Fixture Browser Timeline Editing area Preset Browser Preset Properties Timeline Toolbar Preset Timing and Transition settings

Preset Types and Properties

The Timeline window is where you put your presentation together by dragging and dropping the built-in effects and your User Presets, Scenes, Media and Custom Presets onto your Fixtures, Groups and Pixel Matrices:

The window comprises 4 sections: On the left is the Browser, in the middle the Timeline editing area. top right are the folders of Built-in, User, Media, Scene, DALI and Custom Presets (although not all folders may be displayed). Below this is the Preset Properties pane which is divided into Timing, Transition, Name and Properties all of which you use to manipulate how a preset placed on a timeline is rendered.

Before creating a timeline it is worth covering the six preset types:

Built-in Presets

Designer comes with a range of Built-in presets which can be used to create a range of static, dynamic, wave based, and 2D effects over a group or array of fixtures. The Presets can be used on Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices or VLC/VLC+ Content Targets.

ClosedWhite

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

The most basic preset, sets an intensity and colour temperature.

You can also animate the white by selecting a wave shape.

ClosedColour

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a static colour fill. Use the colour picker, user palette or text entry fields (RGB or HSI) to select the colour.

You can also animate the colour by selecting a wave shape.

ClosedDirect Colour

Use with: Fixtures, Groups

Renders a static colour fill. Use the sliders to set the specific value for each emitter.

This preset only becomes active if there are fixtures in the project that support Direct Colour.

Note that the preset will display available colour channels based on all fixtures introduced within the project layout rather than on a per fixture/group basis. This means that the preset can be applied to a fixture/group that has fewer emitter channels, however, only the available channels will take effect on each fixture/group.

ClosedCrossfade

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a linear crossfade from the start colour to the end colour:

ClosedGradient

Use with: Fixtures, Groups

Renders a static multi-colour gradient over a group of fixtures:

Closed2D Gradient

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a static multi-colour gradient on a matrix:

If the Type is Linear, Radial, Conical, Square or Bilinear, the properties Angle, Repeat and Count are available:

If the type is Noise:

If the type is Perlin Noise:

ClosedGradient Mesh

Use with: Pixel Matrices

Renders a dynamic gradient effect onto a Matrix or Target. Gradients are produced between multiple points on a grid

ClosedBurst

Use with: Fixtures, Groups

Creates a single wave in the chosen shape

Closed2D Burst

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Creates a single wave in the chosen 2D shape on a matrix

ClosedWave

Use with: Fixtures, Groups

Renders a dynamic pulse of colour passing over another colour:

Closed2D Wave

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a dynamic pulse of colour over another colour on a matrix:

If the Type is Linear, Radial, Conical, Square or Bilinear, the properties Angle, Repeat and Count are available:

If the type is Noise:

If the type is Perlin Noise:

ClosedRainbow

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a dynamic rainbow effect cycling through hue:

Closed2D rainbow

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a dynamic rainbow effect on a matrix:

If the Type is Linear, Radial, Conical, Square or Bilinear, the properties Angle, Repeat and Count are available:

Note that setting Repeat to None will only have an apparent effect when the Type is Radial. It behaves like Sawtooth with a Count of 1, except that the area outside the unit circle is filled with the same colour as the edge of the unit circle, rather than the effect continuing beyond a Count of 1.

If the type is Noise:

If the type is Perlin Noise:

ClosedRandom

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a dynamic chase through a random sequence of colours:

ClosedChase

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a dynamic chase through a user-specified sequence of colours:

Closed2D Chase

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Creates a Chase, with multiple colours, and renders it using the same 2D options as the 2D Wave.

To change the colours, selected the block above the colour display and chose a new colour.

ClosedHue Fade

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Performs a fade in hue between two defined points:

The start and end colours will share the same saturation and brightness; editing the saturation or brightness for one colour will edit the other as well.

The fade time between the colours is determined by the length of the preset on the timeline.

