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ShowMagic Beginner`s Tutorial - SIRS-E

1. Scanners These fixtures use a mirror that can be pivoted vertically and horizontally The lamp is situated in the body of the fixture the beam is fired at the mirror and by moving the mirror the beam is deflected allowing you to move the beam around Beam movement using a scanner is much faster than the movement achieved using moving heads but moving heads have a wider movement range Depending on the make and model of scanner you can also usually control the color of the beam the shape of the beam and so on 26 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial Color Changers The beam is fixed on these fixtures but you can control the color and often the shape of the beam Effects Lamps This category contains the largest variety of intelligent fixtures Numerous designs are available that use single mirrors multiple mirrors rotating barrels made up of mirror strips dishes made up of multiple mirrors and so on to create a wide variety of multiple beam and split beam lighting effects Controlling Intelligent Fixtures There can be so many functions available on an intelligent DMX fixture other than brightness how can each of these functions be controlled The answer is simple intelligent DMX fixtures use multiple DMX channels and each DMX channel is dedicated to a particular function For instance if the fixture has beam movement capability such as a scanner or moving head then at least 2 DMX channels are dedicated to the movement o
2. Summary Events are the basic building blocks of ShowMagic Events are all stored on event buttons for quick and easy access Event buttons are empty until an event is loaded or recorded onto it Event buttons are color coded for easy recognition The LED on an event button indicates the state of that event Clicking on an event button highlights it and its details can be viewed and changed in the top details display Double clicking on an event button starts stops the event Motor control buttons can be used where applicable to control event buttons Times in ShowMagic follow the format HH MM SS FF Creating a Show Now that we have briefly described ShowMagic events lets look at how those events can be combined to create shows Consider the following technical elements of a very simple theatrical show 1 Background music plays before the performance starts Basic Concepts 5 2 The background music fades out as the curtains open and the stage is illuminated in white interior scene 3 A sound effect is played such as the sound of a cash till ringing 4 The lighting on stage changes from white to white and green to simulate a forest scene 5 The lighting on stage changes from white and green to blue to simulate a night scene 6 The lighting on stage changes from blue to white and yellow to simulate a sunny day scene 7 The lights fade down to black the curtains close and the performance
3. ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial Version 13 1 For all models of ShowMagic www showmagic com Telephone 44 0 1405 740393 Fax 44 0 1405 814807 Email support showmagic com AVSS Ltd Field House Fieldside Thorne Doncaster South Yorkshire England DN8 4BE All rights reserved The authors have taken care in the preparation of this manual but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the information contained herein ASIO is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH All trademarks acknowledged Copyright 2011 Ace Visual and Sound Systems Limited 11 Table of Contents Notes on using the Beginner s Tutoriall cccscccscsscscsscsssccssssccscscessssscsscsessccssessssessscsssssoseseees iv Section 1 Tato AAA O 1 Section 2 Basic Conce sistas essa densa sasdeastagauadabeneasuadbandsteceees 3 MTS ASICS e o 3 ShowMagic ENS A E A A A A E 3 Creating a SOW a wacuanh A a reutecapancan came a e dees 5 SHOW Magic qUe 6 Section 3 Creating a Simple ShOW c csccscsscscssccscsccsscscsscsscsessscsssssssccesescccssscsesssssscssccsscsseess 9 Setting up Conventional Lighting PIES di itasostvvadessadbacdaauscgued ia alsuoells cade lucbnicbeuesvetekaden 9 Creating the Tio tin SEMEN A 11 Creatine Sequence PS ias 14 Sequence Encina a o ce al
4. Abstract Model VRX Scan to assign the second VRX to fader 014 and change its label to Scan 2 We will assume that the second VRX is set to channel 020 So with the fixture fader 014 row still highlighted type 2 0 Enter to patch the fixture to start address 020 020 025 will then be shown in the top right DMX Address display With these two fixtures assigned to faders 013 and 014 patched to their DMX addresses and labelled Scan 1 and Scan 2 we can now go back to the ShowMagic Main Screen and start using them So select Main Screen from the Options menu ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial Using the Function Faders If you select the Fixture panel on the left hand side of the desk and then click on the second page selector button i B 2 az 4 ct 72 85 o7 gt marked 13 you will see two new fixtures assigned to faders 13 and 14 with an icon depicting a scanner on each If you now click anywhere on the fader 13 column the iS aa is ie 4748 49202122232 DMX percentage value box below that fader will be 013 Centre highlighted in red to show that it 1S the currently selected Pan Coarse Tilt Coarse Color Wheel Gobo Wheel Gobo Rotate Shutter fixture and its fader number and yellow label will be oo shown in the display in the middle of the panel You will also notice that the function faders at the bottom of the fixture panel will change to show the various functions available on that fixture with icons on each of the f
5. Lightshow Explains how to set up intelligent multi channel lighting fixtures scanners moving heads color changers etc suggests the best programming practices when using these types of fixtures provides step by step instructions for creating lightshows that use both conventional and intelligent lighting fixtures and describes how to synchronise these lightshows to audio music digitised speech backing tracks click tracks etc Once you are familiar with the basic workings and design of ShowMagic you will find the other often more powerful features described in the User Manual much easier to learn You should read this tutorial first before reading the User Manual which is designed as a reference feature guide The philosophy behind ShowMagic is Keep it simple and quick to do even for the most complex of shows The proof is in the pudding as they say so lets get cooking Introduction 1 Section 2 Basic Concepts The Basics How do you produce a green color wash on stage how do you produce a blue color wash how do you flood the stage with red light The answer is quite simple but the terminology might be new to you so let s tackle that first Take an ordinary light bulb Place some transparent colored plastic in front of the light bulb and the room will be washed with that color Similarly stick a piece of card or metal sheet with a shape cut out of it in front of that same beam of light and that
6. as well as having coarse Pan and Tilt functions they also possess Fine Pan and Fine Tilt functions As described earlier each DMX channel can receive any one of 256 values between 0 and 255 so Pan or Tilt can be moved to any one of 256 positions each This may sound like a lot but if you are projecting a beam across a long distance and the beam is moving slowly the movement can appear jerky as it jumps from one coarse position to the next The Fine Pan and Fine Tilt functions provide a further 256 micro step positions between each of the 256 coarse Pan and Tilt positions so in effect there are now a total of 65 536 256 x 256 positions available This makes for far smoother movement and more accurate beam positioning Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 27 To reduce the manufacturing cost thus providing less expensive fixtures manufacturers often combine different functions onto a single channel e g color and gobo may be combined onto one color gobo wheel so if you select a star shaped gobo it is always colored blue a triangle would always be colored red and so on Setting Up Intelligent Fixtures For this tutorial we will assume that we are using two Abstract VRX scanners with the par cans as these scanners use only 6 channels that are quite easy to understand 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Click on the Options Patch Screen menu item to go to the ShowMagic patch screen Clic
7. and tilt positions of fixtures The order in which the steps in a chase are run can be selected via the Opt item Down Up Bounce down then back up or Random The speed setting in Beats Per Minute BPM determines how quickly each step is triggered in a chase The slope setting is a percentage proportion of the speed setting and it determines what proportion of time is spent moving from one scene setting to another and how long the fixtures remain static at each scene setting The next step is to record scenes for the VRXs colors and gobos that we can use on their own as static scenes and in color chases and gobo chases but before we do that now is a good time to describe how scenes can be organised to make them quicker and easier to find Applying Icons to Scene Bank and Page Selector Buttons Labels can be applied to scene buttons so that you know what it does but because there are so many lighting scene buttons it can be easy to forget where you have stored scenes for particular fixtures To make locating scenes easier you should organise them into banks and pages and then apply icons to the bank and page selector buttons on the scene panel For instance we used scenes A007 to A004 to store our par can scenes so double click on the empty box above the A bank selector button and the scene buttons will be temporarily replaced by a selection of icons Bank and Page selector icons Click on the third icon on the first
8. click on a blank icon in the icon selector area to apply it Let s now create color scenes using the 8 colors White Red Blue Green Yellow Orange Magenta and Pink We will create 8 scenes that produce these colors on just Scan 1 create another 8 scenes that produce these colors on just Scan 2 and then create a further 8 scenes that produce these colors on both fixtures at the same time With these scenes we can then select the same colors on both scanners in our show by simply running one scene or chase or mix and match them by running two scenes or chases 1 Click on the scene panel selector tab on the right panel to select the scene panel click on the B bank selector button to select bank B and then click on the page selector button marked 25 to select the second page in the B bank containing scenes B025 to B048 This is where we decided to store the color scenes for the scanners and as such we had applied a color icon to indicate this 2 Click on the fixture panel selector tab on the left of the desk to select the fixture panel click on fixture fader number 13 to select Scan 1 If the Pan Coarse amp Tilt Coarse function buttons are still shown in red tagged then press F1 to group the two VRXs then right click on these function buttons to turn them back to blue un tagged We want to record the scenes for colors next so right click on the Color Wheel function button to tag it on both fixtures shown red then press F1 to
