Careful when converting channels to RGB

[Brad Stucky]

There is one thing I've noticed about converting existing channels to RGB. Last year I had programmed 3 (actually 4 with white) colors for the windows on our house. This year, I converted these channels to RGB with the separate white channels underneath the RGB channels. The visualization screen still shows these RGB channels as separate red, green, and blue pixels and everything shows properly on the screen during playback. If you decide to move these converted RGB channels to another track, the links for the separate red, green, and blue pixels become lost. I moved just one converted RGB channel, and all 5 RGB channel groups became broken. Fortunately, you can undo the move and it will come back. I decided to continue anyway since I was wanting to use more tracks. I drew the animation back selecting the channel as a group which showed white instead of the individual colors. A minor problem I did have was that I had my white channels mixed in with the original red, green and blue channels so it was a little more tedious to draw the"white" (combined) RGB channels mixed in with the separately designated white channels. (That was sort of tough to explain, too.) :? Anyhow, this is just an observation for those considering converting existing red, green and blue channels to RGB and later deciding to move them to another track.

[bob]

I haven't been able to get this to happen. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, so here's what I tried:

I created a new sequence, with eight channels.

I converted six of those channels to two RGB channels.

I used the Color Fade tool and the Fill tool somewhat arbitrarily within both of those RGB channels.

I opened up the Animator.

I drew using both RGB channels and also using their six constituent channels individually.

I moved one of the RGB channels to a new track.

At this point, you're saying that the things you drew with the individual constituent channels disappeared? They remained for me. Is there something you did differently than I described?

Thanks.

[Brad Stucky]

bob wrote:

I haven't been able to get this to happen. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, so here's what I tried:

I created a new sequence, with eight channels.

I converted six of those channels to two RGB channels.

I used the Color Fade tool and the Fill tool somewhat arbitrarily within both of those RGB channels.

I opened up the Animator.

I drew using both RGB channels and also using their six constituent channels individually.

I moved one of the RGB channels to a new track.

At this point, you're saying that the things you drew with the individual constituent channels disappeared? They remained for me. Is there something you did differently than I described?

Thanks.

Bob, that is basically what I did. The sequence I started with contains 4 tracks. One main track with 224 channels which contain 24 channels converted to RGB channels. I have 1 track each for 2 color ribbons and 1 track for VU meter affects. If I move one of the converted RGB tracks to any of the other tracks, the colored pixels for all 24 converted channels vanish from the animator screen. I've tested several of my other sequences and found that I have others that don't do this, but at least half of them do. (about a dozen or so) One other thing I noticed for the affected sequences is that when the RGB channel is moved, the computer hesitates for a while like it's trying to figure something out before the visualization drops the affected pixels. (redraw calculations?). Another thing I tried is that I exported the channel configuration from a sequence that is unaffected and imported it into a sequence that is affected. The affected sequence remains affected. I just can't figure out what possible difference there is between the 2 sequences that would cause one to do this and another not. I will email an affected and an unaffected sequence to support@lightorama.com.

I really love the new tools and features so this little glitch hasn't slowed me down.

[bob]

Thanks. Could you please send it directly to me (bob@lightorama.com) instead of to support@lightorama.com, though?

[Brad Stucky]

bob wrote:

Thanks. Could you please send it directly to me (bob@lightorama.com) instead of to support@lightorama.com, though?

Whoops, didn't catch that until today. It's also sent now to you as well. Thanks, Bob.

[bob]

This will be fixed in the next release. Thanks for pointing it out.