Answered "Talking" string?

Macboy

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Jul 11, 2019
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I'm trying to figure out how to take the top segment of the strand of lights above my garage and get them to "talk". What I mean by this is to emanate from the middle of the span out to the left and right at differing widths (or distances) depending on the talking in an audio track I've found. I have no problem if the suggestion is to do it manually - in fact I'd prefer to do it manually because there's a soft piano track under the voiceover that might make any automatic interpretation a bit off. However, I don't know how I'd even do it manually.
I could adjust or recreate that portion of my model so that the garage span there is broken into two segments if that helps. The bigger question is how can I make the lights start at an origin point and light in differing lengths but not go off to a full sweep?
Not sure I'f I'm explaining it well enough but it's worth a shot. Someone here might know what I'm after. Maybe something like this although this is just from one side stretching across and it looks like it's using the audio as the generator. I'd rather do it manually.
 

Macboy

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Agh....hate when this happens. I just posted and then continued tinkering and think I may have figured it out. If I use the Fill effect on only that segment and offset it so it originates in the middle I can get the effect I want.. Half of it anyway. I think I saw "mirror" somewhere in XLights, maybe that'll get me my other half. I'll post back my results. And please do chime in if you've got another idea.
 

Macboy

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Okay so the Fill effect will definitely give me half of what I'm hoping for and I'm guessing if I break that span into two segments it'll be a piece of cake. So now the question has become, is there an easy way to split a segment into two rather than redrawing that part of the model? It's not a complex thing to draw but everytime I delete a model I get all kinds of errors on all the other models so I've adopted the "don't touch" philosophy......
 

burnt

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I would use the face effect and program what nodes u what to come with what phonemes.
 

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
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split into 2 sub modles and use VU meter - on effect?
 

Macboy

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@burnt - can you use the face effect with just a single strand of lights? As I type that I assume I can actually. I'll look into that this evening.

The Vu meter likely won't work because of the underlying piano track. But worth a shot all the same.
 

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
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Different types of VU Meter generate different results, and within some of those types you can adjust sensitivity, so it may pick up different frequencies of the audio better than others.
Have a play around, that's the beauty of xlights - sooooo many possibilites!
 

Macboy

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The final verdict on this is yes - the face effect. I am ever impressed by the Xessentials series. There’s a GREAT one on setting up and using the faces effect. Thanks to it I’ll be able to get that span on my house talking lots!
 
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