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Why does White become Pink when exported to the Sequence Editor


BrianBruderer

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This issue comes up frequently. The short answer is that to get the colors on the CCRs to best match the colors that you created in SuperStar the colors have to be "balanced." The result is that the colors will look wrong in the Sequence Editor but will look good on the actual CCRs.


 


Below is a more detailed explanation:


The reason superstar exports the way it does is because the Red, Green and Blue elements in the LEDs in Cosmic Color Ribbons are not "balanced". For example, if you turn Red and Green to 100% on the LED in a Cosmic Color Ribbon you would expect to get yellow, but you will get a greenish-yellow because the Green element is stronger than the Red element in the LED. If you turn on Red, Green and Blue to 100% you expect to get white, but it will actually be a Bluish-white because the Blue element is too strong. For this reason, SuperStar pulls back the Green and Blue elements. The end result is that in the Sequence Editor what should be white will look pinkish, but when played to your CCRs it will be a true white.


 


In addition, the "dimming curve" for LEDs is not smooth. Sending a value of 100 to Red will be 100% Red, but sending a value of 50 to Red will not be 50% red. To get 50% Red intensity you have to send a value of about 25. So for this reason, all the values that are less than 100 will be pulled back more than you expect when you look at your exported sequence in the Sequence Editor. This is so the color on the LED will more closely match what you saw on the computer screen in SuperStar.


 


The bottom line is that in order to get the LEDs on the CCRs to best match the colors on your computer screen the colors have to be adjusted and the end result is that the CCRs look good but the colors in the sequence editor will look wrong.


 


But I have customers who don't like to see the colors be wrong in the sequence editor so I put the "Export Raw Values" option in there. When you choose that option the colors in the exported sequence will look good in the sequence editor but the colors on the actual CCRs will not look as good.


 


Using the example of a white snowman, the white will look pinkish in the sequence editor but on the actual ribbons it will look a true white. If you use the "Export Raw Values" option then the snowman will look white in the sequence editor but will be a bit bluish on the CCRs.


 


Also, if you use "Export Raw Values" option and you have places in your sequence that use dim colors, those colors will look correct in the sequence editor but on the CCRs they won't look as dim as they should be. For example, in my "Silent Night" sequence at the end I have a night scene with a dark blue sky. The dark blue uses the 10% blue setting in SuperStar. But when exported the value becomes 1 or 2 because that is what is needed to get the CCRs down to 10% brightness. If you use "Export Raw Values" then it will export 10 for the blue value. 10 will look like 10% blue in the sequence editor, but on the CCRs it will be about 32% brightness because that is just how LEDs behave. The end result is that the night time sky will be brighter than it should be if you use "Export Raw Values"


 


Note that the red, green, and blue LED elements in CCPs are balanced so superstar does not need to balance them. If you are using CCPs or CCBs you can make a visualization of your display and in the comment line of the fixture containing the CCP or CCB add the text "superstar ccp" and then superstar will not balance the rgb values and white will look white in the sequence editor. Superstar will still apply a dimming curve to the rgb values so that dim values will look better on the CCPs or CCBs.


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  • 1 year later...

Is there a difference when exporting for a dmx controller.

What then are the best settings to see the true colors you chose when making the sequence?

Balanced versus full....smooth ramps? Stay away from raw? 2811 strips with a San 682

Thanks

Sorry. ...I don't care what it looks like in the sequence editor.. only on the dmx pixel tree.

Thanks in advance

Chris

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Balanced and Full Range will both give good colors on the ribbons.

 

Stay away from "Export Raw Colors"

 

To get the best colors on your lights, you should determine if your lights are "cool white" or "warm white". "cool white" will look bluish white when Red, Green, and Blue are all at 100%. "warm white" will look a little bit yellowish white when Red, Green, and Blue are all at 100%.

 

If you have a current release, there will be a "cool white" and "warm white" choices at the top of the Configuration dialog box.

 

Most Cosmic Color Ribbons are "cool white". Most CCBs and CCPs are "warm white." 

 

Non-LOR lights can be either one.

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For effects that fade up or fade down and the fade is 1 second long or longer then smooth ramps will make the ramp smoother, but most people won't notice the difference. I leave it off.

 

Note that it makes the fade smoother by splitting it up into several fades. So you end up with more commands being sent to the controllers.

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