Nutcracker: Effects Builder released

[smeighan]

Hi all;

I have released the Effects builder for the Nutcracker.

There are 4 parts to the nutcracker

1) Build a target model
2) Create effects and add them into your user library
3) Pick a target model and an effect and create an animated sequence. Produce this as an animated GIF
4) Create this sequence as an xml file for lsp,lor or vixen

I have 1-3 working now. It is pretty cool. There are lots of moving parts on this. Error checking,navigations is still rough. All of the forms are built dynamically so i have to load up the effect_class table, i have to join the effect generators to the user models.



This is an alpha release. Things can and will break. Things that were working, may now become broken.
I will be releasing new code every single day for the next 1-2 weeks. Play with it and give me some feedback on usability, features and bugs.

So some caveats:
I dont have all of the color working like i want. If you select 3 spirals, i will override your color choice and make each spiral red, white and blue. If you pick more than 4 spirals then i will use your color selections. I think i need to prompt for each spiral for color.

navigation and error checking are pretty rough right now, i am releasing it so you can start to play.

Login in to http://meighan.net/nutcracker/login/login-form.php
1) Be sure you have target models saved!!. This is the number one error i am seeing.
You can safely click on a target and resave it. This creates the file that is needed by the effects generator.
2) Select Effects Generator
3) Now you select one of your target models and an effect class.
These are the effect classes i have so far
a) spirals
bands
c) pictures
d) meteors
e) text
f) snowflakes

With this release I have only connected spirals to the effects generator. I will be connecting the others over the next week.

4) After submitting the form , you are now asked to customize the effect class.
Give a name to your effect and submit form to go and it will generate an animated gif.

Loop on #4 , changing parameters and see what spiral effects you like.

Here are some user effects

Array
(
[username] => f
[user_target] => ZZ_ZZ
[effect_class] => spirals
[effect_name] => sean6
[number_spirals] => 7
[number_rotations] => 2
[spiral_thickness] => 2
[start_color] => #40FF40
[end_color] => #FF59DE
[frame_delay] => 22
[direction] => 2
[submit] => Submit Form to create your target model
)


The same target, modify parameters of effect
(
[username] => f
[user_target] => ZZ_ZZ
[effect_class] => spirals
[effect_name] => sean5
[number_spirals] => 7
[number_rotations] => 2
[spiral_thickness] => 1
[start_color] => #FF7417
[end_color] => #EFFF08
[frame_delay] => 22
[direction] => cw
[submit] => Submit Form to create your target model
)


(
[username] => f
[user_target] => ZZ_ZZ
[effect_class] => spirals
[effect_name] => sean4
[number_spirals] => 3
[number_rotations] => 2
[spiral_thickness] => 5
[start_color] => #FF7417
[end_color] => #EFFF08
[frame_delay] => 22
[direction] => ccw
[submit] => Submit Form to create your target model
)


thanks, enjoy!

[thevikester]

I'm just started tinkering with this...that is awesome what you have done so far...awesome!

[smeighan]

New option on spiral class added.

sparkles is a number from 0-100. This indicates what percentage of the pixels being drawn should have their color overwritten and instad be set to white.
0 means , do not have any sparkles.

I did this as a test, to verify i can add options to the class without needing to touch the html forms.

it works as expected and is now another option for you to choose.

Here is an example, notice sparkles is now one of the options. BTW, i think something like 10% looks better. go ahead and play

(
[username] => Tallahassee Dreamer
[user_target] => MEGA1
[effect_class] => spirals
[effect_name] => sean4
[number_spirals] => 7
[number_rotations] => 2
[spiral_thickness] => 3
[start_color] => #1812BD
[end_color] => #0F0C6B
[frame_delay] => 22
[direction] => 1
[sparkles] => 10
[submit] => Submit Form to create your target model
)


thanks

[jimswinder]

I created a model last week...but it is no longer there...

[smeighan]

jimswinder wrote:

I created a model last week...but it is no longer there...

Ther eis an issue i am trying to track down where peoples usernames are set to blank. now when they save their model, it wont be able to be pulled back up.

can u trying creating a model again?

or tell me the name of the model name u had and i can set the username back for you.

Remember; the code is still alpha, i just got it to compile without errors this last weekend.

I am exporting the user table, model tables and the effects tables daily. this protects in case i do something stupid like delete truncate a table.

creating a model should take less than one minute.


sorry for any extra work you may have to do.

sean

[jimswinder]

smeighan wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

I created a model last week...but it is no longer there...

