I was thinking about a graph with x and y axis so I could tap a location and all moving heads will point to the same spot.
Is this possible or am I too demanding?
Moving heads as follow spotlight
-
hutje
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2015 6:10 pm
- Location: The Netherlands
- Real Name: Robin
I have an arena with 12 moving heads attached to the ceiling. Would it be possible to control the moving heads and let them all follow the same spot on the floor?
I was thinking about a graph with x and y axis so I could tap a location and all moving heads will point to the same spot.
Is this possible or am I too demanding?
I was thinking about a graph with x and y axis so I could tap a location and all moving heads will point to the same spot.
Is this possible or am I too demanding?
-
janosvitok
- Posts: 1325
- Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2015 7:05 am
- Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
- Real Name: Jano Svitok
- Contact:
It's too complicated for QLC now. You need to:
- determine 3D coordinates and orientation of the heads, relative to the arena floor
- create e.g. xypad and from the coordinates relative to he pad compute coordinates of the target point on the arena floor
- compute target angle for each head
- convert the angle to dmx pan/tilt
- determine 3D coordinates and orientation of the heads, relative to the arena floor
- create e.g. xypad and from the coordinates relative to he pad compute coordinates of the target point on the arena floor
- compute target angle for each head
- convert the angle to dmx pan/tilt
-
hutje
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2015 6:10 pm
- Location: The Netherlands
- Real Name: Robin
True. One can only dream big 
Another option would solve my problem.
Would it be possible to have a fader linked to a sequence where the first step would be fader value = 0 and the last step would be fader value = 127?
This would allow me to program the moving heads to follow a path depending on the position of the fader.
Another option would solve my problem.
Would it be possible to have a fader linked to a sequence where the first step would be fader value = 0 and the last step would be fader value = 127?
This would allow me to program the moving heads to follow a path depending on the position of the fader.
-
MichelSliepenbeek
- Posts: 717
- Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2023 10:24 am
- Location: Nederland
- Real Name: Michel Sliepenbeek
If you are happy with static positions, it will take some work, but it is not impossible.
Put a white piece of paper (or a bucket or ....) in the center of your arena.
Turn your first moving head on, position the beam to the center and write down the Pan and Tilt values. Now do the same for your other 11 movingheads.
Create a scene (call it Center) with the Pan and tilt positions you found (so one scene with your 12 Moving Heads, each having its own Pan and Tilt value).
Now do the same for Left Front, Left Rear, Right Front, Right Rear and whatever other position you want.
Create a solo frame on your VC with buttons for those scenes (see attached example).
You might also think about a scene where you give every Moving head a different outside position (and then let them all move to the Center Position and back).
You can also use those positions as center positions for your EFX's (you need to set them to relative).
Another option could be to create a chaser with two of your scenes, for instance Front Left and Rear Right, set Hold to Infinite and fades to zero, then add this chaser to a cue list and on the final tab select Crossfader.
With this CrossFader you can move your heads in between the two selected positions.
In order to make this work your Pan and Tilt channels need to be set to "can fade" (Fixtures Tab, Channel fade Configuration, next to where you select LTP/HTP).
A different approach could be to use a XY pad and define each moving head in a way that when the XY pad is in it center position, all heads will point to the center.
Add a XY Pad to your VC and add your Moving Heads to it. On the Fixtures tab select Range Display Mode = DMX and for each moving head now set X Axis and Y Axis according to the values that you (found before and) use in your Center Scene.
As an example: If your first moving head is in center position with Pan = 75 and Tilt = 132, set your X Axis Minimum to (75 - 20 =) 55, your X Axis Maximum to (75 + 20 =) 95, your Y Axis Minimum to (132 - 20 =) 112 and your Y Axis Maximum to (132 + 20 = ) 152.
Now you can use the the sliders (on the Right and Bottom) of your XY Pad to move your moving Heads to and from the same center position.
You will probably have to do some Fine Tuning (i picked the value of 20 just as an example, it is up to you to find out what values work best in your situation), but i hope this will put you in a direction to create some nice effects.
Put a white piece of paper (or a bucket or ....) in the center of your arena.
Turn your first moving head on, position the beam to the center and write down the Pan and Tilt values. Now do the same for your other 11 movingheads.
Create a scene (call it Center) with the Pan and tilt positions you found (so one scene with your 12 Moving Heads, each having its own Pan and Tilt value).
Now do the same for Left Front, Left Rear, Right Front, Right Rear and whatever other position you want.
Create a solo frame on your VC with buttons for those scenes (see attached example).
You might also think about a scene where you give every Moving head a different outside position (and then let them all move to the Center Position and back).
You can also use those positions as center positions for your EFX's (you need to set them to relative).
Another option could be to create a chaser with two of your scenes, for instance Front Left and Rear Right, set Hold to Infinite and fades to zero, then add this chaser to a cue list and on the final tab select Crossfader.
With this CrossFader you can move your heads in between the two selected positions.
In order to make this work your Pan and Tilt channels need to be set to "can fade" (Fixtures Tab, Channel fade Configuration, next to where you select LTP/HTP).
A different approach could be to use a XY pad and define each moving head in a way that when the XY pad is in it center position, all heads will point to the center.