ClosedStrobe

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a dynamic colour strobe effect on black:

ClosedSparkle

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a dynamic random sparkle effect:

ClosedFlicker

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices

Renders dynamic, random flickering over a colour gradient:

Each of the sliders corresponds to a sine wave of a specific frequency. The frequency of Sub is defined by the Period - the default is 30 seconds (1/30Hz). First will be twice as fast, Second twice as fast again and Third twice as fast as Second. The value of each sine wave is used to fetch a value from a set of pre-generated random values and the four results are summed. The sum is used to select a position in the colour gradient to output to the fixtures. Mix the different frequency components using the sliders to select how much of each component you want.

So if you are looking for a relatively steady flicker you might have a lot of Sub, with a little bit of Third to stop it looking too regular. If you want a more chaotic looking flicker then you might have less of Sub and First and more of Second and Third. It really is something you have to experiment with. If you want the overall flicker to have a different speed change the Period and everything will shift accordingly.

If you've got a set of slider values that you like and you want to copy the effect to another group, but not have both groups flickering identically, then just click the Randomise button to change the offset.

ClosedPerlin noise

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a smoothly-varying noise effect:

ClosedStarfield

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a radiating star field:

Opacity on stars will show through the Space colour and transparency on Space will show through any effect playing below the starfield.

ClosedFireflies

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders an effect of "fireflies" randomly flying about

Opacity on fireflies will show through the background colour and transparency on background will show through any effect playing below the fireflies.

ClosedNebula

Use with: VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders an effect of a nebulous gas cloud

Opacity on particles will show through the background colour and transparency on background will show through any effect playing below the nebula.

ClosedTiles

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Renders a random geometric tile arrangement with varying colours.

ClosedRipple

Use with: Pixel Matrices

Renders ripples onto the matrix:

ClosedText

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary/Overlay

Renders a scrolling text message on a matrix:

Renders a text message which can be changed at runtime:

To configure the font used by the Text preset, press the Edit... button next to the font picker to open the Fonts dialog:

The Text preset allows you to change the text after uploading the project to a Controller. To do this, you need to specify which parts of the text are going to change and which parts will remain the same.

For example, to show the opening time of a venue, you might set the Text property to "Opening Time: <open>". This creates a text slot called 'open' which you can change the value of. You can have more than one slot specified in the Text property, for example "Opening Time: <open> Closing Time: <close>".

To set the initial text for a text slot, press the Configure... button next to the Text property to open the Text Slot Configuration box:

The Set Text Slot trigger action allows you to change the value of a text slot from a trigger.

There are two built-in slots, <time> and <date>, which show the current time and date respectively. You can change the format of how the time and date are displayed in the Text Slot Configuration box. Press the Configure... button next to the Text property to open this dialog. At the bottom of the dialog you can select from some standard time and date formats, or type your own using the following codes:

%a Abbreviated weekday name
%A Full weekday name
%b Abbreviated month name
%B Full month name
%c Date and time representation
%d Day of the month (01-31)
%H Hour in 24h format (00-23)
%I Hour in 12h format (01-12)
%j Day of the year (001-366)
%m Month as a decimal number (01-12)
%M Minute (00-59)
%p AM or PM designation
%S Second (00-61)
%U Week number with the first Sunday as the first day of week one (00-53)
%w Weekday as a decimal number with Sunday as 0 (0-6)
%W Week number with the first Monday as the first day of week one (00-53)
%x Date representation
%X Time representation
%y Year, last two digits (00-99)
%Y Year
%Z Timezone name or abbreviation
%% A % sign

All other text is used verbatim. The computed output will be truncated to 255 characters.

ClosedLive video

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Primary/Secondary

Displays live video on a matrix (LPC X only) or VLC/VLC+ layout:

To use Live video, the video input settings will need to be set.

User Presets

User Presets will show any preset configurations that you have saved.

User presets can be renamed by right-clicking on them and selecting Rename, and deleted by right-clicking and selecting Delete

Scene

Scenes can be added to timelines as a way of generating reference palettes, or controlling advanced parameters of complex fixtures.