Ther eis an issue i am trying to track down where peoples usernames are set to blank. now when they save their model, it wont be able to be pulled back up.

can u trying creating a model again?

Hey Sean..

I did create another..since it so easy to do!!!

I think I named the frist one the same as my second one... ccb 16 Mega tree..or something like that...under user name jimswinder.

When I did create my first I got an error..and then all of a sudden I saw everyone elses model!!

Will we be able to see everyones elses model in the future and be able to use them?

[smeighan]

jimswinder wrote:

smeighan wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

I created a model last week...but it is no longer there...

Ther eis an issue i am trying to track down where peoples usernames are set to blank. now when they save their model, it wont be able to be pulled back up.

can u trying creating a model again?

Hey Sean..

I did create another..since it so easy to do!!! 

I think I named the frist one the same as my second one...  ccb 16 Mega tree..or something like that...under user name jimswinder.

When I did create my first I got an error..and then all of a sudden I saw everyone elses model!!

Will we be able to see everyones elses model in the future and be able to use them?

Since ther eis nothing that i think is proprietory, i think i will make the gifs and the answers used to make the effects available in a common library.

All effects work on any rgb device that Nutcracker has., So if someone uses a good color combination for a barberpole and u like it, u just need the answers to the effects class .

I was thinking of a copy and paste.

All of this will be after i get the xml files output for Vixen,lor and lsp.

thnks

[Davidt]

G'day Sean,

This is looking very promising. Well done.

I've built a couple of target models based on a half Mega Tree, but when I use the Effects Generator the animated gif models appear to be based on a full Mega Tree, rather than a half Mega Tree.

Cheers,

davidt

[smeighan]

Davidt wrote:

G'day Sean,

This is looking very promising. Well done.

I've built a couple of target models based on a half Mega Tree, but when I use the Effects Generator the animated gif models appear to be based on a full Mega Tree, rather than a half Mega Tree.

Cheers,

davidt

Hi David;

I think i will drop the half mega tree model.

You build the mega tree with the number of strands fo a full tree. You then adjust thw window_degrees to 180.

Example. You have 16 CCR's that you will fold with UP/DOWN NEXT. You now have 32 strands.

When building a tree specify the strings that would be needed for building a full tree, 32 strings in this example.

Now the spacing will be built correctly. To only have your half shown, specify a window_degrees of 180.

==================================================

Here is a post i made yesterday on DLA
http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=8144.0

New release. Added new option on spiral effect class, window_degrees. Value 0-360 degres
this is how much of your tree will be displayed.
360 will show entire tree, 180 = half a tree, 90 = 1/4 of a tree.

This release is for you Steve Gase.

Here is window-degrees=180 on the babrer pole, so front half of tree will display
_POST
username f
user_target ZZ_ZZ
effect_class spirals
effect_name barberpole_180
number_spirals 2
number_rotations 2
spiral_thickness 16
window_degrees 180
start_color #0DFF05
end_color #1C14FF
frame_delay 22
direction ccw
sparkles 0
submit Submit Form to create your target model




Here is with window_degrees set to 360, so this will do entire tree
username f
user_target ZZ_ZZ
effect_class spirals
effect_name barberpole
number_spirals 2
number_rotations 2
spiral_thickness 16
window_degrees 360
start_color #0DFF05
end_color #1C14FF
frame_delay 22
direction ccw
sparkles 0
submit Submit Form to create your target model



Here it is set to 90 degrees, only 1/4 of tree will display

username f
user_target ZZ_ZZ
effect_class spirals
effect_name barberpole_90
number_spirals 2
number_rotations 2
spiral_thickness 16
window_degrees 90
start_color #0DFF05
end_color #1C14FF
frame_delay 22
direction ccw
sparkles 0
submit Submit Form to create your target model


thanks

[smeighan]

Some people have some pretty big trees. One user has 76 strings. His Nutcracker run timed out. I have added timing statements to Nutcracker so i can see where most of the time is being taken.


Here is that thread

better!
then i tried the following, and got the error...

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /users/meighan.net/htdocs/nutcracker/effects/read_file.php on line 503


Maybe a more complex image needs more time...?

