RGB Mini Tree Mini Forest Part 2

nutz4lights

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Dec 12, 2012
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Melbourne, Florida
Hey all,

Well, it took me longer than I thought it would, but I finally finished the 60cm (2 foot) tall trees that make up the second portion of my RGB mini tree forest. The first thread outlining my 1m (3 foot) tall trees was located at:

http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php?topic=6067.0

Here is a video of the 32 trees, 60cm tall, each with 25 WS2811 bullet style pixels with black wiring.

https://vimeo.com/104672404

Since the branches are so flimsy on these things, we ended up zip tying each and every stinkin' pixel to a branch. That is what ended up taking longer than planned... Of course, it didn't help that the incandescent mini lights that were on the trees were fastened incredibly well!

Unlike the 1m tree link above, these were not oriented as they will be in my display. These trees have a spike, rather than a stand, so I have them mounted in holes in a 2x4 sitting on top of my table saw. These 60cm trees would end up in a very similar orientation as the 1m trees, in fact, what I basically end up doing is putting two of the 60cm trees a meter or so away from the 1m tree... I should be able to do some cool effects like having the 60cm trees sweep in one direction while the 1m trees are sweeping in the other direction... I am hoping to figure out a top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top fill effect in LSP... I wired these up all the same way which is pixel 1 on the bottom and pixel pixel 25/50 at the top.

In LSP, I have each of these setup as as controller... there must be some way to basically chase up all the channels in a controller...

Thanks for looking.

-Louie
 

nutz4lights

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Dec 12, 2012
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arw01... I have my trees oriented as shown in the picture below. You can also see the white vertical lines I drew to represent the trees and how they are oriented in the yard. As I said above, I'd love to be able to fill all of the trees from the bottom to the top simultaneously. I have these all in a layer already (one layer for 1m trees and one layer for 60cm trees) so I thought I would try your color slider suggestion with the direction set to 'up'. When I did that, it unfortunately did the color slide as you might expect with the orientation of the trees, it filled the ones in the front first and then moved "up" the display. It did not fill the trees from bottom to top uniformly. I know that I could create a whole separate set of tree controllers with another separate set of vertical line controller images in separate layers and orient those straight across... and that if I did "up" with those it would uniformly fill the trees from top to bottom... but might there be another way without clogging up the window with another 48 vertical lines (16 of the 1m trees and 32 of the 60cm trees).

Thanks,

-Louie
 

nutz4lights

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I meant to do that with the last message and clicked send too quick... whoops. Please see the attached picture.

I had another idea that I think will work... I suppose I can create one controller that contains ALL of the channels for the 32 x 60cm tall trees, then draw one vertical stick and do a color slider up or down and it should apply the same effect to every single tree identically no? Same with the 16 x 1m trees?

-Louie
 

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arw01

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Dec 30, 2013
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Lsp uses the height difference although not as pretty, put them all straight across from each other like a picket fence would be. If that won't do it try another layer for the late trees and start those earlier in another identical macro line. You could also try a shaped video or image slider to be tapered down in the middle as the image slides up. Like a wide saucer shape.

That way the edges start when the middle does.
 

Superman

I Have C.L.A.P and its very infectious
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Your trees are setup similar to the way I have candy canes up the driveway. I have never drawn them in the correct position vertically as i prefer them to all do the same unless I'm sweeping horizontally across the stage
 

nutz4lights

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Dec 12, 2012
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Ya, I'm not sure why I thought the single vertical line would work... it failed horribly... basically just filled the trees top to bottom while moving from tree 1 > 2 > 3 > etc.... in sequence.

I will try your suggestions below. Although the image slider idea would be cool, in reality those elements are a 3D entity out in the yard and I feel that year to year variation in positioning would throw that off. I think I will have to go with the "drawing them in a straight line across" approach like both of you have mentioned. I will probably create a second set of controllers with their own controller images and throw that into a separate layer, that way I can do the sequencing either way (arched or "bottom to top" sequencing).

Thanks!

-Louie
 

AussieDoug

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Dec 1, 2012
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Wow they are looking great, can't wait to see it all in action at the end of the year. Witch I might say it is only 12 weeks till December, so no pressure...
 

nutz4lights

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Dec 12, 2012
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LOL ya.... I just finished wrapping a dozen 60cm diameter wreaths with 50 pixels each last night. Technically that is the end of my light wrapping for the year and I can move on to sequencing... but that being said, I do have to rewrap my roof lights onto their poles to replace all of the faulty 2013 Technicolor strings... Ray sent full replacements for all that I purchased...

Louie
 
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