Building a Spiral Tree

[LORi P]

Nice!!!!!

If you ever find yourself in south/central Missouri, I'd be happy to let you help me build one!

I want one, I want one, I want one. But alas, only 32 lonely channels.... :{

[jimswinder]

LORi P wrote:

I want one, I want one, I want one. But alas, only 32 lonely channels.... :{

Summer (Fall) sale is just days...weeks...months away!!!!

[LORi P]

jimswinder wrote:

Summer (Fall) sale is just days...weeks...months away!!!!

And you're gonna get me a controller!! :)

It won't be a surprise now, but I don't mind.

[lkcubsrule]

Looks pretty awesome! I have a ~17 foot tree and I am a little nervous about converting it to a spiral tree because I will need a much tighter spacing as well as a dedicated 16 channels. I would assume that a tight spacing is a necessity, right? (like 12" wouldn't work with 4" lights).

[LORi P]

Jeff Millard wrote:

Can someone please send some high res photos of a Weber like this to jeffrey dot millard at yahoo dot com? I would like to try to make one of these in the S3 vis to share after public release...

Jeff

Why don't newbies SEARCH the forum before they ask questions??? They are wasting the time of the veterans who have already answered them! :) :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Oh wait... you are not a newbie! And this might not be something that helps you, but I could not resist. :dude:

If S3 can import channel configurations from S2, you might not have to make a megatree in S3.... You could export the channel config from that sample in S2, and then import that channel config into S3. I am not sure if the visualizer in S3 is backwards compatible though.... I have not seen S3. :{
jerryb721 posted a .las with an awesome Weber visualizer in the 10th post in this thread.
http://forums.lightorama.com/view_topic.php?id=25064&forum_id=77&highlight=spiral+sample+16+channels:du

Even if S3 cannot import S2 channel configs, you could make each channel a unique color in that sample .las and use a screenshot of that as a template for making a Weber tree in S3. That might be easier than figuring out what string makes up each channel from a photo of a Weber.

If anyone is tempted to flame me... please read posts 10-19 in this thread first: (Link included below so you don't have to SEARCH.) :D http://forums.lightorama.com/view_topic.php?id=26910&forum_id=80&highlight=search+ny_yankee_25 But of course you would not have found that post if you had SEARCHED!!! :D :D :D

[jimswinder]

LORi P wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

Summer (Fall) sale is just days...weeks...months away!!!!

And you're gonna get me a controller!! :)

It won't be a surprise now, but I don't mind.

Promise me you'll at LEAST act surprised...

[LORi P]

jimswinder wrote:

Promise me you'll at LEAST act ..... 

Of course... I know how fragile the male ego can be!

[jimswinder]

LORi P wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

Promise me you'll at LEAST act .....

Of course... I know how fragile the male ego can be!

especially in the hands of a woman!! :shock::shock::shock::shock::shock:

[scubado]

jimswinder wrote:

LORi P wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

Promise me you'll at LEAST act ..... 

Of course... I know how fragile the male ego can be!

especially in the hands of a woman!!  :shock::shock::shock::shock::shock:

Jeeeez, you two need to get a room, AGAIN!

[Scott T]

Here is a guide I put together last year after construing my Spiral tree.

I will be rebuilding it this year, so I will take more pictures and maybe a video.

Good Luck!

Attached files SilverdaleLightsSpiralMegaTreeConstructionGuide.pdf

[Arnoldc]

scubado wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

LORi P wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

Promise me you'll at LEAST act .....

Of course... I know how fragile the male ego can be!

especially in the hands of a woman!! :shock::shock::shock::shock::shock:

Jeeeez, you two need to get a room, AGAIN!

It would take longer getting to a room than anything else....

[Mark Showalter]

Jeff Millard wrote:

Can someone please send some high res photos of a Weber like this to jeffrey dot millard at yahoo dot com? I would like to try to make one of these in the S3 vis to share after public release...

Jeff

Jeff, E-mail sent.

[LORi P]

Hi Jeff -

It appears that I have offended you, though I can assure you that was not my intent. Whether it was my intent or not, does not really matter. What matters is that I did offend you, and for that I apologize.

I am a newbie (I am still slogging through my 3rd sequence and figuring out how I am going to wrap the lights on my trees so they look half decent). I am the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about any of this.... from what transmitter to use to how to build props for my display to the S3 software. I lurk here to try to absorb all the wonderful ideas and knowledge that the veterans take the time to share. And when I have 1/2 a clue I will be as helpful as I can to anyone who needs it. I just thought I had an idea that might help you.

I appreciate very much all that time that the vets, including you, Jeff take to help everyone out, and all the time that you and the beta testers are investing to make this a better product for us all. And don't let me forget the developers, too.

So enough will all my defensiveness and butt kissing....

