ETC Element; programming a fire effect for a LED RGBI unit?

Question

Hi All,
I'm looking for a little guidance in building an effect cue(s) for the fire barrel in RENT. I've got an Apollo MultiBeam LED unit patched as a multichannel unit; RGB + Intensity. Works well with the color picker
and such. (That was the first hurdle.)
Now, I'd like to create an effect of a fire burning in the barrel.
Hopefully looking like it burns with a variable rate and slowly gets dimmer over time. Then I need the fire to flare up on cue when characters throw paper in the fire.

I"ve only created a few step effects in this board so far and that seems like there might be a less labor intensive method using this board. Thoughts? Suggestions? Tutorial?

jpgagnon · Answer

Check out this WIKI post about common effects. 
 http://community.etcconnect.com/wikis/products/common-effects-and-how-to-program-them-on-an-eos-family-console.aspx 
 
 I think you want to look at Absolute efffects. The way to do this with Color is to create Color Pallets of each color in your fire effect and then put the color pallets in the level column of the absolute effects screen. This will work with any channel that has that info recorded in the color pallet. Works great for lots of effects, not just color.

Drdehnana · Answer

Along with the absolute effect that jpgagnon suggested, you could also apply a linear effect with the intensity to get the LED to flicker like a flame. I recently started using the linear effect for an Easter musical, and I love it. If you create a new effect and select "linear" as the type, then you will get the default linear effect with an intensity vs. time graph with an s-curve. Make sure to set the effect to "Random Group". Apply that effect to the LED and adjust the rate and size to get the desired look. Along with the absolute effect adjusting the color of the flame and the linear effect flickering the LED, you should have an awesome fire look. 
 As for getting dimmer over time, I would suggest this: start with the LED at, let's say, 60% with the two effects going. The next cue could be the LED dimming down to maybe 20% in a long fade time. The great thing about the linear effect is that it keeps the flicker going relative to what intensity the LED is set at. Now, for the flare up, just make another cue with the LED at Full with a fast fade time. The LED will keep flickering, but it will be brighter. 
 This is just a suggestion, but I've found it to work very well. I hope this makes sense, haha. Good luck.