Effects, Effekte, Effets, Efectos, Effetti....

Congo v6 has 4 effect types: Chase, Dynamic, Content and Image. This tutorial covers the Chase Effect.

In this short tutorial, I'll walk you through the creation of a simple intensity chase effect object and then through using the new Chase Effect Playback to get that chase running on stage. You can use any play file to start with this tutorial, though I am assuming that there are no Effect Playbacks already inserted into that play. If there are, please choose a new number to use for the Effect Playback in step 2.

Basic Concepts

Effect Playbacks are used to play back "Chase" objects. Each Chase Effect Playback has two parameters - intensity and "Chase". Intensity acts as a master over the high levels output by the running chase - if you bring the Chase Effect Playback up to a level of 50%, then the chase will be limited to a highest level of 50%. If you take the Playback to 100% (Full), then the chase will play back with the levels you recorded into it.When the Chase Effect Playback is above 0% intensity, the chase can be said to be "running". When the Chase Effect Playback is brought back to 0%, the chase can be said to be "stopped".

Chase Effect Playbacks exist to play back Chase objects. The Chase object contains the channels and the steps and the timings you want to use in your chase. You can create a Chase Effect Playback and Chase object simultaneously from Live, or you can create Chase objects in a list and then play them back later. The default behavior of a chase is to go from 0% to 100% intensity on selected channels in a time of 0.2 seconds per step. You can edit these defaults to create customized chases of your own.

Create a simple chase effect:

1) Select channels 1-10.

2) Type [1] [INSERT]&[EFFECT] (press and hold the [INSERT] key then press the [EFFECT] key, then release both keys)  - this will open a dialog box that you can use to set the Effect Playback type.

3)  In the first tab, Chase Effect, select the "Use selected channels" box, enter 10 in the number of parts, and leave the distribution as Sequential. Select EXECUTE and press [MODIFY] to insert the chase playback and also make a new chase object at the same time. The effect playback is selected after you insert it so all you have to do to get the effect running is bring the level wheel up above 0%.

4) Press [SETUP]&[BROWSER] to open the Dock setup dialog. Docks are special display areas you can add to any screen connected to the Congo, the Browser is a Dock area that we open by default. In the "Bottom Area", open the drop-down menu and select "Effects", then select the MODIFY button and press MODIFY to close the dialog and open the new Effects Dock. In this dock you can see the inserted Effect Playbacks.

5) In the Browser, under Effects, you have all the effect data types. One of those is Chase Effects, and under that node you'll find Chases (chase objects). The new chase that was created when we inserted the playback is in that list. Press [MODIFY] on the Chases node to open the chase object list. Press [INSERT] while focused on this list view to insert a new chase object in the list. The Channel Distribution Wizard will open and you can use this wizard to insert your channels and steps. Select channels 11-20, then enter the number of steps, in this case 5, then choose the distribution method "Symmetrical" and select the EXECUTE button and press [MODIFY]. This inserts a new chase object using those channels distributed symmetrically across 5 steps. Add a text label to the two chase objects you have in the list - name the first one "Bob" and the second one "Joe".

6) Now that you have more than one chase object, you can play with the setting of the Effect Playback itself. Type [1] [EFFECT] to reselect the Chase Effect Playback you inserted before, then look at the encoders. The left-most encoder should display the Chase parameter, and you can use the wheel to select which chase the playback is running. Bring up the intensity of this Chase Effect Playback using the level wheel (you can also use keypad commands to set the intensity, just as you would for any other channel). Since we have not yet chosen to run a different chase object,  Effect 1 should be using the chase called Bob. When you bring up the intensity of Effect 1 you should see channels 1-10 chasing one by one. Use the encoder to dial up chase "Joe". You should see the chase on channels 1-10 disappear and now channels 11-20 should be chasing two at a time.  If you move the Chase encoder back and forth, you can see the different chase objects switch as you move the encoder.

Chase Effect Playbacks can only play back one chase at a time. If you want to be able to play back both the Bob and Joe chases at the same time, you need to insert another Chase Effect Playback. This is easy to do live, using [#] [INSERT]&[EFFECT] again (you can use this dialog to insert yet another new chase object at the same time, or you can simply execute the insertion without also making a new chase object - your choice), or you can open the Effect Playbacks List in the Browser and use [INSERT] to insert a new playback into the list. Use [#] [EFFECT] to select the new playback and use the encoder to set it to play back the other chase, then bring up the intensity. Now you have both chases Bob and Joe running simultaneously.

