Basic lighting control/playback question

There are lots of ways of achieving what I think you are saying.

You could simply add in the lights to existing cues, you only add them where you want them to change as its a tracking desk. Or you could add new cues between existing ones to do the changes.

If you are actually wanting to run these changes completely independently from you main cue list, then you can create a new cue list, assign that to a fader and then the buttons underneath the fader become the go and back for the cue list.

About the specific light, in 36 channel mode the fixture is effectively 6 separate 6channel RGBWAUv lights. You can find this in the generic profiles. So you will patch the fixture as 6 separate lights, which can then be controlled in the normal way.

You will probably find it easiest to program what you want using normal cues either setting the follow so it goes onto the next one automatically or the more proper way of multipart cues with the timing of each part set to cascade them in. This is probably easier than using an effect as they can be a bit tricky to get setup correctly and especially the bit "how would the result of the effect (the new color) be affected by the next cue or effect" as that usually goes wrong/might not be possible. If you do it as cues you have full control and behaviour is good.

Thank you! I like the idea of the separate cue list assigned to a fader... Could I also use the fader to control the speed at which the cues move between each other, or only the buttons and pre-programmed up/down times?

Also multi-part cues - I'll have to read up on those but it sounds like exactly what I'm looking for for this show. I find the ION manual technically very good but not so good at explaining concepts (and approaches) to someone who's never done lighting before...but then, that's not what it's designed to do, either.

I did like you and others suggested re: the bars, and have each 2-pair/6 channel section as its own channel, then grouped the channels accordingly. I think I will need to use effects to get them to change independently but together, but that's the next step after whole-scene color changes.

Thank you! I like the idea of the separate cue list assigned to a fader... Could I also use the fader to control the speed at which the cues move between each other, or only the buttons and pre-programmed up/down times?

Also multi-part cues - I'll have to read up on those but it sounds like exactly what I'm looking for for this show. I find the ION manual technically very good but not so good at explaining concepts (and approaches) to someone who's never done lighting before...but then, that's not what it's designed to do, either.

I did like you and others suggested re: the bars, and have each 2-pair/6 channel section as its own channel, then grouped the channels accordingly. I think I will need to use effects to get them to change independently but together, but that's the next step after whole-scene color changes.

Nice - I just watched the multi-part cue training video, and it's exactly what I was hoping to find! I can use parts to gradually change the bars using delays, etc. without getting into effects. Thanks again!