Auto Move While Dark

[Kirkup_xp]

Hi

I've been thinking about using moving lights in my next show, and been getting my head around how to program them effectively. I like the idea of (never used it myself) Auto Move While Dark (found on the Strand 5x0 and 300 consoles) feature. I don't imagine this would be majorly difficult to add to the console, and could be set in the desk setup options. I appreciate it would only work when the desk is used in partial by fixture or attribute mode, and only when a cue stack is being used as the only means of playback, but if the option could be switched on / off, it would not affect users who don't use the desk in this way.

[Paul]

You might find that your fixtures can be told to go dark automatically while moving pan/tilt, colour wheels, gobos etc., simply by sending certain values on DMX channels. Have a thumb through the manual and see what they can do!

[Kirkup_xp]

Yes, they can. But thats not how the strand feature works. It looks ahead in the cue stack to the next time the fixture is used, and moves it to that potion, as soon as it dims out. That means there is no rapid movement as you press 'go', and the show runs smoothly.

Does that make sense?

[K-Nine]

Yes, they can. But thats not how the strand feature works. It looks ahead in the cue stack to the next time the fixture is used, and moves it to that potion, as soon as it dims out. That means there is no rapid movement as you press 'go', and the show runs smoothly.

Does that make sense?

 

Yes, it makes sense if you are ONLY playing back the memory stack (playback X), but what happens to the fixtures if you move then using submasters, SX buttons, palettes or manually with the wheels ?

 

The fixtures will no longer be in their 'correct' position when they are next used in the memory stack, and will have to move when the Go button is pressed :?

 

Presumably, there are also people who will want to move the fixtures to their programmed positions in the memories (cues), either snapping or fading the position over a period of time, and occasions when sometimes you don't want to see them move, and sometimes you do.

 

What if the next memory that uses the fixtures has movement effects associated with it ?

 

Very rarely is anything quite as straighforward as it would first appear :?

 

Frog Reference No 5351 - Auto Move while Dark - to be reviewed for inclusion in future update package.

[wilee]

Auto move is a good thing it saves time i use the strand 520 which has auto move and all i have to do is put the fixture in its place and program.

But could switch it on and off in the menu

[ice]

Think that actually would be quite some work to implement.. Why not do it yourself until further notice? It's easily done by using position pallets; just program the pallet you're using in memory n to memory n-1, and use fade + some LTP time to complete the move. And if the lights are used in mem n-1, insert one in between to do the same thing... also use the move-while-dark function of your heads and the effect will be the same (ok, it certainly is more programming work; you're right!)

[RAW Lighting Power]

I normally create a follow on cue which triggers automatically. Easiest way is to run the next cue, bring the palyback x fader to 0% and then insert a follow on and press record.

 

This will then set all the attributes to their correct positions while the unit is dark in preparation for the unit coming on.

 

So once you have gone to blackout, I have a dwell time of 0:00:00 and then an auto triggered cue with a fade up and down of 0:00:00 and an ltp fade of 0:00:00. (unless using scrollers in which case i would advise an LTP fade of 0:03:00 to avoid ripping the gel)

 

Richard 8)

[wilee]

Yes but it takes more time to program and its to much fafing with auto move the desk does the fafing.

[richard]

I would think that AMD would be quite easy to implement.

 

In my eyes it should only work with the stack (playback) and should purely 'look ahead' to the next cues, and for any fixtures where the intensity is at zero, set them to the appropriate attribute values for the next cue.

 

You should be able to turn this feature on and off from superuser.

 

It does not need to be anything complex, and since it would probably only ever be used when using the 'go' button - so for theatre style shows - there would be no need to worry about the subs etc..

 

It would make the desk much much much nicer for using in theatre.

[ice]

One problem Richard: when you've got a chase running on one of the subs, the fixture could have brightness 0, but should not be moved.

If should work on fixtures which were not tagged in chases / scenes used on submasters at that moment. But I agree that such a function would be nice; makes a lot of work useless; so saves us some time

[richard]

As I said, I would make it only applicable to the main playback, and have it optional - you would probably only use it in mainly theatre style shows which only use the x-playback. It could then completely ignore the subs

[Haytech]

Yes but it takes more time to program and its to much fafing with auto move the desk does the fafing.

