User:Kgonzo210/sandbox

I. Anatomy of the Glove In terms of today’s gloves, they consist of two main parts: the glove itself and multiple microlights placed inside.

The Glove The glove itself is one of the most recognizable features of a glover. Gloves come in many colors and sizes, but can be found most commonly as white cotton gloves or black gloves with white tips. There exists other types of gloves including glow in the dark, multi-colored rainbow, and more. The use of special white cotton gloves allow a weave that allows the glove to be stretched out so to accommodate the size of the glover’s fingers as well as the microlights that are placed inside.

The Microlight The most important part of any glover’s arsenal is their set of microlights. These lights come in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Each microlight usually comes with an LED bulb, a casing, an electronic chip, and batteries. The LED bulb is where the light is shown through and can contain a number of different LED colors. The electronic chip is a smart chip built specifically for gloving that allows the glover to turn the light on/off, allow customization, and/or switch modes. The batteries of course power the chip and bulb, and the casing holds it all together. In the gloving market, there is a wide assortment of various bulbs, chips, and casings allowing glovers full customization of their sets.

A Beginner's Guide to Microlights, Chips, and Casings by /u/ProdigyLightshow

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III. Moves and Definitions Here is a quick run through and guide of the various gloving terms that you may here as well as some tutorials.

Common gloving terms:

Blow (someone) up – To give someone a lightshow. (or using a Vick's inhaler) Creatures - The concept involving shaping your hands into animal-like forms. Fingershow – A performance conducted using fingers without lights, optionally with just white gloves or no gloves at all. Flow - The overall smooth, connected performance of a show. Diffuser – A specialized piece of rubber or plastic placed on the end of a microlight in order to give the light a different effect. Double(or more) Team – A lightshow consisting of two or more people gloving. Impact – A type of move/style that is typically used to get up close to the viewer during a change or drop, essentially “leaving an impact” on the lightshow. Inverted - When a light is placed upside down inside the glove (usually facing towards the palm). Lightshow – A performance conducted using lights, usually LED lights. Levels - The use of the whole performance space and creating a varied space rather than keeping to a single area. or Avicci's best song. Melting (someone’s face) – The act of giving a lightshow to a person in hopes of blowing their mind. Morphing - The concept using digits/dials in order to morph the general shape of your lights. Musicality – The measure at which a glover’s show is in flow with the music. Palmlight – A microlight placed within the palm of each hand. Held in place usually with Velcro. Technicality - This refers to a glover's use of advanced moves in a clean and smooth fashion. Thumblight – A microlight placed in the thumb spot.

(Will be continually updating with new terms)

Figure 8’s Taken from the other flow arts such as free-hand glowsticking, figure 8’s involve moving one’s hands in a figure 8 motion.

Finger rolls/waves One of the most basic moves for gloving, rolls and waves involved moving your fingers one after the other forming a wave-like effect. In the gloving world, roll and wave tend to be inter-changeable, but when trying to differentiate, rolls typically involve the full opening and closing of fingers while waves tend to be completely open fingers moving in a wave.

Whips/Tunnels/Circle Move/Flails Whips and tunnels are performed by creating circular arcs with finger rolls. The circle move is a combination of whips/tunnels that form a moving circle. Flails on the other hand or closed finger circular movements that mimic the shapes of full circles. These are all hard to explain in words, but easily identifiable when shown.

Liquid This a dancing style that has been around forever. Liquid involves just that, mimicking the act of a liquid by moving one’s finger, hands, arms, and body in a continuous flowing wave.

King Tuts/Finger Tuts/Wave Tuts Tutting is another form of dancing that has been around for a while. It involves making sharp angles using your hands/arms/body. Many of these are based on combinations rather than free flow (which is possible, but takes much time and skill) and so it is up to you to learn the basics and make your own combinations.

Conjuring Conjuring involves using your microlights to make an illusion that the light passes around objects, through objects, or being thrown. It typically involves quick use and skill with turning on/off your microlights in quick succession.

Digits/Dials/Passthroughs Digiting is a newer style brought into gloving that involves the flexibility and use of fingers. Much of it involves the stacking of fingers in various combinations as well as bending fingers at the middle point resulting in new light shapes/forms, and the use of passthroughs.

Stacking This involves placing one hand out front, then stacking the other hand on top while removing the first hand, essentially creating the illusion of a hand staying in place.

