Dynamic Presets Options

[Mike_C]

Over the last few months while using the Dynamic Preset freesets, I've found some library freesets to be a bit too fast for most moving heads that I've been using. Generally the Rates have been set to quickly for the movers to keep up with, and I don't particularly like how there is a Square Waveshape intensity on some movements of the libraries freesets as I don't like going into darkness as the fixture tracks back to the start of the move.
Maybe there's a hidden trick that I've missed? or Perhaps I'm being a bit picky

I thought it would be pretty cool if I could create my own freesets, some with the same movement performing at different rates and amplitudes so I can use them on the fly, with others just running at a slower speed.

However in my movements I stumbled across an issue I think:
When creating my own freeset that had a dynamic movement of tilt can can in it, slowing the rate down and saving it into the palettes tab, after clearing the programmer, I position the fixture in the position that I want the freeset to be centre of, and select the newly created freeset with the base value button off. The result was the fixture would revert to the freesets base pan and tilt value as it was when recorded. Is this a bug skipping over the base button or just how the creation of freesets works?

I would also love a check box when creating a freeset, or when right clicking on the freeset to be able to save the custom made freesets to the Clarity Library File to be available in other / future show files.

Any solutions / ideas I could try?

Thanks again in advance!
Mike

[LSC TechSupport]

Hi Mike,

The pre-canned Dynamic FREEsets supplied with Clarity were designed to give users a taste of what is possible, rather than to be a library of effects for everyone to use. They cannot be customised, BUT they can be duplicated and these copies can then be edited to do what you want.

I have actually deleted the generic ones from my system (they are stored in the main Clarity programme directory in an XML file named Default.cfs). If you delete this file then they all disappear, then you can create your own Dynamic Freesets from scratch, with exactly the parameters and speeds that you want.

What I did first was to patch a very basic show with two movers (doesn't really matter which ones) and a couple of dimmers. Then I went through all the default Dynamics and selected the ones that I wanted to keep. right clicked and created a duplicate. Then I selected the two fixtures, modified the settings (speed, etc) and then Saved to Preset (selecting the copy I had created and overwriting it). Then when I had done this for all the Dynamics I wanted I saved this as my base show (along with my preference settings). Then I deleted the .cfs file.

I cannot recreate the bug with the Base value turned off. If I turn off Base and recall a Freeset I have edited/created it adds it to the current Pan/Tilt position. However I am interested to note that even if I record the Freeset without a Base it still appears to have one if the Base button is turned on. I will follow this one up.

[Mike_C]

Hi Mike,

The pre-canned Dynamic FREEsets supplied with Clarity were designed to give users a taste of what is possible, rather than to be a library of effects for everyone to use. They cannot be customised, BUT they can be duplicated and these copies can then be edited to do what you want.

I have actually deleted the generic ones from my system (they are stored in the main Clarity programme directory in an XML file named Default.cfs). If you delete this file then they all disappear, then you can create your own Dynamic Freesets from scratch, with exactly the parameters and speeds that you want.

What I did first was to patch a very basic show with two movers (doesn't really matter which ones) and a couple of dimmers. Then I went through all the default Dynamics and selected the ones that I wanted to keep. right clicked and created a duplicate. Then I selected the two fixtures, modified the settings (speed, etc) and then Saved to Preset (selecting the copy I had created and overwriting it). Then when I had done this for all the Dynamics I wanted I saved this as my base show (along with my preference settings). Then I deleted the .cfs file.

I cannot recreate the bug with the Base value turned off. If I turn off Base and recall a Freeset I have edited/created it adds it to the current Pan/Tilt position. However I am interested to note that even if I record the Freeset without a Base it still appears to have one if the Base button is turned on. I will follow this one up.

Hey Richie
Thanks for the quick reply, Thats awesome how you can delete the file to clear the LSC Dynamics, i'll be following your steps and just create my own template file in the near future.

I think I've found how to resolve my issue when trying to position a custom made Tilt Can Can with the base value off:

When I was creating the effect in the Dynamics Tab and saving it, I noticed that when adding only a New Tilt dynamic, it would automatically set the pan attribute of the fixture to 0% so when saving this and turning the base value button off it would still recall the pan's attribute at 0% along with the tilt's dynamic movement.
The fix was: after customising the tilt can can to what I was after, just before I clicked the "To Preset" button to make it a freeset, I went to the fixtures attributes tab and right clicked on the Fixture's Pan, and clicked "Clear Pan" then saved it as a freeset. When I tested the new freeset it seems now to only use the tilt dynamic that I had originally selected when the base button is off.

I did another test after this creating a movement with both a Pan & Tilt Dynamic and saving it, and it behaved correctly with the base value button off. It seems to play up when you only use, either a Pan or Tilt attribute. (Clearing the one you didn't use in the attributes tab fixes the issue)

I've attached my saved test file, creating two Dynamic Presets, if you right click on them and select rename, there is a more detailed description of each one.
The first one is how I resolved the issue by clearing the pan
The second one is leaving the automatically set 0% to the pan
(Don't forget to turn the base button off while testing this)

Would you classify this as a bug? That when you create a New Dynamic to only either Pan or Tilt it assigns a vaule of 0% to the opposite?

Thanks - Time for breakfast

Attached File(s)

 Tilt_Can_Can_issue.cls ( 4.11K ) Number of downloads: 2

 

[LSC TechSupport]

Ahh yes I had forgotten this feature and that it might be catching you out.

Clarity automatically selects any related parameters of a light. So if you adjust Pan, then it also selects Tilt. This is to ensure that when you record that position into a cue you get both Pan and Tilt otherwise the position will be wrong.

So yes maybe this is not quite so desirable in the Dynamics editor, particularly if you have only selected an effect for one parameter AND turned off recording the base.

Let me have a think and a chat to a few people and then come back to you.

BTW - the photos of DefQon look good

[Sam Walter]

How did I not know about deleting the XML file??? That's quite handy now that I have built my own library of freesets

[Mike_C]

Ahh yes I had forgotten this feature and that it might be catching you out.

Clarity automatically selects any related parameters of a light. So if you adjust Pan, then it also selects Tilt. This is to ensure that when you record that position into a cue you get both Pan and Tilt otherwise the position will be wrong.

So yes maybe this is not quite so desirable in the Dynamics editor, particularly if you have only selected an effect for one parameter AND turned off recording the base.

Let me have a think and a chat to a few people and then come back to you.

BTW - the photos of DefQon look good

hahaha all good, am glad I know about it for making my library. No worries, I guess it isn't a big problem so long as one is aware of it.

hahahaha thanks, it was a great day / night! Was the first time I had a chance to play with the performance tab on a show, was great, until for some reason when using air display on the iPad to trigger the cues while out in the crowd it would crash clarity and relaunch it on my MacBook, will do some more tests over the next few days to see if it happens back here at home on a few other OS's.