_POST
username Steve Gase
user_target SGMEG48W
effect_class spirals
effect_name barber2
number_spirals 9
number_rotations 4
spiral_thickness 7
window_degrees 225
start_color #1241FF
end_color #FF6F3B
frame_delay 50
direction ccw
sparkles 20
submit Submit Form to create your target model

This is a limit with my internet provider. I am on a shared server. To make sure no one hogs the server, they kill anyone whose code runs longer than 30 seconds.

I am going to try and see if i could work around this by breaking the generation of the sequence from the generation of the animated gif.

Here i reduced the thickness that you had and i got the sequence to finish in 25 seconds.


_POST
username Steve Gase
user_target SGMEG48W
effect_class spirals
effect_name barber2sean
number_spirals 9
number_rotations 4
spiral_thickness 1
window_degrees 225
start_color #1241FF
end_color #FF6F3B
frame_delay 50
direction ccw
sparkles 20
submit Submit Form to create your target model


Creating Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.13534 seconds
Finished Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.24950 seconds
Starting Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 0.24957 seconds
Finished Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 11.28429 seconds
Making gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 11.28435 seconds
Finished gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 11.38652 seconds
Calling Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 11.38672 seconds
Finished Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 26.79310 seconds
Calling Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 26.79319 seconds
Finished Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 27.30974 seconds




Elapsed time = 25.63657 seconds

For those who are interested, here is the specs on your target model
MODEL: SGMEG48W.dat
target_name SGMEG48W
total_strings 76
pixel_count 85
pixel_length 252.00
unit_of_measure in
topography BOT_TOP



When i changed the thickness value back to 7 (a value that would fill in all of the tree)
_POST
username Steve Gase
user_target SGMEG48W
effect_class spirals
effect_name barber2sean
number_spirals 9
number_rotations 4
spiral_thickness 7
window_degrees 225
start_color #1241FF
end_color #FF6F3B
frame_delay 50
direction ccw
sparkles 20
submit Submit Form to create your target model

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /users/meighan.net/htdocs/nutcracker/effects/read_file.php on line 503

If i got a dedicated hosting box, then all limits would be gone. The problem is that a dedicated server is $60/month.
http://order.1and1.com/ServerPremium?ac=OM.US.US469K02463T2103a&ovm_kp=wh&ovm_wm=text&PID=3564792 is one of the best deals.
This includes 1000gb disk space and a 4 thread box.

Currently i have these limits on meighan.net, 10g disk space (i am using 3g), 30 seconds of runtime per page. I do not think that i will exceed the disk limits.

A dedicated server would cost me about $500 more per year and I dont think that will fly with my wife. I told her that i can build the tool with no additional cost to us.

For now, i will see if i can break the generation of the gif into a separate task.

Another solution is for people to download wamp onto their windows xp, 7 boxes. This is an Apache server, Mysql database, php 5 package. The down side is it is 300mbytes and requires that you set it up. Also , i make sometimes 4-5 releases per day. You would have to download and install these changes . I do not want to go down this path if i can help it.

I like the web server approach of nutcracker there, is nothing for the user to install or maintain. Just run it. It currently runs fine from my ipad device.
The entire Nutcracker code is 6.5 mbytes so far.

So, for most people, they will not hit this limit. 24, 32 or even 48 strand trees no problem. For anyone who comes close to the 80-100 strand tree, the time approaches 30 seconds.

I'll work on optimizing the code and making the animated gif an option

sorry

sean

[smeighan]

A suggestion for some more color prompts

Sean

wow this is really starting to come together.

Couple things for you from my experience playing just now.

- Calling your point of origin "pixel 1" is confusing to me even though you make it clear it's for internal use.
Maybe i should call them n1 to nxx. Something that makes sure there is no confusion with the pixel number on your strings?


- the start colour, end colour are describe as morphing top to bottom, playing with different numbers of spirals shows that is not how it currently functions.
This was a bug that i fixed last night, it should morph correctly now
- you went back to total string length rather than pixel spacing, seems a backward step when you collect the count.
I have always prompted for total length of string. I have displayed pixel spacing. This is probably confusing. Maybe i should just prompt for pixel spacing and total pixels??