9. display above the trackball the buttons under both the VRX faders on the top of the fixture panel will then turn to red to show that those fixtures are included in that group Please Note To include or exclude a fixture from a selected group simply right click once or twice on its number button to turn it red included in group or blue excluded from group Click on Scan 7 then click on the sixth function fader containing the shutter icon Hold down the Shift key a Preset panel will appear on the right of the desk click on the Full Bright preset button which sets the shutter to fully open then let go of the Shift key With the beam on both fixtures in the open setting we can now see them to record the mirror position scenes correctly We want to leave these shutter functions in their Full Bright setting whilst we create all our position scenes and scenes for gobos color etc but if we start recording scenes while the Clear button on the scene panel is set to Clear Y all the faders will be automatically cleared down after a scene has been recorded To avoid this happening we can do one of two things a Right click on the Clear button on the scene panel and use the pop up menu to change it to Clr N when set to this faders are NOT automatically cleared down after a scene is recorded they are left at their current position Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 33 b Hold down the Ctrl key and double cli
10. etc and each bank contains pages of buttons which are labelled with the first scene number on that page 1 e 1 25 49 etc We will store the scenes for the scanners in bank B with the scenes for Scan 1 in the first column of buttons Scan 2 s scenes in the second column and the scenes for both Scans in the third Click on the B button then click on the 1 button buttons B001 to B024 can then be accessed Click on the Rec T button click on button B017 to store that position scene 12 Click anywhere in the details display for that scene and the Edit Scene dialogue box will appear Using the Label box label it as Scans Chevron A and set it s group to P for position using the drop down Group menu the scene Group setting will be explained later Click on the Enter button to confirm those settings and the Edit Scene dialogue box will be closed 13 Drag Scan 2 s pan function fader to position its beam on the extreme left and drag its tilt function fader to 50 so that its beam is vertically centred 14 Drag the Scan 1 s pan function fader to position its beam on the extreme right and drag its tilt function fader to 50 so that its beam is also vertically centred Click on the Rec T button and click on the next empty scene button B018 to store that position scene 15 In the same way as in step 13 use the Edit Scene dialogue box to label it as Scans Chevron B and set its Group to P 16 Drag Scan 1 s pan fader to position its
11. in each show in which it is used 3 Re label this sequence as Scans Gobo 48 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 4 Follow steps to 3 above for the color chase on bank B page 25 but changing the label Scans STL Color to Scans Color That s it We now have a movement pattern chase and 9 static position scenes a sound to light color chase normal color chase static color scenes a sound to light gobo chase normal gobo chase and static gobo scenes to use in our moving lightshow You could record some new par can scenes to use along with the scanner scenes in our moving lightshow but for this tutorial we will assume that you are just using the par can scenes that we created for our first simple lightshow the Interior Sunny Night and Forest Scene scenes stored on scene buttons A007 to A004 Let s now put a show together where the lighting events are triggered at specific times to fit music 1 Select the sequence panel on the left by clicking on its tab 2 Open up empty sequence button A010 by clicking on it and then clicking on the Edit button 3 Select the sound panel on the right of the screen You could now load any piece of music that you have stored as a wave MP3 or wmv file onto a sound event button by highlighting the empty button double clicking on the first orange wave file selector button and using the file selector to select the file For this tutorial however we will assume that you are using the Show Music midi
12. is also a lighting scene is told to go off and as it was set to fade In on step 002 it will also fade out when it is told to go off 5 Press Spacebar again he Night Scene fades in and the Forest Scene fades out This follows the same logic as above 6 Press Spacebar again the Sunny Scene fades in and the Night Scene fades out Also the same logic as above Creating a Simple Show 21 7 Press Spacebar again this triggers the last step 007 End that marks the end of the sequence As there are no more events left to trigger in the sequence any events that are still running in this case only the Sunny Scene are told to go off and as the scene was set to fade in it will fade out When the Sunny Scene has finished fading out the sequence stops automatically For the show we are creating most of the above logic is what we require but the first part of it isn t i e when we started the sequence the Show Music sound event faded in and played which was fine However we wanted the music to fade out when the first lighting scene came on and it didn t There are a number of ways we can get it do this depending on exactly how and when you want the music to fade out a If you wanted the music to start fading out at the same time as the Interior Scene started fading in then hold down the Ctrl key and left click twice on the XT group setting for step 002 to change it to EX The EX setting is short for EXclusive When a step in a
13. on the Open button The sound event button that was labelled Snd 001 will then automatically be relabelled as Mood2 the same name as the midi file and the button will change its color to The MIDI file orange to indicate that it now contains a sound event selector button 6 Click on the next empty sound event button labelled Snd 002 to highlight it and then double click on the wave file selector button 7 ALoad Wavefile file selector box will then appear fry 8 Click on the file called Cash1 wav to highlight it and then click on the Open button The sound event button that was labelled Snd 002 will then automatically be relabelled as Cash1 the The Wave file same name as the wave file and the button will also change its selector button color to orange to indicate that it now contains a sound event 9 The labels on both these buttons can of course be changed in the same way as any other event button labels simply click on the button once to highlight it its details appear in the details display double click on its yellow label in the details display and edit it in the same way as described earlier for the sequence Use the label Show Music for the MIDI file sound event and Till FX for the wave file sound event We want the Show Music to fade in and fade out over 3 seconds so click on its event button on the sound panel to highlight it 10 The fade In and fade Out settings in the details display for sound events can be set to sec
14. positions that you may wish to create 1 Lock the shutter functions on Full Bright for both scanners as described in steps 5 and 6 in Creating Position Scenes p 3232 2 Using the pan and tilt function faders for both scanners record three more position scenes of your choice that position both scanners store them on scene buttons B004 to B006 name them as Scans Pos A B and C and set their Grp to P 3 Using Scan 1 s pan and tilt function faders record three more position scenes of your choice for just that scanner store them on scene buttons B012 to B014 name them as Scan 1 Pos A B and C and set their Grp to Pa 4 Using Scan 2 s pan and tilt function faders record three more position scenes of your choice for just that scanner store them on scene buttons B020 to B022 name them as Scan 2 Pos A B and C and set their Grp to Pb 5 Finally unlock the shutter functions for both scanners by holding down Ctrl and double clicking on them and then double click on the scene panel s Clear Clr button to clear down the faders on the desk 46 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial Summary e Presets can be used to quickly select settings for function faders such as Blackout e g DMX value 000 or Full Bright 128 but any settings in between can be selected by adjusting the function fader manually to the required level e g brightness 50 064 As part of the show we can use ShowMagic s sound to light function to automat
15. row and this will be applied to the box above the A button You can now see that bank A contains par can scenes Click on the 1 page selector button and then click on the first icon on the fifth row to apply the color icon You can now see that page 1 on bank A contains color scenes for those par cans 38 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial We have recorded 3 scenes on scene buttons B001 to B003 for the chevron movement chase so let s apply icons to bank B and its page selector buttons so that we know they are for the scanner scenes With the selection of icons still visible click on the small bank B button to highlight it and then click on the third icon on the second row to apply a scanner icon to that bank button Click on the small 1 page selector button to highlight it and then click ree noi icons for on the eighth icon on the third row to apply the movement icon an 4 Color and gobo scenes need to be recorded for the scanners and we will put these on different pages Click on the small 25 page selector button to highlight it and then click on the first icon on the fifth row to apply the color icon Click on the small 49 page selector button to highlight it and then click on the first icon on the fourth row to apply the gobo icon Click on the 73 page selector button and then click on the second icon on the third row to apply the shutter icon Our page icons for bank B We have now finished applying icons so sim
16. sequence set to EX is triggered it turns off ALL other events that may be running in that sequence irrespective of what type of event they are In other words this triggered event step will be the only exclusive event left running b Ifyou wanted to fade out the music and then await another press of the Spacebar to start the fading in of the Interior Scene then do the following 1 Click on step 002 Interior Scene to highlight that step and press Insert to insert a Null Step between the Show Music and Interior Scene steps 2 Drag and drop the Show Music sound event button from the sound panel into this Null Step Hold down the Ctrl key and right click twice on its action setting to change it from In to Out Then hold down the Shift key and drag the right hand orange fader marked with an F for fade up so that its value shows the number of seconds you want it to fade out over When this step is triggered in the sequence with Spacebar it will fade out that sound event and then stop it 3 ShowMagic will then wait for Spacebar to be pressed again to trigger and fade in the next step Interior Scene c If you wanted a single press of the Spacebar to fade out the music and then automatically fade in the Interior Scene 3 seconds later then do the following after doing b above 1 Hold down the Ctrl key and right click once on the Interior Scene s trigger setting to change it from Go to Wait 2 With the step still hi
