Visualization Sequences |
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The Light-O-Rama SuperStar Sequencer can import visualizations created using the Light-O-Rama Visualizer.
Import Visualization
To use this feature, click on the SuperStar Sequencer's File menu and select "Import Visualization...". The Import Visualization dialog box will appear:
Special notes on Import Visualization
The SuperStar Sequencer allows fixtures with identical channel assignments. For example, you may have a snowman fixture and a bell fixture that are both plugged into the same channel, so that they have the same channel assignment. In this example, the snowman and the bell will be treated as if they were one fixture, and will be assigned to the same square on the sequencing grid.
When importing your visualization, you may get the following warnings:
Import Visualization Pair
To use this feature, click on the "File" menu and select "Import Visualization Pair...". Use the "Choose Row Visualization..." button and the "Choose Real Visualization..." button to choose the visualization files you want to import. Then use the "Import Visualization Pair" button to import both of the files.
Purpose of having two visualizations: Import Visualization Pair allows the import of a "Row Visualization" and a "Real Visualization". If you already have a visualization of your light display, you probably laid the lights out to appear as they do in your actual display. Use this visualization as your "Real Visualization". You can move the fixtures and props around to organize them in rows and then save that visualization with a different name, and that becomes your "Row Visualization". SuperStar will create the sequencing grid based upon how you have organized your "Row Visualization". While entering normal effects, the "Row Visualization" will be displayed on the SuperStar screen. During the playback of the sequence, the "Real Visualization" will be used. When entering visEffects, the "Real Visualization" will be displayed.
Example of using two visualizations: This is a powerful feature that allows you to design how your lights are mapped to the sequencing grid. For example, in your "Real Visualization", you might have some candy cane props where each candy cane has 12 channels, and you have four candy canes in a row. By default, SuperStar looks for rows of lights, and it will fit as many lights as it can in each row on the sequencing grid. But in this case, it is desirable to have each candy cane on its own row, so that you have four rows, each row with 12 squares for the 12 channels in each candy cane. Then it is easy to create effects that go up and down all the candy canes, as well as effects that travel across the candy canes. So, to accomplish this, you can move each of the four candy canes to their own row on the "Row Visualization", and still use the "Real Visualization" for playback and for entry of visEffects.
In the samples folder, there is a file named CandyCanes_sample.sup". Open and play this file, and you will see how it uses two visualizations to arrange the candy canes in a way that makes them easy to sequence.
Create Wrapped Tree Visualization
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• | Units: select inches or centimeters |
• | Nbr of Trees: Enter the number of wrapped trees you want to do. For example, you might have 8 mini-trees that you want to wrap with Cosmic Color Pixels. |
• | Blank Grid Lines Between Trees: If you have more than one tree you may want some blank columns on the sequencing grid between each tree. For example, if you have several mini-trees and you do a shock-wave effect on one, the effect may “bleed “ over to the trees next to it if there are no black lines in the sequencing grid. |
• | Top Diameter: This is the top diameter of the tree. It defaults to 0 but you can set it to any value from 0 up to the value set as the Bottom diameter. |
• | Bottom Diameter: This is the bottom diameter of the tree. This value must be 10 or greater. The upper limit of the value depends on the number of pixels you have and the spacing between the pixels. The diameter is measured starting from one point at the bottom of the tree and getting to the other side of the tree going through the trunk. |
• | Top Circumference: This field is linked to the Top Diameter field. Setting the diameter will also change the value in the circumference field. Setting the value in the circumference will also set the value in the diameter field. |
• | Bottom Circumference: This field is linked to the Bottom Diameter field. Setting the diameter will also change the value in the circumference field. Setting the value in the circumference will also set the value in the diameter field. The circumference is measured from a point at the bottom of the tree and going around the tree to arrive back at the same place you started. |