 7) To edit the contents of a Chase object, you can use the Browser or the new Effect soft keys to open the Chases list. To use the soft keys, press the Effect softkey to enter the page of effect commands, then press the Chase soft key to open the Chases list. In this list you can see the top-level settings for a chase. Direction and Style settings can be used to change the order of the steps and how the output of those steps gets played back. The Loop Time can be used to adjust all the step times in the chase to complete a single pass through all the steps in the total time entered in the Loop Time cell (so, if you have a 5 step chase for example, and you want it to take 10 seconds to make it through all 5 steps, enter the value "10" in the Loop Time cell. Congo will edit the step times on those 5 steps to 2 seconds, causing it to take 10 seconds to get through all 5 steps.) In, Dwell and Out time cells are available at the top level to adjust all steps to use the same timing quickly. Min and Max Rate settings can be used to speed up or slow down a chase evenly (set both Min and Max to the same value) or unevenly (set Min and Max to two different levels). When using the uneven settings, the Chase will randomly set the rate per step to a value between the minimum and maximum rates. You can use this to create organic chases for water, fire, tv, or any other irregular intensity effect you would like to create. Set these values close together for subtlety, or far apart for really erratic chases.

If you want to edit a chase step-by-step, select the Steps cell in this list and press [MODIFY]. This opens up the step editor where you can add or delete channels from individual steps, adjust the step and fade (In/Dwell/Out) timing for each step, and adjust the high and low intensity levels for each step. Standard table editing rules apply in this view, except for adding/deleting channels in each step. To adjust the channel assignments, simply select the step you wish to edit and look up at the top half of the tab. The channels in that step are selected (shown with the gold rim) like they are in Live. Use regular channel commands to adjust the channels assigned to this step: to add a new channel and keep the old ones, simply type [#] [+]; to remove a channel from this step, type [#] [-]; to completely change the channels assigned to this step type [#] [Ch] and continue adding channels normally. For those who use At Mode, normal channel selection syntax works here as well.

I hope this helps you to get comfortable with the new Congo v5 Chase Effects.

Thanks!

Sarah 

Congo v6 has 4 effect types: Chase, Dynamic, Content and Image. This tutorial covers the Dynamic Effect.

In this short tutorial, I'll walk you through the creation of a new Dynamic Effect Playback and how to get that effect running on stage. I recommend using the Demo Play “Demo Concert” and its associated Training Project (Browser>Media>Training Projects).

Basic Concepts

Effect Playbacks are used to play back dynamic effect templates on groups of channels. Each Dynamic Effect Playback has nine parameters that include intensity (masters the size of the dynamic), channel source, template and offset settings, size and rate.  Intensity acts as a master over the size output by the running dynamic - if you bring the Dynamic Effect Playback up to a level of 50%, then the effect will be limited to a size of 50% of the size you set within the effect. If you take the Playback to 100% (Full), then the dynamic will play back with the levels you set manually. When the Dynamic Effect Playback is above 0% intensity, the effect can be said to be "running". When the Dynamic Effect Playback is brought back to 0%, the effect can be said to be "stopped".

There are no new objects for using a new Dynamic Effect Playback – all you must have is Groups recorded for the channels you want to place dynamic movements on. Groups are referenced by the new Dynamic Effect, so if you change the Groups, the Dynamic will also be changed. The new Dynamic uses the existing Dynamic Templates library. If you make new templates, those will become available to use within the new Dynamic Effects as well. 

The U1-U3 keys are the "1", "2" and "3" keys found below the FOCUS, COLOR and BEAM keys on Congo. On Congo jr consoles, these can be accessed from the Device soft keys.

Create a simple dynamic effect:

1) Type [INSERT]&[EFFECT] (press and hold the [INSERT] key then press the [EFFECT] key, then release both keys)  - this will open a dialog box that you can use to set the Effect Playback type.

2)  Use the [TAB] key to move to the third tab, Dynamic Effect, and press [MODIFY] to insert the Dynamic Effect Playback. The new effect playback is selected after you insert it so all you have to do to get the effect running is determine the settings you want to us and then bring the level wheel up above 0%.

3) If the Effects Dock is not already open, press [SETUP]&[BROWSER] to open the Dock setup dialog. Docks are special display areas you can add to any screen connected to the Congo, the Browser is a Dock area that we open by default. In the "Bottom Area", open the drop-down menu and select "Effects", then select the MODIFY button and press MODIFY to close the dialog and open the new Effects Dock. In this dock you can see the inserted Effect Playbacks. 

