Moving light transitions

[jkeefauver]

Scratching my head a bit here. Am setting up a LIVE show using timeline against an audio track. Is there a way to control the "direction" a moving light goes to transition to the next position? On several occasions mine seem to go the long way around to get where they are needed for the next position. I am mostly using the DMX command to blackout while moving but even then the long transition time is a pain. I understand if I'm at one of the boundaries of the pan/tilt but it doesn't seem to be that way, in fact sometimes they only have to move a pretty small amount and they want to swing all the way around to get there. The lights are ADJ VIZI LED's (yeah I know, this is a Chauvet site) Am I doing something wrong?

[tomrbland]

(for your information this isn't actually only a Chauvet site, it comes in many forms. I use it as a Sweetlight site!)

Anyway, your problem is that pan is a function that has values 0-255. These values relate to a position of the head at any one point in its rotation. Say that the fixture can rotate through 720 degrees. A dmx value of 0 will give 0 degrees and a dmx value of 255 will give almost the same position. If your first scene has the fixture's rotation value at 0 and the 2nd scene has the rotation value at 255 then the fixture will move round past the point where you may want it to stop until it gets there again because that position appears at 0 degrees, 360 degrees and 720 degrees.

You have to always try to plan where you are going next. Good practise is to try to never use the extremes of the movement. The movement is not relative. A DMX value relates to a specific angle be it 0, 360 or 720.

At least I think that this is your problem. Did my explanation make sense?

Some times it is better to move the Y over to the other side for large movements as it means that the X doesn't have to move as far.

Hope I helped.

[marco]

another way to avoid large movement is to start always programming in the 'home' position x=125 y=125 .but even then large movement are sometimes seen. depending on the last step of your scene before swithing to the next

[jkeefauver]

Thanks gang. I reworked a few of them based on your explanation and that helped a lot. I still have one that is problematic because the light isn't being used so it's in the neutral position and then has to swing way out to the left. No matter what I do, it gets there by going to the right (around the horn). I guess I could make a dummy scene and have the shutter closed just to get the light in the right neighborhood. Yes?

[tomrbland]

Yes, I often have a "pre" scene that sets the lights in to position without opening the shutters. I also recommend getting to know how to use active and non active channels as this is a very powerful feature that people seem to have difficulty with. It can mean the difference between a very slick lightshow and a slightly messy light show. I will be uploading a new video on this soon.

[jkeefauver]

Will go that route then. Regarding the active/inactive channels, I recently learned about them but am interested in how you would use them in this instance. Maybe I should clarify, my understanding of them is limited to their use across multiple rows in a timeline in order to not override concurrent scenes.

[tomrbland]

If you have a channel active in a scene that comes before another one. Say a mover's position. But this scene doesn't use that mover then this scene can be used to 'preset' for the next scene by setting the position but not opening the shutter. Bigger and better light shows can be made the more you learn about active channels.

For example have a scene with mover positions and say a par wash but the movers shutter channels are not active. You can then overlay another scene to flash the movers in time with the music, not interrupting the flashing/timing of the wash scene.

[jkeefauver]

Makes perfect sense.