17. sequences that contain it This can be very useful if you are running shows at different venues that oe have different size stages etc E g position scenes have croton Null Ste been recorded for scanners that illuminate a singer Null Step End guitarist etc at Venue A Venue B however has a larger stage so the musicians might stand further apart If you used the position scenes recorded for venue A at venue B then obviously the lights would be out of position so The sequence steps the simple solution is to run each position scene adjust 1t to the correct position for venue B and re record it The trigger times will vary depending on when you hit Spacebar in real time record mode Let us say that at 10 seconds and 20 frames into the song step 006 we want to run the Chevron pattern chase with the 2 VRXs and set them to open in red with no gobo 1 Highlight step 006 and press the Insert key three times this will insert three Null Steps in front of 1t We need these steps to contain the Chevron movement chase select the color and open the shutter When you insert steps in a Timed sequence the trigger time for these steps are set to the same time as the step before it by default 2 Select the Sequence panel on the right of the desk and drag the Scans Chevron Pattern chase sequence onto the new step 006 3 Select the scene panel on the right of the desk and drag the Scans Red button B042 onto step 007 4 Drag
18. sound event previously stored on sound event button 002 4 Drag and drop the sound event button anywhere in the sequence s bottom details display and it will be assigned to event step 001 as we are going to start the music first and then trigger lighting effects to that music at various times 5 Double click on the sequences yellow label in the top details display and re label it as Moving Lightshow The simple lighting and sound show that we created in Creating a Simple Show p 9 was manually operated which was appropriate for a theatrical type of show This next show however is different because we want the lighting effects to happen automatically at given points in the music For this we need to set the sequence Type to Timed so hold down Ctrl and right click once to the right of Type to change the sequence type from Manual to Timed We will assume that you are a solo artiste who sings along to backing tracks that you have saved as wave or mp3 files on your ShowMagic PC Each of your songs can be stored as a Timed sequence which contains a backing track to the song and lighting effects that automatically follow that backing track in the way that you have pre programmed them to In this way when performing you can concentrate on your singing the backing track playback and lighting take care of themselves Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 49 Timed Sequences Each step in a Timed sequence is triggered at a pre set tim
19. the Scans Full Bright button B090 onto step 008 We now need to set the trigger times for steps 006 007 to a second or so before we run the Scans Full Bright scene in step 008 so that the color wheel etc are in the right position when we open the shutter 5 Highlight sequence step 006 and press keys 9 2 0 Enter This will set that step s trigger time to 00 00 09 20 You will notice that when you press the digit keys they are entered from the right to the left of the trigger time In most cases you will want to only slightly adjust the trigger times 1 e the frame or seconds values so this system avoids the need for you to have to type the whole trigger time in such cases 6 Repeat step 5 above for sequence step 007 Both of these steps will then be triggered a second before the shutter is opened so the color wheel will already be in the Red position and the Chevron movement chase will have already started by the time the shutter is opened by TET sequence step 008 Null Step End Run the sequence and observe the effect The updated sequence steps 52 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial At 00 00 09 20 the Scans Chevron Pattern chase will be triggered and because it was set to slope with a chase speed of 60 one step per second the mirrors will move from their home position to the first Scans Chevron A position scene in the chase over 1 second You won t see this because the shutters have not yet been opened Also at 00 00
20. the first thing to do is unlock them so that we can then record shutter scenes for them 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Make sure that the F1 group is selected to group them then hold down Ctrl and double click on the shutter function fader for either of the two VRXs this will unlock them If the Gobo Wheel function button is still shown red tagged then right click on it to un tag it then shown blue right click on the Shutter function button to tag it then shown red and then press F1 to turn grouping off Click on the fourth page selector button on the scene panel to view scene numbers B073 to B096 this is where we will store the shutter scenes for the scanners Click on the first VRX Scan fixture fader 13 to highlight it and then click on its sixth function fader or the Shutter function button to select the shutter function Hold down Shift to call up the preset panel right click on the Blackout Full Bright Slow Strobe and Fast Strobe presets to turn them yellow Release the Shift key to remove the presets panel Click on the scene panel s Rec T button and then hold down Ctrl whilst clicking on scene number B073 The Scene Generator dialogue box will appear Enter Scan 1 as the Label Prefix S for Group and a for the Sub group Click on Generate and the four shutter scenes for the first scanner will be created on scene buttons B073 to B076 Highlight the shutter function for fixture fader 14 an
21. the sequence panel for storing gobo sequences for the scanners so click on page selector button 49 on the sequence panel 14 Right click on sequence button B049 to open it up 15 Drag and drop scene buttons B049 to B059 labelled Scans Gobo 1 etc in that order into the sequence 16 Hold down Ctrl and left click to the right of Type to change the sequence type from Manual to Chase 17 Double click on its yellow label and rename the sequence as Scans STL Gobo 18 Hold down Ctrl and right click ten times to the right of Grp to select main group G as this chase contains gobo scenes that affect both scanners 19 We will make the gobos on the scanners change to follow the high frequencies HF of the music so hold down Ctrl and right click five times to the right of Aud to change it from Off to HF 20 Select Opt Bounce for the chase 21 Right click anywhere in the bottom left of the sequence to close it You may want to create other color and gobo chases that change at a specific speed rather than following certain frequencies in the music and this is very simple to do 1 Drag and drop the Scans STL Gobo sequence button onto the empty sequence button below it B050 creating a copy of that sequence 2 Hold down Ctrl and left click five times to the right of Aud to change it from HF to Off We don t need to set the speed and slope of the chase here because as you will see this can be adjusted independently
22. to red and so on ShowMagic provides a much quicker and easier way of selecting presets for the currently highlighted function fader by means of a Preset panel To display the presets panel make sure that the fixture panel is on the left hand side of the desk click on the required function fader to highlight its value and then hold down the Shift key a Preset panel will then appear on the right hand side of the desk that contains preset buttons for the presets available for that function Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 29 Clicking on any of these preset buttons will then move that function fader to the correct value for that preset E g if you highlight the third Color function fader hold down Shift and then click on the preset button labelled Orange on the Preset panel then the color function fader will move to the value of 42 the correct value to produce orange To remove the presets panel simply take your finger off the Shift key We will be using the Preset panel to create the lighting scenes for the intelligent fixtures in our next automated moving lightshow But before we begin creating these scenes this is a good point at which to explain more about what happens when you are recording scenes in ShowMagic When you move any faders on the fixture panel by dragging them with the mouse or clicking on preset buttons on the Preset panel their values are shown in blue to indicate that they have been moved edited a
23. 09 20 the color wheels will be moved to the red position but you won t see this either as the shutters aren t yet open When step 008 is triggered at 00 00 10 20 to open the shutters Scans Full Bright the beams will be in red and the mirrors will start moving from their Scans Chevron A position to their Scans Chevron B position which will look correct If you wanted to start the movement chase at exactly the same time as the shutter was opened then there are a few things to consider a The mirrors on the scanners will be at their home position i e at values 00 usually down and to the left on most scanners before the chase is started because no scenes have yet been run to move them from this home position b When the chase is run by the sequence the mirrors will move to the first scene position in the chase i e Scans Chevron A and because the shutter is open you will see the beams move to this first position c Ifthe In Out setting for the chase event is set to Slope then the mirrors will take one second the chase speed to get from the home position to the first position scene in the chase d Ifthe In Out setting for the chase event is set to Instant then the mirrors will jump from their home position to the first Scans Chevron A position as quickly as they can but if the shutters are opened at the same time you will probably see this jump To avoid this you could drag and drop the Scans Chevron A scene in
24. 2 1 etc as this would trace the pattern up and then back down rather than the beams jumping from the third Chevron C position straight back down to the first Chevron A position This can be achieved by simply holding down the Ctrl key and right clicking twice to the right of Opt to change it from Down to Bounce The other options available are Up which runs up the sequence steps thus 3 2 1 3 2 1 etc and Random which means that the next step is picked randomly by ShowMagic each time Chase Speed and Slope Settings The 2 fader on the chase sequence panel is used to select how fast the steps in a chase sequence are triggered and as is customary with lighting desks this is given in beats per minute BPM The chase speed range is selectable from 10m that triggers the next step every 10 minutes for very slow and subtle changes such as architectural applications to 1500 BPM very hectic To alter the speed simply drag the fader to set the desired value and click on the Rec button below the faders which is highlighted in red automatically to record that change The 3 fader on the chase sequence panel is used to adjust the slope of the chase this ranges from 00 0 to FL 100 and it is a percentage of the chase speed again customary with lighting desks The slope of a chase sometimes called crossfade determines how smoothly the channel values change from one scene setting to the next and how long the channel values remain stati
