Longest animation only sequence?

[DarthVodka]

Any idea on what the longest continuous 16 Channel animation only sequence can be?

This year my neighbor and I are debating on animating the arches that we put across/over our street. These would be independent of the show on my house having its own 16 channel controller 2 channels per arch and mini show controller. The thing is my neighbor really dislikes the couple second gap (no lights) in-between the songs and filler animations in my show. Any suggestions on mitigating the gap between the start and end of the sequence(s) for the arches?

[Brian Mitchell]

The sequence can be as long or short as you want. When placed in the background tab of the show editor, it will loop seemlessly however long it’s scheduled. 

[DarthVodka]

7 minutes ago, Brian Mitchell said:

The sequence can be as long or short as you want. When placed in the background tab of the show editor, it will loop seemlessly however long it’s scheduled. 

Thanks.

[prevue12]

There is a limit on how long they can be, but not really a problem.  

[k6ccc]

Sequencer limits an animation sequence to under 60 minutes (59 minutes, 59.95 seconds is valid).  However since animations can have loops, you could functionally make it practically unlimited.

 

[Orville]

5 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Sequencer limits an animation sequence to under 60 minutes (59 minutes, 59.95 seconds is valid).  However since animations can have loops, you could functionally make it practically unlimited.

 

Must have really cut it back in S5 then.   In S4 I created a 6 Hour Animation and a 2 hour animation for my Handicap RGB lights.  My 6 hour animation runs from dusk, 6PM-Midnight{12:00AM}, then my 1 minute all lights off runs from 12:00AM-12:01AM, then at 5AM-7AM my 2 hour animation runs in the morning before daylight, then the 1 minute all lights off runs again at 7:00AM-7:01AM.

This way I don't have lights going off during those times.  I had been using 30 minute animations, but at the end of the animation sequence the lights would go off for 1-3 seconds, and for walkway lighting in a pitch dark area that's not good.  Been running this set-up for a few days now, no issues at all, and no lights going off until I want them off.

And I'm using an N4-G4 Director to run the lights.  But could do this just as easily on my computer.  Even in the time examples for Animations {at least in S4, it shows info on how to enter the time for a 4 hour or longer animation if one needs longer ones.   And since most shows usually run anywhere from 4 to 6 hours depending on your start and end times, you should be able to create an animation file to cover that length of time.   But if S5 has cut this back to only an hour, that's not good.  Especially for one in the OP's position, an animation file the length of his show should be doable, and it would or should not have any glitches where lights are going off until the end of that 4, 5 or 6 hour sequence came to an end.

That's how I kept my ramp lights on during my show.  They were incandescent at the time and ran at 50%, just enough to light the walkway and keep it safe for the show duration, which my show runs 6PM-10PM {4 hours} Sun-Thu and 6PM-11PM {5 hours} Fri and Sat.    Never had issues creating these long animation sequences to run in the background when I used a computer to run the show. 

And yes you can use loops {NOT with a Director though} using a computer only when running a show, however, there is still going to be an issue with the lights going off for a second or more when the loop finally runs out and the sequence has to start over.  Loops are okay for some things, but if his neighbor doesn't want the lights to go out at any time during the show, a long animation file is the best way to go that spans the entire length/time of their show.   That is, if S5 still supports longer than that less than an hour you cite.

And no, you can't run background sequences with a Director either.  Be nice if it could do that.

Edited January 27, 2021 by Orville

[Don]

On 1/26/2021 at 3:55 PM, k6ccc said:

Sequencer limits an animation sequence to under 60 minutes (59 minutes, 59.95 seconds is valid).  However since animations can have loops, you could functionally make it practically unlimited.

 

I just created one that's 4 hours long. I got a warning that it's over an hour and "Do you want to continue" ... said yes, and it was done.

So, don't worry about Orville's scary post. You can still do long animation sequences. :)

[k6ccc]

12 hours ago, Don said:

I just created one that's 4 hours long. I got a warning that it's over an hour and "Do you want to continue" ... said yes, and it was done.

So, don't worry about Orville's scary post. You can still do long animation sequences. :)

I have to correct my length test.  When I entered a number of minutes longer than 59 minutes, it said invalid time.  However entering 9:59:59.95 (nine hours, 59 minutes, 59.95 seconds) did work - with the warning about it being over an hour.  Had to specify hours and minutes and not just a large number of minutes.

 

[Orville]

There is absolutely nothing scary about my post.  Just a bit more detailed information.  Can't win, if I detail it out, folks sometimes find issues, and then when I don't, I end up having to do a detailed explanation at times.    So I'm going to detail it, then if there is any doubt, they can still ask questions.

I don't care what folks think, but like some others have stated, sometimes more info is better than less.   And I believe more was better in this case.