The web site and its embedded drill applet, called SilverDrill, present a fun and easy game for making and sharing animated shows online.  If you need a professional drill design solution to create and print shows for your students or clients, I offer a desktop program called Field Artist for that.  Click here to learn more about Field Artist.

This web site lets you create shows and view marching band / drum corps shows that you or other members have made, send messages to other members, and participate in message boards. Basic level membership is free. In the future, there may be a small charge for some premium features.

You can edit your shows after you save them by going to the "Manage My Shows" page under the "CREATE" section.  Just click on the title of your show in the list to make changes.

You can embed YouTube videos in your show pages after you save the show.  This allows you to have music playing along with your show.  To include music, edit your show and paste the Embed string from the YouTube video you want to use into the field provided, and click the Save button there.

You don't need an account to look at shows, but you need an account to create your own shows, add shows to your favorites list, rate shows, vote for shows, or message other members. It only takes a minute to create an account, and it's free.

The web site is simple to use.  Just click on the menu choices at the top to navigate to the section you want to access.  When clicking on the menu choices, you have to click on the TEXT of the menu item, not just on the rectangle of the menu item. 

There are two rows of web site menus.  There is a top level menu for general areas, and when you click on that area, a second level menu beneath it will display the options for that area.  To get to an area, just click on the top level choice for the general area, and then find the option you want within the second menu level.

When you go to a page on the web site, the menu choices at the top stay highlighted to show you what area and subarea of the web site you are currently in.

If you click on an area that requires an account, you are automatically directed to a screen that lets you log in or create an account.  Once logged in, the web site will redirect you back to the page you were trying to access.

The general areas on the top menu are as follow:

WATCH

This menu choice lets you view existing shows.  When you visit this are, you will see the menu choices on the second line for the particular things you might want to do.  You can the top rated shows, the newest shows, shows by your self or another member, or shows you have marked as your favorites.  To view a show, just click on the title of the show in the list.

When you view a show, you can vote for that show, rate the show, or leave comments about it.  All comments you leave about shows are public.   Be polite.  This is a friendly web site and a supportive creative community of your peers.  You can also comment on your own shows when viewing them.  Comments are visible to everyone.  If you want to send a private message to a member, you can click on their name to visit their user profile and click the link there to send a message.

You can view a list of your own shows from within the WATCH section, but you will be viewing them in view only mode and will be unable to make changes.  To edit a show you have made, you have to go the CREATE section and click on "Manage My Shows".  Then you can click on the title of a show to open it in edit mode.

All the show list pages include a FA column.  If you see a "Yes" in the FA column, it means that show was created using Field Artist, our professional drill design program.  You can view the FA shows online in your browser as long as you have the latest software updates from Microsoft.  You can publish shows on Field Artist Central even with the trial version of Field Artist as long as you have a user account on this web site.



CREATE

This menu choice lets you create a new show or edit an existing show.  The SilverDrill applet for creating shows will appear in the browser window.  If you don't see the applet ( it looks like a green field with white lines ) then click Help on the web site menu to visit the Silverlight help section and install the free Silverlight runtime.

Under the CREATE section, you can click the NEW SHOW tab to create a new show in the applet, or MANAGE MY SHOWS to see a list of shows you have already made.

In this area, you can make some of your shows private if you don't want others to see them.  You can also delete shows that you don't want any more.

If you want to edit an existing show you have already made, you have to go to the CREATE section, click on "Manage My Shows" and you will see a list of shows you have made.  You can then click on the title of the show to bring it up in edit mode. 

You can edit your shows after you save them by going to the "Manage My Shows" page under the "CREATE" section.  Just click on the title of your show in the list to make changes.  You can add a description to your show from the edit page, and you can also add flag animations and add more sets to the end of the show.

You can embed YouTube videos in your show pages after you save the show.  This allows you to have music playing along with your show.  To include music, edit your show and paste the Embed string from the YouTube video you want to use into the field provided, and click the Save button there.

If you want to create Field Artist shows and upload them to the website, you can click here to learn about Field Artist and download a free trial copy.  Field Artist shows are not created online, but they can be uploaded and viewed online on this web site.



ACCOUNT

This section lets you edit your use profile which controls what informaton you want to share about yourself.  You can also manage your favorite members and blocked members from menu choices within this area.

You can add a member to your favorites by clicking their name to visit their profile page, then clicking the link on their profile to add them to your favorites.  If you want to remove someone from your favorites, you go to the FAVORITE MEMBERS page under the ACCOUNT area.

This is also the area of the web site where you log on or log off.



COMMUNITY

This is the area where you can contribute to message boards, start a new message board, read and reply to private messages from other members, and read show comments that members have sent to you.  In this section you can delete comments on your shows that you don't like. 

In the community section you can also start challenges and participate in challenges.  Challenges are contests that are judged by the participants.  Anyone can start a challenge.



HELP

This is the section of the web site where you can get help about how to use the web site and the drill applet.  Don't skip to another web page while you are working on a show in the applet, or you will lose your work.

Each member has a user profile where you can display a picture and some information about yourself.  To get to the user profile for a member, just click on that person's member name in a list of shows or on a show page.

From the profile page, you can add a member to your list of favorite users.  When you do this, every show they make will appear on a list of shows by your favorite members that you can get to from the WATCH area of the web site.

To edit your own profile information and upload a picture, just go to the ACCOUNT section of the web site and click on EDIT PROFILE.

If you want to send a private message to a member, visit their user profile and click on the link for "Send A Message".  Keep it clean, respectful, and supportive.  Obviously, members who harass other members will be banned from the site. 

If you do have any problems with a member, you can visit their profile page and click the link for "Block Member."  This will add that member to a list of people who are not allowed to message you or comment on your shows.