“Biped”: a dance with virtual and company dancers. 2

For pt. I, see ibid., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 4-7, 1999. Merce Cunningham´s “Biped” has been critically acclaimed for its unique mix of physical and virtual choreography. “Biped” employs motion capture to record the physical dance moves of two company dancers and to transfer the movements to the virtual skeleton within the computer via the Character Studio plug-in. Riverbed artists Shelley Eshkar and Paul Kaiser created and texture-mapped fluid hand-drawings onto the skeleton (the skeleton disappears and only the drawings are visible). In live performance, these abstract apparitions are projected on a scrim (a transparent material separating the dancers from the audience). In the intervening months, the talents that converged to spawn “Biped” have moved on from the collaboration to resume their original creative paths. The Merce Cunningham Dance Studio has been on a European tour with “Biped”, and Riverbed´s Kaiser has debuted a solo work in the San Francisco Bay Area. Discreet and Unreal Pictures continue to refine and adapt the capabilities of the Character Studio software to the latest release of 3D Studio Max. This article explains how they came together in the first place, and how they might again