Just Took The Plunge, Yea!

[BobW]

I've been a fan of computerized lighting for years. I finally took advantage of the Mad Grab Sale and bought a Pixel Tree Kit. While waiting for the hardware to arrive, I've been trying to make heads or tails of the S5 software. There seems to be quite a bit of documentation and tutorials on the LOR site. What I am looking for is an explanation for each of the settings and controls. Also, I would like to have an example to follow for setting up a simple display. from start to finish. I used the word display because of my confusion with the different elements within the S5 application. ie: when to use the sequencer, or the show, or the scheduler, etc. So a simple, start from scratch, would be great. Is something like this available within the mountains of information?

Thanks,

 

BobW

Edited April 11, 2019 by BobW
mispelled

[Don]

I've got some definitions here. That should help you determine what a show, schedule, etc., is.

Also, check my website, under Blog, for the first few blog posts on planning a display.

[MattBrown]

The following presentation talks about setting up the Pixel Tree kit with the S4 Pixel Editor, but it is much the same in the S5 Sequencer.

http://www1.lightorama.com/PDF/PEwithPixelTree16x25-RevA.pdf

Matt

[BobW]

Good info. Thanks.

 

BobW

[TexasLights]

Since i am kind of new with only 2 years expeince so far, i hear you.   I started with S4 and upgraded this year but so far S5 has actually made a few things easier.   I also just got a pixel tree and i can tell you what i did but i at least had some familiarity with the new concepts. 

I went into the sequencer.   The first thing i did was expand the window in the upper right that said Preview.  I created a preview with just one prop, the pixel tree, you can add it easily just click add item, and then light-o-Rama props (online) and select the pixel tree.  It had the 400 light, it you more, just update the counts.  It made it kind of big by default so i resized it a bit so the perspective looked more like a tree.  I then saved this with a name of JustTree, but you can call it anything.  I then created an animation sequence, no music which basically gave me a blank 1 minute canvas.    I used the zoom time out option in the center of the screen, looks like >!< to make the minute cross the whole screen.   I then clicked on the motion effect icon (colored swirl on the right) and that changed the cursor to a pencil.  I then drug the first 10 seconds and let go.  When you do that, the motion effect generator popped up.  From there, i selected different effects, you can see them in the generator as well as to what they do, so i picked some i liked and then repeated the process for the next 10 seconds until i had 60 seconds worth.   I then clicked the play icon and watched the tree animate in the preview window. 

That is the basic concept.   You can now change it around.   Doing it this way, the next thing that was nice was that when i got the pixel tree hooked up, I just had to configure the channels and hook it into the network and I was now controlling the real tree.   As i noted in another post, i have it setup on a stand in the office.    You can then move on the musical sequences where you start with a musical track and repeat the same process. 

[BobW]

Thanks. That's kinda where I'm at. I was hoping for something with an explanation of each of the controls and what to expect from them. But it looks like it's just going to be trying each one and see what it does at each end of its setting. And hope I don't overlook any of the the good stuff. Right now I'm working with support to get my controller working, so it's just sequencer simulations for the moment.