George Simmons Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 The first video of the year has been posted. More will follow and hopefully will be of better quality.www.vimeo.com/8240721 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Fantastic George. The face has always been one of my favorites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimswinder Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Nice color on the video. What camera do you have?I too have always admired your "face"...was looking forward to see him singing Rudolph though. :{ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffF Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Yep, I love that face too. You are one of the people I look forward to seeing videos from... very nice sequencing! :cool:-Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Just saw it in person last night. It's a fantastic display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 17, 2009 Author Share Posted December 17, 2009 Thanks for all the praise. Definitely helps to make all the work worthwhile. I had too many other things to create this year and ran out of time before I got around to upgrading the face. But it's definitely going to get done next year so it can sing for Jim. Sorry I missed you Tim.The camera is a Samsung X34 or something like that. I got it a month ago from Walmart.com. So far I like it and I definitely feel it is a much finer piece of equipment than my meager efforts might lead you to believe. I'm still experimenting and learning and hope to get it down before the season ends.I've posted some more videos I shot at about the same time as the first one. I posted my opening number: 2001/Nutrock, along with a few favorites including a live version of Time by Pink Floyd. (Hey, what kind of light show is really truly complete without a litttle PF?) I'll be posting a few more videos until I run out of my weekly Vimeo upload allotment. Hopefully, the better quality ones will start rolling out next week.2001 / Nutrock: http://www.vimeo.com/8249198We Three Kings http://www.vimeo.com/8247271Third Rock http://www.vimeo.com/8246166Time http://www.vimeo.com/8248565 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhays Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 George, Can you tell us a little more about a couple of the elements in your display? The mini trees look like they are solid with clear lights, but maybe a spiral tree when green? Any up close pictures? Also, what is the chasing effect on the roof line of the garage (or whatever building is set farther back). It looks really smooth.Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 17, 2009 Author Share Posted December 17, 2009 Hi Brett,You're correct about the mini trees. They're 32 inches, and wrapped with 200 clear minis. Before the minis went on I spiraled 7.5' of rope light and added a set of red LED's. (The rope light spiral is an idea I believe I "borrowed" from Tim Fischer.) I don't rightly know if I have any pics - I'll check and if I don't have any I'll snap a couple and get back to you.The chase sequences on the shed and both garages are 12 segments. I used 1/2" wire mesh cut into rectangles and zip tied the lights onto it. Both garages (the neighbor's doesn't show real well in the videos) have custom fit pieces cut according to the length I needed to fit twelve panels onto the building without any slop. My garage has a set of 50 CT multi LED C6 and the neighbor's has 35 ct purple C6 LED's. The shed has purple lights also, the same as what's on the garage except they're hung vertically rather than mounted along the roof line. I originally made those for the garage last year but didn't like the way they looked so I moved them to the shed and lots of people comment favorably on them now...I think what gives it the smooth look, at least on the garage, is having a dozen of 'em and butting them tightly against one another. With a dozen they usually move along at a pretty good clip and when they're all full on there's no gaps at all. I don't think the shed is quite as smooth, but it has the virtue of being unique enough that people don't notice the flaws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Glasson Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 I loved "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Great job!http://glassonlights.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NWSanta Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 George, as always, Stunning!!! Absolutely Stunning... Looks great man!! I can't imagine how long it takes you to sequence your songs....Do you ever sleep?-Evan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 19, 2009 Author Share Posted December 19, 2009 Thanks guys.Evan, it's a strange world. Last year with 144 channels I started out taking about 12 hours per minute, and after I figured out what I was doing I was as pleased as a pickle in brine when I got it down to about 8 hours per minute. This year we added another 160 channels and my sequencing time shot back up to about 12 hours per minute. By the end of this sequencing year, I've once again gotten it back down to 8 hrs per minute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Slonka Jr Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 George,Absolutely fantastic! I wish I could see it in person.Could you share some more info. on one of the elements. How did you do the upright poles?Are they the same as leaping arches only upright?Have a Merry Christmas!Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 Hi Ed,I wish you could see it in person also. Or failing that, I wish I could capture the essence of the full display with a video camera - still working on that.Yes, the poles are essentially upright arches. 10 channels total - nine for minis and one for strobes at the top. I wrap the lights around 3/4" gray (electrical) schedule 40 and then insert a ten foot piece of 1/2" metal conduit for strength. The poles are then zip-tied to a chain link fence and they stay put exactly as attached until I remove them in April or whenever winter ends enough to get the wires loose again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Slonka Jr Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Thanks George for the info! The chain link fence is a real advantage. I would have to come up with something else substantial enough to withstand the wind.About 2 weeks ago had a wind storm with gusts to 60 mph.Merry Christmas!Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug petschke Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Outstanding job again! George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallleyes Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 Very amazing display George.I just cant get enough of watching the face on the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted January 22, 2010 Author Share Posted January 22, 2010 Doug, Walleyes,Thanks for your kind words. I'm hoping to seriously upgrade the face this year - at the very least give it a moving mouth - so it can be the "voice" of my announcements, among other things.I've got a couple more videos to post when I get them edited - one of which is the FOX NFL fanfare that turned out nice this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amazingmg Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 That is awesome!Everything looks great and I love the face! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amazingmg Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Oops, I just noticed major thread necro.Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted October 28, 2010 Author Share Posted October 28, 2010 I don't have a clue what "major thread necro" means so I can't quite understand what you're apologizing for. But thanks for the kind words.Re: that post from Jan where I said I was hoping to upgrade the face... didn't happen this year. I got too busy doing custom sequencing and playing around with a couple CCRs. But I think there's enough new stuff to satisfy the most demanding return viewers while first-timers will have even more to be blown away by. Can't wait till it's all up and testing begins... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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