Crossfade Traditional Light String

[dmboothe]

Is it possible to crossfade a traditional (AC) light string in S5 Sequencer? I would like to crossfade from full on to twinkle on the same string, so that the twinkle "overtakes" the 100% on, rather than the solid lights fading out then the twinkle fading in.

How can this be done? Or Is it even possible?

I tried setting up a crossfade between two tracks for the same string/channel, the way you can with RGB,  but then I get a channel conflict error.

Thanks for any help.

dB

[tomsusie]

I think I understand what you want and you should be able to do it.  You will need to add a motion effects row to the row you want to go from dim ligh to twinkle increasing brightness.  Highlight the section in the motion row where you want this change to occur. Once highlighted right click and choose motion effect which will open the motion effectd generator.  You will see boxes at the top.  Left is where it starts; right is where it will end and the middle is where you can adjust it to transfer from your fade to your twinkle effect and increasing.  Hope that helps.

[PhilMassey]

One AC  string on one channel can only do one thing. On. Off, fade, twinkle, etc

You would need at least two channels and two separate strings, but you can never chase along a single string. You would need smart addressable pixels for that.

[tlogan]

11 minutes ago, tomsusie said:

I think I understand what you want and you should be able to do it.  You will need to add a motion effects row to the row you want to go from dim ligh to twinkle increasing brightness.  Highlight the section in the motion row where you want this change to occur. Once highlighted right click and choose motion effect which will open the motion effectd generator.  You will see boxes at the top.  Left is where it starts; right is where it will end and the middle is where you can adjust it to transfer from your fade to your twinkle effect and increasing.  Hope that helps.

That's probably the only way to do it with a string of regular AC lights.

[Jimehc]

You can go from > full on - twinkle - Full on < (without a fade) as stated only can do one effect at a time on AC string..

[k6ccc]

If I understand what you want, you can sort of do it in SuperStar.  What I did was take a single channel white floodlight and created a scene that set that channel 100% on from 2.00 to 3.00, then a scene that  faded down to 0% from 3.00 to 4.00.  I then also created a third scene on a different layer on that same channel from 3.00 to 4.00 that faded up from 0% to 100% shimmer (easier to see for the test than a twinkle), and then a scene from 4.00 to 5.00 that was shimmer at 100%.  This does not exactly get what you want, but there is a way that does.

Again if I understand what you are wanting to do in either Seqeuncer or SuperStar - but it requires manual effort.  For the sake of the discussion, I'm going to use a shimmer in place of twinkle just because it will be easier to describe. I am going to assume that you want the shimmer "on" to be in the second half of each tenth of a second.  Meanwhile the steady light fades down over one second.  So create an effect every 0.05 seconds as follows:

0.00 to 1.00  100% on

1.00 to 1.05  Fade from 100 to 95%

1.05 to 1.10  100% on

1.10 to 1.15  Fade from 90 to 85%

1.15 to 1.20  100% on

1.20 to 1.25  Fade from 80 to 75%

1.25 to 1.30  100% on

1.30 to 1.35  Fade from 70 to 65%

1.35 to 1.40  100% on

1.40 to 1.45  Fade from 60 to 55%

1.45 to 1.50  100% on

1.50 to 1.55  Fade from 50 to 45%

1.55 to 1.60  100% on

1.60 to 1.65  Fade from 40 to 35%

1.65 to 1.70  100% on

1.70 to 1.75  Fade from 30 to 25%

1.75 to 1.80  100% on

1.80 to 1.85  Fade from 20 to 15%

1.85 to 1.90  100% on

1.90 to 1.95  Fade from 10 to 5%

1.95 to 2.00  100% on

2.00 to 2.05  Off

2.05 to 2.10  100% on

Repeat the last two lines, or replace with a straight shimmer.

For a twinkle, adjust the times....

 

[Orville]

19 hours ago, dmboothe said:

Is it possible to crossfade a traditional (AC) light string in S5 Sequencer? I would like to crossfade from full on to twinkle on the same string, so that the twinkle "overtakes" the 100% on, rather than the solid lights fading out then the twinkle fading in.

How can this be done? Or Is it even possible?

I tried setting up a crossfade between two tracks for the same string/channel, the way you can with RGB,  but then I get a channel conflict error.

Thanks for any help.

dB

If I am understanding you right, please correct if incorrect, you want one strand of lights to fade on to 100%, then start twinkling without fading in the twinkle, correct?

I have done this, and it's not difficult.  Fade in the strand from 0% to 100% and add in the length of time you want the strand to be full on, at the point where you want the twinkle to start, at that point, just insert the twinkle command for the duration you want it to last, then just add in after the twinkle effect where you want the lights to go back steady on and fade out from 100% to 0%.

The string will fade in to full on, twinkle, then revert to full on and fade out.

I've used this same effect for RGB strands, RGB Floodlights and standard incandescent Floodlights and standard AC LED strings.  when I just wanted a simplistic fade on to full, twinkle {or shimmer}, then back to full on and fade out.

This is how I do it in S4, and I'd think S5 wouldn't be much different in doing it like this.

 

At least from my perception, this is what it sounds like you are trying to accomplish.

Basic text example: ____---- --->-------XXXXXXXXX-------<-------______

Legend: ___---- -----> = Fade Up, ------- = Full ON, XXXXXXXXX = Twinkle {FULL ON}, <-------______ = Fade Down

[dmboothe]

Thanks to all who replied. Given all the suggestions, I was able to get what I wanted using Motion Effects tracks.  k6ccc's suggestion using Superstar might give better results. But with the number of channels involved (9) and the length of the effects (as much as a minute each), I did not have programming time to do that.

There are 3 props - star shaped wire frames - with 3 channels of lights each - white, red and blue. For each channel I created 3 Motion Effects tracks, one for solid on and two for twinkle. I ended up doubling the twinkle effect for each channel so I could use different rates and offsetting them a bit. This gave a little more of a random effect. See attached screenshot of the sequencer.

Thanks again for all the help.