Folks, I bow down to...

lights4321. I just watched his video on YouTube, and have been shaking my head for 15 minutes. He has three TOTALLY INSANE videos that I'm in awe of. One word... "Passion". Anyone interested in lighting needs to see these. Go to YouTube and search lights4321. This years Christmas show is over the top.

I have ShowXpress, and most of the lights and a few dimmer packs, and assume I can do the same thing... Curtis, you need to call me and teach me how to do that. This is my next step up from 12 fixture controllers...

This is just like the kid who saw a magic trick, and can't rest till he knows how it's done. I'm sure that's exactly why you created it! I gotta do this next Christmas.

Just paste the links here and we can see them. I'm afraid to go out of the house (ODJT).

the "embed links" are turned off at owners request.

Thanks Tyrone! Let me know what sort of questions you have. I don't have a clue about Show Express but I'm sure the PC based controllers are pretty similar. I use Elation Compuware. I've been reading a lot of your posts, seems you already know a lot about DMX and lighting already. :sqbiggrin:

One word WOW.

Could we have an equipment list for the 2007 show?

Also what was controlling it? That's a bunch of channels and how many steps?

Hey Curtis...

I purchased the software last year and only played with it on the kitchen counter for an hour or so. I have not played with the music portion. I am assuming that you can take time cues off of any mp3 that is entered into the program. I have no clue how to do that yet. And with many of my new fixtures, there probably isn't parameters in the data bank, so I'll have to put them in myself.

I watched your videos again today and considered several things you must be doing. In order to have your fixtures turn on after having been aimed in another direction in the previous scene, you must have to move them "dark" as a pre setup for the next scene... correct? In other words, you are using up a step to move them to the next position with the lamp off.

If that is the case, you must be using hundreds of steps for just one song. And, I again assume that there is some sort of time fade built into each step so the light fades from one scene to the next or sweeps very slow or fast from one the next? Is this something you set individually with each step on a time curve?

On two of my fixtures I have a "Pulse" function, and I noticed that in several spots, all of your lights pulsed. Can you still create this effect without the pulse, and just time each step VERY short? Making it look like several fixtures are strobing with eachother...

Enough questions for the moment.

MBM,

There were about 160 cues (or scenes and switches as they are called in the software). In each cue, of course, there were multiple "steps" happening. The equipment list was as follows (might be leaving out a few things but this is off the top of my head)....
-19x Par 64 500 watt (combination of NSP and WFL
-6x 6" Fresnel 500 watt
-13x Morpheus Color Fader (CMY Scrollers)
-3x Morpheus Color Ranger (color scrollers)
-5x Martin Roboscan 518
-4x Elation Active Scan 250
-2x Martin Atomic 3000 (ran 220v for brighter effect)
-8x American DJ Sparkles
-4x Chauvet Mirage Color Changers (truss warmers)
-2x Altman Ellipsoidals (for breakup pattern)
-5x Snow Machines
-1x American DJ Multi-Star
-12x Par 38 (chasing lights on side panels)
-9x Dimmer Pack
-2x Relay Pack
-1x DMX Splitter (Elation DMX Branch 4)
-Xmas lights

Lots of cables!

Tyrone,

Yes! You picked up on one of the things you MUST do in order to have clean programming. In order for transitions to work and fade times to look clean, you must create "Mark" cues...or cues that move the fixture and prep it for the next cue while its shutter is closed....that is unless the movement is intentional. Same goes to programming scrollers. How lame would it look if you had to pass through the entire gel string in order to arrive at a certain color. If the color is programmed the cue before, then it looks "normal" when you fade in the fixture. In this case, CMY scrollers allow for live changes, but the first color should always be programmed in the dark. Remember the average audence member will consider all the cues to be intentional...if the cues are messy then they will have to accept them as being that way on purpose. Thats the one thing that bothers me when I go watch shows at certain theme parks and other places where hired designers don't take the time to clean up their work.

Also, in order to trigger all the cues with the music, a Cycle was created. This button would contain all the scened I programmed. It would trigger a WAV file saved on the hard drive and then all the cues would be timed with that WAV file. I always have my WAV editing program in another window (two monitors helps) showing the WAV file with red markers indicating where where the cues take place and how long they last for. This makes typing in the times a lot easier. Now some of you who also use the Elation Software may be wondering why I dont use Easy Show (included in the pro version). Well the truth is....I tried. Man is that program a piece of crap. You can zoom in, but not enough to actually view the sound waves accurately enough to drop in your scenes. It would have taken days for me to play it back and then "nudge" the cue over slightly to get the timing right. In this case some cues lasted only a fraction of a second.

About that last question, I'm not sure if I understand correctly. All scenes and chases in this show were created from scratch...except for simple shutter chases in which you simply use the software's chase selection and link them to your shutters on the fixture. Particularly in that song at the beginning with the green backlight and lots of shutter chases....all of that was programmed by me....I didn't use any built in attributes within the DMX channels, nor any built in programs on the software. The speed of the chase was then adjusted to work with the music.

Curtis I am Bowing down as I read. Thanks for bringing such awesome info to the common man. So could I say the sky isnt your limit? We would love for you to stick around and let some of the future rub off on us.