Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

How to create a cascade fall effect on arches


toddmoon

Recommended Posts

Ok, I am still a newbie. I have been trying to create a cascade falling effect on three arches that I want to display side by side in a straight line. How do I get a falling effect starting from the top and ending at the bottom of the arch?

Ideas suggestions? A copy of the programming effect would be great to look at.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unless I am missing something in your question:

For a 7 channel arch..

Turn on channel 4
Start to fade 4 turn on 3 and 5
Start to fade 3 and 5 turn on 2 and 6
Start to fade 2 and 6 turn on 1 and 7
Fade 1 and 7.

This is for an odd number of channels. For even, you will need to start with the top 2 channels (one big reason for using odd channels).

Is that what you are looking for?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your help. It is what I am looking for. I have been watching it on my program animate program but I just am not happy with the effect so far. It still do not have the timing motion effect that I am looking for yet. I will just have to keep working on it. I may just go ahead and setup my arches in my backyard and hook the system up and just keep running various programming timings and effects to find the effect I am looking for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Practicing with an actual arch is an excellent way to go. The best arch effects comes with many channels. There is always a tradeoff.

While you are playing, don't forget to try to move the lights up to "clap" in the middle and fall back down. That is also a nice effect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of my arch programming uses two or three commands on each segment. A ramp up, usually an on period, and a ramp down. I think one that looks good when sweeping through the arch is when the up and on are equal, and the down is about twice as long. Have each next segment start ramping up as the previous one goes on. If I am moving really fast, or want the section that is on to appear narrower, I will either cut the on section to half the time, or leave it out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are some samples, though they are all fairly fast. I'm showing two arches, each 8 segments, and each arch is 20 feet of pipe...

This first one is abruptly on, and fades out. Having them overlap is critical, and the fade helps emulate motion blur, which helps your brain interpret it as smooth motion.

arch1.jpg

Here we have a fade up, with the fade down taking twice as long.. This gives even more motion blur, and was very effective for the fairly fast motion.

arch2.jpg

This one was even faster. Not as much overlap as on the last one, but between the real speed it was moving, and the overlap and fade that helps simulate motion blur, this one worked well as well.

arch3.jpg


Unfortunately, I don't see one of the slower ones at hand right now..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You might want to try the new shimmer fade down effect, it might make the channels look like water.

Got to try it myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, thanks for sharing the programming effects. I have been trying different effects and seeing how others program is very helpful. I am working on a red white and blue 4th of July show for this summer. I have a variety of 1 min songs and just three arches for the show. Trying to find different effects for 150 songs has been a challenge and I will definitely put the programming to good use.

Thanks for sharing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dennis Cherry wrote:

You might want to try the new shimmer fade down effect, it might make the channels look like water.

Got to try it myself.

Are you saying you can combine shimmer and fade down? It must be hidden, 'cause I can't figure out how to do that. Help, please.

Richard
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you dont mind would you be willing to post some of your arch programming. If you figure out the shimmer fade down effect I would love to see the programming for it.

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A shimmer fade arch program doesn't look that different:

Shimmer-arch.jpg

Here is the LOR button bar...

LOR-Buttons.jpg


The star is for custom effects. The next pair of buttons selects twinkle or shimmer. The next three select intensity, fade up, or fade down. Once you have the appropriate combination selected, that is the tool you have. Or if you strongly prefer keyboard shortcuts, "c" will give you the most recent custom tool you selected. Not so fast as the other shortcuts, but I personally don't think you should use that much of these effects..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The custom button is a tool I have never clicked on, so I really appreciate that lesson.
This is my first year with LOR and I still have a lot to learn. Thanks again.

Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It took me a while to figure it out but I finally did get the button sequence to work. Thanks for the information. I am still a newbie at this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...