Please don´t let me die unsuspectingly - what in duck means fafing ? :?

 

TIA

[K-Nine]

Yes but it takes more time to program and its to much fafing with auto move the desk does the fafing.

Please don´t let me die unsuspectingly - what in duck means fafing ? :?

TIA

 

I may be wrong, but I think he means 'faffing' as in faffing about which is a colloquial term meaning to fuss or dither

 

Source: The Concise Oxford Dictionary.

[Haytech]

TIA K-Nine !

Some english terms are little deadal

[wilee]

I has Been Ask to Buy a desk for a theatre company that i work for we will be using macs and scrollers and we will be touring different shows and will not have much time programming do you think that the frogs will ever have the automove feature. :?:

[Haytech]

I has Been Ask to Buy a desk for a theatre company that i work for we will be using macs and scrollers

Then a fatfrog or a leapfrog is the best and cheapest to go for

and we will be touring different shows and will not have much time programming

As setting scenes and program them to the theatre stack is only taking one minute / using pallettes makes all even esier to do.

another vote for frog :mrgreen:

do you think that the frogs will ever have the automove feature.

I don´t know - but I don´t see the use of this feature, I don´t work that often in a theatre that I can say move while dark is a strongly recommend thing ...

 

I don´t think you can get as much features as frog has in this price class

 

Cheers

[K-Nine]

Although the desk does not currently have an automatic move while dark function, there are many ways of achieveing the same result with well planned plotting of the scenes, some of which have been described in the posts above.

[Kirkup_xp]

I've been having a think about the auto move whilst dark, and with the implimentation of 'n-shot' chases, you can do it fairly simply.

 

Scenario: Light in position 1 in Scene 1, needs to fade out and then fade up in a new position for cue 2.

 

Scene 1 - program as normal

Scene 2 - plot as n-shot chase as below

Step 1 - in same position as Scene 1, but dimmer @ 0%

Step 2 - in position for Scene 2, but dimmer @ 0%

Step 3 - Scene 2

If you set this to N-shot (1 shot), with the '^' modifier, and your position attribute set to fade, you can make your show nice and smooth. Its nice and tidy when re-playing, as you don't have lots of point cues with auto-goes.

 

Hope this makes sense and helps some people. I'll be trying it out on a show over the weekend.

[K-Nine]

Peter, that sounds like a good idea

 

You may need to play around with the fade down time and the speed modifier of the chase to ensure that the light fades out before it starts to move in step two of the chase.

[ice]

That's kind of similar to the solution I've used lately:

memory 1 = scene 1

memory 1.1 = scene 1 with fixtures at 0%

has a fade-time, dwell 0...

memory 1.2 = scene 2 with fixtures at new position

no fade times but dwell according to the time your fixtures take to move into the new position

memory 2 = scene 2 with fixtures at correct brightness level.

 

Just use Auto as trigger for scene's 1.2 and 2, and a press of the go button will automatically do it's thing. Just one problem (same as Pauls solution); what when the director wants something changed? Right... go ahead copying or editing 3 memories. Ok, that maybe isn't such a big deal, but is still takes more time than editing just one.

[iank99]

Having used Strand 430 and Genius Pro quite a bit - and supporting Frogs & Illusions for a while, Auto Move While Dark is very handy when plotting a theatre show with intelligent heads and saves headaches for desks ops - and I've done my share of badgering Zero for the facility (ahem!).

 

I hear the point about subs & chases but then if I'm programming a series of cues for a performance I won't need to access the fixtures from a submaster - if they're in a chase then I'll take pot luck and plot a 'dark' cue in to bring back to the point where I next want to use them in a cue.

[Dazza]

Do you Think the frog range will ever have automove :?:

I use it on other desks and is a Handy thing

[dougalzeb]

Is there a way I can fade (not snap) the brightness of a fixture to zero then when it has reached zero move positions just using 1 memory cue? I am currently doing it using a point cue or n-shot chase but wondered if it were possible without having to program these (i.e. a way of triggering LTP when the fixture brightness hits 0%)?

 

Cheers

[ice]

No that's not possible.. such a feature has been requested though.

[K-Nine]

To say that it's not possible is incorrect 8O

 

It is possible to achieve the effect you require

 

However, the main issue is that with the current user interface design and software implementation it is not a simple one button operation that some would prefer