How Do People Do Effects Like These (W Videos)

[Rapajez]

Thanks so much spomalley! To clarify, I couldn't access the link from work, but I will check out soon. I'll probably have one final post before I pull the trigger on everything.

Thanks again everyone!

[spomalley]

See you got your signature, keep us posted on what you're doing.

[robigd]

The spiral trees are Basic RGB strips and all controlled via my special DMX 54 channel or 18 RGB group controller. Actually nothing special, but I keep telling myself it is. Its a single 12x12 enclosure with both the controller and power supply inside. It cant be far from the lights strips becasue I used cat5 cable which seem the only option if I wanted to fit 18 seperate RGB cables into one enclosure plus the other items I stuffed inside. Worked out nice.

As for the spiral trees...just those cheap plastic spiral trees you get from HD or Lowes. I trashed all the incan lights and tie-wrap the strips to them. The length is not exact, but pretty close for the 4ft. 6ft spiral I had to add about additional half strip or about 24ft long. Each 4ft tree had its own run and the 6ft has two. Please dont try to run a 24ft strip with a single cat5 unless you want fire and smoke as part of your display

Oh yeah....I also trashed the incan lights inside the little plastic star that goes on top of each tree and added 6 basic RGB nodes in its place. One at each point and one in the middle. Those I did connect to the strip by adding a small snap connector between for easy add/remove when done.

Kevin

 

Kevin,

 

How do you add an additional half strip to make the strip 24ft long to fit the 6ft spiral tree? Are you actually soldering two strips together or do you have 2 RGB strips on the tree and are only using 1.5 of them?

 

Thanks!

[caniac]

How do people do effects like the swirl around the the mega tree, starting around 0.10?

**He looks like he is just uses a circle of light string. Others use what we call a "Weber Tree" (different effect)

How about the color changing mini-trees, off to the right in Kevin's setup? Are those custom RGB lights, or something more simple?

**They could be RGB or something simpler like what I do...4 separate strings of each color...Red, Green, Blue and White..so 4 channels on EACH tree.

How about the tubes of white light that slide up and down, near the trees? I'd love to use a couple of these to create a giant equalizer.

**Basically a straight "arch"...like 7 separate sections off 100ct lights wrapped around a piece of PVC....so probably 7 separate channels PER pole**

As for the animated faces, I heard they use 7-channels each. Could you pull off something less sophisticated, say with with 3-channels per mouth--one closed, one 0 shape and 1 wider shape?

**you could...but then you also need a channel for the face itself.**

Does anyone sell these ready made?

**Yes..Holiday Coro**

http://www.holidaycoro.com/Halloween-Animated-Singing-s/1849.htm

WowLights has singing faces (rope light versions) as well as already done sequences but can be a bit pricey over options like Holiday Coro.

[CLD Kevin]

Kevin,

How do you add an additional half strip to make the strip 24ft long to fit the 6ft spiral tree? Are you actually soldering two strips together or do you have 2 RGB strips on the tree and are only using 1.5 of them?

Thanks!

I've done with both ways...

The 6ft spiral trees had 2 separate RGB channels on them....16ft and 8ft sections to make the 24ft. That is the "safe" way but uses up 6 channels. But I had 1 of the trees connect the 16ft and 8ft strips in line together and powered from one end...just like my double garage door which is 26ft. I saw no difference in brightness. Now the controller was 15ft away and I used 18awg wire.

[Ken Benedict]

Kevin,

 

How do you add an additional half strip to make the strip 24ft long to fit the 6ft spiral tree? Are you actually soldering two strips together or do you have 2 RGB strips on the tree and are only using 1.5 of them?

 

Thanks!

 

See this video:

 

Edited July 4, 2013 by Ken Benedict

[Dad02]

Nice to see not all the old timers abandoned ship.