Dimming curve for RGB pixels

[Grady29]

Thought I might share my experience with dimming curves, in case there is someone out there that ran into the same issue I had.

After suggestions from a couple users, I have been setting my dimming curve to PixelCurve30% for my RGB props. I had added 5 singing pumpkins to my sequence this year and when I was testing my lights the other night, I had one pumpkin in a nice deep orange (which is what I wanted) and the other 4 were in a light/faded looking orange.  I was completely baffled by this.  I had checked all my connections, made sure my power supplies were putting out 12V, re-checked if I had properly selected the right color for the props, but everything checked out.  Finally I noticed, somehow, I set the 4 faded looking pumpkins dimming curve to none.  Once I changed the dimming curve to any of the PixelCurve selections (PixelCurve, PixelCurve30%, PixelCurve40%, etc), my colors were fixed and all the pumpkins were displaying the deep orange I had selected in the sequencer.  In playing with the different dimming curve percentages, I am 100% in agreement that using the 30% curve is still very bright for the pixels.

I am curious if someone might know why the dimming curve has to be set to PixelCurve at all for me to get the true deep colors I wanted?

Thanks again to all for all the help now and in the past!

 

[PhilMassey]

Orange is a weird color. Green and blue. Green is a very strong color, and only very low green levels are needed for a good orange. Raising the intensities of both colors upsets the balance between them.

[k6ccc]

As Phil said, Orange is really hard to get right, and the percentages only have to be VERY slightly off to make it look wrong.  BTW, it Red and Green (not much green), not Blue and Green as Phil said...

 

[PhilMassey]

3 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

As Phil said, Orange is really hard to get right, and the percentages only have to be VERY slightly off to make it look wrong.  BTW, it Red and Green (not much green), not Blue and Green as Phil said...

 

Whoops. It's late here..... 

[Orville]

15 hours ago, k6ccc said:

As Phil said, Orange is really hard to get right, and the percentages only have to be VERY slightly off to make it look wrong.  BTW, it Red and Green (not much green), not Blue and Green as Phil said...

 

Interesting, as when I create Orange, I have it reversed in the SE.  I usually use 5-7% red and 100% green.

Seem the one color I have the most issue getting to look right is purple (red and blue).  I usually always end up with some variations of light to dark pink, but not anything that really resembles purple.

[Grady29]

I'm a little confused on what everyone means by they are using different percentages of red/green to create the orange.  Where is this done?

[TheDucks]

I suspect the color picker tool.  In S4 the side shows the value of R, G, B in 8 bit values (0-255)

[Orville]

3 hours ago, Grady29 said:

I'm a little confused on what everyone means by they are using different percentages of red/green to create the orange.  Where is this done?

In S4.4.16 PRO that I am currently using, it is done in the SE. 

Open an RGB channel in the SE and I use 5% on the red channel by setting the "50% on" tool to 5%(and not more than 7%), then on the same channel directly under red I just set, I click on the "full on" tool, then I click and place the same length duration 100% green on the green channel, which gives me the orange color. Blue channel is completely off.

Then I can just copy that wherever I need orange at for that same duration, anywhere in my RGB channels in the sequence.

That's how I do it, some reverse the intensities and green would be the lower intensity and red could be full on.

Hope that makes sense.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Orville

[hasslerk]

@OrvilleInteresting....I get orange the opposite way.  I set red to 100% and green to 5%.  Even then, you get vast differences between pixel/LED vendors.  What looks orange on one string will look red on another manufacturers.

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

On 10/2/2023 at 8:57 PM, Grady29 said:

I am curious if someone might know why the dimming curve has to be set to PixelCurve at all for me to get the true deep colors I wanted?

This is a decent article to answer why curves are needed.
https://www.advateklights.com/knowledge-base/dithering-and-gamma-correction

I would only mess with the RGB values as a last resort (Ex: S4 or earlier versions). Adjusting RGB values cause more headaches when you take that sequence to a different setup or even when pixel technology changes (8-bit shading is standard now, but 12 or 16 bit will eventually come).

So either set a pixel curve on your prop in the preview (adjusts the DMX/LOR value sent to your controller) or leave it unset and set the curve on the controller if its available. I prefer the controller route when available, because it can be at the last step in converting that RGB value to whatever needs to be sent to the ICs in the pixels while also factoring in brightness levels, etc. Again, adjusting those RGB values too far up the chain (in your sequence) will just cause future headaches.

[Orville]

2 hours ago, hasslerk said:

@OrvilleInteresting....I get orange the opposite way.  I set red to 100% and green to 5%.  Even then, you get vast differences between pixel/LED vendors.  What looks orange on one string will look red on another manufacturers.

I've done it both ways, get the same Orange color whether I dim the red or dim the green.  But on some colors, it does change the color slightly, one way may be darker, and the opposite of it makes it lighter.  Kind of strange, but it is what it is.

Even, with the same vendor you can have variations in color from one string to another.

So when I upgraded to start using 12V strings and Pixie4's and a Pixie16 instead of 5V CCB100D's, I purchased all my new strings from same vendor at the same time.  Tested all, all are uniform in color.

But, if I ever have to replace or add more new strings, I know it's possible that they could have color differences between them.   We hope not, but know it is very possible.

[Grady29]

20 hours ago, Orville said:

In S4.4.16 PRO that I am currently using, it is done in the SE. 

Open an RGB channel in the SE and I use 5% on the red channel by setting the "50% on" tool to 5%(and not more than 7%), then on the same channel directly under red I just set, I click on the "full on" tool, then I click and place the same length duration 100% green on the green channel, which gives me the orange color. Blue channel is completely off.

Then I can just copy that wherever I need orange at for that same duration, anywhere in my RGB channels in the sequence.

That's how I do it, some reverse the intensities and green would be the lower intensity and red could be full on.

Hope that makes sense.

That makes perfect sense.  Thank you for explaining that.

[Grady29]

6 hours ago, Jeremiah Ackermann said:

This is a decent article to answer why curves are needed.
https://www.advateklights.com/knowledge-base/dithering-and-gamma-correction

I would only mess with the RGB values as a last resort (Ex: S4 or earlier versions). Adjusting RGB values cause more headaches when you take that sequence to a different setup or even when pixel technology changes (8-bit shading is standard now, but 12 or 16 bit will eventually come).

So either set a pixel curve on your prop in the preview (adjusts the DMX/LOR value sent to your controller) or leave it unset and set the curve on the controller if its available. I prefer the controller route when available, because it can be at the last step in converting that RGB value to whatever needs to be sent to the ICs in the pixels while also factoring in brightness levels, etc. Again, adjusting those RGB values too far up the chain (in your sequence) will just cause future headaches.

Thank you for the link.  Helps explain things better.