4) Bring up the intensity of Group 1 – M500L  and Group 2 – M500R so that you can see the lights moving in the Capture tab.

5) Type [#] [EFFECT] to reselect the Dynamic Effect Playback you inserted before, then look at the encoders. The left-most encoder should display the Channel Source parameter, and you can use the wheel to select whether to use Sets or Groups (Sets is the default). Sets will be described in the Content Effects Tutorial, so for now choose Groups. Use the encoder to the right to select which Group to place the effect on. In this case, select Group 1 – M500 L.  

6) Press the U2 encoder page key. This loads the encoders with the dynamic effect settings, DynTemplate, OffsetRel, DelayRel and Distance. Use the DynTemplate encoder to select which effect you would like to run on these fixtures – in this case, select the “<circle” template. Set the OffsetRel to “Evenly Sp”.

7) Bring up the intensity of this Dynamic Effect Playback using the level wheel (you can also use keypad commands to set the intensity, just as you would for any other channel). The <circle dynamic will start running on channels 1-8.

8) Press the U3 key to access the Rate and Size parameters of this Dynamic effect. Use the encoders to adjust the effect until you like it.

9) Press the U1 key again and select Group 2 now. Watch as the configured dynamic effect now runs on channels 9-16 and channels 1-8 go back to their base point.

10) Press the U2 key now and change the DynTemplate to “Can Can”. The effect “can can” is a tilt-only effect. In the old dynamics, what would happen if you went directly from circle to “can can” on the same channels is that pan would continue to run the circle, and tilt would start running the “can can.” Not what you wanted, probably. Now, since only one template can be played back at a time, the pan returns to the base point while tilt runs the “can can” cleanly.

If you want to be able to play back more than one dynamic effect at the same time, you need to insert more Dynamic Effect Playbacks. This is easy to do live, using [#] [INSERT] & [EFFECT] again, or you can open the Effect Playbacks List in the Browser and use [INSERT] to insert a new playback into the list. Use [#] [EFFECT] to select a new playback and use the encoders to set it to play back the other dynamic effect, then bring up the intensity.

Happy Programming!

Sarah

Congo v6 has 4 effect types: Chase, Dynamic, Content and Image. This tutorial covers the Content Effect.

In this short tutorial, I'll walk you through the creation of a Content Effect Playback and how to get that effect running on stage. This tutorial really requires that you use the Demo Play “Demo Concert” and its associated Training Project (Browser>Media>Training Projects).

Basic Concepts

Content Effect Playbacks are used to combine groups of channels with series of steps containing various pieces of content from your play – palettes, presets, absolute parameter values. Each Content Effect Playback has twelve parameters that include intensity (masters the intensity output of the effect, if there is any), channel source, series and various other settings described below.  When the Content Effect Playback is above 0% intensity, the effect can be said to be "running". When the Content Effect Playback is brought back to 0%, the effect can be said to be "stopped".

There is one new object required for using a Content Effect Playback – the Series. The Series contains steps that contain pieces of content. You must also have at least Groups recorded in order to determine which channels will be used in the effect. Groups are referenced by the Content Effect, so if you change the Groups, the effect will also be changed. An optional object called a Channel Set may be used instead of a Group.  A Channel Set contains channels and specific sub-groupings called Parts that allow you to determine your own specific channel distribution.

Create a simple content effect:

1) Type [INSERT]&[EFFECT] (press and hold the [INSERT] key then press the [EFFECT] key, then release both keys)  - this will open a dialog box that you can use to set the Effect Playback type.

2)  Use the [TAB] key to move to the second tab, Content Effect, and press [MODIFY] to insert the Content Effect Playback. The new effect playback is selected after you insert it so all you have to do to get the effect running is determine the settings you want to us and then bring the level wheel up above 0%.

3) If the Effects Dock is not already open, press [SETUP]&[BROWSER] to open the Dock setup dialog. Docks are special display areas you can add to any screen connected to the Congo, the Browser is a Dock area that we open by default. In the "Bottom Area", open the drop-down menu and select "Effects", then select the MODIFY button and press MODIFY to close the dialog and open the new Effects Dock. In this dock you can see the inserted Effect Playbacks. 

