RickMosher Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 I downloaded the demo of Holiday Lights Designer and found it pretty frustrating.I would expect that drawing strings of lights would be like drawing lines in PowerPoint (or any other drawing or photo software). When you click to start a string, the line should follow the mouse pointer until you release the mouse button. Instead, you click, it drops a light and you have to guess where a straight line is from that point and click again for the string to be drawn.I tried drawing strings of lights around the windows of my house and could never get a square shape, it was always skewed.You have to use the buttons on the screen to move the view or zoom which is lame too.Didn't play with it much because it was too frustrating. Might try again in a few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeiilll Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 lkcubsrule wrote: You can go to http://www.holidaylightsdesigner.com and find out more...on their home page it shows that they are going to release VERSION 4This link didn't work, but I did find the program at:http://www.holidaysoft.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texan78 Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 How well is this going to work with yard elements such as arches, mini trees mega-trees etc. Looks like the lights you are able to use on this are pre-defined. In order to program your mega tree properly you would need an overhead view. How would this be handled. Can you like rotate the pic so you can see it from the top then draw your tree out then rotate it back to normal view? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeiilll Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 Well I downloaded the holidaysoft Lights Designer and played with it yesterday. I have to say that I am not impressed with it either.It is frustrating to navigate around in and quite frankly the LOR II animator works easier now that you can bring in a picture of your house to work on.Perhaps when they bring out the new Version 4 that it supposed to be able to work directly with LOR, then it will have some of the features like arches and mega trees in it that will make it better.But I didn't spend a lot of time with it and probably it has things that work very well for static displays.Time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC7000 Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 Ouch. That hurts. So are we wasting our time adding LOR functionality to HLD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeiilll Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 MJC7000 wrote: Ouch. That hurts. So are we wasting our time adding LOR functionality to HLD?Sorry. I didn't mean that to sound like HLD doesn't have it use or anything. I just did not spend enough time tinkering with it to find out since LOR2 has the ability to use a photo for the animator, it is just easier for me to learn LOR right now rather than trying to learn 2 programs.I'm sure that HLD ver. 4 (from what I have read) will have significant improvements in it that will make it not only easier to use, but with its integration to LOR should be a fine product.I'm just starting out with animation, so I have my hands full just figuring out LOR :cool:.And I, like everybody else, am waiting for HLD's new version to release so that I can see what it has to offer. Any program has its uses and HLD is pretty clever although I also didn't like having to drop a bulb and then try to get a straight line of them. Should have a "point to point" snap feature to allow that for sure.And in fairness, if it already does (I didn't find it in ver. 3) then my apology. As I said, I did not spend much time trying out the program. When I have some free time, I will probably go back and look at it and learn more about it.Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickMosher Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 MJC7000 wrote: Ouch. That hurts. So are we wasting our time adding LOR functionality to HLD?If you're representing HLD, it's probably a bit pre-mature to ask if it's a waste of time.I think users would probably like to see ver 4 of HLD before making judgements like that.Personally, I found the interface for HLD 3 to be pretty frustrating and not very intuitive, and the app itself seems to be a memory hog... I can't imagine running it in tandem with LOR.I'd like to see what improvements have been made to HLD 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC7000 Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 I agree HLD is not for everyone. It's nice to get feedback however. Version 4 will be better than version 3, but not as good as version 5 or 6.It's the same as George Lucas says about making movies: "A movie is never finished, only abandoned". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael.farney Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 MJC7000 wrote: I agree HLD is not for everyone. It's nice to get feedback however. Version 4 will be better than version 3, but not as good as version 5 or 6.It's the same as George Lucas says about making movies: "A movie is never finished, only abandoned".Are there any known dates for version 4 or LOR compatibility? There are many people here who would like to check it out and see if it is worth the spend. I hope there will be demo that will show the LOR capability. It might be a hard sell otherwise since the LOR visualizer has seen some good improvements.If you are part of HLD, you should consider signing up for a name that represents your company, unless you don't want to officially represent HLD. There will certainly be LOR users who buy HLD looking for support in this forum. Perhaps you should check with LOR/Dan first, but HLD vendor support here could be a great value add not to mention great PR for your company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickMosher Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 OK, I just re-visited the HolidaySoft web site and they now have their own forum where they've posted a few preview vids of HLD 4.0. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the direction they're going.4.0 seems to be an vast improvement over 3.0 and it completely blows the LOR II Animator out of the water. They fixed my #1 complaint, which was drawing strands with an invisible line (the line is now visible). Plus a host of other new features. Not only will it interact with LOR II (either connected between two PC's over a network, or on the same PC) but if I understand correctly they're adding functionality to support Mega and Mini Trees and Spotlights.If it's really as easy as the videos represent, I think they have a winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael.farney Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 RickMosher wrote: OK, I just re-visited the HolidaySoft web site and they now have their own forum where they've posted a few preview vids of HLD 4.0. