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More newbie questions (sorry)

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Buckeyelights View Drop Down
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  Quote Buckeyelights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jun 2009 at 7:16am
Originally posted by LightsOnLogan

Originally posted by Buckeyelights

 
I'm trying to sequence Rock Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee.  I'm learning a lot just my jumping in and doing it.
 
Which version of the song (she did two versions)?  I have had what I've been told is the "original version" it in my show since 2006. 
 
Brenda's Rockin' is a fun song to sequence.  The "rougher" 2-track style recording from the '50s has spots where the vocals or an instrument or something is slightly out of time with the rest of the band... gives a challange to get perfect light timing compared to the perfect timing edits of modern music.
 
Interesting story... my neighbor across the street was a school teacher of one of her daughters.  Referring to the 2006 display, she said "I should call Brenda up and have her come look at this!"  I don't know if she ever did or not (or if they even stayed in touch to begin with), but she seemed perfectly serious when she said it, so maybe.
 
Hi Lights,
 
I didn't realize she did two versions.  I got the song from our local public library, I think it was on a Time Life CD with a variety of popular "oldie Christmas tunes".  I like the song a lot and I'm trying to feature our mega tree in the sequence.  I'm finding it hard to spotlight the mega tree, because I want all the other lights dancing too. Oh well, that's the least of my worries.
 
It would be really cool to have any singer, composer see and comment on a display to their song.  As long as they didn't want a royality Wink.
 
The pace and beat of the song is easy to pick-up so it's a good one for me to learn on. It helps that I like the song, because now I know what I've read about listening to it, over and over and over, bit by bit, countless times.
 
tks!
joe
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Buckeyelights View Drop Down
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  Quote Buckeyelights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jun 2009 at 10:31pm
Originally posted by ChrisL1976

Originally posted by Buckeyelights

I want to study Chris's arch sequence, might as well learn from the experts.


Expert, who me???  Far from it.....LOL
 
Two questions for the expertsStar:
1. How do you get the event marker to set such a regular and even set of time markers?
 
2. Often before a ramp begins at its higher end intensity, a lower intensity block (~30%) of all on is placed.  Why? Does that assist in the smooth transition between channels, creating a smoother flow?
 
3. Is there a way to create a split screen, where you can have different widths of event markers on top of each other? Since I'm thinking about sequencing the arches, those intervals are very short, much shorter than say interval between lights blinking on the house.  The house lights might be blinking every 1/4 count and I want each arch channel blinking at 1/8 count.
 
I hope I'm making sense, cause I'm Sleepy
 
Thanks!!!
Joe
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Jonathan View Drop Down
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  Quote Jonathan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Jun 2009 at 12:15am
Compared to someone who plugs their lights into a timer that goes on for five hours a night, YOU are an expert.  "Expert" is a relative term.  Anyway...

1.  Luck.  Just kidding (kind of).  There are two ways to have even timing.  First, be able to place event markers really accurately.  Some people use the grid lines to do this.  Tedious and difficult, it takes patience to do this.  Others imported sequences form other programs that automatically place time lines at every 1/10 of a second (etc.).  Frankly, that's a lazy way to program, and while placing time lines by hand is not always the most enjoyabe task, doing so will ensure that your sequences are always spot on, not 'close enough'.

Fortunately, you have some powerful, yet easy to use tools at your disposal.  With the "Y" tool, you can right click in a cell (or more) and select 'split cells'.  There are several options- Divide the entire selection, Divide each existing cell, and Divide logarithmically.   The most common ones you'll find yourself using are the first two options, in which you have two choices- new equally spaced events, and fixed time (mS).  The first choice will place however many cells you choose within the space selected.  The second choice will place a new cell for however many milliseconds (mS) you choose within the space selected.  If you want each cell selected to be individually split, then choose the divide each cell option.  The last choice (divide logaritmithically) uses a mathematical formula to determine where the event marker goes.  It's more fun to play with that on your own than to listen to someone drone on and on, so I'll let you get to it. 

2.  I'd like to mke sure I understand you correctly before attempting to answer this one.  Are you saying that whenever you place a ramp from 100% to 0%, there is a 30% intensity (on) command that is placed in the preceding cell? 

3.  You said two questions and this is the third so I won't tell you that to program portions of your sequence that are harder to see that all you have to do is zoom in/out using the zoom tool (keyboard shortcut 'Z') or the Page Up/Down keys.  Wink
~Jonathan
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  Quote Buckeyelights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Jun 2009 at 8:21am
Originally posted by Jonathan

Compared to someone who plugs their lights into a timer that goes on for five hours a night, YOU are an expert.  "Expert" is a relative term.  Anyway...

