As far as deep pockets are concerned, unfortunately our weak NZ dollar doesn't help keep the costs down although now is as good a time as any to spend US cash as our dollar is quite high against the green back ( but unfortunately still crap against the Ozy..... Damn you Australians for having such a strong dollar
).
You will get a bit of an idea of the costs of the lights, cables etc if you make up an order from Ray Wu's store ( but don't get to the point of actually paying for it) and you'll see the cost of the stuff and shipping in US dollars. Just be careful bringing in large values of stuff as NZ customs will ping you for it ( I think Shell had customs extract the odd arm and leg from one of her orders but she can verify that for you). Then add in the cost of the hardware, the bits that you need to hook up all the hardware and it soon ticks over into the thousands. Building props yourself is cheaper than buying ready to go versions and lots of cool stuff can be made with coro flute like candy canes, candles, bells, stars etc but you can always get the "ready to assemble" stuff from HolidayCoro in the US but again it'll cost. I think Shell has some RGB candles in her display but I don't know if they were HolidayCoro ones or DIY.
I have found using the LOR software pretty straight forward but it's the sequencing that takes up a lot of time, depending on how tight you want the sequences to look and how many channels you have to play with.
I started this year fairly small as a way of learning what is involved with this hobby and jumped straight into dumb RGB but hope next year to get into pixels (so will probably be picking the experienced brains in this forum over the next twelve months).
I am on the North Shore and am happy to share with you what I have in my setup but from your location I'm guessing Shell is closer and can also advise on what she has learned from doing pixels.
).You will get a bit of an idea of the costs of the lights, cables etc if you make up an order from Ray Wu's store ( but don't get to the point of actually paying for it) and you'll see the cost of the stuff and shipping in US dollars. Just be careful bringing in large values of stuff as NZ customs will ping you for it ( I think Shell had customs extract the odd arm and leg from one of her orders but she can verify that for you). Then add in the cost of the hardware, the bits that you need to hook up all the hardware and it soon ticks over into the thousands. Building props yourself is cheaper than buying ready to go versions and lots of cool stuff can be made with coro flute like candy canes, candles, bells, stars etc but you can always get the "ready to assemble" stuff from HolidayCoro in the US but again it'll cost. I think Shell has some RGB candles in her display but I don't know if they were HolidayCoro ones or DIY.
I have found using the LOR software pretty straight forward but it's the sequencing that takes up a lot of time, depending on how tight you want the sequences to look and how many channels you have to play with.
I started this year fairly small as a way of learning what is involved with this hobby and jumped straight into dumb RGB but hope next year to get into pixels (so will probably be picking the experienced brains in this forum over the next twelve months).
I am on the North Shore and am happy to share with you what I have in my setup but from your location I'm guessing Shell is closer and can also advise on what she has learned from doing pixels.
