ThatDJTroy Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Hi All!This is my first posting to this forum.I’m an LOR Newbie, and began sequencing (for my first light show in 2012) at the end February -since everything I’ve read here states “Start NOW.” Last night I decided to plug a few strings of lights to one of my controllers to see “the real thing” in action. I discovered some of the effects in my sequence which look awesome in the Visualizer didn’t translate well to the sets of lights I plugged. My first display will be predominately mini lights on my meager budget. So the fades and Twinkle/ Shimmer effects look considerably different than what you see on screen. This makes perfect sense since LED lighting is much more responsive than a filament bulb. The Verdict: The Visulazer is just that –an aide to give you a general idea of how the lights and sequences will look. I’m sure LOR veterans already know this, so this is not really “news” for them. But, if you are also a Newbie to this fun, you may want to string some lights to your controller(s) while you’re designing your sequences. Though I’m disappointed I’ll have to adjust some of the effects I’ve already sequenced, I’m glad I discovered this early instead of later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimswinder Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 perhaps you could elaborate on the differences you are seeing between the visualizer and your lights...and what size lights you are using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsMeBobO Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Welcome Troy.They all look better in the yard! You may see differences in rgb intensity and strobe effects too. But the viz is still a fantastic tool with on going support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shfr26 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 It is sooooo nice to see you have already done a lot of the homework and obviously read a lot and this is your first post!!!!!!! I must commend you on your preposts work!! Your sequencing will get better and faster as you go. I can bet that in 3-4 months when you look at what you have done, you will still be tweaking them and making them better. I must say that as far as I can tell, the vis will get you pretty darn close to what you will see. Keep up the good work and once again, Thank you for doing your reading and homework before you posted!!! It's nice to see that instead of a whole bunch of questions first. Again, I commend you sir!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamS Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Ive noticed just the opposite. The Visulizer give me a great idea whats going on, where colors are, when things are shimmering or fading. In the yard as Bob said, it takes on a whole new animal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatDJTroy Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 The effects I mentioned which differ considerably are:1) Shimmer - for a flood light, it really does NOT translate like the "strobe effect" you see on screen. This wasn't a total surprise since I've designed lighting in clubs before.2) Fade - in one of my sequences, I've programmed one of my mini trees to light with each piano note. Because the prior note is sustained, I used a short fade effect between trees. However, the gradual fade effect I saw on screen didn't translate, and each "tree" (string of lights) had a 'hard off' instead.Shfr26, thanks for the nice post. Yes. I'm incredibly OCD with ANY undertaking. I started my homework here in Nov '11 before finally making the plunge. Admittedly, it IS a little overwhelming at times. But I'm still in my learning curve --AND having fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Cherry Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 +1shfr26 wrote: It is sooooo nice to see you have already done a lot of the homework and obviously read a lot and this is your first post!!!!!!! I must commend you on your preposts work!! Your sequencing will get better and faster as you go. I can bet that in 3-4 months when you look at what you have done, you will still be tweaking them and making them better. I must say that as far as I can tell, the vis will get you pretty darn close to what you will see. Keep up the good work and once again, Thank you for doing your reading and homework before you posted!!! It's nice to see that instead of a whole bunch of questions first. Again, I commend you sir!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmaness Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 You'll notice as you gain experience in sequencing, you'll rely on the visualizer and plugging in lights less and less. I started back in 2005 with Animation Director - which had a visualizer. I used it for my first two years. When I switched to LOR (S1), it didn't have the visualizer, but I found I didn't need it. Nowadays, my imagination works better than any visualizer.I'm always amazed when I fire up the display for the first time of the year that it matches exactly what I could see in my mind's eye. You'll get there .. just takes a couple/three years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james campbell Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 I also noticed the difference in the shimmer and twinkle immediately after upgrading to s3,however no difference in fading.I still love the new visualizer over the animator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 james campbell wrote: I also noticed the difference in the shimmer and twinkle immediately after upgrading to s3...That's one of my pet peeves. LOR finally got the shimmer and twinkle to look almost perfect in the old Animation. You'd think that knowledge would port over to the "new and improved" Visualizer but somehow it didn't. The Vis has some nice features, but for looking on-screen how it will look in-yard, I'll take the Animation any day.Shimmer is MUCH more attractive with LEDs than incandescents. Bob and Dan promised two years ago that we'd have speed control in the sequence editor for both functions. But since there have been maybe a dozen new software releases since then and we still don't have it, I've kinda quit holding my breath for that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 George Simmons wrote: I've kinda quit holding my breath for that one.Me too. I was turning blue like a Smurf. Good thing a hot babe came by and latched on or I would have been a goner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitusCarnathan Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 I mainly use the animation because my display is never picture perfect from the orgional plans on paper a tree might be in spot a where it could end up all the way on the other side of the yard If anybody downloaded my sequences they would have seen I have only certain channels in the animater mainly yard and mega tree to see the chaseing effects Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 mmaness wrote: Nowadays, my imagination works better than any visualizer. That's what I've found as well. When S3 came out with the visualizer I was enthusiastic to build my display in it. Then I realized that the learning curve and getting everything lined up would not provide the benefit that would help me sequence better. This may also be because my display includes neighbors who make last minute changes, so I don't have time to both change the visualizer and re-sequence.George Simmons wrote: Bob and Dan promised two years ago that we'd have speed control in the sequence editor for both functions.I can see the difficulty with that. Not only would they have to fit something new into the sequence editor, but they would have to add to the LOR network protocol, and fit the new events into the controller firmware for all the different controllers. We would then have a situation like when they added fading shimmer where the controllers with the older firmware respond differently.In short, I understand why the priority for this major task is lower than the other priorities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Steven wrote:mmaness wrote: Nowadays, my imagination works better than any visualizer. That's what I've found as well. When S3 came out with the visualizer I was enthusiastic to build my display in it. Then I realized that the learning curve and getting everything lined up would not provide the benefit that would help me sequence better. This may also be because my display includes neighbors who make last minute changes, so I don't have time to both change the visualizer and re-sequence.George Simmons wrote: Bob and Dan promised two years ago that we'd have speed control in the sequence editor for both functions.I can see the difficulty with that. Not only would they have to fit something new into the sequence editor, but they would have to add to the LOR network protocol, and fit the new events into the controller firmware for all the different controllers. We would then have a situation like when they added fading shimmer where the controllers with the older firmware respond differently.In short, I understand why the priority for this major task is lower than the other priorities.Animated Lighting had it years ago when I was using it (2005). Animation Director software would allow you to change the shimmer (flicker) rate and twinkle as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitusCarnathan Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I would also like to see a speed rate on shimmer and twinkle we have intensity levels for the two now it would be nice to see a speed control even if it is for the controller itself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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