I really was trying to help, and I do think that we are on the same page.
Jeff Millard wrote:

Can someone please send some high res photos of a Weber like this to .......
Jeff

All along this is how I interpreted your request:
- You want to make a weber (spiral) visualiser in S3
- You requested a high res photo of a good webber tree example.
- It was my assumption that you wanted the photo to trace the light strings to use as a template of how to draw it in the S3 visualizer. After reading your response, I still believe that to be true.

Jeff Millard wrote:

.....My request was not for a mega tree, but for a hi res photo of a Weber spiral tree.....
Jeff

I understood that. The thread I referred to is actually for a spiral tree not a mega tree.
LORi P wrote:

jerryb721 posted a .las with an awesome Weber visualizer in the 10th post in this thread.
http://forums.lightorama.com/view_topic.php?id=25064&forum_id=77&highlight=spiral+sample+16+channels:du

LORi P wrote:

Even if S3 cannot import S2 channel configs, you could make each channel a unique color in that sample .las and use a screenshot of that as a template for making a Weber tree in S3. That might be easier than figuring out what string makes up each channel from a photo of a Weber.

There I was suggesting that if S3 could not import a config from S2 (which I now know it can't) then you could use a screen shot of the Weber tree in that S2 visualizer as a template for drawing the weber in S3. Just the (screen-shot) image of that Weber tree instead of a photo of a real-life Weber tree. I thought it might be confusing/difficult to follow the strings of lights in the actual photo of a Weber tree, when all you see is a billion wires going in a billion directions. And I was offering a suggestion that I thought might be helpful because you might be able to follow a string of 'lights' when digitizing in S3, if the picture you were tracing showed each string in a different color. I thought the colors would help you tell better what string of lights belongs to what channel. ... to be able to follow then better when you trace them to make your prop in S3.

Jeff Millard wrote:

.....Having to alter the color of each string for clarity of the design would take away from it's realism...

I completely agree. I was not suggesting that you make each channel a different color in the S3 visualizer. I was only suggesting that if you changed the colors of the channels in the S2 animation sequence, and used a screenshot of the S2 visualizer, to use as the template you trace to make the S3 spiral tree. Like I said, I was not suggesting that you make all your channels a different color in the visualizer. Just that you trace from a picture that has the channels different colors to make the tracing easier.

This is a screenshot of the entire spiral tree (provided by jerryb721) the post I referenced: http://forums.lightorama.com/view_topic.php?id=25064&forum_id=77&highlight=spiral+sample+16+channels:du
There are 3 screenshots: one of the entire spiral tree and and two more while the sequence was actually running. I thought this was also a very nice looking Weber spiral tree.
. .
But... as is... with all the lights white, it is nearly impossible to tell which lights belong to which channel when you see them all together at once.

Here are more snapshots where I changed the channel colors so you could differentiate between the channels (to make digitizing easier). The colors are hard to see in these little thumbnails, but you can still see them.
. .

In any event, jerryb721's animation is cool... I just thought I'd mention it because I thought using it as I just described might be useful when tracing a spiral for S3.
If it helps, great, if not.... ok.

Here is are videos of the jerryb's spiral in action... both in the original wiht all white lights and in the one I where I made each channel a different color so you could tell them apart. The colors do not show the greatest... What do you expect taking a video of your computer screen with a cell phone???

white lights:

colored lights:

[Mike Cole]

Good job Jeff...........now if I only had S3

[jimswinder]

very nice Jeff...I

take back all those things I said about you!!!

Oh wait...it was all nice!!! :shock:

Thanks again for all your in-depth Beta Testing!!

[Mark Showalter]

I agree! Very nice sequencing Mike and prop making Jeff. Looking forward to the upgrade.:]

[Mark Showalter]

Jeff Millard wrote:

Here's an update. Shannon(Cyberfix) created a utility to help create fixtures and props. It's 1000 x better than tracing an image. I Vimeo'd the same sequence. Very impressive work on Shannon's part.

Cyberfix 16 channel spiral (for real!)

Jeff

WOW! Now can you make it 20 feet tall and put it in my front yard?

[jimswinder]

Jeff Millard wrote:

Here's an update. Shannon(Cyberfix) created a utility to help create fixtures and props. It's 1000 x better than tracing an image. I Vimeo'd the same sequence. Very impressive work on Shannon's part.

Cyberfix 16 channel spiral (for real!)

Jeff

YOWZER!!! Nice job Shannon!!!

Come on Dan B...let's get this S3 party started!!!!

:dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude::dude:

[Surfing4Dough]

Jeff Millard wrote:

Here's an update. Shannon(Cyberfix) created a utility to help create fixtures and props. It's 1000 x better than tracing an image. I Vimeo'd the same sequence. Very impressive work on Shannon's part.

Cyberfix 16 channel spiral (for real!)

Jeff

I agree Jeff...this new version is at least 1000 times better than your kindergarten drawing. :P

[Mike Cole]

That's it! That's what we need. Will this utility be available, and is it to be used with S3?..................................................Mike