Add a XY Pad to your VC and add your Moving Heads to it. On the Fixtures tab select Range Display Mode = DMX and for each moving head now set X Axis and Y Axis according to the values that you (found before and) use in your Center Scene.
As an example: If your first moving head is in center position with Pan = 75 and Tilt = 132, set your X Axis Minimum to (75 - 20 =) 55, your X Axis Maximum to (75 + 20 =) 95, your Y Axis Minimum to (132 - 20 =) 112 and your Y Axis Maximum to (132 + 20 = ) 152.
Now you can use the the sliders (on the Right and Bottom) of your XY Pad to move your moving Heads to and from the same center position.
You will probably have to do some Fine Tuning (i picked the value of 20 just as an example, it is up to you to find out what values work best in your situation), but i hope this will put you in a direction to create some nice effects.
- Attachments
-
- Position Frame.jpg (10.54 KiB) Viewed 1915 times
A QLC Workspace is like a Bob Ross painting: "it's your world, you can create whatever you want!"
-
hutje
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2015 6:10 pm
- Location: The Netherlands
- Real Name: Robin
Thank you so much.MichelSliepenbeek wrote: ↑Sun Oct 22, 2023 12:04 am You will probably have to do some Fine Tuning (i picked the value of 20 just as an example, it is up to you to find out what values work best in your situation), but i hope this will put you in a direction to create some nice effects.
Need to wait a week or two until I can test this, but this will definitely help.
-
MichelSliepenbeek
- Posts: 717
- Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2023 10:24 am
- Location: Nederland
- Real Name: Michel Sliepenbeek
You could also have a look at Example 4 in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=16694
You should notice that i use different XY pads for positioning and launching the EFX's. In order to avoid conflicts only define your moving heads in the XY Pad you want to use for positioning. The other XY Pad can derive the Heads from the EFX's.
If you make two copies of the "Height -" scene and change the values from 127 - 127 - 145 - 145 to 127 - 127 - 109 - 145 and 127 - 127 - 145 - 109, you have created an Up and Down scene.
(In the same way you can create Left and Right from the Width scene).
In this situation those scenes will only work on EFX's and the range is very limited (because of the build in protection it will not cross the center), but it could be used to Fine Tune the positioning of your EFX's.
Tip: In the Position XY Pad, you could create some presets for Fixture Groups (e.g. All, Front, Rear, Left, Right, Odd and Even) and see what you can do with that.
You should notice that i use different XY pads for positioning and launching the EFX's. In order to avoid conflicts only define your moving heads in the XY Pad you want to use for positioning. The other XY Pad can derive the Heads from the EFX's.
If you make two copies of the "Height -" scene and change the values from 127 - 127 - 145 - 145 to 127 - 127 - 109 - 145 and 127 - 127 - 145 - 109, you have created an Up and Down scene.
(In the same way you can create Left and Right from the Width scene).
In this situation those scenes will only work on EFX's and the range is very limited (because of the build in protection it will not cross the center), but it could be used to Fine Tune the positioning of your EFX's.
Tip: In the Position XY Pad, you could create some presets for Fixture Groups (e.g. All, Front, Rear, Left, Right, Odd and Even) and see what you can do with that.
A QLC Workspace is like a Bob Ross painting: "it's your world, you can create whatever you want!"
-
sandinak
- Posts: 191
- Joined: Mon Apr 03, 2017 5:40 pm
- Location: Yorktown, VA
- Real Name: Branson Matheson
- Contact:
so I wrote something for this a while back .. but havnt' had time to work with it. It was a tool that used a raspi to inline a DMX Universe and override X,Y positioning based on input from an xbox joystick and knowing the discrete locations of things on the stage. https://github.com/sandinak/dmx-followspot ... it needs some attention but the ideas are there.
-
hutje
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2015 6:10 pm
- Location: The Netherlands
- Real Name: Robin
Just thinking... Would it be an interesting and doable feature to manually focus and align the moving heads to multiple fixed points, like triangulate the relative and actual values to map the position of each moving head to the location on stage.
By aligning on a few points it would be possible to calculate the relative and actual values according to the previously aligned values... Just me sharing my thoughts...
By aligning on a few points it would be possible to calculate the relative and actual values according to the previously aligned values... Just me sharing my thoughts...
-
kenact
- Posts: 435
- Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:43 am
- Real Name: Ken Coughlin
Be aware, there's a bug in the handling of Pan Fine and Tilt Fine values. If you have a value set of Pan Fine and/or Tilt Fine, and you "move" your heads with the intensity greater than 0, movement will be erratic due to how Pan Fine and Tilt Fine function.
Unlike other controls, if you fade from one scene to another, and the Pan, Pan Fine, Tilt and Tilt Fine keep the same value, The Pan Fine and Tilt Fine will drop to 0 then jump back to the value they were set at. On the other hand, if their values change with the scene change, the Pan Fine and Tilt Fine will cycle from 0 to 255 until the fade is complete.
Unlike other controls, if you fade from one scene to another, and the Pan, Pan Fine, Tilt and Tilt Fine keep the same value, The Pan Fine and Tilt Fine will drop to 0 then jump back to the value they were set at. On the other hand, if their values change with the scene change, the Pan Fine and Tilt Fine will cycle from 0 to 255 until the fade is complete.