Enhancement - S2 - Scale to Fit

[zman]

I don't recall this being submitted, so I will get your input. We now have cut and paste by cell or time, which is great.

It would be a nice addition if we had the ability to take a portion of a seed sequence and scale it into a certain time span in our working sequence.

We have all these patterns that exist everywhere, but spend a lot of time adapting those patterns to a time slots. For instance, I have a mega tree pattern that in my library or seed sequence, it took 3.5 seconds to complete. In my new sequence, I would like to be able to make that scale into a shorter or even possibly longer time frame.

Make sense?

Also since I am neck deep in sequencing at the moment, I will again ask that when you save a sequence and exit, that the Sequence Editor remember your window settings. I hate the fact that I have to always adjust things before I can start sequencing.

Now I off again for another sequence session!

[Don]

zman wrote:

Also since I am neck deep in sequencing at the moment, I will again ask that when you save a sequence and exit, that the Sequence Editor remember your window settings. I hate the fact that I have to always adjust things before I can start sequencing.

Which window settings are you referring to? You can already save your zoom preferences, as well as other items via the "Edit -> Preferences" section.

(Or is there something I'm missing? Entirely possible.)

[zman]

I know about those settings. This has to do with the fact that you size your channels and time scale etc... and when you exit and come back in, that window information is not saved.

[Tim Herberger]

zman wrote:

I don't recall this being submitted, so I will get your input. We now have cut and paste by cell or time, which is great.

It would be a nice addition if we had the ability to take a portion of a seed sequence and scale it into a certain time span in our working sequence.

We have all these patterns that exist everywhere, but spend a lot of time adapting those patterns to a time slots. For instance, I have a mega tree pattern that in my library or seed sequence, it took 3.5 seconds to complete. In my new sequence, I would like to be able to make that scale into a shorter or even possibly longer time frame.

Make sense?

This is how I do it , select new free form grid with no timings and add a timing mark at the point where i want to start an effect (mega tree spin, mini tree chase, leaping arches)

Then add a timing mark where I want the effect to end and then go to edit >timings > subdivide timings, and subdivide by the number of cells that your effect is.

Then Edit> set paste mode> paste by cell and then you can go to your library of effects and copy/ paste them into the new cells.

This method works great for me but I would like to hear how others do this, there may be a better way.





Tim

[George Simmons]

I've found that if you create your library of effects in an animation sequence it's a lot easier and quicker to copy and paste the more complex patterns into a musical sequence than it is to recreate it each time. If you do as Tim describes, regardless of the length of the timings in the animation sequence, when you paste a pattern into a musical sequence it will fit the time you need it to.

[zman]

Tim,

SWEET! I owe you an adult beverage at sometime, maybe PLUS next year!

Don, I sort of have a bunch of animation sequences like you state, and agree with you. But I have them for Mega tree, arches, fan etc... What I want to do after the season, is take my template sequence, extend it out several minutes, then go through all my sequences, come up with all my different patterns for each display vignette I have, and have one master. I am tired of trying to remember at times where one particular pattern is located.

[George Simmons]

zman wrote:

Tim,

...I am tired of trying to remember at times where one particular pattern is located.

I hear you. I used to spend a huge amount of time looking for or re-creating patterns. Now that I'm up to about 60 songs sequenced, that's what prompted me to create the animation sequences for some of the elements of the display. It took me most of one evening, but I'm sure I've already saved more than that much time.

But getting back to the subject of the thread, I agree with you in wishing that the software retained more preferences and adjustments than it does. I rarely want to play an entire sequence, control the lights, and move the timing grid each time I open the sequence editor. And I tire of having to re-size the animation window each time I open a different sequence.

[zman]

I am bumping this thread hoping LOR sees this. I have noticed that using this technique, while very handy, when pasting from the template file into the actual sequence, parts of the paste are coming across as off. These are very minute, but noticable in the sequence editor, and I think this may be partly why I am having some problems with my arches in songs. Because you are copying by cell, in some cases, this is not fixable. I have even attempted to re-copy the pattern in.

There should be no reason that the entire light pattern should not come across. Comments LOR? Let me know I can send a sequence.

[cenote]

Mark, I just discovered this method too, and posted the another night about it. Not sure by reading your post, but you are able to scale to fit using this method.

All my animations I create, I create them using .10 or .05 marks, than I turn off all timing marks and save. Than in the new sequence, when you copy and paste, it will scale to fit. Works awesome.

edited typo

[zman]

I can scale to fit, however the issue still prevails at time. There are slices of time in the patterns that get turned to OFF. That is the issue I am talking about. I am not sure if doing some of this is not causing some issues with my LLAs

The off segments are random and do not necessarily follow any pattern.

[friskybri]

I like the idea of putting all the patterns for arches in one file. I kept trying to remember what song i saw that pattern in before. Im going to have to do that.

[Tim Herberger]

zman wrote:

I can scale to fit, however the issue still prevails at time. There are slices of time in the patterns that get turned to OFF. That is the issue I am talking about. I am not sure if doing some of this is not causing some issues with my LLAs

The off segments are random and do not necessarily follow any pattern.

That happens to me as well , very small of commands in the middle of a copy/ paste.

I will find one tonight and post a screen capture of it .

It seems if i close out everything, including the editor, and reopen,then try again it usually works with out any errors.



Tim

[ainsworth]

I really like the Robin Wheel, and have started working on putting it into next years show. The RW can have so many different patterns, I borrowed the idea of setting up an animation sequence that has the different patterns in it. Then using Tim's method of pasting I can easily move complex patterns in a short time.

To make it even easier and faster for me here is what I figured out to do;

1) I have a fixed .04 timing grid in the animation sequence. This way I can get the total time for the pattern and multiply by 25 to get the total number of cells in the master pattern (needed when you subdivide timings) .

2) For each pattern in the animation I have one that is stretched out so I can get a good look at what the pattern does when I play the animation sequence, then at the end of that pattern I have the same pattern compressed to the smallest number of cell possible and I always start the compressed pattern on a whole timing mark (like 2.00 or 25.00) again easier math to figure out the total number of cells .

The compressed pattern gives me the most flexibility in fitting it into the musical sequences, while the stretched out patterns gives me a better idea what the pattern looks like.

Is there a better way?

Bruce

[-klb-]

I've changed how I do this. I don't bother with keeping track of how many cells the pattern takes any more. I keep my template file with a free form grid, and once the pattern is put together, I only keep the timing marks at the ends of the pattern.

Then, on the target sequence, I duplicate the free form grid, switch to the duplicate, and delete all the timing marks in the range where I want to drop the pattern. Set paste mode to by cell, and then copy and past the 1 cell in the template to the one cell in the sequence.

I'm still playing with this, but so far, it appears to be working well, and saves having to know how many cells in the sequence, and the step of subdividing the space.

[ainsworth]

SLICK!

Even I can count to one. :cool: