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"Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:15 am
by EBDS
Hi folks. I am still very new to programming DJ lighting with DMX control software. I have been working with QLC+ for a while now and I absolutely love it.

However, I just purchased 6 ADJ Inno Pocket Wash lights. These are moving head wash lights.

I have no experience with moving head lights. This is my first time owning them.

I have watched a bunch of videos about ShowXpress and saw how it has a generator to create great scenes with moving head lights without much effort.

I am not asking whether QLC+ has a generator because I know it does not. However, I am desperately trying not to have to switch from QLC+ to ShowXpress just for the generator.

Can you folks with lots more experience than me help me to understand how to program meaningful moving head scenes without having to spend literally hundreds of hours doing it? If there's any reasonable way I want to try it so I can try to stay with QLC+.

Thanks in advance for any help you experts can give me. I love the program and don't want to have to give it up for this reason.

Rob

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 7:22 am
by Chris De Rock
Just create color-only-scenes for your wash lights, then create a bunch of effects for the movement and combine effects and scenes in collections.

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 7:58 am
by mcallegari
I am not asking whether QLC+ has a generator because I know it does not.
QLC+ has a generator but it's called "Wizard".
http://www.qlcplus.org/docs/functionwizard.html
It's not specific to moving heads, but it's a shortcut for scenes and animations.
As Chris suggested, then you just need to combine some Scenes with EFX into Collections and you can get complex effects.

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 2:04 pm
by EBDS
Thanks guys for the responses. Being so new to all of this I am still a little confused about the statement 'Create a bunch of FX for the movements'. Could you possibly go into a little more detail about what exactly you mean and how I do that? It sure would be appreciated.

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 2:22 pm
by janosvitok
See http://qlcplus.org/docs/efxeditor.html

I suggest you create couple of "position" scenes - with only Pan/tilt channels. (e.g. downstage left, center, right, upstage left, center, right, all down, all up, all to front, etc.)
then you create couple of EFX (circle, 8, horizontal line, vertical line) with origin at 127,127 and mark them "relative". Now you can combine the positions and effects,
they will be "added" together (i.e. circle at downstage left, circle at upstage right).

Then play with start offset and reverse in the general tab. I usually have one plain efx, another with every other head marked reverse
and a third one that has start offset split evenly between all heads (0,90, 180, 270 for 4 heads).

Finally create 2 Speed dials: one that will control duration of all EFX and another that will control fade times of position scenes.

This will give you pretty good start. Check my (pretty old) workspace at https://github.com/janosvitok/qlcplus-w ... c-2014.qxw

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 3:27 pm
by EBDS
Thank you very much. Some of your description is over my head at the moment but I will study what you've said, try to experiment, and see if I can move up the learning curve. I guess it will take some time.

Thanks.

I will also check out that work space. I think being able to look at that may help a lot.

Rob

P.S. I just clicked that link you gave me. Is there a way to download that file and load it into QLC+. It doesn't really help me a lot to just see the internal code.

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 3:45 pm
by plugz

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 3:50 pm
by janosvitok
Warning! the workspace is in mixture of English and Slovak, so here is a quick course in Slovak language :)

kruh: circle
osem: eight
postupne: one by one
striedavo: alternating or odd/even
pohyby: movements
farby: colors
dym: smoke

Speed dials:
D: duration
F: fade

One day I'll clean it up or even write a tutorial... but these days I'm out of time.

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 3:54 pm
by EBDS
When I try to open it in QLC+ I get "Unable to read from file"

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 4:06 pm
by janosvitok
You are second that reports this problem. I can't reproduce the problem. Can you post your OS (win/mac/linux), OS version and QLC+ version?

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:19 pm
by EBDS
Here is my information:

Windows 8.1 Pro
Version: 6.3.9600 Build 9600

Dell Latitude E6530
Intel Core i7-3740QM


QLC+ version 4.8.4

I am anxious to get this working ............ :-)

Rob

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 9:46 pm
by EBDS
By the way I just loaded 4.8.5 and it didn't change the result.

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Sat May 09, 2015 5:36 pm
by EBDS
I sure wish I could look at your work space. I think I could learn so much. Can't seem to get it open though. Damn!

Re: "Generator" Function

Posted: Sat May 09, 2015 5:42 pm
by EBDS
I can't say for sure why but I can now successfully open your work space. I uninstalled QLC+ and re-installed 4.8.5 from scratch and now it's working. Strange, but wonderful!

I will start studying what's in it this week in my spare time. I am really looking forward to learning from it. Thanks for offering it to me :-)

Rob