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the direction they're going.4.0 seems to be an vast improvement over 3.0 and it completely blows the LOR II Animator out of the water. They fixed my #1 complaint, which was drawing strands with an invisible line (the line is now visible). Plus a host of other new features. Not only will it interact with LOR II (either connected between two PC's over a network, or on the same PC) but if I understand correctly they're adding functionality to support Mega and Mini Trees and Spotlights.If it's really as easy as the videos represent, I think they have a winner.Wow! That is sounding really cool. I might have to start changing my ways. I use S2 and drew the entire 2008 design in the old animator format without a picture. :shock: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hertig Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I tried the Version 4 trial download. Sure had a lot of neat features, but there were some glitches which made it a challange to use. The worst was attempting to make a 'mega-tree' (small, with 2 colors). The light strings would not always place, and when you rotated the image to add more strings, the tree was centered on the imported picture, which blocked the guide lines from each side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcorbo Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I too can not seem to be able to draw strings around windows and get them square, is there a trick to it?RickMosher wrote: I downloaded the demo of Holiday Lights Designer and found it pretty frustrating.I would expect that drawing strings of lights would be like drawing lines in PowerPoint (or any other drawing or photo software). When you click to start a string, the line should follow the mouse pointer until you release the mouse button. Instead, you click, it drops a light and you have to guess where a straight line is from that point and click again for the string to be drawn.I tried drawing strings of lights around the windows of my house and could never get a square shape, it was always skewed.You have to use the buttons on the screen to move the view or zoom which is lame too.Didn't play with it much because it was too frustrating. Might try again in a few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shg Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 I know its been talked about before but I cant find it But how do you get that visulizer to work?Ive already downloaded lorII thanks:shock: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Here is the quick and dirty...Click the view animation button (to the right of the ramp). On the left side of the animation window, labeled drawing, click the draw button. From the drop down, select the channel. Now click away. If you make a mistake, click erase.You can import a picture of your house using the background image section. I think 800 x 600 but do a search. The info is out there.The animation is part of the configuration (channels, labels, etc.) Export the configuration that import the configuration for your new sequences.Its a bit more complicated than that and it takes some time but that is the quick and dirty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shg Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 thanks I'll give it a try Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Parker Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I can't get my picture at the right size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwertz Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Ricky Parker wrote: I can't get my picture at the right size.An image size of 800 x 600 pixels works pretty well. When I load the picture I increase the resolution of the grid two or three times (by pressing the + button).Also, if you hide the controls on the animation window the image will resize to fit the window. You hide the controls by pressing the green double left arrow in the upper left corner.See also: iresq (above) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisBMacon Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 Does LOR have the ability to load a photo of you house yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ainsworth Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 Yes you can. Bring up the animation and at the bottom on the left it has background image. Choose select, go to your picture file, and it will bring the picture in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisBMacon Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 Thank you,I haven't purchased anything yet and didn't know if I needed Holiday light also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ainsworth Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 I believe that is a personal choice. I am new to LOR, but I have found that it has everything I need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judy Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 How exactly does the visualizer work. I opened mus. sequence, then View - show audio visualizations and all I get is a small screen at top left of desktop with some weird LOR video.Any help is appreciated.Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motorcycle jack Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 I played with Holidaysoft visualizer earlier this year and just downloaded it again to see what's changed. I believe this is a case of software being WAY to complicated to achieve what it needs to do. Lots of bells, whistles, controls but even my being a network engineer/former programmer, I found that it is not very intuitive to use or learn. I think it is more geared towards professional show designers than us yard designers. Do I really want all that complexity or just be able to design some sequences and have an idea what they will look? For me putting a picture in LOR so I can see what it will look like is enough. JMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardShank Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 I like Holiday Light Designer.Unfortunately they raised the price this year and there is no announced date for any upgrade beyond "next year". The last fix/upgrade was January 2009 I think.It has problems with resources and can be slow and sluggish.Here's a pic of what my layout looks like. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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