• dot2 User Manual
  • dot2 Quick Start Guide
    • 1 - Introduction
    • 2 - Physical setup and layout
    • 3 - Create a new empty show
    • 4 - Adding and patching dimmers
    • 5 - Controlling dimmers
    • 6 - Fixture view
    • 7 - The programmer
    • 8 - Making and working with groups
    • 9 - Store a cue and play it back
    • 10 - Making more cues in the cue list
    • 11 - Adding LED fixtures
    • 12 - Working with colors
    • 13 - Creating presets
    • 14 - External screen
    • 15 - Adding moving lights
    • 16 - Controlling moving lights
    • 17 - Making more groups and Presets
    • 18 - More about cues and playback
    • 19 - A look at Blind, Preview and DMX tester
    • 20 - Fun with macros
    • 21 - Building chasers
    • 22 - Building dynamic effects
    • 23 - Connect to onPC, 3D, Wings and Nodes
    • 24 - Happy programming
  • dot2 3D
  • dot2 Release Notes
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Version 1.9

Getting Started Guide - Controlling moving lights

Table of contents of this topic

We have added some new fixtures, with a lot of new functions. That means that our preset type bar on the right side of screen 1 have expanded. It now looks like this:

Try to select fixture 42 using the keys. Notice how the fixture sheet and Fixture symbol view scrolls to allow you to see the selected fixture. The Layout views don't move.

Pressing the different preset types in the preset bar allows you to see the different ways to control the different functions of the fixtures.

In an effort to make this as easy as possible MA have made a series of different views that gives you fast access to some of the most used functionality. You still have access to the raw values, so If you know exactly what value a specific attribute should be, then it might be better to use the raw faders. How this is all organized is a part of the fixture profile.

We have already had a little look at this when we where working with colors in chapter 12. Here you were introduced to The Picker, The Faders, The Swatchbook and The Raw values.

All the different Preset Types have the Raw values control on the right most tabs. In Raw you might experience that there are more than 4 channels. But they are organized in groups of maximum four, to make it easy to use the encoders to control the channels. They are often organized in smaller groups to separate different functions.

This doesn't only look one way. They adapt depending on the fixtures in your show. The structure is similar for most of the different preset types. 

In the following I'll take some time to explain the most common controls based on the fixtures we have in our current show. It's a little dry to read, but use it to try out all the different things I write about. We are not storing anything in this chapter, so if you already feel comfortable with fixture control, then feel free to jump to the next chapter.

Dimmer

We have already looked at this view in chapter 5. If you have forgotten, then I suggest you go back and have a look - there's a lot of nice information in that chapter.

Position

In position we usually have two faders. One for Pan and one for Tilt. Most fixture types are build with their default position in the middle of their movement range. So the faders default position is also in the middle. The values shown as a scale for the faders are taken from the physical values in the fixture profile. Next to each fader is a button that resets the position to the center position (usually 0 degrees).

On the right side you'll find some more buttons.

Flip is used when a moving head is pointed at a position using a set of pan and tilt values. Sometimes you can reach the same position with a different set of values. The Flip button toggles between these possible value sets.

Home is like pressing the center button for both Pan and Tilt. It puts the fixture back to it's default position.

There are five buttons for each of the Align modes and a Wings button that allows you split your selection of fixtures into two groups (split in the middle) and then the second group mirror the values of the first group on the Pan attribute. Wings only work on Pan.

Gobo

The Gobo Preset Type view allows us to see, select and control the Gobo wheels in your fixtures. This view can change a lot depending on the fixtures you have patched. Some fixtures have many gobo and animation wheels. For our Alpha Profile 700 we only have one gobo wheel.

On the left side there's a vertical scroll bar that allows us to select the gobo we want. Next to this is a group of buttons. The top one is called Select. This allows us to select one of the gobos on the left side. Some fixture types have continuous rotation of the gobo wheel. The Alpha Profile 700 doesn't. That's also why the next three buttons are grayed out. They are used to control the direction of the rotation (Spin > goes clockwise and Spin < goes counter clockwise) and to stop it (Stop). The last buttons is available if the fixture have a Gobo Shake function.

If the gobo wheel have gobo rotation, then this is usually controlled by the second encoder and screen fader. Usually the rotation have two modes. Index and rotation. This is selected by the buttons next the on screen fader. There's Spin > and Spin < that rotates the gobo in the selected direction. The fader controls the speed. Stop stops the the rotation where it is. Index changes the mode and now you can use the fader to precisely position the gobo the way you want it. Center takes the gobo position back to the default center position.

Remember that pressing the encoders opens the Calculator view where you also can select the different defined gobos.

Color

We looked at color control in chapter 12. I hope you haven't forgotten about it.

Beam

The Beam Preset Type covers a lot of different things that affects the look of the beam. It can be attributes like Iris, Prisms, Shutters, Frost and build in Effects.

 Let's have a look at what our fixtures can do. The leftmost tab have Shutter, Strobe and Iris. The Strobe fader controls the strobe speed. The buttons next the fader allows you to first select if the shutter should be open or closed. The three other buttons allows us to select the different strobe modes the Alpha Profiles and  GLP's can do. There's the standard strobe mode, a Pulse and a Random.

The second fader doesn't have any functionality with our fixtures.

The third fader is the Iris in the Alpha Profiles. Again the fader controls the iris opening and there are some buttons next to the fader that works a lot like the buttons for the Shutter. First two are Open and Closed. The next three gives you different modes. Strobe gives you a strobe effect on the Iris. The two others are different pulse patterns.

Notice that there's an extra tab called Prisma 1. Here you can choose to have the 3 facet prism in or out. You put it in by selecting it and take it out by pressing Off. The prism we got don't have rotation so the second fader doesn't do anything.

Other functions are only accessible through the Raw attributes. This includes Frost.

Focus

In Focus there's usually both Zoom and Focus control. The two controls for these are very similar. The faders control the beam size or the focus point in the fixture. Next to them are three buttons. They each represent the top, middle and bottom position of the fader. Some fixtures have a more complex focus system. These extra attributes can only be accessed in the Raw attributes.

Control

The control allows us short cuts to lamp features and different resetting of the fixtures. These shortcuts doesn't work if your fixtures don't have these control channels, but have put these functions inside a different channel. Like the Martin Rush MH3 - here you'll find the fixture controls inside the "Curve" channel in the Dimmer Preset Type.

Shapers

Shapers don't have any special helping view. Here you only have the Raw value control.

 

Ok, enough boring information, let's use use it for something. In the next chapter we are going to make some more groups and create some more presets.


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