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DMX Visualizer?


Texan78

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With all my intelligent DMX software for programming lights it has the ability to see in 3D or 2D the beam of light from a scanner, moving head, etc. How does LOR emulate this in the animation of the visualizer? How do you see what you are programming for your DMX fixtures?

I was curious since it used pixels for each light on the visualizer a DMX couldn't because you couldn't pre draw it since you would not know the movement. Something like this would need to be in flash most likely.

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I have been looking around for software to do this too. I have seen videos like these on youtube (dmx visualizations):





So, I know the software is out there. I am experimenting with free versions to see if I can find one that's useful. Hopefully, someone has used software like this before and can recommend something (hopefully free.)
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Oh yea I know it can be done and software exsists. I use a couple for my stage rigs when I use Martin fixtures. They make one called showDesigner that is made by Martin. I don't think this would be compatible with LOR. Dashlight like the Martin is pricey but the Dashlight would be a nice model for something I would like to see in the visualizer.

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bhays wrote:

I would be happy to even be able to visualize wash on the house.


Holiday Lights Designer 4.0 will be able to simulate color wash.

How does everyone else do their moving heads without the visualizer?
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My plan was to place the head outside in the exact position it will be in, and plot the boundry coordinations on a picture. If you plot enough coordinates on a picture, you should be able to figure out where any location is by guesstimating. For example, if the top left corner of your house is (60, 30) and the top right corner is (90, 30), you should be able to figure out that the top middle of the house is (75, 30). The other choice is to plot the points you plan to use. If you're going from top right to top left of the house, all you have to do fade the pan channel from 90 to 75 while keeping the tilt channel at 30. You don't have to know any of the points in between. Just pay attention to the fact that LOR is 0-100 and DMX is 0-255 so you don't get your values confused.

Are there other ways? I will be watching this thread verrry closely for better ideas. :dude:

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Well I have moving heads so I have 360 x 180 degree motion though. When they are not on the house they will be point away from the house ethier up in the trees in the front or up at the snow machine an so on. So the plot thing would work as long as I am keeping it on the house but once I move away from the house then that is where I have the problems knowing exactly where the heads are going to be moving and projecting. I don't have many steps that project on the house anyways. I have floods which I am going to be replacing with Colorsplash Jrs. for my washes. So that will be easy since they do not move. It is easier to simulate color was then moving heads. :)

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Texan78 wrote:

Well I have moving heads so I have 360 x 180 degree motion though. When they are not on the house they will be point away from the house ethier up in the trees in the front or up at the snow machine an so on. So the plot thing would work as long as I am keeping it on the house but once I move away from the house then that is where I have the problems knowing exactly where the heads are going to be moving and projecting. I don't have many steps that project on the house anyways. I have floods which I am going to be replacing with Colorsplash Jrs. for my washes. So that will be easy since they do not move. It is easier to simulate color was then moving heads. :)


As far as pointing the heads at a particular point, a visualizer is not going to go do it and I doubt that there is one out there that will work for you. The problem is that you would need to have the drawing very accurate and in 3D to get it to point the positions perfectly.

I would recommend that you place the light in the location and then use the virtual console in the Hardware Utility to move the head around and then note the values on the channels that correspond do the location.
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Texan78 wrote:

Well I have moving heads so I have 360 x 180 degree motion though. When they are not on the house they will be point away from the house ethier up in the trees in the front or up at the snow machine an so on. So the plot thing would work as long as I am keeping it on the house but once I move away from the house then that is where I have the problems knowing exactly where the heads are going to be moving and projecting. I don't have many steps that project on the house anyways. I have floods which I am going to be replacing with Colorsplash Jrs. for my washes. So that will be easy since they do not move. It is easier to simulate color was then moving heads. :)


This is a good point. I had this coordinate thing all planned out for the house and yard, but I never thought about angles in the air. I think I will still try the same thing. It will take a lot of pictures to cover 360x180 degrees, but i think it will let you know exactly where your programming is going without having the head outside constantly. At any rate, that sounds better to me than trial and error. It wont be perfect, but it shouldnt be to hard to tweak later if you're close enough.

Any other ideas?
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Well since I have about 12+ yrs of working with DMX lighting I think what I will do is just program on the fly live. My moving heads won't have much action they will just be for effect but it should only take me couple hours to program them for the entire show. So what I will probably do is just grab the ol laptop and pull up a chair and sit in the front yard program them come Nov.

Dan, you mentioned a virtual console. Does this allow to control the movement in real time and is their a record function that will allow me to record the movement as in a normal DMX programming state?