- certainly for spirals it would be nice to specify each spiral colour and or the vertical colour change.
Taking that a step further making complex olour gradients both around the tree and vertically on a tree would be unreal
Yep, i have it on my plan. Here was my idea for expanded color prompts:

Do you want the same color scheme for all spirals?
if yes then prompt
global_start_color, global_end_color
else
Strand #1: start and end color
Strand #2: start and end color
..
Strand #Last: start and end color

With some people having 76 strands, i was thinking of also asking
Do you want to create color groups for your strands?
if yes then
How many color groups? (Say they answer 3)
Group#1 start,end color
Group #2, start,end color
Group #3, Start,end color
Then i would do
Strand#1 uses Group#1 colors
Strand#2 uses Group#2 colors
Strand#3 uses Group#3 colors
Strand#4 uses tgroup#1 colors
Strand#5 uses Group#2 colors
.etc until all strands have been assigned.

When I do amorphous blobs, i will be doing color gradients both vertically and horizontally and moving the color blobs around.


Cheers
Phil

[smeighan]

Hi' date=' this is so cool thanks for all the work.
Any chance of having a background colour. i.e. tree green & spirals in red (or what ever colours you chose).
Thanks.[/quote']

New Release Option for spirals class: background_color

Per the above request, i have added a new option the effect class.

If you answer yes u want a background color, every pixel of your tree will be set to that color. Next i take whatever animation you have and put it on top of the background.

Here is an example

_POST
username f
user_target ZZ_ZZ
effect_class spirals
effect_name background test
number_spirals 3
number_rotations 2
spiral_thickness 2
window_degrees 180
start_color #0DFF05
end_color #1C14FF
frame_delay 22
direction ccw
sparkles 0
use_background Y
background_color #067306
submit Submit Form to create your target model
Creating Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.05011 seconds
Finished Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.09783 seconds
Starting Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 0.09790 seconds
Finished Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 3.95531 seconds
Making gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 3.95537 seconds
Finished gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 3.96694 seconds
Calling Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 3.96712 seconds
Finished Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 9.25005 seconds
Calling Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 9.25013 seconds
Finished Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 9.62273 seconds



MODEL: ZZ_ZZ.dat
target_name ZZ_ZZ
total_strings 16
pixel_count 80
pixel_length 240.00
unit_of_measure in
topography UP_DOWN_NEXT
Total Elapsed time for this effect: : Elapsed time = 9.77069 seconds

[smeighan]

I have added a glaery on the effects form screen.

This basically goes and finds every gif image that has been created and shows them. I will create a hyperlink that will allow you to click on an image and then copy that effect into your private library. This will save you from answering 20 questions.

Because i make so many releases per day, sometime > 20. I am going to start ending my posts with a summary of all changes. This readers digest version means you kind jump to the end of these threads and not miss anything.

we will see if this helps.

NUTCRACKER SUMMARY OF CHANGES

Effect builder now has new options:
1) sparkles: is a number form 0-100. This indicates what percentage of teh pixels being drawn should have their color overwritten and instad be set to white.
0 means , do not have any sparkles.

2) window_degrees: Value 0-360 degres
this is how much of your tree will be displayed.
360 will show entire tree, 180 = half a tree, 90 = 1/4 of a tree.
thanks

3) Nutcracker now displays timing as it runs

Example:
Creating Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.13534 seconds
Finished Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.24950 seconds
Starting Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 0.24957 seconds
Finished Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 11.28429 seconds
Making gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 11.28435 seconds
Finished gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 11.38652 seconds
Calling Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 11.38672 seconds
Finished Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 26.79310 seconds
Calling Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 26.79319 seconds
Finished Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 27.30974 seconds

4) Two new options to set background color
use_background Y
background_color #067306

If you answer yes u want a background color, every pixel of your tree will be set to that color.
Next i take whatever animation you have and put it on top of the background.


5) Added the Gallery of effects
to the effects form. Now you can see all other users effects.

END OF SUMMARY

Thanks

[Davidt]

smeighan wrote:

Hi David;

I think i will drop the half mega tree model.

You build the mega tree with the number of strands fo a full tree. You then adjust thw window_degrees to 180.

Thanks Sean, that suggestion worked fine and after a bit of experimenting I love the effects that it is creating.

A couple of suggestions (the first is trivial, but may simplify the process for others):

When you create an object through the Target Generator page have an option at the bottom to take you to the Effects Generator page.

On the Effects Generator page have you considered adding any fade options, whereby the effect fades to black, or maybe a to user specified colour over "X" period of time, eg: fade over 3 seconds.

Cheers,

davidt

[smeighan]

I have added some extra navigation links and released them.

I have thought of doing the fades, code is easy how to prompt for it is harder.

