RGB Channels

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An RGB channel is a group of three channels - a red channel, a green channel, and a blue channel - representing a single pixel on an RGB device (which can change colors), such as a pixel on a Cosmic Color Ribbon.  In the Sequence Editor, an RGB channel is represented by a black row in a sequence (as opposed to normal channels, which are represented by grey rows). Lighting effects on an RGB channel are represented in the row as colors:

 

RGBChannel

A sequence with an RGB channel followed by several normal channels

 

To the left of an RGB channel's button is a small button with red, green, and blue stripes.  Clicking on this button will expand the view of the RGB channel so that its constituent red, green, and blue channels can also be seen (and clicking it again will collapse the view to hide those constituent channels):

 

RGBChannelExpanded

The same sequence, with the view of the RGB channel expanded so that its constituent channels can be seen

 

The RGB channel's lighting effects can be modified by applying tools (such as Shimmer or Toggle or Fade Up) to its constituent channels, but they can also be modified directly by using the Color Fade tool on the RGB channel itself.  This tool allows you to specify a start color and an end color; when applied to a time range in the RGB channel, it will cause that time range to gradually fade from the start color to the end color.

 

An important thing to note here, though, is that the colors displayed on your screen in the Sequence Editor are not necessarily the same colors that will appear on your actual RGB device, and in some cases may actually be very different.  Different RGB devices may produce different colors when their constituent R, G, and B channels are sent the exact same intensities.  So, you may have to experiment a bit to figure out colors as displayed in the Sequence Editor that wind up looking the way you want on your actual RGB devices.

 

Another tool which may be particularly useful for RGB channels is the Fill tool, which (on a normal channel) allows you to click an empty area and cause it to become a fade from the preceding intensity to the following intensity.  For example, if you have a normal channel which has a fade up from 40 to 60, followed by the lights being off, followed by a fade down from 80 to 20, then applying the Fill tool to the area where the lights are off will cause that area to become a fade up from 60 to 80 (because the effect preceding the empty area ended at intensity 60, and the effect following the empty area started at 80).  On an RGB channel, the Fill tool will instead cause a color fade from the preceding color to the following color, hopefully allowing you to quickly set up smooth color transitions across several different colors.

 

The Chase and Repeat tools may also be of particular use on RGB channels.  The Chase tool causes the lighting effects in a single channel (or RGB channel) to be applied through a range of following channels (or RGB channels), offset in time a bit with each passing row, so that the effect seems to be "chasing" through the channels (or RGB channels) as time passes.  The Repeat tool causes one or more copies of the lighting effects in your selection to be applied immediately following your selection.

 

Other tools, such as Shimmer or Toggle or Fade Up, can also be applied to RGB channels.  Doing so will cause the tool to be applied to each of the RGB channel's constituent channels.  For example, applying the Fade Up tool, with intensities 0 to 100, to an RGB channel will cause each of the red, green, and blue channels to fade up from 0 to 100, thus making the RGB channel itself fade from black to white.

 

Such tools can also be directly applied to the constituent channels of an RGB channel (as opposed to the RGB channel itself), allowing for finer grained control over the behaviour of the RGB channel.

 

Clicking on an RGB channel's button will open the RGB Channel Settings dialog, allowing control over various settings such as the units and circuits of the constituent channels:

 

RGBChannelSettings

The RGB Channel Settings dialog

 

Right-clicking on an RGB channel's button will open up a popup menu with various channel and RGB channel-related tools:

 

RGBChannelButtonPopupMenu

The RGB Channel Button Popup Menu

 

RGB channels can be added to a sequence in a few ways, all via the Channel/RGB Channel Button Popup Menu.  First, the "Insert Device" menu item has options to insert a Cosmic Color Device or a generic RGB device, both of which will result in RGB channels being added to the sequence.  Second, the "Insert RGB Channels" menu item will create new RGB channels.  Third, existing regular channels can be converted to RGB channels via the "Convert to RGB Channel" menu item.