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LightORamaDan wrote:

Texan78 wrote:
Well I have moving heads so I have 360 x 180 degree motion though. When they are not on the house they will be point away from the house ethier up in the trees in the front or up at the snow machine an so on. So the plot thing would work as long as I am keeping it on the house but once I move away from the house then that is where I have the problems knowing exactly where the heads are going to be moving and projecting. I don't have many steps that project on the house anyways. I have floods which I am going to be replacing with Colorsplash Jrs. for my washes. So that will be easy since they do not move. It is easier to simulate color was then moving heads. :)


As far as pointing the heads at a particular point, a visualizer is not going to go do it and I doubt that there is one out there that will work for you.  The problem is that you would need to have the drawing very accurate and in 3D to get it to point the positions perfectly.

I would recommend that you place the light in the location and then use the virtual console in the Hardware Utility to move the head around and then note the values on the channels that correspond do the location.


Dan, I can't speak for Texan78, but I am personally interested in dmx visiualization software to design the visual effects, not the programming. If i can create a dmx animation for what i want the show to look like, then it will be much easier to program in LOR. I understand that unless the animation is exactly to scale, the dmx values and angles will be off significantly. As long as people understand the dmx values in the animation are wrong, i think it's a great way to start. It's extra work, but I think it's worth it for a dmx noob.
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I would like to see dmx visiualization as well. If LOR is going to be able incorporate DMX into programming then it would be nice to visualize it. With Holiday Lights Designer 4.0 it would be a lot easier to do the visiualization if it accepts DMX fixtures. You don't need an exact scale, it is nice but if you can get into a general location then you can tweak it from there.

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I was thinking maybe a good tempory fix would be to allow you to move the mouse over the picture where the spotlight is and have the system record it. Then, the animation could replay this on top of the sequence data completely independent of the actual fixture programming. It would be a pain to keep updated, but it would do the visualization. However, a serious limitation would be the "Z" axis. I'm not sure how the current software could support (or input) 3D movement like this.

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Texan78 wrote:

I would like to see dmx visiualization as well. If LOR is going to be able incorporate DMX into programming then it would be nice to visualize it. With Holiday Lights Designer 4.0 it would be a lot easier to do the visiualization if it accepts DMX fixtures. You don't need an exact scale, it is nice but if you can get into a general location then you can tweak it from there.

I agree that some support for this should be possible, even if not in the original release of S2. As people slowly move to DMX, I think it will become an "in demand" feature. Probably, not too many people are thinking about DMX yet. Dan, I know S2 is out of the question, but is some support for this possible in the future?
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Texan78 wrote:

[snip]
Dan, you mentioned a virtual console. Does this allow to control the movement in real time and is their a record function that will allow me to record the movement as in a normal DMX programming state?


Yes, you have sliders on the screen as and as you move them, the DMX fixture will react in real-time to the output. It also shows you the exact DMX and LOR intensity values so you know what values to use in the sequence.
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LightORamaDan wrote:

Texan78 wrote:
[snip]
Dan, you mentioned a virtual console. Does this allow to control the movement in real time and is their a record function that will allow me to record the movement as in a normal DMX programming state?


Yes, you have sliders on the screen as and as you move them, the DMX fixture will react in real-time to the output. It also shows you the exact DMX and LOR intensity values so you know what values to use in the sequence.




Right on, that sounds like a good deal. Now is their a function that will allow you to record the movements as you make them?
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Texan78 wrote:

LightORamaDan wrote:
Texan78 wrote:
[snip]
Dan, you mentioned a virtual console. Does this allow to control the movement in real time and is their a record function that will allow me to record the movement as in a normal DMX programming state?


Yes, you have sliders on the screen as and as you move them, the DMX fixture will react in real-time to the output. It also shows you the exact DMX and LOR intensity values so you know what values to use in the sequence.




Right on, that sounds like a good deal. Now is their a function that will allow you to record the movements as you make them?

I don't see how one could really use the virtual console quickly enough to record a show. The idmx has dmx in capability (or at least a port) why not allow plugging in a dmx controller and record the show from that? Although, unless you could record in layers (ie do the pan and tilt, then go back for same time frame and do color, then go back and do gobo, etc; you better be one coordinated individual :P
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For a novice user that might be better and easier, but someone like me who has worked and programmed DMX fixtures on the fly live like this for many, many years. It wouldn't be a problem. Not saying that being able to hook a controller wouldn't make things easier, but the other method wouldn't be to hard for me. You would go over your movements before you record several times. You record in what is called steps. Which is kind of like layers but it is all put together. Besides that in my case my moving heads are not making major steps. Its not like I am programming for a rock concert. They would be very subitle movements. Like a simple pan or color changes. They would not be doing figure 8s all over the place and spinning around. I use mine for effect not the primary focus. DMX controllers allow for you to do the same things. Record movements from point A to B then that one movement would be called a step. In this chase it could be called an event that you can save and name to be used later in your show mutiple times like in a true DMX setting.

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