25. 40 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 3 Type Scan 7 in the Label Prefix window and select C and a in the Group amp Sub windows respectively 4 Click on the Generate button and 8 scenes will then be generated on scene buttons B025 to B032 containing the 8 color Scan 1 White Scene A009 Scene A017 presets previously selected shown yellow sean Res scene A010 scene A018 on the preset panel Scan 1 Blue Scene A011 Scene A019 You will notice that each of the scenes is annie mabe cla meena ARAD also automatically labelled with the prefix Scan 1 Yellow Scene A013 Scene A021 Scan 1 followed by the name of the color canas MEN Scene A022 as seen on the preset buttons You will also see that the group setting for each of these scenes is set to Ca in the scene details Scan 1 Magenta Scene A016 Scene A024 display more on group settings later Scan 1 Pink Scene A015 Scene A023 5 Click on fixture fader 14 Scan 2 click on The scenes created by the Scene 1ts third function fader to select the color Generator function hold down Shift to call up the preset panel and check that the required presets are still turned yellow 6 Repeat steps 2 to 4 but record the scenes to scene button BO33 onwards use the Prefix Scan 2 select group letter C and select sub letter b We now have 8 color scenes for Scan 1 and 8 color scenes for Scan 2 Now we are going to create another 8 scenes that select colors on both scanners There are a couple of ways to d
26. Any of these event panels can be selected on either half of the virtual desk by clicking on the panel s selector tab at the top as shown below Master Panel Lighting Scene Sound Panel Monitor Panel Panel Fixture Panel Sequence Panel Control Panel Action Panel The panel selection tabs Basic Concepts 3 For consistency the various ShowMagic events on each of the event panels are all stored on event buttons On a new desk each button is initially empty until you record or load an event onto that button The following applies to all event buttons Labels can be typed onto these buttons to describe Scene A001 the event stored on it e g Front Lights at 50 could be used for describing a particular lighting scene event An empty event button Each type of event has it s own color You can tell from the color of the button what type of event is stored on it or if any event button is shown in grey then you know that the button is empty The colors used for the different types of event are as follows Red Lighting Scene events Orange Sound events Green Sequences Purple Lighting Chase sequences Blue Snapshots Cyan Control events e The size of the event buttons is optimised so that they are large enough for clicking on easily and for use with touch screens but of a size where 24 buttons can be accessed on the panel at any one time e With 24 event buttons available on an event panel there is not enough r
27. aders depicting Pan Coarse Tilt Coarse Color Wheel Gobo Wheel Gobo Rotate and Shutter The Fixture panel showing our There are two values displayed below each of these newly patched fixtures function faders the top value is a percentage 00 to FL and the one below that is the actual DMX value 000 to 255 Some people prefer to still work using the conventional percentage value while others prefer the new DMX value so both have been provided The mirror on the currently selected VRX scanner can be moved by either sliding each of the pan and tilt function faders up and down independently or alternatively by holding down the mouse button on the trackball graphic and dragging the mouse up and down to adjust the tilt fader and left and right to adjust the pan fader Similarly dragging the third color function fader up and down will select various colors dragging the gobo fader will select a beam shape dragging the gobo rotate fader will rotate the gobo shape and dragging the last shutter fader will adjust the brightness strobing of the beam So by moving these function faders you can position the beam select its color and change it s shape and alter it s brightness or make it strobe Functions have fixed preset values for colors gobos etc For instance if you drag the color function fader up to show a percentage value of 04 then the color white will be selected If you drag it up to a value of 10 then the color changes
28. agic User Manual along with much much more Next Steps This Beginner s Tutorial has been written to get you started with ShowMagic and introduces some of its methods of operation and features We have not even scratched the surface of what you can achieve with ShowMagic but it is all described in the manual so now is the time to start using that manual have fun 54 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial
29. another scene with the mirror positioned on the right you could drop these scenes into a lighting chase sequence and when you ran that chase it would constantly move the mirror left and right to the positions stored in each scene until the chase was stopped For our moving lightshow we will use the VRXs that we assigned to fixture faders 13 and 14 on our desk We will create a movement chase that uses both fixtures a color chase that uses the same colors on both fixtures and a gobo chase that uses the same gobos on both fixtures Normally a show s lighting designer would use the same type of fixtures in groups as they would then have exactly the same functions and presets Any make and model of intelligent DMX fixture can however be used together in ShowMagic but for this tutorial we will keep it simple Creating Position Scenes The FX generator can be used to create wave movement patterns and circle ellipse shapes see the User Manual for more information Our first chase in this tutorial however will be a 3 position chase that creates a criss crossing chevrons movement pattern by using 3 recorded position scenes in a lighting chase 32 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 1 2 3 4 5 6 Select the fixture panel on the left of the desk and the scene panel on the right by clicking on the appropriate fixture and scene tabs When recording scenes in the default Rec M recording mode any faders that have been moved wit
30. ar cans to record the forest scene to button A004 and label the scene Forest Scene Creating a Simple Show 13 Summary Drag the appropriate faders up on the fixture panel to create the desired lighting effect Click on the Rec M button on the scene panel to turn recording on the Rec M button will flash Click on a scene event button to record that lighting scene to that button Enter any fade in and fade out times and a descriptive label using the Edit Scene dialogue box We have now created the four scenes for our show The next step is to put the four scenes we have created into a show sequence Creating Sequence Steps 1 2 3 4 With the scene panel on the right hand side of the desk click on the sequence selector tab at the top left hand side of the desk los and the sequence panel will appear Highlight empty sequence button A009 and then click on the The sequence panel Edit button on the sequence panel This will Open Up that selector tab sequence button so that we can view its contents and the 24 sequence buttons will be replaced by a Live display in the middle of the panel and a Step Details display in the bottom of the panel where you can view edit the steps contained in that sequence The live display is there to show what step is due to be triggered next when running the sequence It cannot be edited it is there for reference only All the editing of sequence steps is do
31. at least familiar with DMX and their fixtures It is also assumed that the user is reasonably familiar with using menus dialogue boxes etc in Windows Mouse Commands click Click the left mouse button right click Click the right mouse button double click Click the left button twice in quick succession double right click Click the right button twice in quick succession drag Press and hold down the left mouse button on an item e g a fader and slide the mouse up or down To drag and drop an item from one place to another press and hold down the left mouse button on the item you wish to drag move the item to where you wish to put it and then let go of the button to drop it Style Conventions The following style conventions are used throughout the manual Ctrl Keys to be pressed on the keyboard e g press the key marked Ctrl Normal Non ShowMagic items e g names of devices RS232 input strings etc Italics Editable commands values labels and filenames Bold Faders buttons menu items and other non editable objects Bold Italic Non editable but selectable options Underline Fixed titles step numbers etc iv Where steps are given as part of an example they are shown 1 Step 1 2 Step 2 etc Similarly lists of the options or information available are shown a Option 1 b Option 2 etc The numeric keypad on the right of your keyboard can be used for setting chann
32. basic concepts briefly described we will now move on to create our first show 8 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial Section 3 Creating a Simple Show Setting up Conventional Lighting Fixtures Before you can begin programming your lightshow you need to first select what type of lighting fixtures you are using and set the DMX start addresses of those fixtures this is commonly known as Patching the desk The ShowMagic Patch Screen is used for this purpose 1 For this tutorial we will start with a new empty desk so run ShowMagic When it has loaded select the New Desk item from the File menu and then click on the OK button to confirm the clearing of the desk 2 Click on the Options Patch Screen menu item and the display will change to show the ShowMagic patch screen thus Pre Mn Mx Ind Inv Profile 3 Let us assume that we are creating a show that uses eight par cans commonly called conventional fixtures as they only use a single channel and these cans are connected to a DMX controllable dimmer pack Let us further assume that the eight par cans provide the four colors white yellow blue and green with one of each color being positioned on each side of the stage With this set up we can produce on either or both sides of the stage a night scene using the blue cans a forest scene using the green and white cans an interior scene using the white cans and a warm sunny scene using the yellow and whit
33. be controlled using the one DMX stream The second dimmer pack would then also constantly receive the values for all 512 DMX channels but it would only be interested in the values for its channels i e channels 009 to 016 As you can see there are distinct advantages to the DMX system over it s predecessor for controlling conventional single channel lighting instead of having to use a whole bunch of cables one for each channel numerous DMX devices such as dimmer packs can all be connected together using a single 3 core DMX control cable between each The real benefit of DMX however is realised with Intelligent fixtures Intelligent DMX Fixtures So far we have looked at using DMX to control the brightness of lamps connected to dimmer packs Today however there are numerous types of DMX fixtures available which are split into 4 main categories e Moving heads Scanners e Color Changers e Effects Lamps Moving Heads As the name suggests these fixtures have their lamp housed in a head which can be moved both horizontally called Pan by means of a turning yoke and vertically called Tilt by pivoting the head up and down on that yoke These allow you to position the beam left right up and down Depending on the make and model of moving head you can control the color of the beam on moving head Color Wash fixtures or the color of the beam and the shape of the beam and so on on moving head Spots or Profiles