4) Open the Series list from Effects softkeys (press the [SERIES] key) or from the Browser>Effects>Content Effects>Series. Press [INSERT] to insert a new empty series in the list. Arrow to the Text cell for this new series and name it “Color”. Arrow over to the Steps cell and press [MODIFY] to open the editor for this specific series.

5) Press [INSERT] three times to insert three new empty steps in the editor. Arrow over to the Intensity cell of step 1 and press [COLUMN] to select all the intensity cells for steps 1-3. Type [100] [MOIDFY] to set all steps to full intensity – this will guarantee the channels output light while the effect is running and is completely optional. Arrow over to the “1. Content” cell for step 1 and press [COLUMN] to select all the cells for steps 1-3. Press [MODIFY] to open the content drop-down list and arrow down to “Color Palette”, then press [MODIFY]. All three steps should now have Color Palette displayed in that column. Now, arrow over to the Value cell for step 1 and type [2] [MODIFY] to set that step to recall color palette 2. Repeat for steps 2 and 3 so that they recall color palettes 4 and 7 respectively.

Each step can contain three different types of content and an intensity value. Each piece of content and the intensity can have their own “Attack” time. The Attack defaults to 100% of the Attack time set on the Effect Playback – making it easy to adjust manually. You can also enter “real” times if you know that you want the effect to play back in a fixed way.

Each step also has its own “Step time”. Think of this as the tempo of the effect – the step time determines when each step fires and starts its attack times. The Step time also defaults to 100% of the step time set by the Effect Playback so that you can adjust it manually. You can also set “real” times if you know exactly how you want the steps to fire.

For now, leave everything at 100%. Now you have a three-color Series in addition to the others provided in the Demo Concert play.

6) Type [#] [EFFECT] to reselect the Content Effect Playback you inserted before, then press the U1 encoder page key. The left-most encoder should display the Channel Source parameter, and you can use the wheel to select whether to use Sets or Groups (Sets is the default).Choose Groups and use the encoder to the right to select which Group to place the effect on. In this case, select Group 3 – M300 L.  Because a Group has no offset information in it, the next two encoders allow you to break the group up using various distribution options. For now, leave it as 1 Part and Sequential Distribution.

7) Press the U2 encoder page key. This loads the encoders with Part Direction, Series, Play Mode and Mode parameters. Part Direction determines the way the distributed channels will play back the effect, Series chooses the series you want to use, Play Mode determines the direction of the steps in the Series and includes options to pause or stop the running effect. Mode will be described in further detail once you get the effect running, since it’s easier to “see” what it does than to explain it in words. For now, simply set the Series parameter to your Color series (should be series #7).

8) Bring up the intensity of this Content Effect Playback using the level wheel (you can also use keypad commands to set the intensity, just as you would for any other channel). You should see the Mac300 fixtures on the left start running a 1 second color fade effect – all of the lights should be fading from color to color together at this point.

9) Press the U3 key to access the timing parameters of this Content effect. There are two pages in this category – the first page includes the Loop Time and TapRate parameters. The Loop Time is the amount of time it takes to make one pass through the entire series. You can adjust the overall rate of the effect using the TapRate encoder, by typing a number and pressing the TapRate wheel key, or by tapping the wheel key in time with music. Press U3 again to page to access the Step and Attack times for the steps of the series. Set the effect to use a 0 attack time instead of the default 1 second fade. Now the colors should snap in with a new color every 1 second.

10) Press the U1 key. Change the GrpParts to 4. Now you should see four distinct groupings of channels – 17+18, 19+20, 21+22, and 23 by itself. This is Sequential distribution. Change the distribution to Interlaced and watch what happens on stage. Change again to Symmetrical and watch what happens on stage. There are inverted versions of these distributions as well. Also, there are two randoms – Random uses an even distribution of channels across parts, but selects them in random order. True Random gives you random distribution and order for really really random effects. Now, change the Group to Group 4 – M300 R. Now change to Group 5 – M500 ALL and watch what happens… Before moving to the next step, change to Group 6 – M300 ALL and set the number of parts to 8, with Sequential distribution.

11) Press the U2 key now and change Mode to Build. So far, you’ve been looking at a Continuous effect – this means all parts are always running some step from the Series. In Build mode, the way the parts execute the steps changes so that all the parts execute step 1 before any of the parts move on to step 2. You can use this Mode to create a wipe of color (or anything, really) across a number of channels.

