Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

Software Functionality Questions


dharker

Recommended Posts

Hello, first I apologize if I should not be putting multiple questions in one post but I think they are basic answers and all software related.  Second, I apologize in advance if one or 2 turn out to be really stupid. The last 2 nights I was playing with 2 new CCR’s and SuperStar which I am adding to 160 channels and was getting frustrated on a few things that I may have missed the obvious.

 

  1. Is there a way to scroll through the timeline in Superstar? Or do you only have the > and >> to move along it? Seems cumbersome and also if I am playing 8 seconds and only 5 are on the screen it does not scroll when it is playing 6,7, and 8.
  2. Can you “control lights” in SS ? I’ve been exporting, importing, playing it, not liking something when viewing the actual ribbon and then either trying to change in SE or changing in SS, re-exporting etc etc….
  3. Perhaps real dumb- how do you change a CCR color once imported from SuperStar in SE ? If I have a red chase and what to change say part of it to green. I right click and get 30 options but not seeing a color selector.

     4. I did part of a sequence in Superstar, exported it. I then wanted to steal some previous sections in SE where everything was say either red or green. I copied a red fade and pasted below for CCR channel 1,3,5,7,9 etc.  Then I copied a green fade and when I pasted for channel 2,4,6 etc it pasted Red not Green. I did this several times in case I messed up the copy. If I took a section of green from the CCR that came over from Superstar and pasted that for channel 2,4,6 it DID paste green.  Can I not steal from existing SE lines and paste to CCR lines expecting basic colors to hold ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. You can scroll through the timeline on SuperStar using the > and >> buttons, or using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard. I should change it to play only what the screen shows instead of playing 8 seconds. But for now, you can press the Play button again to stop it after 6 seconds.

2. SuperStar does not have the ability to control your lights. It only has the ability to export a file that the Sequence Editor can play. When I sequence I complete the sequence using only what is played back to the computer screen. Then I export it an review it on the actual lights. You are right, there are always some things that looked good on the computer screen but not as good on the actual CCRs and so I go back and tweak the sequence a few times.

3. When changing a sequence that originated in SuperStar it is recommended that you always change it in SuperStar. You can modify it in the Sequence Editor, but then you've lost your "source" for the sequence. That is, if you ever change the sequence in SuperStar and then export it, you will lose the modifications that you made in the Sequence Editor.

4. I have never tried copy/pasting the way you are describing in the Sequence Editor. I believe what is happening is that when copy/pasting RGB channels, the Sequence Editor is expecting the RGB channels to stay grouped as RGB channels. But that doesn't explain what you are describing, that is, the copy/paste seems to work differently depending if the source of the copy came from SuperStar or not. I don't know of a way to make it work any differently. If you want to pursue this you would need to write up a help desk ticket and they will submit it to the Sequence Editor programmer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the prompt and informative reply Brian, #1 and #2 make sense.

 

#3/4- To use superstar for areas where I want Morphs or some of the other effects seemed like a good Idea. However when I was trying to synch this up in areas with other parts of the yard or match other color effects like all green on, so far I have found it extreamly cumbersom to watch my SE visulizer find say a segment of 4 seconds all green fade then 3 seconds all red, 3 seconds green- write down exact start and end times, go into Superstar find the exact time, create the effect to end at the exact time, etc etc etc.... My plan was in SE if Ch12 was front Tree Red and Ch 20 Ft tree Green i could simply highlight 10 seconds of row 20 and copy/paste then 3 seconds of row 12 copy paste and instantly added my 2 circles to a segment of just Green and Red in the yard. And I don't have to worry about the house all going dark but my 2 CCR's stay green 2/10 second longer because i didn't pick the exact time to match in superstar.

 

P.S. When I imported timings to superstar from my 2012 LMS thinking that would help me match timings, if I tried to do an instance sequence on 15 seconds of a song it came up with 0 scenes and 0 morphs. If I didn't import the timings then i got 5 scenes and 10 morphs...

 

Perhaps my method of programing is not the best since the CCR's are new and I am sure my lack of using the SuperStar software isn't helping, although I did watch all the video's. I'm thinking I need to not try to program from scratch in superstar for just 2 CCR's and give a shot at trying sequence editor and see how I make out- may end up back in Superstar :)  If I can come up with $2,500 to get 12 more CCR's for next year for a tree it looks like superstar would be awesome and save an amazing amount of time.

 

Thanks again for the guidance I'm learning more each night.  If #4 gets annoying I'll open a ticket to see what's going on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Synching up with an existing sequence is a challenge. This year, perhaps it would be better to stay in the Sequence Editor.

For next year I would like to make it easier to work with existing sequences. What I have in mind is a way to convert an existing sequence in the Sequence Editor into a bunch of effects that you can see in SuperStar. Then, if you have a visualization of your sequence you can import an existing Sequence Editor sequence into SuperStar and play it to the screen in SuperStar and then you can modify all of your effects in SuperStar.

A new feature in SuperStar is "VisEffects." VisEffects allow you to do a morph on the visualization instead of the sequencing grid. This makes it easy to do a smooth sweep in any color across your regular lights. Features like this should make it easier to do effects on all of your lights, not just CCRs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got it and good news for future releases !  I just wanted to make sure I was not missing an "easy" way to do some of the things I was trying to do. Thanks again for the assistance. I'll keep playing and learning...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...