34. beam on the extreme left and drag its tilt fader so that its beam is pointing upwards 34 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 17 Drag Scan 2 s pan fader to position its beam on the extreme right and drag its tilt fader so that its beam is pointing upwards 18 Click on the Rec T button on the scene panel click on the next empty scene button B019 to store that position scene 19 Use the Edit Scene dialogue box to label it as Scans Chevron C and set its Group to P We now have 3 position scenes for both the VRXs with which we can create our criss crossing chevron pattern Creating a Movement Chase To use the position scenes to produce a smooth continuous pattern running at a constant speed we can create a lighting Chase as follows 1 2 3 4 5 6 With the scene panel on the right of the desk select the sequence panel on the left The position scenes are stored on bank B page 1 of the scene panel so it is logical to store any movement sequences on the same bank and page on the sequence panel Click on Bank B page 1 on the sequence panel highlight button B001 and then click on the Edit button to open up that sequence Drag and drop the Scans Chevron A B and C scene buttons into sequence steps 001 002 and 003 respectively Hold down the Ctrl key and left click on the Manual item shown to the right of Type in the sequence details display This changes the type of sequence from a manual sequence to a Chase
35. c at their recorded scene values before changing to their next recorded value The easiest way to describe the relationship between chase speed and slope is by example so here are some examples using our Chevron Pattern movement chase e Ifaspeed of 60 BPM 1 second and a slope value of 00 are selected this will make the beams jump as quickly as possible to the next scene position every second There is no slope e Ifaspeed of 60 BPM and a slope of 50 are selected the beams will move smoothly to the next scene position over half a second 50 of 1 second remain static at that scene position for half a second 50 of a second before moving smoothly to the next scene position over half a second and so on e Ifa speed of 60 BPM and a slope value of FL 100 are selected the beams will move smoothly to the next scene position over one second then instantly start moving smoothly to the next scene position over one second and so on 1 e the full duration of the speed setting is used for sloping they do not remain static they just keep moving smoothly between scene positions 36 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial Ifaspeed of 15 BPM 4 seconds and a slope value of 75 are selected the beams will move smoothly to the next scene position over 3 seconds 75 of 4 seconds remain static at that scene position for one second 25 of 4 seconds then move smoothly to the next scene position over 3 seconds and so on e Ifaspeed of 15 BPM a
36. cene the first scene will fade out using whatever Out times you have set for that scene as the second scene fades in using whatever In times you have set for that scene 13 Press the Spacebar key again step 003 Night Scene will be triggered and thus highlighted in the live display and you will see the faders move from the Forest Scene settings to the Night Scene settings 14 Press the Spacebar key again step 004 Sunny Scene will be triggered and you will see the faders move from the Night Scene settings to the Sunny Scene settings Creating a Simple Show 15 15 Press Spacebar once more step 005 End will be triggered Now because this is the last non empty step in the sequence this tells ShowMagic to end the sequence so as soon as the previous step the Sunny Scene event has finished fading out the sequence stops Lets recap on what happened when we ran the Manual sequence e The sequence started when you pressed Spacebar and the first step was triggered ShowMagic then waited for you to press Spacebar again or click on the top half of the big green Go button to trigger the next step and so on until the last step was triggered then it stopped When a step containing a lighting scene was triggered the lighting scene contained in the previous step was turned off e As each scene was triggered the faders moved from their current settings to the new settings as stored in the latest scene and any fade in an
37. ck anywhere in the Shutter function fader s area this will Lock that function and it s values will be displayed in white to indicate that it is locked The Shutter function will now remained locked at that position on both VRXs because they were grouped when one of them was locked until you hold down Ctrl and double click on them again to unlock them As we are now running in Rec T recording mode you need to tag what fixture functions you want to be recorded to the scenes so whilst the two VRXs are still grouped right click on the Pan Coarse and Tilt Coarse function buttons in the centre of the fixture panel to turn them red the buttons of tagged functions are shown in red the buttons for un tagged functions remain in blue when the Rec T recording mode is being used 7 Press the F1 key again to turn off the group because we now want to move their mirrors independently 8 Click on the 1 function fader in the bottom of the fixture panel pan function this we will refer to as selecting the function and drag it up or down so that Scan 1 s beam is positioned on the extreme left 9 Drag the second tilt function fader up or down so that its beam is pointing downwards 10 In the same way as above select Scan 2 by clicking on its fixture fader and then drag its pan and tilt faders so that its mirror is positioned down and to the right 11 For easy access scene buttons are arranged in banks labelled A B C
38. clicking on the required presets to turn them yellow selects those presets for the scene generator and holding down Ctrl when recording a scene to a scene button calls up the scene generator Exclusive letters can be applied to scenes or other events so that events in the same group are automatically turned off in sequences Exclusive letter sub groups e g Aa Ab can be applied to event steps Aas turn off other Aas but not Abs etc but A turns off all other steps set to A and any A sub groups Aa to Az The next thing we need to do is create the gobo scenes for the VRXs 1 2 3 4 5 6 On the scene panel select bank B and the third page containing scene numbers B049 to B072 the page button is marked with the gobo icon that we applied to it earlier Highlight fixture fader 13 on the fixture panel Scan 1 then click anywhere on its fourth function fader to select the gobo channel If the Color Wheel function button is still tagged on the VRXs then press F1 to group both VRXs right click on the Color Wheel button to un tag it right click on the Gobo Wheel function button to tag that instead then press F1 again to un group the VRXs Hold down the Shift key to call up the preset panel and right click on the 8 gobo presets labelled Gobo1 to Gobo 8 Release the Shift key click on the Rec T button hold down Ctrl and click on scene button B049 The scene generator dialogue box will then appear E
39. d fade out times set on the scene panel for those scene events were used to determine how fast the faders moved between those settings Sequence Step Settings For each sequence step in the step details display there are group action and trigger settings shown in blue to the right of the event labels which default to XT In and Go until they are changed XT The group setting determines how this event when triggered affects any previous events that are running in the sequence In The action setting determines how this event comes on or goes off Go The trigger setting determines what triggers that step You can left or right click on any of the sequence step settings whilst holding down the Ctrl key to change them XT This group setting is short for eXclusive Type If an event step is set to this then when it is triggered in the sequence it will turn off any other events of the same event type that are running in that sequence i e if this step contains a lighting scene it will automatically turn off any other previous lighting scenes that may be running in that sequence This eliminates the need to have two steps in a sequence for each event i e one step to turn it on and another step further on to turn it off For this show we only want one lighting scene running at any one time so XT is fine and we do not need to concern ourselves with the alternative group settings at this time These will be described i
40. d repeat steps 5 and 6 above but using the Label Prefix Scan 2 Group S Sub group b and record them to scenes B081 to B084 Press F1 to group the two VRXs make sure the shutter function is selected on either one of fixture faders 13 or 14 and repeat steps 5 and 6 above but using the Label Prefix Scans Group S Sub group Off and record them to scenes B089 to B092 Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 45 The presets panel and scene generator provide a quick and easy way of recording scenes The presets panel offers a number of preset values but if you want to select a different value for a fixture s function then you can move the function fader manually before recording a scene For instance the presets Blackout Full Bright Slow Strobe and Fast Strobe are available on the presets panel for the VRX s shutter function but you may want to record a scene that sets the brightness to say 50 The easiest way to do this is to call up the presets panel click on the Blackout preset button and note the DMX value that the function fader is moved to 000 Next click on the Full Bright preset button and note the DMX value that this selects 128 It logically follows that a value in between the two 64 will produce 50 brightness so now you can slide the fader up manually to that value or any other brightness level that you require and record it We now have most of the scenes we need to use the VRX scanners in our show apart from any other
