Where to start: Creating a new prop for HC Snowflake

[PJD]

My husband just surprised me by adding some more pixels to our Xmas display for this year.  He has bought 3 sets of HolidayCoro Snowflakes.  I now need to figure out how to make props for these.  There is 1 large snowflake (about 2' across - 48 pixels) and 2 small snowflakes (about 1' across - 30 pixels) in each set.

I'm really not sure where to start.  Should this be a new "Custom" prop or a new "Advanced" prop?  Should an entire snowflake be a single prop of should each of the 6 points be it's own prop and then group them together into a snowflake?  My first gut feeling was to just make 1 large and 1 small snowflake as a custom prop, but then I remembered watching a video (I think by forum member default) where he treated a similar shape as "nested" shapes and was able to do more with the prop.  However, I have no clue where to start to do that.  Maybe I should just go simple this year and re-do them later once I'm less of a newbie...

To make it more fun, he started putting pixels into the 1st large snowflake and DIDN'T follow the recommended pattern - if that turns out to be a problem, I'm going to make him re-do it!

This is a picture from the HC site of the large snowflake (For some totally unknown reason, he started with pixel 1 at the top of the arm that has 32 at the bottom.

[ebrown1972]

2 hours ago, PJD said:

My husband just surprised me by adding some more pixels to our Xmas display for this year.  He has bought 3 sets of HolidayCoro Snowflakes.  I now need to figure out how to make props for these.  There is 1 large snowflake (about 2' across - 48 pixels) and 2 small snowflakes (about 1' across - 30 pixels) in each set.

I'm really not sure where to start.  Should this be a new "Custom" prop or a new "Advanced" prop?  Should an entire snowflake be a single prop of should each of the 6 points be it's own prop and then group them together into a snowflake?  My first gut feeling was to just make 1 large and 1 small snowflake as a custom prop, but then I remembered watching a video (I think by forum member default) where he treated a similar shape as "nested" shapes and was able to do more with the prop.  However, I have no clue where to start to do that.  Maybe I should just go simple this year and re-do them later once I'm less of a newbie...

To make it more fun, he started putting pixels into the 1st large snowflake and DIDN'T follow the recommended pattern - if that turns out to be a problem, I'm going to make him re-do it!

This is a picture from the HC site of the large snowflake (For some totally unknown reason, he started with pixel 1 at the top of the arm that has 32 at the bottom.

If I were to do it I would make the entire snowflake a custom prop and then add motion rows for the points. As far as the way your husband put the pixels in the snowflake, just make sure the custom prop follows the way your husband placed the pixels in the prop or make him redo it

[TheDucks]

IMHO make him redo it. Only because you might want to add more of these Later and it is a lot easier to follow the lines.

FWIW I just built a new 15" coroflake that does not come with any markings. The folk at HC nicely sent me a drill template that I can mark up. (And I was inconsistent on some of the arms and need to redo them. )

[lanopie]

You can also download the prop from Boscoyo (CHROMAFLAKES 24" and CHROMAFLAKES 12") They are really close to what you have from HC.  You husband would have to redo the pixels to match the setup from Boscoyo 

From the Preview, select Add Item, then the third selection from the bottom Boscoyo Studio Online ant then go down the list until you find what you need, check the box on the left and download.

Hope this helps.

[PJD]

Thanks for all the input everyone! I'll probably start working on this tonight (today is busy with getting Halloween pulled down) and I'll take a look at the Boscoyo option and/or making a custom prop for it.

PJD

[PJD]

I messed around with both the "Custom" option and the "Advanced" options.  As there is very little info out there about Advanced, I based it around the example in the help file.  That version and my Custom version behave differently when I apply effects.  I can't really say that 1 is better and Custom is a lot easier to setup.

I do have one very basic question about creating a custom prop.  When I am putting the numbers into the grid, should it be based on looking at the prop from the front or the back?  It is certainly easier to do the back view since you can see the wires and know where you are.  If it is supposed to be the front, I assume taking the "back view" and selecting the whole thing and using Flip-horizontal would turn it into the Front view.

The only example in the help is a candy cane and it isn't going to matter, but I would expect it would make a difference with a more complex prop (like a snowflake).

ebrown1972 - Can you explain why you would make motion effects for the points?  I am assuming this is in the prop definition and using custom subsections to define each point (arm) of the snowflake.  Each of those subsections only have 8 pixels and I am having trouble seeing why I would want to have motion effects for each individually.  Am I missing something?

PJD