• | Slant Height: This is the slant height of the tree. Note that this is not the vertical height of the tree. In other words, it is the height of the tree measured from the outside edge of the base of the tree up to the top of where the lights stop on the tree. Note the top of the tree may be different from where the lights end at the top of the tree. You want to measure from where lights start to where the lights stop. |
• | Pixel Spacing: This is the space between the pixels on you string(s). For Cosmic Color Pixels this is 6 inches. But it is best to stretch out your string of lights and measure the length of the string to get the actually average spacing of your lights. For example, a string of Cosmic Color Pixels has 50 lights. Lay the string on the floor and pull on the end of the lights to give enough tension on the light string to equal the amount of tension you expect to be on the string as you wrap the tree. Then measure from the first pixel to the last pixel and then divide by 49. Note that you do not divide by 50, you divide by one less than the number of pixels because that is the number of spaces in what you are measuring. The idea is that the same spacing you are measuring on the floor is the same spacing you will have on the tree. |
• | Nbr of Pixels: This is the number of pixels in all of the strings of lights you are going to wrap around each tree. For example, if you have 4 strings of Cosmic Color Pixels, there are 50 pixels in each string so you have a total of 200 pixels. This means that you will be connecting the strings end-to-end and will treat them as one long 200 pixel string. One way to “connect them end-to-end” is to overlap the wires of the strings and use 2 zip ties to wrap around the overlapping wires. Adjust the overlap of the wires so that the spacing from the last light of the string to the first light of the next string is equal to the spacing of your pixels on the rest of the string. |
• | Pixel Size: This sets the size of the pixels in the visualization. |
• | Create Wrapping Guide and Visualization: This creates the wrapping guide and the visualization of the wrapped tree. Click on the combo box above this button to see the wrapping guide values. The “Vert Marks” are the distance from the bottom of the tree to the start of each wrap. The “Wrap Marks” are the Pixel Count at the start of each wrap. For example, if the Vert Mark for wrap 3 is 10.75 then it means wrap 3 starts at 10.75 inches from the bottom of the tree. And if the “Wrap Mark” is 64.32 it means that wrap 3 starts at 64.32 pixels from the start of the string of pixels. What you want to do is mark all the “Wrap marks” on your string of lights before you start wrapping. The first pixel starts at the bottom of the tree and marks the 0 pixel, then you count the pixels from there. So the first pixel is the 0 pixel, and the second pixel is the 1 pixel and the third pixel is the 2 pixel and so on. That means “wrap mark” 0.50 would be half way between the first and second pixel. 1.50 would half way between the 2nd and 3rd pixels. So to find pixel 64.32 you would start at the beginning of the string and skip the first pixel and start counting at the second pixel until your count gets to 64 and then mark a point that is about .32 beyond 64. Note that a new wrapping guide and visualization only gets created if you click on the “Create Wrapping Guide and Visualization” button. |
The standard effects are placed on the green sequencing grid, and get played to the visualization. The visEffects are placed directly on the visualization, and also get played to the visualization. The difference is that visEffects use the position of the lights in the visualization instead of the position of the lights on the sequencing grid. You must have an imported visualization on the SuperStar screen in order to do visEffects.
Currently, visEffects are only supported by morphs. Click on the Tools menu, and select "Morphs..." to bring up the "Morph Setup" dialog box. at the bottom of the dialog box, click on the "VisEffect" box. The visualization will become smaller, and you will see the "1a-1b" and "2a-2b" morph lines. Click on the Add button in the "Morph Setup" dialog box and play it. You will see the morph smoothly applied to all the lights in the visualization.
In the samples folder, there is a file named "CandyCanes_sample.sup". Open and play this file, and you will first see some standard effects played to the candy canes. At the end, you will see some visEffects.
