Strobes In The Visualizer

[ryebred]

I am adding two sets of ten incandescent strobes to my display this year and am wondering the best way to represent them in the visualizer. In the sequence editor, to get them flashing you just turn the strobe channel full on for the period you want the strobes to go off correct? That being the case, I guess there is no other way to have the strobes display in the visualizer as anything but solid white pixels, unless I am missing something?

[-klb-]

Some people set up extra visualization only channels that they set to twinkle when the strobes are on. Me, I just represent them as pink blocks off to the side of the actual element.

[LarryDrumAZ]

ryebred wrote:

I am adding two sets of ten incandescent strobes to my display this year and am wondering the best way to represent them in the visualizer. In the sequence editor, to get them flashing you just turn the strobe channel full on for the period you want the strobes to go off correct? That being the case, I guess there is no other way to have the strobes display in the visualizer as anything but solid white pixels, unless I am missing something?

Same as KLB, I represent mine with different color pixels outside my Mega-Tree.

[Surfing4Dough]

Similar to what has been mentioned, what I do is pick a bright color you don't use (teal blue in my case) and I just draw 1 or 2 adjacent pixels for a strobe ( -- most of which are in clusters so just clump several of these together to represent that group of strobes. When they are lit, even though they are solid (since they are 100% on like you said), they tend to stand out from the rest of the animation colors so you can picture them flashing then a little better. Once you have a display with them, you are able to picture them in your head pretty well.

I have seen some duplicate the strobe channel, but don't have the clone assigned to an actual controller channel, but instead use twinkle or shimmer on the dummy channel and only draw that channel in the visualizer. Takes a little more time, but probably would have done that my first year had I thought of it then. Can just copy/paste the strobe line in the sequence to the dummy channel periodically.

[bisquit476]

Or you could just use the shimmer effect in the visualizer for when you want the strobes on, to get the flashing effect, then after the sequence is done the way you want it, change the strobes to full on for using with the actual strobes.

[George Simmons]

I'm one who uses ghost channels for the strobes that are the same color as the strobes, and then twinkles those channels for visualizer effect. I keep my "real" strobe channels separate so I don't inadvertantly twinkle them in the real world. (Although now that I think about it I wonder if that might be the answer to getting LED strobes to randomize sooner than eight seconds...)

[Cray Augsburg]

I use teal (as Surfing4Dough does) to represent the strobes. Then I spell the word STROBES using a 5x7 character matrix somewhere on the visualizer screen that is otherwise out of the way. I can't see the strobe effect, but the word comes on at the right time, and I know I have sequenced them. I do the same thing for my blowmolds (ran 20 of them last year).

[james campbell]

All great info ,I do the same just make blocks outside the mega tree. One note is to turn you strobes on about a second before you really want them on because they need to charge.As well as turn them off about a second early they will discharge a few times after power is off.you may have to play around with yours all strobes may be different.