41. dards like DMX Pulsar s PMX and Strand s D54 came along you had to use a number of lines from a lighting controller to a dimmer unit to control the brightness of the lights connected to that dimmer unit in fact you needed a control line for each lighting channel Therefore if you wanted to control 8 different channels of lighting you would have needed 8 separate control lines The controller would then alter the voltage on each of these control lines between OV and 10V Strand used OV to 10V instead If the control voltage on line 1 was 0V then the brightness of the lights connected to the first output on the dimmer pack would be 0 off altering the voltage to 5V would bring the brightness of the lights on that channel up to 50 10V would output 100 brightness and so on with all the levels in between Using DMX a single control cable can control up to 512 different lighting channels A DMX cable is currently made up of 3 wires One carries the positive control signal commonly referred to as DMX HOT another is used for the return signal DMX COLD and the third is the shield called GROUND Blocks of 512 pieces called bytes of information are constantly being sent from the DMX controller down the DMX control cable Each byte is used to provide a value for each DMX channel Byte 1 the value for channel 1 byte 2 the value for channel 2 and so on up to byte 512 the value for channel 512 T
42. e cans The patch screen The show will run thus scene 1 interior scene 2 forest scene 3 night scene 4 sunny day end 4 Click on the first fixture fader row 001 under the Fdr column in the top left of the patch screen and it will be highlighted in red thus Fdr Fixs Label Fixture Type 001 The first fixture fader row selected 5 Click on the Library button and select Make Generic Lamp Model Par Can using the drop down menus on the Fixture Library dialogue box The yellow label Par Can will then be seen under the Label and Fixture Type columns for the first fader row 001 Highlight the next row down 002 and repeat the above to add another par can to the desk Creating a Simple Show 9 6 Repeat step 5 until you have eight par cans assigned to fixture faders 001 to 008 There is a much quicker way than this to assign multiple fixtures on the patch screen as described in the relevant section of the User Manual but this is the simplest method to learn first 7 We will order the fixture faders so that the left and right white par cans are assigned to fixture faders 001 and 002 the yellow cans are on 003 and 004 the blue cans are on 005 and 006 and the green cans are on 007 and 008 8 We can apply descriptive names to these fixtures rather than just using Par Can so to change the labels simply double click on the yellow label and an Enter Label dialogue box will appear type in the new label f
43. e referenced from the START of that sequence When you start a Timed sequence the first step is triggered and a clock displaying Hours Minutes Seconds and Frames 00 00 00 00 is started The next steps are then triggered at times selected for them in that sequence and events can be triggered to an accuracy of 1 frame one frame one 25 of a second The duration for a Timed sequence can be anything from frame 00 00 00 01 to 23 Hours 59 minutes 59 seconds and 24 frames 23 59 59 24 i e a whole day It is seldom that such a short or such a long sequence duration are required but the options are there if you need them Up to 999 event steps can be stored in a sequence Each step can have its own independent trigger time and more than one step can be set to the same trigger time Setting Trigger Times in Timed Sequences There are a number of ways you can create steps in a Timed sequence and set the trigger times for those steps You can a Drag and drop events into the sequence and manually type in the trigger times for each of those steps b Drag and drop events into the sequence and then record the trigger times in Real time Record mode for each of those steps by tapping Spacebar at the right times whilst listening to the music contained in event step 001 c Automatically insert Null Steps with their trigger times at the bottom of a sequence by tapping Spacebar at the right times whilst listening to the music in Rea
44. els and entering values for faders etc The Num Lock key should be used to ensure that Num Lock is kept on at all times Times Where timings are used with ShowMagic events these timings are in the following format Hours Minutes Seconds and Frames shown thus HH MM SS FF a frame being 1 25 of a second shown from 00 to 24 e g 12 frames equals half a second Where HH are the hours MM are the minutes SS are the seconds and FF are the frames e g 09 08 07 06 9 hours 8 minutes 7 seconds and 6 frames Where hours or hours and minutes are not appropriate the timings MM SS FF and SS FF respectively are used Section 1 Introduction This Beginner s Tutorial is designed to introduce the fundamentals of ShowMagic show control programming step by step The ShowMagic User Manual describes all the functions and features of ShowMagic in detail Lighting terms such as Patching Chases etc are briefly explained for the benefit of users who are not yet familiar with lighting control The Beginner s Tutorial is divided into the following sections Basic Concepts Introduces the basic concepts of ShowMagic and its user interface Creating a Simple Show Explains how to set up conventional single channel lighting fixtures par cans fresnels etc in ShowMagic and provides step by step instructions for creating a simple show using conventional lighting and using sound effects and music Creating an Automated Moving
45. en the scene is fading in or out 11 An event button s number e g A007 is used as the initial default label on the scene button until it is renamed It is obviously much better to use a more descriptive label for each event so you can edit the label on any event button in the following way Click on the event button to highlight it and its details can be seen in the details display The top line shows the events number e g A001 in that event s color red for scenes with it s current label e g Scene A007 shown next to it in yellow 12 Click anywhere in the details display and the Edit Scene dialogue box will appear Type in the new label e g Interior Scene in the box to the right of Label and then click on the Enter button That new label will then appear on that scene event button Please Note It is good practice to label as you go Each time you create an event you should label it straight away otherwise after creating maybe dozens of different events you could easily forget what each button does 13 Follow steps 1 12 above again but this time using faders 1 2 3 and 4 white and yellow par cans to record the scene to button A002 for the sunny scene and label the scene Sunny Scene 14 Repeat steps 1 12 using faders 5 and 6 blue par cans to record the scene to button A003 for the night scene and label the scene Night Scene 15 Repeat steps 1 12 one more time using faders 1 2 7 and 8 white and green p
46. ends The above can be broken down into five lighting changes e White scene 1 on e White and green scene 1 off scene 2 on e Blue scene 2 off scene 3 on e White and yellow scene 3 off scene 4 on Stage lighting fades down to black scene 4 off And two audio changes e Background music Sound event 1 e Cash till Sound event 2 So in total for the above we have 7 events Using ShowMagic if you had all these different events stored on event buttons you could run that show by simply double clicking on the appropriate event buttons to start and stop the events at the appropriate times in the show Though this facility can be quite useful in most shows the running order of the events is usually predetermined so a more elegant and efficient solution is provided to make it much easier to control a show This is where ShowMagic Sequences come into play ShowMagic Sequences A ShowMagic Manual sequence or Timed sequence is simply a series of ShowMagic events stored as a cue list with step numbers step 001 step 002 step 003 etc 6 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial When the sequence is started the event in step 001 is run followed by the event in step 002 and so on down the list until it has no events left to run The main difference between a Manual sequence and a Timed sequence is that a Manual sequence is controlled manually i e you tell it when to run the next step in that sequence whereas in a Timed sequence each st
47. ent type XT Exclusive Type When this step is triggered it turns off any other events of the same type that are running in that sequence There are other group settings available and these are described in Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow p 25 Action In Fades the event in using any In setting set for it On Turns the event on instantly ignoring any fade in settings Fades the event out using any Out setting set for it Off Turns the event off instantly ignoring any fade out settings Trigger Go Triggered by clicking on the top half of the green Go button or pressing Spacebar After the previous step is triggered this waits for the time set in seconds and frames before triggering itself automatically This is short for Follow On If a step is set to this then the step will wait for the previous step if it is a lighting scene event to complete its fade in before automatically triggering If the previous step is a sound event it waits for that sound event to end before automatically triggering Section 4 Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow Before we start creating our next more complex show using multi channel intelligent lighting fixtures we will describe the basics of the DMX system for the benefit of those users who are not familiar with it It is much easier to set up and program intelligent fixtures with a basic understanding of how DMX works What is DMX Before new lighting stan
48. ep is triggered automatically at a pre determined time selected by you Manual sequences are best suited for theatrical type applications the ShowMagic operator may have to wait for a performer to be ready on stage before they can trigger the next event in the sequence We will be using a Manual sequence in Section 2 Creating a Simple Show Timed sequences are ideally suited to automated shows such as presentations at exhibitions product launches and museum exhibits etc Another ideal application is for live performers solo artists duos or bands who use backing tracks or click tracks in their performances The songs or sets of songs can be stored as Timed sequences and with the press of a button to start the sequence a lightshow can be perfectly synchronised to the backing track This is what we will be doing in Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow p 25 A Chase is another type of ShowMagic sequence Chases are generally used for running lighting scenes and they differ from other sequences because rather than running down the steps once and then stopping they are used to run the steps continuously over and over again in a chosen order until the chase sequence is told to stop We will also use chases in Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow p 25 The last two types of sequences are Snapshot and Random These are not covered in this tutorial but are fully described in the User Manual Basic Concepts 7 With these
