Woo Hoo! First 2013 Sequence and my FIRST sequence!!!

[remoteutah]

Ok, maybe it is not the first 2013 sequence, however it is my very FIRST sequence. I know it is no big deal to some of you... but I kinda like it. It uses all transitions and there are a couple of timing glitches I am working on.


Point of note: My camera SUCKS at filming lights in the dark. It works awesome for everything else... and I guess I will have to replace it so I can win the LSP contest this year.


This is a 16 foot - 5volt RGB led strip in silicone with 30 - 5050 leds/m with intergrated ws2811 chips in each led. Powered by a J1Sys ECG-P2 on a dedicated gigabit network.


Worse case, it is 6 minutes of your life you will never get back. Excuse the FB description of the video. It is for some of my non-tech friends who have no clue what I am up to! They have no idea this is for Christmas. The link is to a public video on my FB acct.


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=303230553136440


First sequence, so would like some input.

 

[Habbosrus]

Congrats to you! It must be awesome to put it all together and see the fruits of your labor for the first time. Hope to see more from you as you build your show.
I haven't even been able to place my first order yet. I can't wait.
Cheers

 

[fasteddy]

Excellent effort, now you have definetly got the CLAP

There is nothing wrong with the camera its because you have auto focus on. The camera has diffculties focussing with the lights changing colour and flashing so setting your camera to manual focus will fix this issue

 

[Bill Ellick]

Looks good Dennis.
Gee I can't see why you thought that you needed my help? Looks like you are well on the way with this stuff. Definately turn the auto focus off on the camera and you will see the difference, as Eddy said.
I like the use of Styx for that. I use a lot of ELP myself when thinking of new sequences.
If you get too far into this (and you will trust me) then you will want to video your setup outside. A couple of things to do when you do is:
Take your video right around sunset or just before sunrise to get the best lighting.
I bought a FLIP camera to use for the videos of my display and the thing does an awesome job, so not always do you have to have a really expensive camera to do this.
Well back to sequencing for you! There is no turning back now.
Bill

 

[remoteutah]

thanks for the kind words!


My camera does not have the ability to turn off auto focus while in movie mode. Yes, bad feature I know. But it was a free 14MP Sony Cybershot. It is great in the field for my geology work and is smaller than a pack of smokes!

 

[remoteutah]

Ok, I have time for a bit longer reply. I have to say the last couple of days have been a blast. I have never lost more sleep or rebooted my computer as much as I have. LSP has definately shown me that there is software that can bog down my custom-built 8GB I5 Quad core PC. Heck even ProShow Producer (video editing software) does not bog down all 4 cores like LSP. So I guess I will try to max PC memory to 32 GB before upgrading cpu. Still lots of fun!


Bill (and Eddy) - If not for people like you and Eddy (and many others too numerous to mention) doing little help videos or answering simple little DUMB questions (yes, even a person with 175 IQ can ask dumb things), I would have been LOST! Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees when trying to wrap your brain around a new concept.


That Styx song was the first one I ever heard from them... back in the day (don't want to show my age). Years later I ended up designing and running their chat room for about 5 years. I am actually going to be using a unreleased version of a Christmas song they did a few years ago in my Christmas show this year. ELP is nice dynamic stuff to get the creative sequencing juices flowing!


I plan on moving everything into the garage in a month or so. The only thing in there is a queen size bed I am building from scratch (out of some very cool knotty pine that was struck by lightening), and that will be done as soon as the weather warms up a bit more. That will give me a 30 ft x 30 ft (10m x 10m) empty area to construct and test for the rest of the year. I plan to use dumb strips for lighting in there to help adjust proper lighting conditions for some test videos.


OH - and a friend just dropped off an older digital camera that might just work. Not HD, but at this point...

 

[Bird]

Congratulations
Nice work
Now where are the other dozen or so strips?

 

[remoteutah]

Hopefully on the way from Ray. That order equals a house payment!!!

 

[Bill Ellick]

Thank You for the kind words Dennis. Don't be afraid to yell if you want some help or just to chat over things.
My first sequence using LOR (or any software) was to do ELP's Father Christmas. I still use it and still love to sit and watch it. That first one you do has some pretty special meaning for you all the time I think.
If you would like a copy of it drop me your email address through the PM system and I can send you the file. I will try to convert it over to LSP in the next day or so anyway as I am going to switch probably to it from LOR anyway.
I just need to tinker with HSL some more to see if I would rather use it than LSP but I have played with LSP before so the learning curve with it won't be so big as something brand new.

 

[remoteutah]

Here is a NEW and IMPROVED version of my first sequence. Different camera, fixed a few timing mistakes, made a few MORE timing mistakes and now has the awesome ending that FastEddy helped with (in spirit and guidance).


This will give you a MUCH better idea of the very cool LSP transition layer mapped to a 450 channel pixel string. You can really see how much better the resolution is (these are 30led/m with integrated ws2811s) compared to the CCR or rgb strip equalling 30led/m with 10 ws2811/m. I can light up each pixel instead of 3 at a time!


OK - Here is the link to the new video. Now you can pick on me!


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=303717336421095

 

[remoteutah]

Bill - I will take ya up on that and extend the same offer. Just don't be miffed if I don't do blow molds this year! :-*


I know that ELP song.... nice! I understand the fondness of the first now.


Don't bother with converting that at this time. I am taking a few days break before jumping head first into my next educational process of LSP. My next simple sequence will be all transition layer again (like this last one) but this time I am going to create and use all my own original transitions (not the preset ones in LSP)! Yes, I am crazy in fact.


If you have a similar pixel string to mine (150 pixels / 450 channels), I can send you this sequence in LSP with the audio and let you see what can be done with just the preset transitions. And it looks really PRETTY on the sequencing screen - LOL!


FastEddy helped me with the end of this last video. That last effect is a transition is a preset that is masked with a mono wipe that goes to a plain black secondary transition. After seeing how cool that worked... using a 1st transition, a mask and a second transition, it opens up SO many possibilities with the existing presets. Not to mention what you can where ya can go with making your own custom transitions (and masks).


I will have to PM you the 2 videos I found that made LSP all of a sudden make sense. The first is one of FastEddy's and I will have to find the link. The other deals with making custom transitions and is so simple it makes ya feel dumb. That is until the wave of ideas takes over your brain!


I planned on playing with vixen and hls and still may. But after seeing what I can do with my new knowledge of LSP, I may focus more on trying to integrate output from Nutcraker and xLights into LSP. I may not have to with what I am seeing so far, but ya can't deny the beauty of a Nutcracker mega-tree!