12) Ok, now we are going to look at a Break Mode effect. Change the number of parts to 16 and then change the Series to the provided “Fly in” series. Watch what happens on stage for a while – notice what the lights are actually doing. Let’s just look at one light as the effect runs – it starts pointing up and out, the intensity fades up while the light tilts downward, then the intensity goes out. Then the light returns to its up and out and dark position to WAIT until all the other lights have performed this maneuver. This is the essence of a Break mode effect – each part performs the active steps of the effect, and when done goes into a special “Background State” to wait (or take a break, get it?) until all the other parts have done their thing. Let’s take a look at the “Fly in” series…

Open the editor for the “Fly in” series: Browser>Effects>Content Effects>Series>Fly in. Close the Browser to get more room on screen if needed. This series has three “active” steps and the Background state. The Background places the channels in a “marked” intensity state (be dark) in Focus Palette 3 and Color and Beam Palettes 1. The first active step turns the intensity to full and sends the channel to Focus Palette 2. The next step turns intensity back to Mark and Focus Palette 0 (the Home position). Step 3 in this effect builds in a gap – it’s just a repeat of step 2. A note about intensity – there are three possible intents for the intensity cell in the step. Be at a level other than zero, be at zero, or don’t change. In order to differentiate between “be at zero” and “don’t change” we use the M state to indicate a hard zero. [C/ALT] [MODIFY] will clear a cell, meaning that cell will have no impact on the current state of any channel running in the effect.

Now, this is one version of a Fly In style of effect. There are many other ways to write a Fly In depending on how you want the lights to behave. The whole point is that it is your Fly In, and it might be different from my Fly In.

Fly In effects are a bit complicated to use for describing the next two time settings, so create yourself a two color series that has one active step set to use Color Palette 0 (white) and the Background step set to Color Palette 4 (Blue). Both the step and the Background should also have 100% intensity. Name this series BlueWhite and set its default mode (in the Series List) to Break – this will ensure that it plays back correctly whenever you select it in a Playback. Change your current Effect Playback to use the new BlueWhite series. Watch what happens. One by one a new channel should start fading to white then snap to blue. In Break Mode effects, only the active steps have time – the Background state is just the content that channels should play back when they are not performing active steps. In this series we have one active step – be white – and one background state – be blue. You can apply timing to the White step only – and there are 4 times to be set – Step time, Attack time, Sustain time and Release time. Here’s what they mean:

Step time: how much time elapses between parts executing the White step.

Attack time: how fast does the part fade up into full White.

Sustain time: once at full White, how long each part stays at full White.

Release time: once the sustain time has expired, how fast does the part fade back into the Blue background state.

Play with these times on the running BlueWhite effect and watch how different you can make the effect look with these small adjustments.

If you want to be able to play back more than one content effect at the same time, you need to insert more Content Effect Playbacks. This is easy to do live, using [#] [INSERT] & [EFFECT] again, or you can open the Effect Playbacks List in the Browser and use [INSERT] to insert a new playback into the list. Use [#] [EFFECT] to select a new playback and use the encoders to set it to play back the other content effect, then bring up the intensity.

Congo v6 has 4 effect types: Chase, Dynamic, Content and Image. This tutorial covers the Image Effect.

In this short tutorial, I’ll walk you through the creation of an Image Effect Playback and how to use it to create image, text and animation effects on stage. This tutorial is based on the Demo Play “Demo Tour” and its associated Training Project (Browser>Media>Training Projects). I highly recommend that you open the Demo Tour play and then save it to a different name of your choosing.

Basic Concepts
Image Effect Playbacks are used to combine layouts of channels with a static image, text string or animation file to create an effect. Please note, these effects do not use video sources, nor are they meant to serve media to external displays or LED walls.

There are three types of Image Effects – Image, which uses a static JPG or BMP file as the source of channel data; Text, which uses a piece of text as the source of the channel data; or Animation, which uses an short animated image as the source of the channel data.

Each of these effects requires an Effect Layout, where the channels that will perform the effect are mapped out to create a graphic relationship of those channels. That layout may match the physical layout of the actual fixtures in space, or it can be in any order or layout that you wish. Basically, your assigning channel numbers to pixel locations so that the console can sort out which pixel in the image/text/animation file will be controlling that channel at any given moment. While one typically thinks of this as an effect to be run on fixtures that are placed on a grid or array, it doesn’t have to be. Channels can be laid out in any order - respecting reality or not – to create interesting effects using images, texts or animations as the source. One also typically thinks of these as LED effects, however you can run them on any fixture with intensity, color mixing, zoom or iris control - and that includes simple conventional dimmers!