49. for automated lightshows 30 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial Summary An intelligent fixture uses multiple DMX channels Each channel is used to control a certain function color gobo etc When patching a fixture you only enter the start address as ShowMagic allocates the subsequent channels for all its functions When a fixture fader is highlighted its function faders appear in the bottom of the fixture panel Percentage and DMX values are displayed for each function Each function has preset values e g 10 Red 20 Blue etc Presets can be selected by either sliding the fader to the correct value or by clicking on preset buttons on the preset panel that appears when you hold down the Shift key The values for any faders that are moved are stored in a scene when that scene is recorded using the Record Moved recording mode indicated by the label Rec M on the record button Recording Scenes for Intelligent Fixtures In Creating a Simple Show p 9 we recorded four basic lighting scenes to achieve various lighting effects on stage This was quite simple as we only needed one lighting effect for all the conventional fixtures on the stage at any one time so one scene replaced another as they were run in the sequence Creating a lightshow with intelligent fixtures is a different matter however because intelligent fixtures have more than one function pan tilt color gobo etc you are not just altering brightne
50. ghlighted type in 3 0 0 on the keyboard and this will set the seconds and frames digits to the left of Wait to 03 00 This step will then wait for 3 seconds after the previous step has been triggered before triggering itself automatically If you now run the sequence again all the events in our show will be triggered and will come on and off exactly as we wanted 22 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial Click the Edit button on the sequence panel to close the sequence and the Live and Step Details displays will be replaced by the normal sequence buttons display Creating a Simple Show 23 Summary Load the music sound effects you require onto sound event buttons using the sound panel Set any fade in and fade out times for these events in the details display on the sound panel Adjust the volume and stereo pan sliders on the sound panel for each sound event Drag and drop the sound event buttons into the sequence steps if you need to insert any type of event between two existing steps in a sequence then highlight the latter of the two steps press Insert to insert a Null Step and then drop the event into that Null Step Adjust the group action and trigger settings for each step to achieve the desired effect by holding down the Ctrl key and then left or right clicking on these settings to select the appropriate setting Group EX Exclusive Turns off any other events in that sequence irrespective of its ev
51. h the mouse values shown bright blue will be recorded in a scene This mode is not ideal if you want to record separate scenes for position gobo etc because the beam will need to be on shutter open in order to see the beam when recording position scenes but you won t want that open shutter setting saved as part of those position scenes The Rec T Record Tagged faders recording mode is a much better mode to use in this case as you can tag what function faders you want recorded to scenes and any un tagged faders are not recorded irrespective of whether they have been moved or not To select Rec T mode simply right click on the cue panel s record button and select Record Tagged from the pop up menu You will notice that the function preset buttons will now be colored blue this is another indication that you have selected Rec T record tagged functions recording mode Click on fixture fader number 13 in the top half of the fixture panel this we will refer to as selecting the fixture Scan 1 s function faders will then appear in the bottom half of the panel As we will be using the VRXs together we can group them using the group keys F1 to F8 refer to the User Manual for a full description of the group feature When fixtures are included in a group and the group is turned on anything you do to one fixture in that group is also applied to all other fixtures in that group Press the F1 key to select group F1 shown in the
52. hat sound event For this sound effect we will assume that the cash till prop is on the right of stage so drag the pan slider down to the bottom stereo right position and this will make that sound effect play on the right If you wanted it to play on the left of the stage then drag the pan slider up to the top stereo left position We now have our two sound events ready to use in our show Adding Sound Events to a Sequence The main criteria that were used in designing the ShowMagic software interface were Speed Simplicity Consistency and Versatility With this in mind how do you think you put sound events into a sequence You ve got it you simply drag and drop the sound event button from the sound event panel into the step details display of the sequence in exactly the same way as you did for lighting scene events If we were putting the sound events at the end of our show sequence we could simply drag and drop their buttons into any empty space at the bottom of the step details display on the sequence panel but in this case we wish to put the Show Music sound event right at the start of the sequence so we will need to shift all the events down by one step to make step 001 empty so that we can put the Show Music sound event into that step This is done in the following way 1 Click on the first step which currently contains the Interior Scene event to highlight it 2 Press the Insert key and this will insert a Null Step int
53. he eight fixture faders containing par can icons in the top half of the panel The other faders 9 12 are shown black because no fixtures have been assigned to them The fixture The fixture faders are used for controlling the fixtures that we have patched panel selector on the patch screen tab Ignore the bottom half of the fixture panel for the moment as this is used for multi channel fixtures described later in Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow p 25 Although you can select the fixture panel on the right hand side of the desk as well as on the left there are features that are only available with the fixture panel selected on the left hand side more on this later If you click on the lighting scene tab on the RIGHT HAND side of the desk the lighting scene panel will appear Let s now create the scenes for awa the interior forest night and sunny scenes in our show The lighting scene panel selector tab 1 Click on the first leftmost fader on the left hand side fixture panel and the label White Left will be shown in the display in the middle of the fixture panel This is now the currently selected fixture fader 2 Drag the fader up to the top using the mouse and FL will be shown in the box below that fader FL is short for Full or 100 brightness The left hand of the stage would now be illuminated in white at full brightness 3 Drag the second fader labelled White Right
54. he value for each channel can be any integer between 0 and 255 To compare this to its OV to 10V predecessor the highest value 255 like the highest control voltage 10V tells the dimmer pack to output maximum brightness the lowest value 0 tells the dimmer pack to output minimum brightness and so on In the previous section we used an eight channel dimmer pack with its DMX start address i e it s first DMX channel set to 001 to control eight different par cans that were connected to it The brightness of the par can connected to the first output was controlled by DMX channel 1 the second by DMX channel 2 and so on The DMX cable constantly supplied the dimmer pack with the stream of values for channels 001 to 512 The circuitry in the dimmer pack however knows that it is an 8 channel device and that its first start address channel is 001 Therefore the dimmer pack is only interested in the values for the first 8 DMX channels 001 to 008 and ignores the rest of the channels 009 to 512 If you wanted to connect another 8 channel dimmer pack to get 16 different lighting channels you could set this second dimmer pack s start address to the next free channel 1 e 009 You could then connect the two dimmer packs together in a daisy chain using another DMX cable taken from the Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 25 DMX OUT socket of the first pack into the DMX IN plug on the second and then both dimmer packs could
55. ht of the patch screen and then type the address in the Enter DMX Address dialogue box that appears Alternatively you can highlight the first fader row press the asterisk key on your keyboard then type in the DMX address e g 6 and press Enter The key is used to mean at so typing the command 6 Enter means patch the currently highlighted fixture at DMX address 6 The address range 006 006 will then be shown in the display at the top right of the patch screen The reason why two values are shown here is because intelligent lighting fixtures can use more than one DMX channel i e if a fixture that used 4 DMX channels was patched to DMX start address 1 then 001 004 would be shown but more on DMX and multiple channel fixtures later For now we are just using single channel fixtures 12 Click on the rest of the fader rows and repeat the step above for each fixture to enter the appropriate DMX addresses 10 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 13 With the eight fixtures now assigned to ShowMagic faders labelled with descriptive names and patched to their correct DMX addresses we can use them to create the lighting scenes for our show so click on the Options Main Screen menu item to exit the patch screen and go back to the main desk screen Creating the Lighting Scenes If you click on the fixture panel selector tab on the LEFT HAND side of Song the desk the fixture panel will appear and you will see t
56. ically change the colors and gobos on the scanners to follow different frequencies in the music rather than running at a set BPM speed so we need to first create some chases for them but first make sure the Sound To Light item on the Options gt General Settings gt Enable dialogue box is ticked to enable the STL features 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The way that most color and gobo wheels work is Select the sequence panel on the left hand side of the desk and the scene panel on the right Click on bank selector button B on the scene panel and page selector button 25 this is where the color scenes are stored The scenes for the scanners are stored on bank B so it is logical to use bank B on the sequence panel for storing sequences for the scanners Click on bank selector button B on the sequence panel and page selector button 25 Highlight sequence button B025 and then click on the Edit button to open up the sequence Alternatively you can just right click on the button to open it up which is quicker Drag and drop scene buttons B041 to B048 labelled Scans White to Scans Pink in that order into the sequence Hold down Ctrl and left click to the right of Type to change the sequence type from Manual to Chase Double click on its yellow label and rename the sequence as Scans STL Color STL being short for Sound To Light Hold down Ctrl and right click six times to the right of Grp to select ma