It starts getting to be lots of permutations.

some users have 76 strands. should a prompt a start,ebd color, fade y/n, fade time for each of the 76 strands?

[smeighan]

Doing the current meter, i found a bug in my color transformation code. Nutcracker never uses r,g,b anywhere except whenit is all finished. Everything is in HSV, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV.

The Hue allows me to morph colors easily. Well when i morphed from one color to the second, H1,S1,V1 into H2,S2,V2 i morphed the hue (H1=>H2) but i set the S and V to 100%. Why? I don't remember. Maybe because at the time i liked bright colors. S=100% Indicates full saturation of the Hue, V=100% is full brightness.

I fixed the logic so now all three are morphing correctly.

What does this mean? It means before you could not do grays. You also couldnt fade a bright red down to black. Now you can.

Here is a gray color scheme

username f
user_target AA
effect_class spirals
effect_name GRAY_CHECK
number_spirals 4
number_rotations 2
spiral_thickness 2
window_degrees 360
start_color #CFCFCF
end_color #A3A3A3
frame_delay 22
direction cw
sparkles
use_background n
background_color #0B3802
submit Submit Form to create your target model




And here is a color hue , leaving the hue and fading to black.
_POST
username f
user_target AA
effect_class spirals
effect_name GRAY_CHECK
number_spirals 4
number_rotations 2
spiral_thickness 2
window_degrees 360
start_color #FA053E
end_color #3D3637
frame_delay 22
direction cw
sparkles
use_background n
background_color #0B3802
submit Submit Form to create your target model




Here is readers digest of all changes so far this last week:



NUTCRACKER SUMMARY OF CHANGES


Effect builder now has new options:
1) sparkles: is a number form 0-100. This indicates what percentage of teh pixels being drawn should have their color overwritten and instad be set to white.
0 means , do not have any sparkles.

2) window_degrees: Value 0-360 degres
this is how much of your tree will be displayed.
360 will show entire tree, 180 = half a tree, 90 = 1/4 of a tree.
thanks

3) Nutcracker now displays timing as it runs

Example:
Creating Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.13534 seconds
Finished Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.24950 seconds
Starting Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 0.24957 seconds
Finished Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 11.28429 seconds
Making gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 11.28435 seconds
Finished gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 11.38652 seconds
Calling Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 11.38672 seconds
Finished Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 26.79310 seconds
Calling Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 26.79319 seconds
Finished Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 27.30974 seconds

4) Two new options to set background color
use_background Y
background_color #067306

If you answer yes u want a background color, every pixel of your tree will be set to that color.
Next i take whatever animation you have and put it on top of the background.


5) Added the Gallery of effects
to the effects form. Now you can see all other users effects.

6) Added current meter to show how much DC current is being drawn by your animation

7) Fixed color bug. In H1,S1,V1 => H2,S2,V2 transformations, i was only modifying the hue.


END OF SUMMARY

[smeighan]

New release of Nutcracker has spiral class option: handiness

The choice is L or R indicating which way the spiral goes down the tree.

Here is a right handiness tree


here is same tree but with left handiness


And here are the settings for the models
LEFT
_POST
username f
user_target AA
effect_class spirals
effect_name left_TEST
handiness L
number_spirals 4
number_rotations 2
spiral_thickness 2
window_degrees 180
start_color #FF147A
end_color #FFF712
frame_delay 5
direction cw
sparkles
use_background n
background_color #FFFFFF
submit Submit Form to create your target mode

and the RIGHT model

_POST
username f
user_target AA
effect_class spirals
effect_name RIGHT_TEST
handiness R
number_spirals 4
number_rotations 2
spiral_thickness 2
window_degrees 180
start_color #FF147A
end_color #FFF712
frame_delay 5
direction cw
sparkles
use_background n
background_color #FFFFFF
submit Submit Form to create your target model

And I finish with summary of changes to Nutcracker.


NUTCRACKER SUMMARY OF CHANGES


Effect builder now has new options:
1) sparkles: is a number form 0-100. This indicates what percentage of teh pixels being drawn should have their color overwritten and instad be set to white.
0 means , do not have any sparkles.

