Planning for my second year... what to improve on

Dreamin

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Dec 28, 2016
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Sunshine Coast
Hi everyone,

Well I think my first year was pretty successful. Just wondering if anyone had thoughts on what I should put my efforts into this year. Last year was a lot of work so I've had a bit of a break.

I want to do more sequencing from scratch now that I have a handle on it. I've got a voucher for around $300 to spend with Troy @ ELD https://www.extremelightingdisplays.com.au/shop/ but not sure what to buy. :)

Help me spend my money! :) I have about 600 pixel bullets and two strips of 5v at hand but could order more. Currently running an F16 with 5 smart receivers and the current set up is 4,000 pixels. Here's a video of my actual display to give you an idea what works and what doesn't.

I don't want to overload it, and happy with a less is more approach if that works best for some areas.

Any help is appreciated.

2021-02-10 (2).png
 

badger4543

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Nov 7, 2019
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S.E Melbourne
As far as the display goes it looks pretty good, not sure what the verticals are mounted on but could potentially make a couple of matrices either side on the garage or depending what's there maybe 3 or 4 snow flakes or high density wreaths either side. there's a new snow man that looks interesting.

this year will be my second year too still haven't had a propper crack at sequencing yet but from what I've seen if you get good at sequencing smaller displays can have just as much impact as larger ones
 

i13

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Jul 5, 2013
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That's an impressive first year.

I suggest posting a photograph showing the yard during the day. That would give everyone a view of the canvas to work with.
 

Dreamin

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Dec 28, 2016
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Sunshine Coast
I suggest posting a photograph showing the yard during the day. That would give everyone a view of the canvas to work with.

Here you go. It's a bit awkward, you can't really get both sides in, the big tree goes in front of the bins, the gray column at the side of the garage have 75 C9 style bulbs on a frame. I've trimmed the trees since taking this photos so it does present a bit better. You only see the garage from the road though, so it's a bit different to other displays as I have to use my garden more.

house.jpg
 

tooms

12v4life
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Jan 2, 2015
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Kalgoorlie
I would look at trying to incorporate the tree's out the front into the display as much as possible
 

i13

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I wouldn't have guessed that there were so many trees (meaning actual live trees, not the ones you built with pixels) in the video. When lit up, trees look more abstract and not as sharply defined as your existing display items. I had to incorporate trees into the display here as they block the view of the house. I used traditional LED strings with DC controllers; they're great at covering the distance and height but they can't do the pixel effects so they're not for everyone. To counter this, I hung a few small pixel items in the trees; they're much brighter and they stand out. Considering that you already have spare pixels, it would make sense to do that first. On the largest tree, I mounted 10 strands of widely spaced pixels (19 cm apart) and hooked them onto the branches. They come together at the base of the tree so I can model it as an upside-down mega tree in xLights. You might decide to space the pixels closer together so that it looks in proportion with your (narrower) trees. Tree trunks also look great wrapped in lights. Here's an extreme example (not mine) but I suspect that the tree has no leaves in winter there
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6fpuV4EAZ4


Another thing that comes to mind is that you could outline the driveway with a string/strip and/or a repeating small pixel item. The edge has a nice curve and (I think) it slopes upwards slightly so that it'll all be visible.

If there are a couple of spare rolls of strip, you could add some upright fireworks. I've attached a screenshot of my xLights preview for one but the base is a bit wider in reality. If you're interested, I can light one up and get a photograph that shows what it looks like. I can't do this immediately though because they're in the garage and the landlord has the key.

I think the display looks great is it is though. I'm just writing ideas that come to mind in case something takes your fancy. Each display has its own style; I like your style and don't want to alter it to look like mine.

The sky is the limit!
 

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DavidJ247

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Dec 2, 2015
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Narre Warren
Nice work Dreamin, the display looks great!
I have the same trouble with trees blocking the view of the house, ours are council trees and I can't get rid of them, always cursed them at Christmas time because they got in the way so this past season I decided to make them part of the show by up-lighting them with rgb floods incorporated with the sequencing and the results were great. With lit trees in the foreground and the decorated house behind it gave real depth to the whole display. Could be worth considering for your place.image1.jpegimage0.jpeg
 

Dreamin

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Sunshine Coast
Nice work Dreamin, the display looks great!
I have the same trouble with trees blocking the view of the house, ours are council trees and I can't get rid of them, always cursed them at Christmas time because they got in the way so this past season I decided to make them part of the show by up-lighting them with rgb floods incorporated with the sequencing and the results were great. With lit trees in the foreground and the decorated house behind it gave real depth to the whole display. Could be worth considering for your place.
Wow that's a great effect. Yeah most of mine are council, and the wife would kill me if I get ride of the jacaranda tree! lol. What power are the floods you used if you don't mine me asking? I used 10W ones to for the fences and hedges. Not sure if they are powerful enough for a tree to lightup like that.
 

DavidJ247

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Oh yeah, Jacarandas are awesome, our neighbour has one near our fence, it looks great when in bloom then they seem to drop their leaves (or are they flowers?) all at once and its like a purple blanket over their yard and ours, pretty cool.
My floods are actually professional ones, around 200W, I managed to score some ex-hire ones from work, they are older units but still really punchy. Lots of folks using the 10W ones to good effect, I'd be interested to see the bigger ones from Ray Wu and the like, 30W/50W/100W.
 
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