Nutcracker: What effects would you like to see?
- Thread starter smeighan
- Start date
jaywalk101
New member
I had an idea a few days ago that would be cool.. How about a spot light effect. Maybe specify X number of Circle patterns to randomly scroll across the mega tree or matrix.
kidcole
New member
I have been curious how to get the timing of the Nutcracker effects to be "adjustable." With the end result of matching the effect to the time signature of the song being played. In many cases (particularly slow songs) the pattern can be random and look fine. But for some stuff I would like to know how to manipulate the output for different timings inside the song. None of my songs use "time" as the base. I always create exact time signatures to the beat of the music and then divide those time signatures by another value that matches (8 and 12 are typical divisions).
I am using LOR S3 and have not yet tried importing your patterns yet. I am still deciding how my final effects will look, and then I'll assign the channels - - followed by finding a way to view them in LOR. Then I will be pulling in your effects into existing (and new) songs.
I am using LOR S3 and have not yet tried importing your patterns yet. I am still deciding how my final effects will look, and then I'll assign the channels - - followed by finding a way to view them in LOR. Then I will be pulling in your effects into existing (and new) songs.
smeighan
New member
That is a great question! I have been waiting for the user base to get past the how to create a target rgb device, attach an effect and get an output.
If you look at most megatrees, they do not sync the effect to the music. The run 10-15 seconds of a pattern while the rest of the show syncs the other devices. There are some shows that do things like have the meteors fall in sync with the music.
So , here are the choices:
1) Load one of my effects and then cut and past things like the flashing, meteors and move it to align to the music
2) Load one of my effects and paste over it with a highlight. Find the pulse and make streaks of color matching the beat on top of a spiral effect,.
3) Use a new feature, not yet released, of a timing file.
In my show (yet too be created), i do plan on having effects synced to the music. This is the way i plan on doing that.
Besides an effect, i am going to prompt for a timing file.
In audacity , you can highlight the music and then type Ctl-B. This allows you to label the highlighted section
Here is a label export from a TSO Carol of the Bells from Audacity.
0.618008 8.196737 intro
8.196737 9.107485 p1
9.107485 10.050761 p2
10.050761 10.994036 p3
10.994036 11.953574 p4
11.953574 12.880586 p5
I will have a prompt ,in Nutcracker, where i can do things like
intro FLY_0
P1 SPIRAL_1
P2 SPIRAL_2
I will need to figure out how to prompt for transitions, and how to highlight an existing effect. I expect this will be done with layers
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I am looking for something that will go with the timing of the music. I am going with a 24x24 matrix to do effects with. Something like a spinner would go with music well. A big spinner , a bunch of little spinners. If they spin 1 tic for each timing, that would be easy to time out to the music. another effect, not sure how to describe it, other than something like a firework that explodes from the center. The effects that you are doing now are awesome and I plan on using alot of them, but they will be hard to time out to the music.
klyneshouse
New member
While not the perfection some of you are looking for, somewhat time consuming and takes some trial and error, but importing the .vir routine into a dummy sequence of a different event period lengths (ms), then re timing them and cuting and pasting into your main sequence, you can speed up and slow down the nutcracker effect outputs to fit a given length. I have done this with spirals, garlands, and the butterfly to get the desired timing needed.
kidcole
New member
I like this idea.
another idea would bo to take the Nutcracker pattern and dim it down to be more of a background. Then some brighter foreground sequencing could be manually added or pasted over (blended together) that would be more tightly synchronized to the music. The background would then remain random looking but the eye would be drawn by the foreground sequencing. At least this could be the starting point. Obviously we'll be using a lot of different techniques to come up with interesting results .. and avoid the same things repeating song after song.
Hi Sean, Here is a effect I'd like to see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w95VUbxXzC8
The beginning has music notes going across the screen and down the screen (similar to text across the screen). I'd like to be able to insert simple designs like the music notes and be able to run them across at different angles rather than straight across. And maybe across in a wave fashion, the notes going up and down as they go across. What do you think?
Brian
The beginning has music notes going across the screen and down the screen (similar to text across the screen). I'd like to be able to insert simple designs like the music notes and be able to run them across at different angles rather than straight across. And maybe across in a wave fashion, the notes going up and down as they go across. What do you think?
Brian
smeighan
New member
I would probably just have this be an option with opening a picture. Have a gif of the note and then have the effect open it . i would prompt for the starting strand,pixel where note is placed and then allow movement in the Z axis (up/down) and X axis (left/right).
i have it on my list.
thanks
Cool, You have a way of making something that seems very difficult in my mind sound so very easy. Thank's!
Brian
smeighan
New member
thanks.
BTW, the video you posted of LOR's software doing the TSO song shows how a wonderful sequence can be created with very few strings.
whomever did the sequencing, is very artistic.
The real challenge in our displays is how to make something look good when we are dealing with such small pixel resolution.
I plan on having a 16x50 mega half tree. That is such a small resolution, you need to be creative to make each pixel count.
kidcole
New member
I like the idea of being able to take 2D art and cycling it through the half tree (or whatever design is being implemented through Nutcracker). Basically taking any 2D flat art (perhaps GIF file) and cycling one or more of the files through the RGB matrix. Options to drop it from the top, push up from the bottom, left to right, right to left, and maybe some angular possibilities. Of course changing how fast it moves through so it can be "timed." This also seems like there needs to be some kind of architecture involved so the flat art can be more accurately scaled to fit within the matrix of the Nutcracker shape.
As I am writing this, it sounds to me like something the LOR, LSP, Madrix <etc> need to be handling. And not necessarily through the Nutcracker source. I am not an LSP or Madrix user - - perhaps some of what I am talking about already exists ?
As I am writing this, it sounds to me like something the LOR, LSP, Madrix <etc> need to be handling. And not necessarily through the Nutcracker source. I am not an LSP or Madrix user - - perhaps some of what I am talking about already exists ?
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DennyMo
New member
Similar to this, a "shimmering" effect, where you could choose monochrome or multi-color (maybe select specific colors?), fast or slow, random or not, etc. The result would be that the individual pixels would merely change intensity, not color. This would recreate the effect you get from shimmering incan light strings.
One thing I haven't figured out: is there a way to set Nutcracker to build the effects for just a single string of pixels? I have a project where I'd like to use pixels on a regular in-the-living-room tree. Everything I've tried at the Nutcracker site to create a single stranded "effect" seems to blow up on me, usually with "division by zero" errors. Any suggestions?
smeighan
New member
This request has been made on diylightanimation a few days ago. I think it shows the quality of this sequencing that so many people want to able to duplicate it.
On the other forum i stated that i will be making a new effect where you can give a list of gif,png files. for each file you will be able to pick a vector (direction and speed). Each image will be able to move independent of the others.
permutations will become great. I look forward to how creative people might become.
I will be releasing a new nutcracker (within the next month), that will allow effects to be synched to your music track. I will also be releasing layers.
Thankyou Sean for making this possible .
Your effects generator and the ability to easily use them with Hls is awesome.
https://vimeo.com/42385516
Your effects generator and the ability to easily use them with Hls is awesome.
https://vimeo.com/42385516
smeighan
New member
Thanks. And everyone should note that you are not using vixen,lsp or lor but Joe Hinkles newest sequencer HLS. I created an export for HLS , besides the Vixen and LOR that i currently have. The HLS export format is the most efficient of all that i create (it is the smallest in byte count).
So besides creating the sequence, are u driving your hardware directly from HLS? What hardware do you currently have?