Automated Sequencing: The Easy Button for Animated Displays

1. Automated Sequencing:The Easy Button forAnimated Displays Alan Sielbeck – Lipton Lights

2. Who Are You? Why do I care? • Owner of Safe Network Solutions • IT Background • Seek repeatable, teachable processes • Can we replace manual efforts with automated ones? • Video Editing / Audio background • Started mixing sound at church when I was 10 (1989ish) • Worked with NLE systems since 1997

3. So show me this video… • http://www.liptonlights.com/Pages/2011TechnicalVids.aspx

4. IT Dork, Have you even made a display? • First display in 2008 – 32 channels • Found lots of frustration with current solutions – Used LOR initially • Lots of things missing in light animation that have existed for years in NLE • Display in 2009 was “Holdman Enhanced” – 224 channels? • Display in 2010 was my last non-pixel-based show – 256 channels? • 2011 was 4,166 channels and I was in TROUBLE!

5. Why go to automated processes? • As channel counts grow, available time does not • Current sequencing techniques do NOT scale • Practical limit of < 1,024 channels prior to pixel based lighting?? • Display size is generally linear in terms of time to sequence…

6. Channels vs. Time (100s of seconds)

7. Why go to automated processes? • I found when sequencing using traditional methods, the following formula held true: • seconds X channels = time to sequence • 3 minute song is 180 seconds • Show with 256 channels is 46,080 seconds to complete (12.8 hours) • I jumped from 256 to 4,166 channels when I moved to pixel-based display elements

8. Not a perfect solution… • Even with the advanced editing features of LSP… • LSP is being aggressively developed – there are occasional hiccups • I struggled with copy and paste with HIGH channel counts • Even the advanced features cannot overcome thousands of channels • I found that automating video to the LSP timeline was INCREDIBLY powerful and REPEATABLE!

9. What’s Needed? • Light Show Pro ($79? REQUIRED) • Video Editing Software (I used Vegas) ($79?) • Audio editing software (NOT required, but HIGHLY recommended) Audacity $0, Sound Forge $59? • Divx Pro (Not required, but HIGHLY recommended) ($30?) • Xlights (Free) • Creativity (luckily Vegas Video can help!) ** Audio editing – 8 of my 10 songs were shortened to run 2 – 3 minutes on average. Most audience members would prefer a couple minutes of each song, and you’re probably tired of editing that 5 minute song at the 3 minute mark!

10. Come on, what are the pitfalls? • The latest version of LSP can still struggle with large shows and LOTS of timing marks • There are workarounds – myself and others can help • Don’t be afraid to push the envelope • Grouped pixels for SSCs will help GREATLY • LSP will sometimes use funny math if you aren’t careful with your transition settings • Verify your video frame count / transition frame count • Make sure transitions start at the VERY beginning of your sequence if piecing together multiple sequence files to one Xlights file • Make sure transitions start at the VERY end of the previous transition if you are not having to piece together multiple sequence files

11. Come on, what are the pitfalls? • LSP Transition Limitations: • 500 frames MAX – this means you’ll render multiple transition files for your video • The more timing marks, the longer the render will take (transition number 3 will take longer than number 2) • Match the number of frames in your source video to the transition!! • Learning video editing skills will take a little practice • No matter what, the quantity of channels can exceed design specifications of all editors, lsp included • Sequencing with video CAN be less precise

12. So that video earlier… not exactly Christmas Lights. • http://www.liptonlights.com/Pages/2011TechnicalVids.aspx

13. How does it work?

14. How does it work?

15. How do I do it? • Create custom Video(s) • Automate the video(s) to your LSP timeline • Splice the sequence files together (if necessary) • Playback / Export to Xlights / Conductor / LOR

16. Start with a new project in Vegas

17. Start with a new project in Vegas

18. Change Project Settings • Click Project • Click Properties • Video: 640 x 480 • Frame Rate: 20 • Field Order: None • Save the template

19. Start Creating Your Video

20. Right-click – Insert Generated Media

21. Soft Clouds? Why Not!

22. Let’s change those colors…

23. And let’s Animate it… (Keyframe 1)

24. And let’s Animate it… (Keyframe2)

25. Now let’s look at the media!

26. Ok, good start, but let’s soften the into… • The music sort of fades in / ramps up. • I like to match the visuals to the music… • We could just fade up the whole frame from black to simulate a smooth fade in of all colors

27. Let’s Soften the Intro… • Position Mouse at upper-left corner of meda • Click and drag to the right to fade in…

28. We’re cooking with Gas now… • We’ve created a 5 second clip we can use with animated clouds • The colors in use are black and white • The clouds fade at a moderate speed from the upper right to the bottom left • We’ve also added a fade-in to match the music • Let’s add that special something…

29. Let’s add a transition…

30. Gradient Wipe, Nebulous…

31. Drag on top of the Fade In

32. Now play the media…

33. Let’s add something else… • Let’s add a burst of color on the drum hits • Let’s also have that color burst fade out very quickly

34. Right-click – Insert Generated Media

35. Select Sony Solid Color • Choose Red • Close the box

36. Position the color burst • The clip is 5 seconds – shorten it • Position to last for 1 drum hit…

37. Copy the color burst • Click on the first color clip and hit Ctrl-C • Click Cursor where you want to paste – Ctrl-V • Create a new copy of the source media

38. Adjust the color bursts… • Adjust duration • Add Fades…

39. Playback your creation…

40. Notice we’re building a library…

41. The library is powerful… • Each piece of generated media we created has been added to our media library • We can copy and paste “new instances” of EVERYTHING • You don’t have to recreate those soft clouds from scratch • You can change the color combinations of your generated media for Brand New effects!

42. The library is powerful… • You can layer effects on top of each other… • There is a difference between “Black” and “Transparent” • What if your clouds were transparent with a Black Background? • Combine this with the solid colors we created earlier…

43. Transitions are powerful… • Consider using transitions to generate some truly complex patters • Take a simple solid color • Combine with a clock wipe • Generated effect could be a wipe that changes color in a circular pattern across your entire show…

44. A screen shot of Vegas for O Come Emmanuel

45. A second look… • Watch the source video again • See how many of these effects you could create yourself after the short demo • Which effects are duplicated with only the colors modified? • Which effects do you think you could find in Vegas? • What do you think is the most challenging part? • (Hint, 100% of this video is done with generated effects in Vegas)

46. The Full Source Video… • This is not posted, but a link to the technical videos will show you the idea / source in a PIP window • http://www.liptonlights.com/Pages/2011TechnicalVids.aspx

47. Your masterpiece is complete in Vegas Video, now what??? • We need to render it into an LSP friendly format • Remember 500 frames MAX! • 450 frames is 30 seconds at 15 fps • I chose DIVX as this was the format of all of the other transition videos in LSP • Render it with the project frame size and speed

48. Let’s render 30 seconds of O Come… Mark the portion in BLUE

49. Project, Render As…

50. Let’s look at my render settings… • Note “Render loop region only is checked • We’re not saving any metadata • We don’t want to stretch the video…