ClosedScene (User named)

Use with: Scenes

The presets that you optionally created using Scene to create static effects to play back within the project.

Media Presets

ClosedVideo (User named)

Use with: Pixel Matrices, VLC/VLC+ Content Target

The presets that you optionally created using the Media window to import still and moving images into your project. These presets have spatial awareness when applied to Pixel Matrices and VLCs in that the media clip will be resized to fit the Pixel Matrix’s Render Window or the VLC/VLC+ Content Target.

If applied to a VLC or VLC+ Content Target, the media preset can be cropped using the Crop top, Crop bottom, Crop left and Crop right to specify the area of the media to be output to the Content Target. The crop value determines the number of pixels that are cropped off each side of the media preset.

Media clips in the Preset Browser can be managed in the same way as in Mapping Mode, by Right-clicking on the media clip, and New Media clips can be added using the New button at the top of the Preset Browser.

Media Presets have the following properties:

ClosedAudio (User named)

Use with: Audio Rows

The presets that you optionally created using the Media window to import audio into your project. These presets can be used for Simulation Audio or Controller Audio (on LPC X, VLC or VLC+).

Audio Presets have the following properties:

The Audio Preset on the timeline will display a representation of the waveform of the audio file in the preset.

The top and bottom half of the waveform in dark grey show the maximum and minimum amplitude of the wave at that point respectively. The root mean square (RMS) value of the wave is shown in light grey.

Mono audio files are represented as a single waveform.

Stereo audio files are represented as a single waveform but will expand to show individual left and right waveforms when timeline row height is increased. The left channel is shown at the top and right at the bottom.

DALI Presets

Like Scenes, DALI presets do not have a length, only a transition, with the settings persisting until another DALI preset is encountered.

However, unlike Scenes, DALI presets will persist even if the timeline is released. Indeed, since they are just commands to tell the DALI ballasts what to do, even power-cycling the Controller will make no difference; the settings will persist until a new command is issued or the ballasts themselves power-cycled.

ClosedSet level

Use with: DALI ballasts, groups or interfaces

Used to set a DALI fixture or user created group to a level (0>254, 255), and select a fade time from the pull-down list of DALI fade times. See DALI regarding creating DALI groups.

ClosedSet Colour

Use with: DALI ballasts, groups or interfaces (that support Colour commands)

Renders a static colour fill. Use the colour picker, user palette or text entry fields (RGB or HSI) to select the colour.

DALI fade time can be set as part of the preset.

ClosedSet Colour Temperature

Use with: DALI ballasts, groups or interfaces (that support Colour Temperature commands)

Renders a static colour temperature fill. Use the level and colour temperature picker to select the colour temperature.

DALI fade time can be set as part of the preset.

ClosedDALI Scene (user named)

Use with: DALI ballasts, groups or interfaces

Used to recall a DALI scene that you created and uploaded, and select a fade time from the pull-down list of DALI fade times. See DALI regarding creating DALI scenes.

Recordings

Recordings made in DMX Record can be used on timelines.

ClosedRecording (user named)

Use with: Fixtures, Groups, Pixel Matrices

Recordings created using DMX Record can be imported and added to timelines.

Recordings apply to the timeline row on which they are placed. Only the channels patched to that row will respond to the recording, allowing selective playback of components of a larger recording.

Recordings in the preset browser can be managed by right-clicking on the recording. New recordings can be added using the import button at the top of the preset browser.

Recordings have the following properties:

The preset browser will also display recording metadata including the recording's name, description, source, duration and frame rate.

Custom Presets

ClosedCustom Preset (user named)

Use with: Pixel Matrices

Renders a Custom Preset that you have optionally created using the Media window:

In addition, Custom Presets may define a number of properties that can be set for each instance of that Preset on the timeline.

However, a drawback of the custom presets is that they cannot have transparency encoded into them. Effects with transparency can be layered on top of the preset, but any effect "below" the preset will be overwritten.

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