Hi All,
Apologies in advance for the long post, but I'm a long-time drill writer, and I've been using an old, unsupported drill writing program for a long time. I can't seem to find a program that easily supports the workflow that I've been using for many years. I'm hoping that I can easily move on to Envision, but I'm still evaluating the free trial to confirm. I'll probably be posting additional questions, but here are some of my primary questions...
The program I've been using makes is very easy to do the following:
- Take existing forms of players and regroup & reshape them in any way (straighten them into a line, reshape into a "spline", regroup players on each page) etc.
- Select a set of players and equalize the interval between them, regardless of the group(s) that they are in.
- Swap a set of players for a given transition and have that swap propagate all the way, either forwards or backwards or through the entire drill.
These things are very important to the way I've come to design drill. I will typically "draft" the movement around the field a song at a time, where I'll move sections of players to set up and stage the groups appropriately, without necessarily knowing the specific types of form(s) that I'll write. After laying out the general movement, I’ll go back and starting defining & refining the drill forms for each page. This is where I’ll start deciding that I want a block here, a circle there, a straight line there, a meshed curve there, etc. Additional flexibility that I need is to be able to experiment with combining players in different groups and reshaping them into different forms.
As you can see, my process requires a quick/easy way to take a group of people on one set and regroup and reshape them as needed on the next set in any possible way.
My refining process also requires the need to experiment with “matching” players to a form. For example, trying out different ways of getting a block form, and then different ways of getting out of the block form. While experimenting with different “matching” of players in important, I need to be able to make those “swaps” permanent across the drill, without needing to swap players on every page. AND, any swaps that I do need to have NO IMPACT in the transitions of any other sets – the only difference should be that the performer labels are moved around. The other drill programs I’ve looked at require swapping players on every page in order to propagate a swap. I don’t have the time to do that. I need to be able to it in one click.
My big question here is: does Envision have the functionality to support the workflow I’ve described here?
I’ve watched the how-to Envision videos and I’ve read the online help, but I don’t yet have a great sense for the typical workflow that Envision supports. I get the impression that Envision works best if you know the shapes that you want on each set as you are initially defining each set. I say that because it seems like Envision is tool/shape based, in that it appears that to maximize the functionality, you need to know which of the forms you want, and then create the forms using the associated tool (line, multi-curve, arc, block, circle), followed by matching those forms to the previous page. This seems less flexible to me because I might first think I want an arc only to learn later that I really want a multi-curve. I am not seeing an easy way of taking a set of players and turning them into another type of form without going thru the process of 1) selecting the specific tool, 2) drawing the form, 4) matching the players to the form, and 4) matching the players to the following form. Am I right? This seems very time-consuming. Is there a fast, easy way to do this?
Also, in my quick experimentation with Switch Performers, it’s not clear to me that there’s an easy way to propagate the switching of a group of players through to the beginning or end of a drill. I’m not sure if I fully understand how Switch Performers works, as I didn’t see a video demonstrating it, and the online help doesn’t walk you thru the process. Any additional hints/tips/guidance would be appreciated
As I mentioned, I’m sorry for the lengthy post. Having used the same program for so many years, and being able to work quickly with it, I only want to learn ONE new program, so I need to feel confident that I can mostly continue with the same writing process I’ve used before I purchase a new program.
Thanks in advance for any help!
-Bill Jindrich
Envision drill design workflow
Re: Envision drill design workflow
While I realize that my post was long, I would really appreciate a reply. Thanks in advance!
Re: Envision drill design workflow
Hi Bill,
Thanks for the detailed post! It's obvious that you are very passionate about your work and your ability to do it with a minimum of fuss.
Let me answer your questions in reverse order that you asked them:
1. Does EnVision allow you to swap a set of performers and have that propagate all the way to either be beginning or ending?
Yes. You are on the right track with the Switch Performers tool. It's a quite powerful tool but it isn't obvious how it is best used. To get the most out of the tool you can drag the blue and purple multi-purpose markers in the timeline. The blue marker represents the beginning of the switch and the purple marker represents the end. The blue marker stays locked to the current set so you can see on-screen where the switch starts. So for example if you wanted to switch performers from set 5 back to the beginning, you would select the performers you want to switch on set 5 and drag the purple marker back to set 1.
