Effects ​

An effect moves channels over time: a dimmer pulse, a colour cycle, heads drawing a circle. Each modulated channel follows a waveform between a minimum and a maximum, and the waveform can be offset from fixture to fixture (or pixel to pixel) so the movement travels across the rig.

Here the demo rig plays its two effects. Rainbow runs red, green and blue a third of a cycle apart, so the colour cycles through the hues, and spreads the heads over the cycle, so the colours travel from left to right. Ballyhoo moves pan and tilt on two sine waves a quarter cycle apart, so the beams draw circles, while its colour channels stay at one value (Min = Max) to keep it blue.

Create an effect like any cue: double click an empty slot of the group's Cue Pool and choose effect (see Creating a cue). Effects loop by default. Selecting an effect shows its widgets in the group view: Modulated Channels, Channel Fixtures Activity and the Effect Tool, from left to right (the demo below shows all three).

Modulated Channels ​

Lists the channels this effect moves. Click one to edit it in the Effect Tool.

Press Add to add a channel. The Add Modulated Channel popup lists the kinds of channels an effect can move: unfold one, pick a preset and press OK.

A preset adds its channels with their settings, or applies them to the channels the effect already has. To remove a channel, select it, press Delete or Backspace and confirm.

The preview adds the Eight preset to Rainbow while it plays. Pan and tilt first sweep their whole range, so the beams leave the stage; narrowing Min and Max keeps the figure on the floor. Presets move a channel over its full range: narrowing it is usually the next thing to do.

Channel Fixtures Activity ​

Every fixture of the group takes part in each modulated channel by default. Untick a fixture to leave it out of the selected channel, or use Check All. Drag fixtures to change their order: the order is the one the movement travels in.

How an effect moves ​

Each modulated channel follows its waveform between Min and Max. Every fixture runs the same waveform, but offset: its phase. Spreading the phases makes the movement travel across the rig. Try the settings below on the demo rig's four heads, with a dimmer effect:

• Phase stop 0°: every head is at the same point of the wave: they pulse together.
• Phase stop 360° with LTR: the offsets are 0°, 90°, 180°, 270°: the pulse runs from the first head to the last, as a wave.
• SYM: the offsets grow from both ends towards the middle: the movement opens and closes like a curtain.

Effect Tool ​

Shapes the selected channel's movement. The graph shows the waveform and where each fixture sits on it. Below is Ballyhoo's pan: a sine between 92 and 164, twice per effect duration.

With Phase start 0 and Phase stop 360, the fixtures are spread over one whole cycle: a "wave" running through the rig. With both at 0, every fixture moves together.

With Spread over set to Cells, the offsets go from cell to cell: on a pixel bar, a hue effect runs its colour cycle along the pixels instead of changing the whole bar at once (Cells lets you compare both).

Note: An effect moves its channel in every cell of a fixture (each pixel's dimmer, each head's pan).

Note: In this release, the PWM waveform keeps the channel at its lowest, and the BOUNCELRT and BOUNCERTL directions don't spread the fixtures (they all move together). Use the other waveforms and directions (Known limitations).

Timing ​

An effect's speed comes from its Duration in bars (in Cue Settings) and its Freq, so it follows the show's tempo: double the BPM and the effect runs twice as fast. See Timing and playback.

In the demo show: both effects last 2 bars. Rainbow's colour has Freq 1: one trip around the hues every 4 s at 120 BPM. Ballyhoo's pan and tilt have Freq 2: a circle every 2 s.

Recipes ​