Interaction EFX vs lights ?

[swetarkus]

Probably the topic comes across as stupid as I do....

Must say after my first day with the dmx/usb adapter and first day trying out this SW, some work behind this,
really impressive and appreciate the online video tutorials. Without those, it'd be pitch black still...

So, doing some baby steps in these early days,

One thing I've failed to understand/use so far;
The EFX editor as such with the moving lights of course works,
it does however look as it has to be using in combination with something else or, placed/grouped with
something/somewhere so that one probably;
1. program the lights, etc.
2. control the movement of the heads.

and that part,, I confess, I don't get. Any EFX created/saved could/should be called on from where/how ?
I've tried virtual console, chase, scene, etc.. So far I either have lights and colours OR I have the heads moving around without lights....

In the long run, what I'll probably do is try to create a number of chases, etc as 1 click functions to be called upon
as the usage will mostly be for live music/gigs, so timing any perfect show would probably not work

[swetarkus]

Updating myself - found another video tutorial that touched upon the question.
Seems that creating a collection by enabling the lights, then add the efx is what I was looking for....

Steep learning curve of course being new to this,
great sw and looking forward getting my head around it....

[swetarkus]

Sometimes, one hates the fact that new stuff, new knowledge (or lack thereof) makes you feel really stupid !!
It is off course NOT in any way anything wrong except my own ability to grasp the concepts !!

Example;
We got 2 light stands, will be only for a live band, small venues type setting.
Skipping everything else - we got 2 moving heads !

1. Realized that for the light stands being higher than the band, the moving heads have to be mounted upside down,
as in hanging underneath the horizontal beam. Otherwise they would only light above the band and any movement up to the ceiling.

2. With the above in mind, trying to use/create any EFX for the movement, the width/hight I get ( I think ) as in defining
the movement from left/right - up/down pattern. I confess to have major issues getting close to setting the X/Y offset though.
(and here's to paying attention in school back in the day....which I should have !!!)

- With a moving head being mounted upside down - Directed towards a stage from a light stand.
Horizontal - I'd say the lights should be "aiming" a bit less than straight forward as to not go above the band.
Vertical - I'd aim for something like hitting the floor in front of the band some meters and then upwards to almost "straight ahead"

Any rough guess to any possible logical values that in theory could come close ?
What ever figures I enter, going minimal by using only 1 head at a time to track it's movement, I seem to ordering it around
completely opposite towards my intentions !!

Tried using single-stroke / loop and ping - pong just to in real time see how my figures affects it....and ....stuck....
Looks like the XY Pad has the ability to limit the boundaries which is great,
question is; possible to achieve the same thing on the "fixture" itself ? or on the EFX, etc

In our case - say it's capable of 540/180 degree (as an example), but wanting to limit the limits to suit our needs,
that might instead be a vary limited range.

[GGGss]

With the better moving heads you can invert it's axeses.
If your moving head does not have this setting then you can use the channel properties to invert the axeses. http://qlcplus.org/docs/html_en_EN/chan ... rties.html.

As a default setup I do limit my heads possibilities (pan for sure) so that I have finer control about it's positions.

Then the workflow: statics, dynamics, EFX
* statics: single colors, single gobo's, ..., single positions are defined
* dynamics: if there is a need to combine statics -> cuelists
* EFX: on top of a static cue I have EFX present. Note that it is always in relative mode and the efx-range mostly in the 20-30 range. So really minimalistic.

[swetarkus]

Thanks man....digging through the manual (which one ALWAYS does anyway right?)....there's an option to invert the axis....that helped A LOT !!
Made tuning in the suitable values was surely less of a nightmare !!


Now - on to find an option to limit the max ratio for pan/tilt also to make life a bit easier !

Thanks for the advice!

[swetarkus]

Follow up - and no questions this time !

Must say,, starting to LOVE THIS !!
The stuff that's doable, even with a small set up as ours, compared to the previous DMX mixer we've used, is unbelievable !!
True,, there's a major hurdle with the first step, but already seeing the long time benefit and possibilities by saving scenes, collections, etc
and re-use in different combinations, simply brilliant !

Not to mention realizing what the different fixtures actually can do which is quite easy to forget with the "normal" dmx controller.

Somewhat similar when we as a band went for remote/digital mixer instead of the old school type with sliders...
major learning curve but simply NO way back in comparison !!

Thanks for all help here...one of these days, we'll be able to help out too !