CAD Lighting Design for TV studio work

[Cal]

Hey,

 

first post, I have been working in the industry as a general tech as well as camera operator/ LA / Location sound for 5 years and am currently finishing my degree and want to start using CAD based liighting design for tv studio work rather than just pencil and paper methods.

 

can you guys suggest a cheap (really cheap) programme for this sort of of work I have looking into a couple such as sweetlight but I feel there may be more theater and studio based programmes that deal with floods and fresnels rather than just movers etc.

 

We use mostly quartzcolour lamps on a ceiling grid with a variety of 200w-6000w fresnels, 2k fresnels, arturo softlights and iris cyclights, with a single mac250 and profile (for gobo projection) .

we also use floor and stand mounted 750watt bambino fresnels, aurturo softlights and parcans.

 

I wouldn't ask If I hadn't allready looked through a few forums allready so sorry if this has allready been answered.

 

Cal

[Paul_R]

Cal,

If you want just plans then take a look at LXDesigner.

 

Regards,

Paul

[Cal]

Allready painstakingly created photoshop files for plans during my second year. (using pre exisiting plans but seperating each movable bar into movable layers).

 

Im looking for something which I can create a sort of visualisation of what the lighting will look like before entering the studio and also to plan changes during the scenes.

While not 100% nessecary I feel it may be more usefull in design then just relying on intinstinct and previous knowledge of what works. And also of course to bolster my paper work :D

[Paul_R]

Cal,

Ah for Visualisation, personally I use Capture

 

Other options off the top of my head are;

WYSIWYG

LightConverse

Martin ShowDesigner

Vision

 

None of the above though I would say are really cheap though, more the pro packages..

 

Daslight probably won't have the tv studio fixtures..

Magic 3D might though?

 

Paul

[Cal]

Currently having a play with Daslight, they have strand 6,8 fresnels which will close enough emulate what I need for thinking and demonstratic research. Just teaching myself how to use the programme.

 

Thanks should hopefull get to grips with it soon

 

Cal