1.  Luck.  Just kidding (kind of).  There are two ways to have even timing.  First, be able to place event markers really accurately.  Some people use the grid lines to do this.  Tedious and difficult, it takes patience to do this.  Others imported sequences form other programs that automatically place time lines at every 1/10 of a second (etc.).  Frankly, that's a lazy way to program, and while placing time lines by hand is not always the most enjoyabe task, doing so will ensure that your sequences are always spot on, not 'close enough'.

Fortunately, you have some powerful, yet easy to use tools at your disposal.  With the "Y" tool, you can right click in a cell (or more) and select 'split cells'.  There are several options- Divide the entire selection, Divide each existing cell, and Divide logarithmically.   The most common ones you'll find yourself using are the first two options, in which you have two choices- new equally spaced events, and fixed time (mS).  The first choice will place however many cells you choose within the space selected.  The second choice will place a new cell for however many milliseconds (mS) you choose within the space selected.  If you want each cell selected to be individually split, then choose the divide each cell option.  The last choice (divide logaritmithically) uses a mathematical formula to determine where the event marker goes.  It's more fun to play with that on your own than to listen to someone drone on and on, so I'll let you get to it. 
I'll play with the "Y" tool, as I haven't tried that yet.  I think you mentioned it in your tutorial?
2.  I'd like to mke sure I understand you correctly before attempting to answer this one.  Are you saying that whenever you place a ramp from 100% to 0%, there is a 30% intensity (on) command that is placed in the preceding cell? 
In Chris's arch sequence that he shared, he placed a 30% intensity on command in the preceding cell then ramp down from 100% to 0%.  Watching the sequence I haven't picked up what this does, but thinking that it would help with a smooth flow between ramps.
3.  You said two questions and this is the third so I won't tell you that to program portions of your sequence that are harder to see that all you have to do is zoom in/out using the zoom tool (keyboard shortcut 'Z') or the Page Up/Down keys.  Wink
See last statement, I was beat last night, so I'm not suprised I couldn't count. I wonder what else I messed up while playing around with my sequence.
 
Since I only asked for 2 answers, your comment about dividing the cells answers question #3.......I think.
 
Tks!
Joe
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LightsOnLogan View Drop Down
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  Quote LightsOnLogan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Jun 2009 at 9:43am
As a general rule of thumb for beginner sequence authors:
 
A) First you should get the "main beat" placed down manually before moving into the animation timings.  I do this by cues from the Spectral view, but others choose the waveform view.  On the first pass you can be as "rough" with the timings as you want.. they can always be moved later.  I usually start by just flashing a single channel (I use my star strangely enough) to check my timings in the visualizer.  You can also add effects to any channels which simply follow the main beats/vocals/instruments/etc. at this time if you so desire, BUT NOT ANIMATIONS.
 
Why this is important: All of you animations fit "between the beats", so now is your best chance to tweak the beats to the ultimate precision BEFORE you put animations between them.  Play it over and over and notice any and all timing issues and correct them now.  If you have any issues, just use the V tool to drag the timeline marker to the desired position and all of the events move with it (this impresses the LOR users that are used to using a fixed grid the most and is the reason Aurora presumes a dynamic grid instead of a fixed one).
 
B) Now that your "main line" is satisfactory you can go back and insert the animation timings.  You can use the "Y" tool right click for "Split events" to do this as mentioned above.  This places the timings for each of your animation frames.  If you want to "wipe" a 5 segment arch, you could divide a beat into 5 timings for example. 
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Jonathan View Drop Down
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  Quote Jonathan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Jun 2009 at 12:28pm
You'll quickly find that the "Y" tool is a very versatile tool.  All your copy/cut/paste functions are there, the split cell function is useful after the initial timing is set up, and you can even use it to delete channel events in mass.  I do explain functions of the "Y" tool in my various tutorials, so be sure to look at all of them.  I did forget to upload them to Vimeo to see if the conversion went better so I'll take care of that now and add the link here when it is complete. 

EDIT:  All the Aurora tutorials are now up on Vimeo as well, and the resolution does look a bit better.  Click here to view them.

I cannot speak for Chris, but I do believe that is the general idea.  My arches are firefly arches and so my programming needs are different that traditional arches require, but if I did have traditional arches, I would program a low ramp up command first and finish the ramp out as the next section began to turn on to keep a smooth flow.  Richard Holdman is someone a lot of us in this hobby look up to (including me), and if you've ever seen his display videos you'll know why.  He does a fantastic job on pretty much everything, but his arches are amazing because he has very smooth sequence effects. 

As for the third question you had, I was refering to being able to see the event markers you had already placed.  If you have a 1 second 16 segment arch effect that you want to program, it will be impossible to do so if the view isn't expanded.  If the view is all the way out, all you'll see is a bunch of white lines until you zoom in.  As for placing the event markers themselves, then yes, my first answer covers that.



Edited by Jonathan - 19 Jun 2009 at 1:51pm
~Jonathan
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