2) window_degrees: Value 0-360 degres
this is how much of your tree will be displayed.
360 will show entire tree, 180 = half a tree, 90 = 1/4 of a tree.
thanks

3) Nutcracker now displays timing as it runs

Example:
Creating Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.13534 seconds
Finished Effect, spirals class: : Elapsed time = 0.24950 seconds
Starting Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 0.24957 seconds
Finished Rotate image about Z axis : Elapsed time = 11.28429 seconds
Making gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 11.28435 seconds
Finished gnuplot command file: : Elapsed time = 11.38652 seconds
Calling Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 11.38672 seconds
Finished Gnuplot: : Elapsed time = 26.79310 seconds
Calling Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 26.79319 seconds
Finished Imagick to make animated GIF: : Elapsed time = 27.30974 seconds

4) Two new options to set background color
use_background Y
background_color #067306

If you answer yes u want a background color, every pixel of your tree will be set to that color.
Next i take whatever animation you have and put it on top of the background.


5) Added the Gallery of effects
to the effects form. Now you can see all other users effects.

6) Added current meter to show how much DC current is being drawn by your animation

7) Fixed color bug. In H1,S1,V1 => H2,S2,V2 transformations, i was only modifying the hue.

8) Handiness option now on spiral class. You can specify which way the spirals are drawn as they go from top to bottom on your tree.


END OF SUMMARY

[WilliamS]

Busy man! Keeps getting more and more tempting to plant a mega pixel tree farm in the Fall for the winter season.

[smeighan]

Nutcracker new release!

There are lots of internal changes. Some animation creations are now 10x faster, some about the same.

You MUST resave your target models!! I have extra columns that need to be added

Follow these steps (its fast, i assure you)

1) Login
2) Go to the target generator tab
3) For each target model you have already created, click the target name (It is under Object Name)
4) Now click on the submit button. "Submit Form to create your target model".
5) When this finishes go back to 2 and repeat for each of your target models. You only have to do this once
6) Now go to the Effects tab and create effects or use existing ones and create some output.
7) You will now see a link below the animated gif, "Click here to make Sequencer Files". If you are ready for a Vixen or HLS file, click away.

Some Caveats:
I will only leave the last files around. The very next time you go into the effects generator, it deletes all *.png, *.dat, *.vir, *.txt, *.hls files. It only leaves the gif files around. This is because you can easily be creating 50-100 mbytes of data and we now have almost 190 users of Nutcracker. Not a big deal. suppose you loaded an effect a week ago, loaded it into Vixen. today you decided to use different colors. Go to the effects screen, change what you want and produce the new vixen files. Now download them to your computer into the Vixen profiles directory and you are set.


Be aware that the thickness argument really slows down the generation of effects. This is because i generate a new png for every spiral that is active. 4 spirals on a 32 strand tree, i make 4 png's. 4 spirals on a 32 strand tree with a thickness setting of 3, i make 12 png files.

I still have a 30 second limit for everything, but i was able to do a 100 string x 100 pixel tree and it did finish. Not too many people have 10,000 pixels and 30,000 channels.


Here is one effect


and the vixen vir file for it
http://meighan.net/nutcracker_sean/effects/workspaces/2/AA+SEAN3.vir

the vixen csv file (this was requested besdes the above space delimited file)
http://meighan.net/nutcracker_sean/effects/workspaces/2/AA+SEAN3.txt


Now that i have this done, i can turn to making an lms file. I really hoped LOR allowed the input of matrix data.

Enjoy

[smeighan]

A post from doityourslefchristmas about supporting a minitree made from plywood with the pixels inserted in a tree shape:

I have a quick question can i use your tool for my pixel mini tree i showed how my layout is in picture.

Yep' date=' i just need to build a target modeler for it. This would be just a few hours to do.

This is the basis of all Nutcracker RGB effects.

The top of the model is always Nutcracker Pixel #1
Going around the model , the vertical direction is called strands.

Whether a rgb device is like u show or a mega-tree or a horizontal or a vertial grid or lights wrapped around the spheres of a snowman. The top is always 1, vertical bars are strands .

By keeping this internal form, all of my effects can be applied to any rgb device.

This is why earlier i had said that the target modeler was the key to getting all the cool effects.

I plan on some mini trees.
I will take two strings, 120 pixels each. I will wrap each string 10 times, up and down. Each strand will have 12 pixels or 36". I will build a 180 degree, half tree.

So with just two strings I will have a minitree that is 35" high, i can get these effects

[img']http://meighan.net/nutcracker_sean/effects/workspaces/2/AMINITREE+MINITREE1.gif





I want to think of how to get some greate effects with only a few rgb strings. This will allow entry for more people.

thanks