Terminology for toolbox and actions

Upstage Spaces

1. Foyer: this is the public landing page for an UpStage instance (e.g. upstage.live)

• "What's On" - display of current and upcoming public performances: thumbnail image, title, brief description (maybe also participating players?) and live link at show time
• Box Office - how to buy tickets
• Player log-in ("stage door"): enter username and password to access Backstage [Helen: we have just had some discussion on Slack about changing "Dashboard" to "Backstage"]

2. Backstage: administrative interface:** [Helen: some of the following terms are still in flux ...]**

• create and manage stages (list of stage names; click on name to enter stage; alongside stage names, buttons to edit stage settings, access logs/recordings and clone or delete stage; display order: first "my stages" then others (alphabetical and sortable?)
• manage player profile, admins can add and manage players
• statistics: access statistical reports relating to this UpStage instance
• UpStage admin: customisable settings for this UpStage instance

3. Stage: The space where the live Cyberformance is created and happens

• Live stage: rehearsals and presentation of cyberformance. The live stage can be public (viewed by an audience) or private (used for Rehearsal)
• Workshop overlay: where artists can upload media and pre-prepare scenes and the elements that are needed for their cyberformance. It will serve as the media management of a performance.(Riad: Are we still calling it as workshop? Is it now the scene section?)** [Helen: actually we aren't using "workshop" anymore, and we also haven't really used the "overlay" idea in the same way as originally planned; the admin area outside of the live stage is Backstage, and the tools on the stage are at the moment i think just the on-stage tools ... unless we want to use the terms from before like Wardrobe for avatars]**

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Tools

• Backdrop image that fills the entire background area of the stage.
• Avatar: a graphic object that a player operates to move around the stage and speak, a sort of digital puppet; able to speak aloud with text2speech, and text appears in chat and speech bubble.
• Props: Props are graphic elements that can be used by an avatar or on stage. They are placed as object in the scene.
• Audio: Prerecorded audio (.wav,.mpeg,.mp4,.aac,.aacp,.ogg,.webm,.flac.) files uploaded and assigned to the stage; tool palette to select, play, stop, mix together, adjust volume etc.
• Stream: an audio-visual feed that can be placed on the stage, moved around, manipulated (cropped into a circle/ made larger / smaller, louder / quieter etc).
• Draw: tool to directly draw on stage
• Text: Text Box that allows to write a text with choice of font, size and the options to make the text bold, italic or to underline it
• Stage: Everything that happens live on the stage and will be viewed in real time by the audience
• Scene: An offline stage where artists can prepare their assets before making them live. [Helen: this is not exactly right, since the scene is composed on the stage; but as we don't have this feature yet, it's hard to describe it. i think it will be more like: "A tool to save a pre-set of media that can be activated during a performance to start a new scene."]

Actions

• Opacity: Players can adjust the opacity of the avatar, props, stream, drawing or text
• Loop: Players can repeat and loop a sound, stream or image (Not available yet)
• Transform: In the transform setting, players can right click on avatar, props, drawing or text and are able to move, rotate, scale and change the z-index and opacity
• Clear (Backdrop): Players can remove the backdrop
• Clear (Drawing): Players can clear their entire drawing
• Remove: Players can individually remove the media from the stage by selecting the object and clicking delete on their keyboard or by right clicking on an object and choosing the delete icon (NOTE: we upload or delete media to and from the server; we assign or unassign media to and from a stage; and we place or remove media on the live stage)
• Erase: in the drawing tool, artists can erase parts of their drawing
• Release this avatar: (Riad: I am not really sure how I can explain the release avatar option, any help?) [Helen: this probably needs to be explained in conjunction with "Hold avatar": When a player places an avatar on stage, they are by default "holding" that avatar and can operate it and speak as it. If they wish to leave the avatar on stage but no longer hold it, they can "Release this avatar" from the context menu."
• Bring to front: Players can right click on their avatar or prop and choose which element appears on top of another
• Send to back: Players can right click on their avatar or prop and choose which element appears at the back of another element
• Change your nickname: Each player can change the name of their avatar by right clicking on it and choosing the change your nickname option
• Rotation: When you right click on an avatar or prop, you can rotate it within a 45 degree radius
• Slider: When you right click on an avatar or prop, you can choose if the slider indicates the opacity, frame animation or speed of movement
• Frame Animation: When places on the stage, animated avatars will appear as still images in the first frame of the animation, Once players right click on the avatar and choose the play option, the Frame animation starts
• Move Speed: This button controls the avatar movement. The default setting is for the avatar to jump to where you click. When players go down with the slider, the avatar's movement becomes slower and it glides towards where the player clicked.
• Stop: When the avatar is in animation mode, players can click on the avatar and it will stop moving.
• Chat Window: When a player types in the chat field, their text will appear in the chat window with their player name. If they are hodling an avatar, the text will appear in the chat window with the avatar's name, and appear as a speech bubble above the avatar on stage. Avatar text is voiced aloud by text2speech synthesis (not yet implemented).** [Helen: I changed this a bit - & maybe it should be separated out as the speech bubbles & text2speech are separate from chat window?]**

Audience

• Chat Window: Audience members can interact with the performance by typing into the text input field. They can select a nickname to appear with their text.
• Audience Engagement: Audience members can choose from a set of emojis to express their enthusiasm and reaction while watching the performance. (clapping hands emoji, celebration emoji, hearts emoji, Smile emoji) This option can be disabled in the workshop by the artists.** [Helen: maybe better to call this "Audience Reaction"? engagement implies a bit more than clicking an emoji ...]**

Maybe/Nice to have Terms (Can be implemented or removed later on)

• Zoom: Players can zoom into the stage, it can be used as a camera that moves around the stage (New) (hvj - interesting! could this be used for recording the performance? we had quite a bit of discussion about this & decided zoom is one possible feature & camera/recording is another feature https://github.com/upstage-org/mobilise/issues/53 - both need further research)
• Shapes: Shapes are elements that can be implemented in the stage. Such as circle, square, rectangle and triangle (New)
• Voice: When you upload a new avatar, you can select a voice for it from the dropdown menu in the upload screen. To change the voice of an avatar that has been previously uploaded, go to edit screen for that avatar and select a new voice from the dropdown menu. In both situations, you can test the voices to decide which one you want. (existed in previous UpStage) [Helen: this is not a nice-to-have! it's essential!]
• Preset: ability to save and edit an arrangement of media on the stage and then activate at certain point in a performance. [Helen: this is the "Scene" feature]
• Costume: Costumes for avatars that will be linked to them (previously could be inputted in the props). They can be attached to an avatar
• Transform: Additionally in the transform setting, players can right click on avatar, props, drawing or text and are able to flip and mirror
• Publish: Making an element in the private stage visible on the public stage [Helen: the idea is for the player to choose whether the audience sees something as they are doing it - for example a drawing being created, or an avatar scaling - or whether they only see the finished result]
• Recording: Artists and the Upstage Team can record the performance so they can keep in their archives. (exists in current UpStage with 3rd party software, screen recording; https://github.com/upstage-org/mobilise/issues/53)// (Do we want to implement a paid subscription that gives access to a recording option?)
• Reset: Players can go back to the way the original element looked like in case they made any changes in the transform setting
• Fade in/out: Players can use a slider to fade an avatar, prop or backdrop in or out; achieveable in CSS [Helen: this is done with the opacity slider, implemented for all media types except backdrops so far]
• Ease in/out: Players can adjust parameters for avatar movement including speed, bounce, wobble etc; achieveable in CSS [Helen: current default is the bounce, it would be good to be able to choose if you want that or not]