Image effects have parameters for choosing the layout, which type of image effect you will run and which source item will be used, and a parameter to apply the effect to intensity (treating the source as grayscale information for any fixture with intensity control), color mix (CMY and RGB fixtures work), zoom or iris for channels within the layout. Additional parameters control the position of the source image (including text) on the layout, the scale and aspect and rotational position of the image, and a speed parameter governing the animation files. Lastly, you can adjust color, and apply scrolling, rotation, scale, aspect or shake effects on top of all that.

There is one object you need to create in order to use Image Effects – the Effect Layout. This uses a similar editor to the Channel Layout Editor and can be accessed in the Browser: Browser>Effects>Image Effects> Effect Layouts.

Create a simple Effect Layout:
The demo play Demo Tour has an effect layout already completed, but we’ll make a new one so you can see how the same channels can be rearranged to create more options.

1) Navigate to the Effect Layout list in the Browser: Browser>Effects>Image Effects> Effect Layouts and press [MODIFY] to open the list.

2) Press [INSERT] to insert a new layout. A dialog opens asking you to enter the maximum pixel space for the layout. For this example, enter 20 wide by 5 high. This will create a grid that will help when laying out the channels in the editor.

3) Arrow down to the layout you’ve just inserted (layout “2”). Arrow over to the text cell and press [MODIFY], then type the name for this layout “20x5”. Press [MODIFY] again to close the text cell.

4) Arrow back to the layout number and press [MODIFY] to enter the layout editor tab. This editor works just like the channel layout editor, so if you’re already familiar with that tab you won’t have any trouble working here. This type of layout only contains channels.

5) Select channels 101 thru 200 and press [WIZARD]. Press [LEFT ARROW] to select the Array tab and then enter 20 for the number of columns, 5 for the number of rows, and then select the check box to use the current selection and press [MODIFY] to place a check mark there. Arrow down to the Execute button and press [MODIFY]. Congo will insert the 100 selected channels into the array already placed in a 20x5 array.

6) Use a trackball or mouse to click-and-hold one of the channel symbols and drag the array onto the grid. Place the channel symbols within the squares of the grid. This will ensure that the channel array and the image/text/animation share a center point.

7) Press [ESC] to close the editor tab. Press [ESC] again to close the Effect Layout List.

Enter Texts to be used with Image Effects:

1) Navigate to the Effect Texts list in the Browser: Browser>Effects>Image Effects> Effect Layouts and press [MODIFY] to open the list.

2) Press [INSERT] to insert a new text item.

3) Arrow down to the text item you’ve just inserted (“2”). Arrow over to the text cell and press [MODIFY], then type the text “Congo”. Press [MODIFY] again to close the text cell.

4) Repeat for as many texts as you would like available in your effects.

5) Press [ESC] to close the Texts list.

Create a simple Image Effect using Text:

1) Type [INSERT]&[EFFECT] (press and hold the [INSERT] key then press the [EFFECT] key, then release both keys)  - this will open a dialog box that you can use to set the Effect Playback type.

2)  Use the [TAB] key to move to the fourth tab, Image Effect, and press [MODIFY] to insert the Content Effect Playback. The new effect playback is selected after you insert it so all you have to do to get the effect running is determine the settings you want to use and then bring the level wheel up above 0%.

3) If the Effects Dock is not already open, press [SETUP]&[BROWSER] to open the Dock setup dialog. Docks are special display areas you can add to any screen connected to the Congo, the Browser is a Dock area that we open by default. In the "Bottom Area", open the drop-down menu and select "Effects", then select the MODIFY button and press [MODIFY] to close the dialog and open the new Effects Dock. In this dock you can see the inserted Effect Playbacks. (The Demo Tour play already has this dock open and some effect playbacks inserted, so inserting a new playback should create Effect Playback #5.)

4) In order to see what’s going on in our effect, press the [LIVE] key and then press [2] [FORMAT] to view a channel layout for channels 101-200 that’s already been built for you. 

5) If Effect # 5 is still selected, use the level wheel to bring that effect playback up to full. If Effect #5 has become deselected, press [5] [EFFECT] [@ LEVEL] [@ LEVEL] (or [EFFECT] [5] [@ LEVEL] [1][0][0] in At Mode) to activate the playback. Now we’ll set some parameters.