It also has more advanced features such as being able to swap several performers at once and allowing their order to be "cycled" by an arbitrary amount. For example ABC could become CAB or BCA.
2. Does EnVision allow you to select a set of performers and equalize the interval between them?
I'm not sure I fully understand the use-case but I think the answer is no. If all the aforementioned performers were added to the same form then the intervals would be automatically equalized. Going back and changing the form position and intervals later is also quite easy.
I am interested in this functionality, and for that matter any functionality that could make the drill writing process easier, so I would like to hear more about how it works and what benefits it gives.
3. Does EnVision allow you to take existing forms of Performers and regroup & reshape them in any way?
EnVision does some of what you are asking in this question but not all of it. First, what it doesn't do: Currently, forms are not carried over from one set to the next and they cannot be converted between different forms. That being said, this is a feature that we have been looking at and it would be great to have someone work with us to come up with the best way to implement it.
So now on to what it does do: EnVision is very flexible with your workflow and groupings of performers and forms. If you want your performers to be in a multi-curve instead of an arc then you would have to create a new form and transfer the members over to it. However creating forms and adding members to them is exceedingly simple. Ordering performers properly so that they end up in the right position on the form tends to be the hardest part but there are several selection ordering mechanisms to make this process as easy as possible. For example simply clicking on an existing form will select all performers on that form.
Being able to "morph" a form into a different type of form would certainly be a better method of the above which is why we are planning to add such a feature.
If you'd like, you can contact us directly at contact@box5software.com. We would love to continue this conversation in an effort to make EnVision as easy as possible to use while still providing the most complete tool set to our users.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
William
Thanks for the detailed post! It's obvious that you are very passionate about your work and your ability to do it with a minimum of fuss.
Let me answer your questions in reverse order that you asked them:
1. Does EnVision allow you to swap a set of performers and have that propagate all the way to either be beginning or ending?
Yes. You are on the right track with the Switch Performers tool. It's a quite powerful tool but it isn't obvious how it is best used. To get the most out of the tool you can drag the blue and purple multi-purpose markers in the timeline. The blue marker represents the beginning of the switch and the purple marker represents the end. The blue marker stays locked to the current set so you can see on-screen where the switch starts. So for example if you wanted to switch performers from set 5 back to the beginning, you would select the performers you want to switch on set 5 and drag the purple marker back to set 1.
It also has more advanced features such as being able to swap several performers at once and allowing their order to be "cycled" by an arbitrary amount. For example ABC could become CAB or BCA.
2. Does EnVision allow you to select a set of performers and equalize the interval between them?
I'm not sure I fully understand the use-case but I think the answer is no. If all the aforementioned performers were added to the same form then the intervals would be automatically equalized. Going back and changing the form position and intervals later is also quite easy.
I am interested in this functionality, and for that matter any functionality that could make the drill writing process easier, so I would like to hear more about how it works and what benefits it gives.
3. Does EnVision allow you to take existing forms of Performers and regroup & reshape them in any way?
EnVision does some of what you are asking in this question but not all of it. First, what it doesn't do: Currently, forms are not carried over from one set to the next and they cannot be converted between different forms. That being said, this is a feature that we have been looking at and it would be great to have someone work with us to come up with the best way to implement it.
So now on to what it does do: EnVision is very flexible with your workflow and groupings of performers and forms. If you want your performers to be in a multi-curve instead of an arc then you would have to create a new form and transfer the members over to it. However creating forms and adding members to them is exceedingly simple. Ordering performers properly so that they end up in the right position on the form tends to be the hardest part but there are several selection ordering mechanisms to make this process as easy as possible. For example simply clicking on an existing form will select all performers on that form.
Being able to "morph" a form into a different type of form would certainly be a better method of the above which is why we are planning to add such a feature.
If you'd like, you can contact us directly at contact@box5software.com. We would love to continue this conversation in an effort to make EnVision as easy as possible to use while still providing the most complete tool set to our users.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
William