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    Mat
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v5 Effects package

I've come across a couple of questions/requests while exploring the new effects package. 

When building a channel set is it possible to eliminate the empty step?  I was building a fly-out>zoom>fade out>repeat effect on a couple of revolutions and found that when I offset them into two groups there was a delay between the end of the second group and the restart of the effect.  I think this is because of the empty step in the channel set.

In the Live Effects tab there is no option to adjust the form on dynamic effects.  I found this pretty useful for making adjustments to circles and such to get a more round or elliptical shape.  Was it just overlooked or left out for a reason?  Is there another way to get a similar adjustment?  The fade type selection is also missing but this isn't really necessary anymore because you can actually fade either size or rate as part of the preset.

Something that took me a while to find and might be helpful to others is the marked changed command for effects.  You can mark individual effect parameters as changed the same way you do for fixture parameters.  Hold down the mark changed soft key (Devices>Mark Changed) and tap the soft keys for the parameters you want to mark changed.  You can also use U1>U3 to mark groups of parameters. (U1>U3 is also how you get to the soft-keys for an effect you have selected.)  It would be nice to have a mark changed soft key under the effects set of soft-keys.  Maybe for now I'll put it on one of the masters since we can now do that. :)

I'm sure I'll be back often as I keep poking around in the new software.

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  • Hi Mat -

    Regarding the delay you're seeing - it's probably a loop time that is too long rather than the "empty" step being executed. If you have a larger loop time than it takes to actually run one pass through the effect, you can create a gap before the effect restarts. If the loop time is shorter than the time it takes to complete one pass, the effect will start again at the beginning before the last fixtures have completed their pass.

    Thanks -

    Sarah

  • in reply to sclausen

    I think I've tracked down the source of the delay I was seeing.

    It was from the fact that I had more steps in my series (3) than I had parts in my channel set (2).  So what I was seeing was the irregular overlap of the two channels being in 1 of 3 "places."
    I was using a content effect in continuous mode with sequential distribution.

    I haven't been able to come up with a way to make this effect work the way I was hoping for yet. (It's not actually for anything; just me learning the software)  I've thought about adding "empty" dummy steps in either the channel set or the series but I haven't come up with a practical method for this yet.  I think it would just change the irregularity of the effect.  What would be really great is if in this situation the second part of the channel set would begin the effect when the first part was half way through step 2 of the series (or whatever the middle of the effect was)  This doesn't seem possible in the current version; but maybe in a future release?  Perhaps it could be another mode. 

  • in reply to Mat
    If the Loop time is shorter than the sum of the Step times, the effect will start over again before if has completed one cycle (=overlap). If the Loop time is longer than the sum of the Step times, you will have a gap before it starts again.
  • in reply to Mat

    Hi Mat -

    Fly-aways are typically break mode effects not continuous. You might try a break mode effect with the background state = the values you want the lights to be in before the intensity comes on. Break mode effects really only work when the # of parts is greater than # of steps, so to get a two-way flyaway you may need to play with the part distribution and loop time a bit. Typically a flyaway series requires two steps plus the background state, so it works best with a three-part or greater distribution.

    Make sense?

    Thanks -

    Sarah

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  • in reply to Mat

    Hi Mat -

    Fly-aways are typically break mode effects not continuous. You might try a break mode effect with the background state = the values you want the lights to be in before the intensity comes on. Break mode effects really only work when the # of parts is greater than # of steps, so to get a two-way flyaway you may need to play with the part distribution and loop time a bit. Typically a flyaway series requires two steps plus the background state, so it works best with a three-part or greater distribution.

    Make sense?

    Thanks -

    Sarah

Children
  • in reply to sclausen

    I realize I'm trying to do something that the effect wasn't really intended to do but I have gotten it to work.

    What I did was break the effect into two separate effects, each with one part and identical in all other ways.  I then put the second effect in a separate preset and gave it a wait time equal to half the loop time.  This got the second part started at the half way point of the first part.  I wasn't getting any reaction from changing the loop time when I was building it as one effect because neither part was spending any time in the background state.  So the timing of the effect was being governed by the step/attack/sustain/release times.

    Of course this would all be much easier if I had more parts but we only have two revolutions in the air so I had a cap on my number of parts.

  • in reply to Mat

    Ah - clever solution!

    I find it's much easier (and more fun) to play with effects with more fixtures. You might try one of the demo plays and training projects provided within the console. I usually use the Demo Concert - it's got about 30 fixtures (spot and wash) in a simple configuration and it's really easy to see what's going on with that rig. :-)

    Thanks -

    Sarah

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