What is an intensity chase

[edmonston]

Noob question, sure. But it came up in a conversation with someone saying they can't be done manually.

[paulears]

Just a chase that builds and fades rather than snaps on and off, they often get set so that the next channel starts to fade up before the previous has gone out so when doing a slow chase, the pattern sort of flows. You could just about manage a 3 channel intensity chase on faders, but it's a pain to do, and normally they're automated.

[edmonston]

Just a chase that builds and fades rather than snaps on and off, they often get set so that the next channel starts to fade up before the previous has gone out so when doing a slow chase, the pattern sort of flows. You could just about manage a 3 channel intensity chase on faders, but it's a pain to do, and normally they're automated.

 

Thanks, Paulears. It seems that whenever I have a question, you answer it :)

[paulears]

Indeed - but many would assert that frequency of response doesn't always mean I make sense! I'm still one of those who prefers to chase with buttons, manually - and use automatic or preprogrammed chases very sparingly!

[WiLL]

Just a chase that builds and fades rather than snaps on and off, they often get set so that the next channel starts to fade up before the previous has gone out so when doing a slow chase, the pattern sort of flows. You could just about manage a 3 channel intensity chase on faders, but it's a pain to do, and normally they're automated.

 

Thanks, Paulears. It seems that whenever I have a question, you answer it :)

 

 

I'm fairly sure this is because whereas most of us log on to blueroom and check it via a pc, tablet or mobile device every now and then, many of us here believe that Paulears actually IS the internet. Or failing that, he is a brain in a jar on a shelf somwhere with a wifi connection.

[peza2010]

I'm still one of those who prefers to chase with buttons, manually.

Same here. I have yet to find a desk that can be as accurate, and more importantly not slip out of time as doing it manually.

[LXbydesign]

Actually, as well as what Paul mentioned.... in the land of moving lights -an intensity chase would be JUST the dimming and / or shutter channel on the fixture opening and closing in either a xfade type pattern or snap from fixture to fixture thus creating an intensity chase.

 

X/Y axis , colour, gobo, prism etc would be unaffected.

[mark_s]

To me, it means what Dominic just said - a chase over the intensity attribute of a fixture.

[indyld]

To me, it means what Dominic just said - a chase over the intensity attribute of a fixture.

 

+1 to that. I don't think I ever heard the expression "intensity chase" relating to conventional fixtures prior to multi-attribute fixtures becoming common. It was just a "chase" regardless of bumps, fades or whatever.

 

Now you can "chase" a number of different attributes including gobos, colours, positions etc. the intensity chase relates to that attribute. Another phrase for a similar effect but with a more distinct meaning is the "shutter chase" when used with moving lights. This obviously relates to the use of a dimming or strobe shutter but I'd say that most ML programmers and LDs will relate to a shutter chase as not just being flashing intensities but an effect that opens and closes shutters around the rig, making the beams more dynamic. The shutter chase can be either with the fixtures in a static position or while running a position effect, large circles around an audience position was always popular and continues to be fashionable.

 

My question for other ML bods is: Do you think of an intensity chase and a shutter chase as being the same thing?

 

For me, one is a chase on the intensity attribute while the other is a specific effect that I know my expectation of the final effect.

[Joe Bleasdale]

I think of an Intensity chase as ANY chase or effect running on the intensity channel - whether it bumps, fades, runs all in sync or random is irrelivant. If intensity is doing something other than being ON @ X% it's an Intensity chase.

 

Shutter chase is the same thing, yea it could be just opening and closing shutters around the rig as Rob mentioned - or it could be chasing between FAST STROBE and OPEN or RANDOM STROBE and OPEN. Again, anything running on the shutter channel is a shutter chase.

 

Different LDs describe things differently. I get asked for Intensity waves, shutter stabs, colour flicks and "that gobo spinny one we had last time" - in essence it's all the same logic! ;)

 

Thanks.

[Ashley R]

 

"that gobo spinny one we had last time" - in essence it's all the same logic! ;)

 

 

http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif they referred to it as a gobo, Its usually described to me as that spinning thing/ pattern that looked cool in the air. http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif

[mark_s]

http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif they referred to it as a gobo, Its usually described to me as that spinning thing/ pattern that looked cool in the air. http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif

 

I'd hope, given the scale of some of Joe's work, that his clients would be know what a gobo is ;)