Creating an effect..

[ceecrb1]

I know, for someone of my experience I should know.. but the truth is I have very little lighting desk experience (last of the main things I've yet to do really)

 

so.. having problems with the idea of an effect. not really a desk specific problem just a general how to do a chase...

 

say I had a bar with for arguments sake 10 movers on (all hypothetical here) and say I wanted all odd numbers to move, finnish moving then close shutter...

at this point all even numbers should move (shutter open) and the odd number lights should be returning to start possition with shutters closed...... at the end of their movement, evens close shutter...

odds open shutter and move, evens return to start... and so on (repeat)

 

an example could be.. lights always swaying from left to right, as one group reaches right, another starts the "sway" from left to right... ie light only moves left to right but is "continual"

 

now I can see how to repeate the movement.. but not with the shutter opening and closing as and when I choose...

 

edit.. I can also see how to make ALL the lights do this effect... ie light moves.. shutters close.. reset.. but not "stepped" with 2 or more groups

[Nat_Keiller]

This question really has no meaning without knowing what Desk you wish to achieve this on. It is certianly very possible; but a lot depends on which console you would be using.

 

Some desk would be able to do this with a few clicks, some would struggle to do this easily at all.

[gareth]

On desks which are clever enough to be able to apply different times to different attributes within the same cue, a simple two-step cuelist/chase will achieve this :

Step 1 : odd-numbered fixtures shutter open (snap) and move to position A (in req'd time) ; even-numbered fixtures shutter closed (snap) and move to position B (in req'd time)

Step 2 : vice-versa.

 

On other desks (e.g. Strand 500-series) which can't apply different times to different attributes in the same recorded 'event', you'd have to be a bit cleverer about it. Either a 4-step chase, with alternate steps controlling the shutters (in the shortest step time that the desk can possibly handle) and the movement (in the required movement time), or - to stick with the 500 as a practical example - if appropriate you could set up a loop of two 2-part move-fade cues with the shutters in a part set to snap and the movement in another part set to fade in the required time.

[mac.calder]

The four step chase would not be that hard on any desk really.

 

Step 1:

- Odds: Shutter Open, Pan/Tilt to Pos 0

- Evens: Shutter Close, Pan/Tilt to Pos 1

- Timing: 0 (if your desk allows it, or whatever its snap setting is)

nb: If your desk allows you to put in a step before the looped chase, then put the pan/tilt for step one in there, with shutters closed on all fixtures.

 

Step 2:

- Odds: Pan/Tilt to Pos 1

- Evens: Pan/Tilt to Pos 0

- Timing: Whatever

 

Step 3:

- Odds: Shutter Close

- Evens: Shutter Open

- Timing: 0

 

Step 4:

- Odds: Pan/Tilt to Pos 0

- Evens: Pan/Tilt to Pos 1

- Timing: Whatever

[ceecrb1]

ahhh that I get now...

 

yeah the 4 stage chase seems to be more "work" but if learn to use that "idea" it means I should be a little more "learned" for most desks around....

 

at work we have a very wide selection of desks and software, hence the question was very general..

(infact the company does not own 2 desks the same.... all are "unique" if you see what I mean)

 

thanks!

c

[Cormac]

Hi,

if I'm reading this correctly your looking for a "fly out" chase where the fixtures move/open shutter and then next group do the same.

This method is slightly different and came from the early VL programmers and works on most moving light consoles.

 

1/Record 2 focus positions with all the lights,one say "down" and the next "up".

2/Select all your fixtures at full intesity in position "down" with the shutters closed and record this on the same fader/chase 4 times.

3/Open cue 1 and open the shutter on all odd spots and change the position to up and update.

4/Open cue 2 and open the shutter on all even spots and change the position to up and update

5/Open cue 3 and open the shutter on all odd washs and change the position to up and update

6/Open cue 4 and open the shutter on all even wash's and change the position to up and update

 

Replay your chase and you should have a fly out chase with shutters opening and closing and changing position,it is slightly more long winded but is much more accurate than trying to open and close shutters in the same chase step,it can also be applied to colour,Beam,intesity etc as required.I use it for creating cloour wheeel chases a lot

 

Another way of getting to the same point.

 

C

[ceecrb1]

excelent thanks!

 

didnt have anything specific in mind.. really just the most simple analogy I could think of and explain easily for how to get round a general problem..

 

how to make 2 groups do different things but with a little coordination..

 

ta muchly all

[gareth]

1/Record 2 focus positions with all the lights,one say "down" and the next "up".

2/Select all your fixtures at full intesity in position "down" with the shutters closed and record this on the same fader/chase 4 times.

3/Open cue 1 and open the shutter on all odd spots and change the position to up and update.

4/Open cue 2 and open the shutter on all even spots and change the position to up and update

5/Open cue 3 and open the shutter on all odd washs and change the position to up and update

6/Open cue 4 and open the shutter on all even wash's and change the position to up and update

Which, to all intents and purposes, is exactly the same as the method I described above, but modified a bit to take into account the slight peculiarity of trying to record such a beast on a tracking console. (That's to say, recording four sets of identical 'hard' values, then modifying those values for certain fixtures in one step at a time.)

 

it is slightly more long winded but is much more accurate than trying to open and close shutters in the same chase step

Don't understand your point - it's exactly the same as opening and closing shutters in the same chase step - it's just that you go through the chase twice to record the result you want - first time through recording everything with shutters closed, and the second time through modifying some of the shutters to open. To be honest, it's exactly how I'd go about recording such a chase on a Hog or my MagicQ, but I deliberately kept it simple when I described it to someone who's evidently an inexperienced programmer in an attempt to clearly and succinctly describe the end result.

[Cormac]

Hi,

not trying to confuse anybody just giving an alternative way of getting to the same point,I can only speak for myself but if you can get your head around the method I described it can applied in many ways which can give results ranging from very complicated to very simple,the reason I suggested it is because as you correctly noted you give each step of the chase a hard value to to return to so if you apply this method you could have an Iris,shutter,colour,focus position etc changing and then snapping back to it's original.Trying to change several parameters at once in a "simple" chase can become confusing if you also have to bring them back to the first hard value you began with that's why I use the method I described.

I find this way easier granted others may not,somebody taught me this way and I'm passing on the information which I'm sorry you have taken afront to.

 

That's all from me.

[ceecrb1]

its becoming clear to me that there are many ways to tackle this problem (just like computer programming, which I DO have experience in....)

 

In which case (again compairing to computer programming) there are many ways to tackle the same problem with the same outcome.. even though many are similar, they are not the same..... however the end result is the same and this is more important.

 

truth be told I'm glad that there are more than one replies with different (slightly or majorly) options, I want to learn and things like these are great teaching aids..

learning to do something one way is just repetition, learning to do it many ways is closer to a "better" programmer

(ie just like me having to learn spanish.. learning to say what I wanted was easy (with one method).. learning the 100 other ways the spanish can say it back to me was hard!)

 

edit.. sorry if this post is a bit strange..its 5am and I'm just back from some bars...... spanish beer........

[Jamtastic3]

Wow I'm glad my Pulsar Masterpiece can create a fly out chase from just one scene!