Ion palettes administration

You can label the palettes with meaningful names;

[Focus Pallete] [1][4] [Label/Note] XWash [enter]

then the text XWash should appear on the tile and tombstone for the channel making life easier.

As for taking up too much space on the screen simply open the direct selects on a new tab (providing you're running the later versions of the software). Open this tab when you need to get to them and return to your previous one when done. This should all be in the documentation somewhere..

Personally I feel having the browser pop up every time I hit a palette select key would drive me insane..

One weakness with the documentation/training is the absence of "best practices" guides. The features tend to be well-documented but why the feature exists, or how best to make use of it isn't there. Every feature in the console was developed for somebody, but it is really hard to figure out who that somebody is, or why they would want the feature to work the way it does, or more selfishly, why I should care about the feature.

When I first started with Ion I found myself hunting through other ETC family console documentation (Obsession/Congo) and other competitor documentation in order figure out where the feature came from and what problem it was intended to solve.

I share your pain about keeping relevant information visible. For me, it's effects more so than palettes. You're expected to provide a number, and if you tweak the effect you're expected to copy it to some other number and tweak there. It feels a little clunky. Another, possibly better paradigm, is to do a "save as" rather than updating the original, especially if it is coming from the preinstalled library.

One weakness with the documentation/training is the absence of "best practices" guides. The features tend to be well-documented but why the feature exists, or how best to make use of it isn't there. Every feature in the console was developed for somebody, but it is really hard to figure out who that somebody is, or why they would want the feature to work the way it does, or more selfishly, why I should care about the feature.

When I first started with Ion I found myself hunting through other ETC family console documentation (Obsession/Congo) and other competitor documentation in order figure out where the feature came from and what problem it was intended to solve.

I share your pain about keeping relevant information visible. For me, it's effects more so than palettes. You're expected to provide a number, and if you tweak the effect you're expected to copy it to some other number and tweak there. It feels a little clunky. Another, possibly better paradigm, is to do a "save as" rather than updating the original, especially if it is coming from the preinstalled library.

Best practice is often difficult to document as people work in so many different ways. You might want to look at the "Concept" pages of the Tea Break Tutorial series - these are designed to help understand the theory behind the features/methods/etcetera.

http://www.etcconnect.com/support.tutorialseries.aspx?seriesID=15

Thanks Luke.

Here's a question while we are talking about palettes, presets et al. Why is there any distinction between a palette and a preset?. Isn't a palette a "single parameter" preset? Why are there so many keys dedicated to them? Maybe it would be better to have an Intensity, Focus, Color, and Beam key, and a single preset or palette key instead?  One concept to learn instead of 2 and no need implement an alternate scheme for filters.

If I remember correctly, Palettes are referenced data, while Presets are not (Somebody feel free to correct this, if it's in error.)

Since they went to the newer Group system as being simply a collection of channel numbers with no value, I always thought of Presets as the old Groups from Expression/Obsession, I.E. a collection of Intensities as well as other attribute values of a channel.

Thus the need for Palettes to allow cues and presets to reference those particular attributes as well as the ability to simply update a color palette, for instance and not have to track those changes throughout the targets.

SB

Actually, Steve, presets are referenced as well.  There are two differences between palettes and presets.  Presets can include any parameter, while palettes (IFCB) are based on the associated category.   Presets can have nested palette data or absolute data, while palettes cannot.

thanks much!

a

Thanks Anne

Another great reason to have the manual in the console software like Congo.  When an answer is obtained on a "how to" question notes can be entered.  Its hard to remember all the answers to all the questions.  The manual can then also be updated with the software so there is no need for supplements.  Sure would be great.  Also having video tutorials included to watch like Congo.  :-)

JT