6) On the encoders you should see the first page of Image Effect parameters. If you don’t, press the [1] key directly beneath the [FOCUS] key to access the U1 page of encoders. On Congo jr, the U1-U3 keys can be found in the EFFECTS softkeys, or you can use [C/ALT] & [FOCUS] to access U1, [C/ALT] & [COLOR] to access U2 and [C/ALT] & [BEAM] to access U3.

7) Press and hold the wheel key below the Layout parameter. You should see the two effect layouts appear on the direct selects and in the ML display (on Congo jr this display can be seen in the Console Mimic Dock, if opened). While holding the wheel key, you can use the direct selects to choose a layout, or you can use the Layout wheel to scroll in the list in the ML display. Simply release the wheel key when the desired layout is shown in the [] brackets to select that layout. For now, select the first layout called “10 by 10”.

8) Press and hold the wheel key below the Type parameter to select Image, Text or Animation. For now, select Text.

9) Press and hold the wheel key below the Index parameter to select which text you want to use. For now, select “Congo”.

10) We will leave the MapTo parameter set to Intensity. The other options here are Color Mix, Zoom and Iris. You should see some lights come on in the channel layout in the Live tab. Now we will adjust the placement and size of the text.

11) Press the [2] key under the [COLOR] key to access the U2 page of encoders.

12) Type [5][0] and press the wheel key under the Scale parameter. You should see an “n” in the middle of the channel layout.

13) Press the [3] key beneath the [BEAM] key to access the U3 page of encoders. Press this key again to get to the second page (the first page contains RGB adjustments we won’t play with right now).

14) Set the Effect parameter to ScrollX, the Eff Size parameter to 20 and the Eff Speed parameter to 10. You should see the word Congo scroll across the channel layout pretty quickly. Now you can play with the parameters of this effect to see how they change the display of the text. Try out some other effects, sizes and speeds and see what happens. Please note that the speed of scroll effects also controls the direction of the scroll – in this case, speeds below 50% will scroll the text to the left and speeds above 50% will scroll the text to the right.

Create a simple Image Effect using an Image:

(Note: the demo play Demo Tour contains some images to use with this tutorial. You can create or edit images using the onboard Effect Image editor by inserting new empty images in the Effect Images List, then pressing [MODIFY] on the image number. You can also import images directly from your USB stick using the Import Effect Images… tool at the bottom of the Image Effects portion of the Browser.)

1) We’re going to use the same effect playback inserted in the previous section of the tutorial. If you haven’t done that part yet, please look at steps 1-7 of the “Text Effect” section to get started, then skip to step 3 of this section.

2) With effect playback #5 selected, press [HOME ATTRIB] [HOME ATTRIB] to return it to its home position.

3) Press the [1] key directly beneath the [FOCUS] key to access the U1 page of encoders. Set the Layout parameter to “10 by 10”. Set the Type parameter to “Image” (this is the default type). And set the Index parameter to “diagonal”. You should see a single line of channels at full appear on the channel layout in the Live tab. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the other channels in the layout also have intensity levels from the image. Look in the Info area beneath the Browser to see a preview of the image we’re using – the image is actually in color, but since we have the effect mapped to intensity, those colors are being interpreted as grayscale values.

4) Let’s see this effect in color! Select channels 101-200 and set them to full intensity (and to white, if needed). Reselect effect playback 5. Change the MapTo parameter to “ColorMix”. Watch what happens in the Live tab. Now, the brightness of the channels is coming from the manual level you entered. The colors are coming from the effect playback. If the image you use has black in it, those areas will allow the color settings from the channels (not from the effect) to bleed through, giving you more options for how an image or animation gets used.

5) Press the [2] key under the [COLOR] key to access the U2 page of encoders. Enter a Scale of 130 so that the image is larger than the array of channels.

6) Press the [3] key beneath the [BEAM] key to access the U3 page of encoders. Press this key again to get to the second page (the first page contains RGB adjustments we won’t play with right now). Set the Effect parameter to Rotation, the Eff Size parameter to 20 and the Eff Speed parameter to 25. You should see the image start to spin to the left. Try out some other effects, sizes and speeds and see what happens. Please note that the speed of effects also controls the direction of the effect – in this case, speeds below 50% will rotate the image to the left and speeds above 50% will rotate the image to the right.

Create a simple Image Effect using an Animation:

(Note: Congo has 60 animation files included that can be used for these effects. It is not possible for users to import or create their own or edit them on the desk.)

