Nested chasers with per-step durations
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:05 pm
Hi folks,
I'm seeing problems with step crossfades getting ignored when I nest one chaser in another chaser. (Using it like a function in programming.)
Usually, I just put my scenes into a chaser with infinite hold time. Then I step through them with the next/previous buttons. Now there's a scene in our play that has a backing sound effects track where the lights need to change at certain times. Done by hand it would look like this:
(0. Start off with scene A)
1. Start playing the backing track, leave it running (about 47 seconds)
2. Fade from scene A to scene B for 40 seconds (full A at 0:00, full B at 0:40)
3. Immediately change to scene C, hold for 7 seconds (full C from 0:40 to 0:47)
(4. Return to the main chaser for scene A)
Having heard about Collections, I put a sub-chaser that controls the lights (2. - 3.) and the backing track sound into a collection. Then I triggered that collection from the main chaser, using it like a function with the hold time of the collection set to its total duration.
This however leads to the scene crossfade in the sub-chaser (2. - 3.) being ignored, it jumps directly to scene B at the start. The scenes do change, but immediately, no fading. Running the sub-chaser manually works as expected.
I set this approach up in the example project that is attached to the post.
Next I tried to ignore my programmer brain and put all the scenes in one master chaser. Then I can't seem to run the backing track (1.) in parallel to the following scenes (2 - 3), it stops as soon as I leave the sound step.
I initially considered starting the backing track via a button in the Virtual Console, but then I'd also need a play time clock to know when 40 seconds have passed. Alas, I couldn't find such a widget. (Does it exist?)
Or am I maybe just doing it wrong?
I'm seeing problems with step crossfades getting ignored when I nest one chaser in another chaser. (Using it like a function in programming.)
Usually, I just put my scenes into a chaser with infinite hold time. Then I step through them with the next/previous buttons. Now there's a scene in our play that has a backing sound effects track where the lights need to change at certain times. Done by hand it would look like this:
(0. Start off with scene A)
1. Start playing the backing track, leave it running (about 47 seconds)
2. Fade from scene A to scene B for 40 seconds (full A at 0:00, full B at 0:40)
3. Immediately change to scene C, hold for 7 seconds (full C from 0:40 to 0:47)
(4. Return to the main chaser for scene A)
Having heard about Collections, I put a sub-chaser that controls the lights (2. - 3.) and the backing track sound into a collection. Then I triggered that collection from the main chaser, using it like a function with the hold time of the collection set to its total duration.
This however leads to the scene crossfade in the sub-chaser (2. - 3.) being ignored, it jumps directly to scene B at the start. The scenes do change, but immediately, no fading. Running the sub-chaser manually works as expected.
I set this approach up in the example project that is attached to the post.
Next I tried to ignore my programmer brain and put all the scenes in one master chaser. Then I can't seem to run the backing track (1.) in parallel to the following scenes (2 - 3), it stops as soon as I leave the sound step.
I initially considered starting the backing track via a button in the Virtual Console, but then I'd also need a play time clock to know when 40 seconds have passed. Alas, I couldn't find such a widget. (Does it exist?)
Or am I maybe just doing it wrong?