The Instant Sequence also feature works for visualizations, using the following steps:
• | Click on the File menu and select "Import Visualization" |
• | Select a visualization file that you created using the Light-O-Rama Visualizer |
• | Press Ctrl+I to launch the Instant Sequence dialog box, and use the three buttons in the lower left of the dialog box |
• | Click on the "Open Audio File" button to open your audio file |
• | Click on the "Sequence All" button |
• | Click on the "Play/Stop All" button |
Want to use Instant Sequence but don't have a visualization of your lights? The SuperStar Sequencer can create a quick visualization file for you:
• | Click on the Tools menu and select "Create Quick Visualization". |
• | Place a checkmark by each controller that you have. If necessary, change the settings for each controller. For example, if you have four 16 channel controllers and they have unit IDs 01, 02, 03, and 04, simply place a checkmark by the first four controllers listed in the dialog box. |
• | Click on "Create QuickVis", and it will create a visualization file named "QuickVis.lee". The visualization will be a grid of lights where each light represents a channel. With this grid of lights, you can now use Instant Sequence to create a sequence for your lights. |
• | After creating the sequence, click on the File menu and select "Export", and you will then be able to play the sequence to your lights using the Light-O-Rama Sequence Editor. |
No. The SuperStar Sequencer imports the visualization file and displays it in the SuperStar work area. The SuperStar Sequencer can only display the visualization file; the Light-O-Rama Visualizer is used to create or modify visualizations.
After importing a visualization file, you can click on any of the light string fixtures to select them. A single click selects one item, while Ctrl+click can be used to select additional items. A click and drag will select any item within the drag rectangle. Each light string fixture is also mapped to a box in the green sequencing grid. When clicking on a light fixture, you will see it become selected, and will also see a green square get selected. You can also select fixtures by clicking on the green squares. Left click selects, and right click deselects.
• | Select one or more light fixtures. |
• | Click on the Tools menu and select Scenes. The Scene dialog box will appear. |
• | Click on the Add button in the Scene dialog box. A white bar will appear in the time layer area. This bar represents the effect you just added. |
In the toolbar is a group of buttons that look like the controls on a tape recorder. Press the Play button (the button with a right-facing triangle); this will play eight seconds of the sequence. After pressing Play, you should see your selected light fixtures turn on when the play cursor runs across the white bar which represents the effect that you just added.
• | Click on the Tools menu and select Morphs. The Morph dialog box appears, and the first and last boxes in the green sequencing grid should have "1" and "2" on them. |
• | In the yellow time scale, select from 3.00 seconds to 4.00 seconds. |
• | Click on the Add button in the Morph dialog box. |
A white bar with a tail should appear in the time layer area.
Click on the Play button again. When the play cursor runs across the white bar with a tail, the morph will turn on every fixture, one at a time. In other words, the effect starts at the "1" on the green sequencing grid, and travels to the "2" on the green sequencing grid. This ends up doing a sweep or a chase across all the fixtures.
Every light in your visualization has a location and a color. When selecting a fixture, you have selected a location. You select the color by using the red, green, blue and white color controls on the left side of the SuperStar Sequencer. The default is to have all four color controls "on". However, if you want to turn on all the red lights in your display, turn on only the red color controls and select all your fixtures. Add a scene, and you will see only the red lights in your display turn on when you hit the Play button.
Note: Click on the word "Main" above the color controls, and it will cycle through the basic rainbow colors.
You can use the Instant Sequence feature on your visualization:
• | Click on the Tools menu and select "Instant Sequence". |
• | If you don't already have an audio file loaded, click on the "Open Audio File" button in the Instant Sequence dialog box. |
• | Click on the "Sequence All" button. |
• | After all the processing is done, click on the "Play/Stop All" button. |
If you want to change the number of effects that are being created, click on the Timing Map button in the upper left of the Timing Map dialog box, and change the Sensitivity setting.
To create a different instant sequence, click on the "Roll Dice" button in the Instant Sequence dialog box. Then click on Sequence All, then Play/Stop All.
When you import a Visualization, SuperStar does its best to map the lights to the sequencing grid in a sensible way. But there are cases where you may want to change how the lights are mapped to the sequencing grid. In older versions of SuperStar, you used keywords that you placed in the comment area of a Prop or Fixture in a visualization. The keywords are still supported for backward compatibility, but the preferred way to apply these settings is now through the use of settings that are visible by pressing the “superstar” button that is in the Visualizer Prop dialog box and the Visualizer Fixture dialog box. By clicking on the “superstar” button you will be able to set all the same settings that were done by the keywords.
