Getting Started Guide - Working with colors

The fixtures we just added have six different colored LED's and a dimmer (there's also a "curve" channel - but we are not going talk about that one).

Before we do anything with them we should make a group with all of them. Call it All Hex7 and make it group number 10.

Let's have a look at the color control. On the right side of screen 1 you'll find a button called Color. Make sure you have selected the All Hex7 group and then press this button.

Picker

The first thing we see is called Color Picker. This is a big colored touch area that you can press to change the color output from the LED's.

There are two faders on the right side of the screen. The one on the left controls the brightness of the fixtures. The one on the right is called Quality. 

The quality fader deserves some explanation. It works with fixtures that have more than three colors. You can choose how the console should mix the colors. At the top of the fader it says "Primary". This means that the fixture will only use the three primary red, green and blue LED's to create the desired color. At the bottom of the fader it says "Pure". This means that the console will try to mix the color as close to the desired color as possible using all the available colored LED's in the fixtures. In the middle of these two it says "Max". This will give you maximum light output, using as many LED's as possible.

The best way to test this is to choose a color in the color picker area - don't choose the primary saturated colors, but something in the middle. Now move the quality fader while you have a Fixture Sheet View visible. Notice how the color is mixed by looking at the different color columns. Each column is one the colors available in the fixture (R, G, B, Amber, White and UV). Notice that the encoders gives you control over the Hue, Saturation, Brightness and Q (quality). This is their primary function. They also have a secondary function. This can be reached by pressing and holding the key.

Have a look at the picture below. It's the same encoder, but on the left side is the primary function. The middle one is the secondary function:

The third example in the picture is showing you that it's possible to change the resolution or speed of the encoder. The small circle icon with a dot in it, is the Encoder key it looks like this: . Pressing it toggles the resolution. It can be slow or normal. The third example above slows you what it looks like when it's slow, the two others shows you normal speed.

Let's try something fun in the Color Picker. Select all Hex 7 fixtures and select a color using the picker. Now press the Align key and press and hold a different color, notice how the color is spread out. So the color Picker is working with the Align functionality we looked at with the dimmers. Try the different align modes.

Fader

Let's have a look at some of the other ways to select a color. At the top of screen 1, there are several options to control the colors. Right now the one called Picker is selected. Try to tap the one called Fader. This changes the view to show us three different fader systems to mix a color. They are: "Hue, Saturation, Brightness", "Cyan, Magenta, Yellow" and "Red, Green, Blue". On the right side you have the Quality fader again.

These three sections are connected. Meaning if you change the color on one of them, the others move as well. You can change what system your encoders are connected to by touching each section. Try it out. Also notice the primary and secondary functions on the encoders.

Swatchbook

Next we are going to look at the Swatchbook - please tap it.

This allows us to choose a color from the catalogs from many of the main gell manufacturers. It's not a precise system, but it will give you a color that is close.

On the left side you can choose a manufacturer. Then the right side will give you the list of their gells. You can use the left and right encoder to scroll the two lists. 

Raw

The last way to control the colors is raw control with the actual color channels of the fixture. Press where it says Raw: MixColor A. This gives you the first 4 color channels. Next to it is MixColor B. This is the next set of 2 channels.

Here you can change the value on the screen or by the encoders.

When we have other fixtures with less color options it still might show the raw color faders, but if the color isn't available, then the fader says "No matching fixture selected".

 

That's the different ways we can control the colors.

Next chapter is going to be about something called "Presets".