Ronnie7696 Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 I am a newbie and this will be my first year to do a light show. I have been addictively buying LOR products all year long and I have finally bought what I need to get started ( I think). I have purchased several already made sequences and I am learning to modify them. I am looking for faces for "Hooked on a Feeling" or faces I can modify to fit the sequences. I have been Reading a lot of forums but still have not found what I am needing. Hopefully somebody can put me on the right track. I'm not asking for free stuff because I know it takes a lot of work to do this. Anything i can modify and learn from will greatly be appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserace33 Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 I'd grab Papagayo and watch a few YouTube videos. Getting the hang of the mediocre software is actually really easy to program the faces. I can usually get a song close in about 4 hours now. Much easier than sequencing the rest of my channels. Anyone else know of better software than Papagayo? I tried using Xlights but have yet to get the hang of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibblejr Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 As a newbie myself and also starting out with faces here is what I can tell you. There are a couple of companies that sell Halloween faces and Christmas faces. All if the faces have basically the cane features. Outline, eyes and several different lips and two mouths. 7-8 channels depending. If buying sequences you are only buying what the individual channels do. You still have to buy the correct song that was used by the designer to configure the facial channels. If you purchase different sequences from different people with different facial features you will be forced to tweak the sequences to fit your faces. Ask me how I learned that... I got a nice welcome here and was assisted by a few different members with various parts of my quest. If designing your own faces and sequences you will basically have to learn what each face does while singing to the music. I have read where designers will work on like 10 seconds of a song at a time. Painstaking. The other painstaking part is outing all of those bulbs or LEDs in the holes. Due to surgery this week I am only doing Halloween this year and I purchased my pumpkin faces from someone who retired unfortunately all of the music out there has to be re synced because he is retired. If I was you I would try to purchase the faces and sequences from the same person or sit down and learn how to do it. That is my intentions while I have a lengthy recovery. Best of luck and welcome to the forums. JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie7696 Posted September 27, 2016 Author Share Posted September 27, 2016 Thanks for the advise. I have been watching a lot of videos trying to learn how all of this works but i quickly found out how brilliant most of the guys on here are. As for learning, I'm one of those "see it, learn it" kind. Just reading doesn't do it for the brain God gave me so i'll try the Papagayo and see if i cant learn anything from that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince4xmas Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 Just put on the headphones, slow down the song, and program your singing face in Sequence Editor. Take a bit of time, but the result looks just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sax Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 Singing faces is what brought me to LOR. I love them. I love sequencing them. What others have called painful is relaxing and entertaining to me. Frustrating? At first maybe. Because I listened to what others were saying....like only sequence the vowels....every other word....use papagayo. Those things were hugely frustrating for me. We live in a world where we don't have enough time. So we all want it now. But singing faces...well they take time. I tried papagayo. Made by forum member itsmebobo. Seems like a great guy. But for me, papagayo takes as much time if not more than normal sequencing. You have to first set papagayo up. So your first song will take a very long time. But subsequent songs, you still have to phonetically spell it out in the song, choosing the words for each singer. So, still takes time. Me, I just sequence each word in the sequence editor. I slow the song down to half speed sometimes if the song is too fast. I use 6 channels on most of my faces. Eyes open, eyes closed, upper, middle and lower mouth and the "O". I add a 7th channel for body to some of my faces. I chose this layout because the other mouth position, call it oval, looks unnatural to me when I watch faces sing. The beauty of all this decorating and sequencing is you get to decide what looks best to you. Sequencing at first was time consuming but it gets easier. Not only easier for each song but in the song itself. I am able to find the rhythm of the singer and learn the words so I can quickly predict the motions of the singer. Then I take shortcuts. For example, the chorus. It is almost always repeated in a song. So I copy and paste. Sometimes other words of the song are repeated. Copy paste. Backup singers? Yeah, they say the same thing as the lead singer. Copy paste. After paste verify it is good...make changes as necessary but it usually is minimal. Change the eyes blinking for each face to give them each their own personality. Nothing worse than seeing all the faces blinking at the same time. It will get easier. It will get better. Just like anything else that is a learned skill the more you do the easier and better it gets. What kind of faces do you have? How many channels? My Halloween faces are in my avatar. Sax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie7696 Posted September 28, 2016 Author Share Posted September 28, 2016 Well Vince and Sax, I took your ideas and your way is a lot easier for me to do, Papagayo was a little over my head. Right now I have a lot of free time so I have been playing with the sequences just like ya'll suggested and I've got a better idea of how it all works. I plan to have 3 faces with 6 - 8 channels each, so it will take some work for me. Still its