Forced move on dark?

[O Thompson]

Im fairly sure this isnt a simple request, however... Let me try and set the scene...

I have some moving heads used as wash lights. They are rigged FOH and provide down stage wash. I have a number of playbacks using these fixtures to create varying colours of wash on stage. On top of this, i have a couple of override playbacks (LTP) that "borrow" 2 or more of these moving heads for a piano light, focused in the auditorium.

I have tried to do this using a cue stack turned into a 1 shot chase, which works for the initial move to the piano, although its a little glitchy and time consuming.

• selected fixtures fade.
• selected fixtures move to new position.
• selected fixtures choose colour.
• selected fixtures fade up.

Is there anything i can do to alter the behaviour of the "release" of this playback? so that when the the fixtures fade down, move to previous position and fade back up? rather than simply move and alter colour "live"

[O Thompson]

On top of this, is there an option to set a playback as "always has precedent"? for example if i run the playback described above, i dont want my piano light to be taken over by a wash playback? i want the piano playback to stay active until released? 

[kgallen]

I always wondered if ‘Stomping’ has anything to do with this. Edward did explain Stomping to me somewhere here (and I don’t think it was what I expected!). However there is ‘Allow Stomping’ somewhere in the playback options I think. Have a play!

[Edward Z88]

Hi Olly,

5 hours ago, O Thompson said:

Is there anything i can do to alter the behaviour of the "release" of this playback? so that when the the fixtures fade down, move to previous position and fade back up? rather than simply move and alter colour "live"

Apologies if I’ve misunderstood your description. So basically you want to be able to introduce a playback which is controlling lights that are already controlled by an active playback, and rather than seeing attributes changing, the fixtures fade down and then up?

If so, for the playback you are fading in, you could have 2 cues programmed. The second being your desired lighting, which could auto follow from cue 1. Cue 1, would then be these fixtures at 0%, so when the playback is raised, these fixtures fade off, move on dark runs, and then fades the new state on. You would of course need the intensity mixing to be set to LTP. You would also need to ensure you select your fixtures, @ ., and then record the first blackout cue with SmartTag disabled, so the console stores the fixtures at 0%. 

2 hours ago, kgallen said:

I always wondered if ‘Stomping’ has anything to do with this. Edward did explain Stomping to me somewhere here (and I don’t think it was what I expected!). However there is ‘Allow Stomping’ somewhere in the playback options I think. Have a play!

Stomping wouldn’t solve this, as it would essentially release the currently active playback. 

Edward

[O Thompson]

15 hours ago, Edward- Z88 said:

Hi Olly,

Apologies if I’ve misunderstood your description. So basically you want to be able to introduce a playback which is controlling lights that are already controlled by an active playback, and rather than seeing attributes changing, the fixtures fade down and then up?

If so, for the playback you are fading in, you could have 2 cues programmed. The second being your desired lighting, which could auto follow from cue 1. Cue 1, would then be these fixtures at 0%, so when the playback is raised, these fixtures fade off, move on dark runs, and then fades the new state on. You would of course need the intensity mixing to be set to LTP. You would also need to ensure you select your fixtures, @ ., and then record the first blackout cue with SmartTag disabled, so the console stores the fixtures at 0%. 

Thanks for the reply,

Your suggestion, i think, is similar to my initial set up of using a 1 shot chase on a playback, built on similar cues... 

Firstly, I have found that if i only use 2 cues in the stack...

Cue 1 - Fixtures fade to 0%

Cue 2 - Fixtures move, change to white and fade up to 40%

Then the following happens... Fixture fade to 0, then fixture fade to 40% whilst moving. So the move is still visible.

 

If i do the following...

Cue 1 - Fixtures fade to 0%

Cue 2 - Fixtures move

Cue 3- Fixtures Change to white and fade up to 40%

This works as required, but should cue 2 in this case be necessary? or should "move on dark" negate the need for this?

 

Moving on, how would i reverse this? if i lower the "piano" playback, I want the fixtures to fade out, move back to the position (of which ever playback is active) and then fade up again (unless the previous playback has altered / relased)? Is this possible? As it stands, releasing the piano playback will result in a live move of the fixtures to the previous playbacks state.

 

Finally, Can i set the "piano" playback as "Always Takes Precedent"? For example, i have multiple washes using the mentioned moving head fixtures. The current solution allows me to "borrow" some of those fixtures for my piano. But... if i then want to change the wash light on stage, whilst still keeping my piano light, i cant. The fixtures will be taken over by any other playback using the fixtures...

 

[Edward Z88]

Hi Olly,

7 minutes ago, O Thompson said:

This works as required, but should cue 2 in this case be necessary? or should "move on dark" negate the need for this?

Yes, the fixtures should be moving on dark in cue 1. However, you may find they aren't being given enough time to do so. You may therefore have to speed up the move on dark timings. To do this, hold SETUP and tap the playback's button, to open the playback settings. Then choose Move On Dark from the top, and adjust the move on dark delay and fade times for this playback.

27 minutes ago, O Thompson said:

If i lower the "piano" playback, I want the fixtures to fade out, move back to the position (of which ever playback is active) and then fade up again (unless the previous playback has altered / relased)? Is this possible? As it stands, releasing the piano playback will result in a live move of the fixtures to the previous playbacks state.

There are a couple of options. Firstly, do the fixtures have a "Blackout whilst moving" feature? This is common on many moving heads. This is sometimes found under "PTSpeed", or "Special"/"Funct."/"Control" parameters. If so, you could enable this (potentially from a UDK if required), so that when you don't want live moves, the fixtures are forced to turn off when moving. You could then lower the playback, it would then release, and because this causes a move, the fixture would stay off whilst moving.

The other option, is to program the below cues...

Note that for this, Move On Dark is disabled, and positions are stored manually, with SmartTag disabled.

Cue 1: Select your "Piano" fixtures, @ ., apply the piano palette, and record as cue 1 on an empty playback. 

Cue 2: Simply raises the intensity of the "Piano" fixtures, automatically after the previous cue.

Cue 3: "Piano" fixtures @ ., and apply the palette of the position the fixture should be in when this playback isn't active.

Cue 4: "Piano" fixtures @ ., Record as cue 4, and set this cue to auto follow, and release itself.

The intensity mixing of the playback should be Latest Takes Precedence.

To run this, you can then simply raise the fader, the light turns off, moves, and fades back on automatically. To release this playback, press the go button of this playback, to fade this fixtures off, move them, and fade back to the existing lighting state.

Hope this helps,

Edward

[Edward Z88]

23 hours ago, O Thompson said:

if i then want to change the wash light on stage, whilst still keeping my piano light, i cant. The fixtures will be taken over by any other playback using the fixtures...

For this, I would recommend not including the "piano" fixtures in your main wash states. That way you have your main washes on playbacks, your piano state, and then your washes on playbacks just for the piano fixtures, giving you the most mixing flexibility.

Hope this helps,

Edward

[O Thompson]

Thanks, Ill give that a go.