Meegan Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Hi all, Getting ready for my sophomore season with sequencing and thought I would get ahead on planning for this year. However, after reading some of the threads and dates, I'm obviously late to the party already! oh well, the learning curve has been fun and entertaining, not to mention a great way to spend time with my kids! They are into it too and want to try sequencing some songs this year. Enough rambling, and on to the question: Our house is long front to back but has a smallish frontal area. What tricks would you recommend for sequencing without it looking too packed in? Some sort of layering? Going a little more vertical? Tried not having everything firing all at once, but during some sequences I had some dark spots so that didnt work out great. Any tips would be greatly appreciated Allen M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonsimp911 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 (edited) Do you have a video of your show last year? Photos of the house? I'm new myself, but I'm adding props for next year to even out my sequencing... Props are sequenced a lot differently than sections of the house because they consist of many channels sequenced in patterns (candy cane pinwheel, fire sticks, mega tree, etc.) Edited March 10, 2014 by jonsimp911 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobschm Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Don't fear the dark. A lot of people tend to have every element flashing all the time on every song. I don't. I prefer to keep things simple and elegant especially since my house is not an enormous mini-mansion. I may use only half my elements on upbeat tunes until the end of the number. Or stay mostly monochrome for a good part of a sequence, especially on slow songs like Silent Night or White Christmas. I would highly recommend RGB pixels if you can afford them. I added them this past season and they are spectacular at filling a small area with major effects. Turn those kids loose. You'll love what they come up with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyman Rate Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Layering is nice and can give a look of depth without it looking excessively full. I have used the layered look and it can work very well. Another suggestion is to take the house and use it more as a backdrop, and then work other elements off of that. If you have a central element (mega tree/spiral tree/pixel tree for examples) work everything around it, but again layering can play a factor here. As with anything smaller up front, more dense and bigger items to the back. You can do a lot with a small yard that is long, but it all boils down to preference. Some say dark is ok, and I agree. It all doesn't have to be going to make it work. It can be subtle spots where certain elements are on to make a point with the music. If more light is wanted, use other items at a lesser intensity as background to the element being used at full intensity. Be creative and just have fun. That's the biggest thing about this. You are the creator of your display and it will look as good as you want it to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh28 Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Bob's suggestion is excellent. The best sequences are actually really simple but the effects are done perfectly. In my opinion, once you get too many lights blinking, things begin to look sloppy. FWIW, my house is in the City of St. Louis and I only have 35 feet of frontage to deal with. I personally like having the smaller facade as it lets me really perfect the effects I'm looking to do. Here's a video I did from last year which gives some idea of how I decorate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_bdNDqPfhA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djr Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Borrow the neighbors yard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCas4380 Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Borrow the neighbors yard. 1+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 A few ideas: Strive to have all your props working together to create a "big picture", as opposed to having various display elements all doing their own thing. For instance, if you have one element moving side to side and another element moving up and down within the same sight line, it can devolve into visual gibberish very quickly. This is especially important where your yard has much greater depth as opposed to width. Observe and match the beat. There's no such thing as 'close enough'. If your sequencing DOESN'T match the beat, no matter how much time you spend on it, the results will be disappointing. People viewing the display might not ever notice a light out here or there, but if the lights don't conform to the beat, or if different items in a splash or exclamation come on at slightly different times, that gets noticed immediately. There's a reason why the software operates on time intervals as small as 1/100th of a second. If you have two items close together that come on even one or two hundredths of a second apart, that WILL be noticed. If you don't believe that, try it for yourself. If you haven't already made friends with the Beat Wizard that should probably be your highest priority. Don't be seduced by the idea that everything needs to be working all throughout every song. That couldn't be farther from the truth. I agree completely with Bob - don't fear the dark. Make it your ally. Use it to set up what comes next or to draw people's attention to a specific display element that might have the lead at that particular moment. If you have dark areas in your yard, move your display elements around to better utilize your space. But keep in mind that it's not the dark that people notice - it's the lights. No matter the size of your house or your yard, or the number of lights you have, it's all about the sequencing. Always has been, and always will be. Good luck and have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meegan Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 Thanks, everyone, for the great feedback! I will start looking into these tips and see where it leads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vdipaola73 Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Bob's suggestion is excellent. The best sequences are actually really simple but the effects are done perfectly. In my opinion, once you get too many lights blinking, things begin to look sloppy. FWIW, my house is in the City of St. Louis and I only have 35 feet of frontage to deal with. I personally like having the smaller facade as it lets me really perfect the effects I'm looking to do. Here's a video I did from last year which gives some idea of how I decorate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_bdNDqPfhAThat is awesome!!! What floods did you use?? I'm in the same boat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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