easier for me to follow your way. I really appreciate the responses to my forum question. Being the new kid on the block I will have lots of questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpageler Posted September 28, 2016 Share Posted September 28, 2016 Ronnie, not sure what "faces I can modify" mean but will take a stab at what I do to either purchases or shared face sequences. I start with a blank sequences that has all my display elements, including faces channels. I then copy the rows from purchses/shared face sequences, into my blank sequences. As you do this for multiple face songs, you have to make sure that the channels are the same for each faces sequences..1 for outline, 2 for closed eyes, etc.. How others assigned face channels, may vary. So I go into tool..channel configuration and make sure that the channel assignment for the 7 or 8 face channles are the same in every sequence. If you don't do this, you will get eradic faces actions. This is what I consider "modifying" face sequences. I really don't do much to face sequence I get, other maybe adding more "eye blicking" or correcting a few cells of "quirkiness" that the author might have missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie7696 Posted September 28, 2016 Author Share Posted September 28, 2016 I was going to do that but i havent found any shared face sequences yet,,, any ideas where i can find them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserace33 Posted September 29, 2016 Share Posted September 29, 2016 Papagayo is the way to go. Use it in conjuction with PapaAssist and PapaToLOR and you get super close. Start with something short like Hello, Welcome to my Christmas show. Once you sequence that with the software you will get it. Or as others stated, just find the facial expressions for instance AI has the top and bottom lips illuminated, then E has the top and middle. Maybe make several clipboards and save them then just start pasting. You'll get it, at first I thought the face was going to be so hard but it is probably the easiest. The hard part is finding the correct timing for the rest of your light show. The faces will quickly become a breeze. I find songs throughout the year and sequence just the face because that never changes. Unfortunately for me my display grows each year so I spend more time sequencing the rest of the house. You'll get it eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sax Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 I don't have hooked on a feeling but list a couple of Halloween songs you might want and if I have it I'll shoot it your way. I have a 4 face setup. My avatar. Top face, jack skelington is 7 channels. Bottom 3 pumpkins are 6 channels each. I do put placeholders for bodies in my sequence so it will come across as 7 channels each face even though the last channel is blank. I do this because my Christmas lower faces are trees with a body outline so they are 7 channels each. I can share the sequences between holidays....even though I never have. So far Halloween songs and Christmas songs I have used are not interchangeable. The channels will be clearly labeled so you will be able to get an idea how I sequence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserace33 Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 Sax, where did you get the Jack Skelington face? That is awesome! What software do you use to sequence the faces? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sax Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 I get my faces from here: http://www.wireframedlites.com/halloween.php I have 8 total faces...4 for Halloween and 4 for Christmas. I use LED ropelight that is cuttable every 20". Got that from here: http://www.christmas-leds.com/productinfo_v3.aspx?productid=LED-38-RP-20INCH Halloween is my avatar, Christmas has Frosty the Snowman and 3 singing Christmas trees I had Doug, the owner of wire frame d'lites, modify to match the top of the pumpkins. That makes the top square allowing similar mounting to the house rather than a single top point at the top of the tree. All faces sequencing done with LOR sequence editor. My yard is almost all RGB. But I do have firesticks, static elements like spiders, glowing feet and hands with lights coming out of the ground, motors for my cauldron creep...etc. But all my yard sequencing is done with LOR SuperStar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie7696 Posted September 30, 2016 Author Share Posted September 30, 2016 Sax those faces are really cool looking, love the look.... I been really excited about putting all of this together but now I will have to place it on hold till I get these Heart test out of the way and hopefully I'll be healthy enough to finish my Christmas displays.. Unexpected as always but I'm optimistic that things will be good. Anyway's, id like whatever anyone has so maybe I can understand things a little bit more or possibly modify some of it.. Hopefully by Tuesday I will be back to playing with my lights Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sax Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 Hope things go well. I do have some Christmas sequences too. Just send me an email address or a location and I can send some sequences your way to play with. It might help pass the time or give you something else to focus on. Sax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie7696 Posted October 4, 2016 Author Share Posted October 4, 2016 Thank you Sax.... and I'm back to playing,,, Looks like i'm going to survive this year.. I will send you a message with my email so feel free to send me anything that can help me learn a little more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie7696 Posted October 16, 2016 Author Share Posted October 16, 2016 Ok I found a Rockin around the Christmas Tree Singing Tree clip sequence but it doesnt share the same size editing squares that i have on my Full Sequence. How can i change the squares to match mine so i can cut and paste it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Laff Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Paste by time not cells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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