1) We’re going to use the same effect playback inserted in the previous section of the tutorial. If you haven’t done that part yet, please look at steps 1-7 of the “Text Effect” section to get started, then skip to step 3 of this section.

2) With effect playback #5 selected, press [HOME ATTRIB] [HOME ATTRIB] to return it to its home position.
3) Select channels 101-200 and set them to full intensity and color black (RG&B all at zero). Reselect effect playback 5.

4) Press the [1] key directly beneath the [FOCUS] key to access the U1 page of encoders. Set the Layout parameter to “10 by 10”. Set the Type parameter to “Animation”. Set the Index parameter to “Hypno Pink”. And set the MapTo parameter to “Color Mix”. You should see something moving on the channel layout in the Live tab.

5) Press the [2] key under the [COLOR] key to access the U2 page of encoders. Enter a Scale of 25 so that the image is reduced to fit better on the array of channels. Now you should see a spinning spiral image.

6) Press the [1] key directly beneath the [FOCUS] key again to return to the U1 page of encoders. Press and hold the wheel key for Index, then check out the offering on the direct selects. Try out different animations to see how they look. Play for a bit and get comfortable using the animation effects.

Now you’ve made a simple version of each of the styles of Image Effect. We used a single effect playback to illustrate the flexibility of the effect playback concept. You can use multiple Image effect playbacks to layer effects on top of each other – the intensity level of the playback determines how “present” the effect will be while running. Try combining image effects and texts, varying the intensity levels between the effects to bring different effects to the forefront. Try playing with changing the color of the channels you’re running the effects on.

Enjoy!

Congo v5 Effektübersicht.

Vielen Dank!

Sarah

Le dossier a attaché.

Merci -

Sarah

Documento adjunto.

Gracias!

Sarah

Documento allegato.

Grazie -

Sarah

Very nice tutor, thank you. But if I can ask a question; when I write my cue (one of presets in a sequence as a sequence step) that have dynamic effect inside, how can I stop it automatically without need to press Delete Dynamics. In setup window I have 'Auto-stop dynamics in PB' marked and 'Remember effects parameters' too. But when I Go to next step my dynamics doesn't stop. I have to press 'Delete dynamics' or 'Delete all dynamics'. Can I use any macro or event?

and stop effect doesn't work (dyn eff nr 1)

Hi there -

If the base point of an effect changes in the next step, the running Dynamic effect should fade out. You have to work harder to keep it running than to get it to stop, usually. However you can use the STOP EFFECT templates as well - these are Dynamics 20-24 (STOP I, STOP F, STOP C, STOP B). However, you appear to be talking about the old dynamic effects and not the new Dynamic Effect Playbacks - in these it's easy to start and stop them by simply raising the intensity of the playback to start them (intensity maps to size in this case) or taking that intentsity to zero to stop them.

I hope this helps -

Thanks -

Sarah

I used STOP F/C/B together and it helped. Thank you.

Merci !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi, and thanks a lot for the tutorial

I have some questions about effects with Congo :

- Is it a way to program diferent value for size and speed for each group in 1 Dynamic Effect ?

If not, how can i have the same effect on all device but with diferents values for each group ? Only a preset ?

- I don't know how to assign a master speed and a master size for one (or more) effect placed on a master ? I don't understand how to configure the master

Thanks, bye

Hi Dano -

For running similar dynamic effects on different groups of lights, you would need an Effect Playback for each group you want to run the effect on. You can use the ALIGN function to copy the settings of one effect playback onto the others, and then just change the groups on each playback. Then you can have different sizes and rates for each group/playback. To get those all onto one master playback, select all the effect playbacks together, then record a preset. If the base points of the channels running the effect(s) are also important (color, position, etc) then make sure to also select the groups of lights running the effects as well as the effect playbacks then record the preset to the master. (Or just get it all running the way you like, and use RECORD & PRESET to make a new preset in the preset list, and then place that preset onto a master).

Dynamic Effect Playbacks use the intensity of the effect playback to control/scale the size parameter of the effect from 0/stopped to the maximum size value set on the playback itself. If you make a preset that only contains dynamic effect playbacks, and then place that preset onto a master, the intensity handle of the master will control the size of all those effects. We don't have a way to place rate on a master fader at the moment. However, you can press the master key for that same preset, which should select all the effect playbacks stored into that preset, and then use the encoder wheel for rate.

Hope this helps -

Thanks -

Sarah