The following describes the old use the keywords. It is documented for backward compatibility. Instead of using the keywords, you should now use the “superstar” settings that are in the Prop dialog box and the Fixture dialog box in the Visualizer. Note that if you use keywords and Visualizer superstar settings, the keywords will take priority.
The word "superstar" in the comment area tells SuperStar that you have placed a keyword in the comment. After the word "superstar" you can place one or more of the keywords listed below. For example, if you wanted to mark your prop as a matrix, you would enter "superstar matrix" in the comment area of the Prop Properties box in the Visualizer.
• | Reverse Order in Superstar - Superstar attempts to layout the fixtures in your prop in a logical order, but if it didn't do it in the order you want, then use this check-box to reverse the order of the fixtures in the prop. Note that reversing the order of the props using the Prop Properties dialog box will not change the order that SuperStar will use. |
• | Force Superstar Row/Column - Use this check-box along with the following 'Row' and 'Column' fields to change the row and column of the prop on the sequencing grid. Note that the row and column notation was created for a vertical import; if you use a horizontal import, then row and column will seem reversed. To see an example of the use of row and column, look at the 24x25Tree_4RowGlob.lee visualization file from the Samples folder. You can open this file in the Visualizer to see how the keywords are used in the comment area of the props. You can also import this file into Superstar to see how the props have been moved down in the sequencing grid. |
• | Use My Order rather than Superstar's - This tells Superstar to disregard what row the fixtures are in, and instead add the fixtures in the same order as they have been added to the prop. Note that in the Prop Properties dialog box in the Visualizer, there is a "Change Order" button that allows you to change the order of fixtures in a prop. You can change the order there, and SuperStar will change the order in the sequencing grid as well. Also, if the prop contains CCRs, then the this check-box also tells SuperStar to add the pixels of the CCR in the same order as in the visualization. |
• | This Prop is a Star/Topper - This marks the prop as a star of a Superstar display. Use this to make sure that the star commands of a SuperStar sequence get mapped to the star in your visualization. |
• | This Prop is a Matrix - This marks the prop as a matrix of pixels. Superstar will automatically detect most matrix layouts. But if, for example, you have some CCRs or DMX Pixels arranged in a fan shape, you probably want the pixels arranged as a matrix in the sequencing rows, but SuperStar will not recognize the fan shape as a shape that should be a matrix. So, you can mark the fan prop as a matrix using this keyword. |
SuperStar Properties for Props
• | Reverse Order in Superstar - SuperStar attempts to lay out the pixels in a CCR or DMX Pixel fixture in a logical order, but if it didn't do it in the order you want, then use this check-box to reverse the order of the pixels in the fixture. |
• | Force Superstar Row/Column - Use this check-box along with the following 'Row' and 'Column' fields to change the row and column of thefixture on the sequencing grid. Note that the row and column notation was created for a vertical import; if you use a horizontal import, then row and column will seem reversed. |
• | Locations - Use this area to add a list of row and column locations for each light in the fixture. The row and column should be separated by a comma, and then there should be a space between each row, column pair. For example, "1,2 1,3" would mean place the first light in the fixture at row 1, column 2, and place the second light in the fixture at row 1, column 3. To see an example, look at the 24x25Tree_4RowGlobe.lee visualization file from the Samples folder. You can open this file in the Visualizer to see how the location of pixels is specified for the globe fixture. You can also import this file into SuperStar to see how the lights in the globe fixtures have been moved down in the sequencing grid. |
• | Color Temperature - These check-boxes are used for fixtures containing RGB lights, marking such fixtures as having "cool white" LEDs or "warm white" LEDs. SuperStar uses these keywords to determine how to best balance the colors in RGB lights. |
While a wide range of visualizations have been tested with the SuperStar Sequencer, there is an even wider range of possible visualizations, and so it is difficult to test every scenario. So, as you work with your particular visualization, feedback is welcomed on ways that support can be improved for your particular needs. Please send such feedback to wishlist@lightorama.com.