shines through once you start using it and putting it through it’s paces. It’s packed with lots of great and useful features. As I was using it, I often found myself thinking, “oh this gadget is so smart!”

I put together a short video that shows a sampling of the usage I got out of my Quadro HUDs:

As you can see from the video, the HUD takes up extremely little screen real estate. (I’ve seen screenshots of other HUDs in the past that were so elaborate, they looked like they were trying to build a picture frame around the viewer. What is up with that, lol.) The two arrows act as Previous and Next buttons so that you can scroll through your dances, there’s an obvious Power button for turning the HUD off and on, and a Menu button that will drop down lists for you to work with. The button with the Animazoo icon allows you to minimize the HUD so that it takes up even less space.

Showing three of nine different HUD skins, for those who like to customize the appearance of their viewers.

When you first attach the HUD, it asks you what viewer you’re using and what sort of toolbars you’ve got set up. After you’ve clicked on a couple of buttons to answer those questions, the HUD will automatically position itself. No need to fiddle with repositioning it yourself.

Okay, so now let’s move on to what really makes this HUD special. It allows you to create dance Sequences, which are basically dance playlists. Personally, I think this is a great way to categorize your dances. Have you ever been to an event in SL where dancing was involved, and laughed at people who were using dances that didn’t quite fit? (I.e., breakdancing at a ballroom event. Lol.) You could create a sequence that has nothing but subtle dances that are perfect for a formal setting and name it “Vanilla” or whatever you want. Sometimes when I’m looking at my list of dance animations in my inventory, I have absolutely no idea what they’re like because they have obscure names like “Lime Jelly” or “D320-A”. Placing them in categorized sequences will eliminate the need to decipher their names.

Do you prefer to do the Jammy Dodger after you’ve done the Space Hopper, and not before? Not a problem! The HUD has a drag and drop feature so that you can rearrange the order of your dances in your Sequence. It’s ridiculously easy! No need to refer to a list and then type numbers in chat.

The HUDS already come supplied with a generous helping of dances (there are 35 in each, all arranged into several different sequences for your convenience). The HUDS are all Copy/Modify, though, and loading them up with even more dances has been made extremely easy. I’m not even kidding, I was impressed by the thought that went into the process of adding/editing the HUD! To add more HUDs, you simply “drop” it from it’s HUD attachment point and it will auto-magically be replaced by another one that locates where it went:

When you find the HUD, you’ll notice that it looks different as an in-world object. It’s big, boxy and easy to locate:

Once you’ve found that box, all you need to do is pop open your inventory and start dragging dance animations over to it. That’s it!

Because this HUD also allows you to invite people to dance, and gives you fine control over who should stop dancing and who should continue (you can see me doing this in the video I posted above), I can see this being useful for folks who like to do machinima. Deciding who should remain animated and who should no longer be animated is as easy as clicking on their name in a list.

So there you have it, my humble little review of the Quadro dance HUDs from Animazoo. They’re worth a lot more than the price tag that’s on them, imho, because they’re packed with so much features and yet so easy to use. They take up very little space, provide tools for organizing your animations, have an interface that is not intimidating at all, and are already pre-loaded with lots of quality mocap dances from a range of styles.

Animazoo in-world location
Marketplace [MP] listing for Quadro Stage Performer
MP listing for Quadro Ladies Dancefloor

If you’re interested in the clothes, here’s a bit more info on that, too. 🙂 The latex outfit is from Graves; it’s a somewhat older purchase but the texturing on Graves clothing still ranks among the best to be found in SL.

On my av’s face are tattoo layers from three – count ’em, three! – different brands (LAQ, cheLLe, and Pink Fuel). Gotta love the freedom that tattoo layers give us! I really hope that more skin designers start following LAQ’s suit, and start putting features on layers as well.

What I’m wearing…

OUTFIT:

Catsuit by Graves – Splice leather latex catsuit (on the MP | in-world)
Boots by Graves – Ankle boots, black leather latex featuring hexagon texture (on the MP | in-world)

BODY:

Hair by Exile – Veronique, Babydoll color (not available on the MP | in-world)
Eyes by Mayfly – Liquid Light Mesh Eye, Amber Pitch color (not available on the MP | in-world)

Skin by LAQ – Glow Minna, Peach 01 (not available on the MP | in-world)
+ LAQ Essential Elle 2.5 eyelids (in-world)
+ LAQ Essential Elle 2.5 nose (in-world)
*Note, LAQ Essential and LAQ Glow collections are on two different (neighboring) sims!

Lipstick by Pink Fuel – Kumi Hazel matte lips, Bordeaux color (on the MP [fatpack only] | in-world)
Eyeshadow by cheLLe – Adele Sparkle, Hillcrest color (on the MP | in-world)