Depth Perception/Grid A more advanced concept is the use of depth perception and placement in your lightshows. This centers around using the whole view of your audience: close, far, left, right, up, and down. The grid specifically refers to placement of your movements within this field of depth.

These are only some basic moves for you to get a rounded perspective of gloving. The community is continually evolving with new concepts and advanced techniques, so it is up to you to keep learning, practicing, and developing your own style. .

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IV. General Tips and Tricks Gloving Etiquette

Gloving is an art. It is like any other flow art or dance move or drawing a picture. Gloving is an art form and each person has his or her own style. Do not disrespect the show. Be courteous when giving/receiving a lightshow. It is a performance that takes time and effort and should be appreciated. Plus lightshows are the shit. Why wouldn’t you be watching them? Glovers are a community. Most glovers aren’t douchebags and have awesome personalities. They love gloving just as much as you do. Ask before gloving. When giving a show, ask before you do so. This doesn’t have to be a whole “Excuse me madam, would you be so interested in a show of lights?” A simple wave of the gloves and a nod is all it takes. Just be respectful and don’t get up in people’s business who don’t want none of that. Don’t touch their face. Unless you have their prior permission, don’t touch their face with your gloves. Especially if you snuck them into an event with your underwear. Gross. Melt faces. People who ask for lightshows are asking for you to melt their brains. So don’t hold back and go for it. Have fun. Most importantly, just have fun and be yourself. Gloving is all about having a great time and sharing an experience with others. Don’t worry about giving a bad show or not being good enough. If you’re having fun, everyone else will have fun too.

General Tips

Practice makes perfect. Keep practicing and you’ll become cleaner and better at performing a move. It all takes time. Take breaks. Your fingers, hands, and arms will need to rest after giving many shows. Don’t overdo it or you may get injured. Feel the music. Musicality is one of the most important aspects in developing a memorable lightshow. It’s about building a story and an experience. Try new moves. When practicing or even when giving shows, take risks and try out new combinations and new moves. This is best for creating your unique style. "Wasted Movement" - "Wasted movement refers to extra motion done by the hands/arms which eliminates the illusion created by the moves. Movement in gloving needs to be very specific, only a few movements can be done at a time, I.E. a roll, a pivot, a slide. When there is too much excess movement, it starts to look sloppy, and hard to follow as the viewer. Think about it all existing on a x, y, and z axis. If you start adding unnecessary units into the equation, the problem becomes a jumbled impossible mess." (Thanks to /u/tokemcsmoke) "some advice I got from a friend. She was practicing gloving with the lights out (albeit for a pretty long time) and accidentally gave herself flicker vertigo because her gloves were the only light in the room. A soft backlight can prevent this. Just a good safety tip that I thought could help." (Thanks to /u/tatanka93)

. . . V. Beginner Progression/Where do I start? Every glover is different and has their own ways about learning to glove and improving. For those that are not sure where they should start, here is a general outline of how most glovers start out. Just remember that everyone is different and it may take you longer or shorter to learn concepts, but if you keep practicing, you'll eventually get to wherever you want to be.

Learn the finger roll - The most basic backbone of all gloving is the finger roll. Once you can master how to roll your fingers, many other concepts will come by a lot easier. Learn whips / liquid / waves - With the finger roll concept understood, try moving on to whips by moving your finger roll in a circular fashion. Learn waves by moving your finger roll on a single plane. Then add some liquid in to really start your foundation on flow. Transitions - Once you have a solid core of basic moves, you'll want to practice on transitioning, or connecting each different move in a seamless manner. You'll want each move to look smooth (not choppy). Figure out how to connect your moves and you'll have a good lightshow going every time. Learn Advanced Concepts - With your basic moves and transitions, you're ready to incorporate some more advanced techniques like tutting, digiting, morphing, etc. Work on learning the concept of the style first, check out videos and tutorials. Create a new move based on these concepts. Then figure out how to transition from one of your other moves to this new move. Always think of multiple entry and exit transitions to different moves so you can keep your shows varied. Build your Flow - imo, the most important part of any lightshow is the glover's flow. This is a mixture of moves, transitions, depth, emotion, passion, and everything else in a lightshow. You want your show to tell a story and bring our your expressive spirit. Being smooth in your transitions and moving from concept to concept seamlessly is the epitome of good flow. Flow take time. No one can pick up flow in a day. It will take a long time regardless. But it is the goal for always delivering great light shows.