Shimmering

[Gina Burns]

Does anyone use the shimmer effect? The reason why I am asking is because when I use it during the sequencing of a song I am not impressed so I just make it twinkle

[LightsByGreg]

I think it's useful only at certain times in certain songs. Also, I wouldn't use it for major effects or for large portions of lights at one time, just for background effects.

[rstephenrrtx]

I've noticed it really only looks good for clear incandescent lights (for me). However, with LEDs....very nice effect. Fading shimmering with LOR II will be nice.

Makes for a nice vibrato effect...so to speak.

rns

[Ponddude]

Just remember that what the shimmer effect looks like in the animation wind is not what it looks like when it is actually controlling the lights. On the screen it almost looks like they lights are flashing on and off, but in real life it doesn't look like that.

Greg

[Tim Fischer]

I don't mind the shimmer look, but I use it sparingly. I tend to use it where a song is "going crazy", like at the very end of TSO's "Christmas Eve Sarijavo (sp?) (Carol of the Bells). Contrary to the above, I actually have most of the display shiimmering at that point for a few seconds, since the energy-level of the music is so high...

-Tim

[Gina Burns]

That is what I am trying to get and when I looked at the animation it just did not look good or right?!

[Tim Fischer]

Gina Burns wrote:

That is what I am trying to get and when I looked at the animation it just did not look good or right?!

As noted above, the animator doesn't show shimmers very well. You might try hooking up a control for real with some test lights to get a feel for what the effect really looks like.

Hard to describe, but the lights are basically constant on, but pulsating very quickly.

-Tim

[Gina Burns]

Thanks for advice I will do that tonight!

[Jeff A. Galbreath]

I use the shimmer all the time

Jeff G.

[DavBro]

I would think that the shimmer effect would be quite different on LED's as it is on incandescents. If the shimmer is a square wave, the LED's will blink on and off very rapidly, where the bulbs will fade up and down rapidly due to the filament lag. It would be interesting to compare the effect side by side sometime.

DavBro

[Gina Burns]

Jeff A. Galbreath wrote:

I use the shimmer all the time

Jeff G.

Is shimmer simular to the twinkle at all or does it have more movement

[DavBro]

Twinkle is just random channel selection. Shimmer is a synchronized rapid on/off cycle.

[orneryolbiker]

I had 12 four color minitrees last year, The shimmer effect was one of the most stunning effects when done in multi channel and multi color sets, haven't tried with the leds yet, but I'm about to fire up a 9600 light led megatree. So we will see.

[jpohio]

I have pretty much stayed away from the shimmer effect, I favor the twinkle. But I might give it a try once my display is up and I can actually see how it will look.

[doublea]

I used the shimmer effect quite a bit in my halloween display.

[grump010]

I did as well in my Halloween display and it work really well with LEDS. A much differrent effect than with incandescant.

Cheers

Daryl B.
aka grump010

[Mike Heatherly]

Here is a thread from PC that really shows the difference between shimmer and twinkle.

http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/forum25/7163.html



Mike

[nnewby]

shimmer is a good thing. i use it combined with twinkle as a drum/high hat beat effect.