57. imed sequence and sets its trigger time to the maximum time of 23 59 59 24 The reason for this is that a Timed sequence needs an End step at the end as a time marker for when to stop the sequence When recording in real time mode ShowMagic has no idea how long the Timed sequence should last for that is up to you so it sets the last step to the maximum time which you can then change to the correct time later Click on the sequence panel Go button and the sequence will start The music will play and the four scenes will be triggered at the recorded times You will notice that as each scene is triggered it turns off the previous scene in the sequence this is because they are set to XT the default setting as described earlier You will also notice that they all fade in over second as set on the scene panel and because they are set to fade in they are also automatically faded out using their Out times when they are turned off by the next scene that is triggered and set to XT Let s assume that in this sequence we want these scenes to fade in and out over half a second We can do this because of the way in which ShowMagic stores the information for each event in a sequence when an event is dropped onto a sequence step a pointer to the event is stored in that step but a copy of the events In Out settings etc at the time it was dropped into the sequence is also stored in that step This means that we can adjust certain event settings to deter
58. imply clicking on the top half of the Go button or pressing Spacebar Creating Sound Events We now have a sequence for a simple light show in which each lighting scene on the stage can be changed by simply pressing the Spacebar key to start the sequence and trigger the first event step and then pressing it again each time we want to trigger the next lighting scene event in the sequence That s the light show finished but we can also include any sound events music sound effects etc that we want in that sequence Let us assume that we want to start the show with some music and at the chosen time we want this music to fade out as the first lighting scene nterior LIA Scene fades up Also halfway through this first scene we wish to play the sound effect of a cash till being rung At the end of the show the last scene Sunny Scene fades down and the show ends We will use the Mood2 The sound MIDI file sample as the music and the Cash1 wave file sample that are both panel selector provided with ShowMagic tab 18 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 1 Click on the sound panel selector tab in the top right hand side of the desk 2 The sound event panel will then be selected 3 Click on an empty grey sound event button such as Snd 007 to highlight it and then double click on the MIDI file selector button 4 ALoad Midifile file selector box will then appear 5 Click on the file called Mood2 mid to highlight it and then click kor
59. in group C as this chase contains color scenes that affect both scanners We will make the colors on the scanners change to follow the low frequencies LF of the music so hold down Ctrl and right click twice to the right of Aud to change it from Off to LF that they have a start position and a stop position they cannot spin round and round in one direction For instance on a color wheel the first position The sequence details display tends to be White no color the next position Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 47 might be Red the next Blue etc when the wheel is turned to its last color position Pink for instance there is a physical limiter that stops it turning any further in that direction So if the wheel was in the last Pink position and you wanted to select Red the wheel would have to spin back through all the other colors to get to Red this can look messy To avoid this happening in a color chase select Opt Bounce for that chase By using Bounce all the colors cycle backwards and forwards in the right order on the wheel Hold down Ctrl and right click twice to the right of Opt to select Bounce 11 Close the Scans STL Color chase sequence by either clicking on the Edit button shown red or by right clicking anywhere in the bottom left of the panel 12 Click on page selector button 49 on the scene panel this is where the gobo scenes are stored 13 Again it is logical to use the same bank and page on
60. is on the left hand side of the desk you can press the Spacebar key instead of clicking on the Go button Creating a Simple Show 17 Summary e Create the lighting scenes needed for the show using the fixture panel on the left hand side of the desk and the scene panel on the right Select the sequence panel on the left hand side of the desk and click on an empty sequence event button to highlight it Click on the Edit button on the sequence panel to open up the currently highlighted sequence Drag and drop the lighting scene event buttons from the scene panel into the bottom step details display on the sequence panel in the correct order in which you wish them to be run within that sequence Click on any empty step at the bottom of the step details display and press the Insert key to insert an End step at the end of the sequence this is used to mark the end of the show Check that the group setting for each scene event step is set to XT the default each scene when triggered will then turn off the previous scene automatically Check that the action setting for each scene event step is set to In the default each scene will then fade in and fade out using the In and Out times set for it when it is triggered and when it is turned off by the next scene event step Check that the trigger setting for each scene event step is set to Go the default the sequence can then be run and each step triggered in turn by s
61. k on the empty 13 fixture fader row 013 under the Fdr column on the left of the patch screen to highlight it in red Fixture faders are arranged in pages of 12 on the fixture panel so by assigning our VRXs to faders 13 amp 14 they are placed on the second page of fixtures on the fixture panel Click on the Library button and select Make Abstract Model VRX Scan This will assign a VRX scanner to fader 013 Change its label from VRX Scan to Scan 1 If you look in the bottom right display of the patch screen you will see that the VRX possesses six functions Pan Coarse Tilt Coarse Color Wheel Gobo Wheel Gobo Rotate and Shutter We will assume that the first VRX fixture is physically set to DMX address 010 You will need to check the manual supplied with whatever intelligent fixtures you are using to learn how to set the DMX start addresses on those fixtures as they all tend to differ depending on the manufacturer So with the fader still highlighted type 1 0 Enter to patch that highlighted fixture at DMX address 010 010 015 will then be shown under DMX Address in the top right display of the patch screen to indicate that the fixture now uses DMX channels 010 to 015 in ShowMagic The first Pan Coarse function on the fixture uses channel 010 the second Tilt Coarse function uses channel 011 and so on Click on the empty 14 fixture fader row 014 under the Fdr column to highlight it in red Using the Library button select Make
62. l time Record mode then drop the desired events onto those Null Steps later d Double click on any step s time digits whilst holding down Ctrl to set that steps trigger time to the same as the previous step e Mix and match all of the above Using the Real Time Record function 1 With the Moving Lightshow sequence button highlighted on the left hand side of the desk click on the Edit button to open up the sequence so we can view its contents 2 Click on the Rec button the button will then flash to show that the currently highlighted Timed sequence is in record mode 3 Press Spacebar or click on the green Go button the first step Show Music will be then be triggered The music will play and the timer will start 4 Further presses of Spacebar at the desired times in the music will then insert a Null Step in the next empty step and the time at which Spacebar was pressed will be set as its trigger time 50 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 5 Keep pressing Spacebar to insert Null Step s at times within the music where you want a lighting effect to occur until you have about 10 Null Steps 6 Click on the Stop button to stop the sequence amp come out of record mode Select the scene panel on the right hand side of the desk and drag and drop scene buttons A001 to A004 onto steps 002 to 005 You will notice that when using real time record mode ShowMagic automatically creates an End step at the end of the T
63. mine how that event behaves within that particular sequence 1 Highlight the second step in the sequence the nterior Scene Hold down Shift and the 2 and 3 faders at the top right of the sequence panel will change into red scene fade in and fade out sliders 2 Left click on the value below the 2 fade in slider to decrement the value by half a second and display a value of 0 and do likewise for the 3 fade out fader The fade times for scenes in sequences can be adjusted in increments of seconds and half seconds half seconds being denoted by a decimal point e g 1 second is shown as 01 whereas 1 5 seconds is shown as 01 and so on The sequence step faders 3 Repeat steps 1 to 2 above for the other scenes in the sequence All these scenes will then fade in and out more quickly when they are run If you wanted any of the scenes to come on and go off instantly rather than using the fade times then highlight the step hold down Ctrl and right click once on the In setting to change it to On fade times for that step will then be ignored it comes on instantly Alternatively you could set its fade in and out times to 00 by dragging down the two fade in and fade out sliders faders as described above Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 51 Because ShowMagic stores a pointer to the event button in the sequence step if you change that event on its panel or re record it it is that new event that will be used in any
64. mpty scene button B041 where you want the recorded scenes to start The Scene Generator dialogue box will then appear 4 Type Scans in the Label Prefix window and select C in the Group window leaving the Sub window set to Off 5 Click on the Generate button and 8 scenes will then be generated on scene buttons BO25 to B032 containing the 8 color presets for both scanners previously selected on the preset panel Each of these scenes will also have their Grp setting set to C Exclusive Letter Group Grp Settings Now is a good time to explain exclusive letter groups In Creating a Simple Show p 9 the group settings XT and EX were explained the XT setting causes the event to turn off any other events of its own type that may be running within that sequence and the EX setting causes the event to turn off all other events in that sequence irrespective of their type Exclusive group letters are an extension of this logic Quite simply any events set to exclusive group letter A will turn off other events set to A irrespective of their event type any events set to B will turn off any other events set to B and so on Similarly events set to A will not affect other events set to any other group letters such as B C and so on We can use the exclusive letter settings very effectively to differentiate between color scenes gobo scenes etc For example step 001 of a sequence contains a color scene set to C step 002 contains a gobo scene se
65. n Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow p 25 16 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial In With the action for this event step set to In the event when triggered will come on using any fade in times set for it In the case of the Interior Scene lighting scene the faders will slide smoothly to the settings recorded in that scene event over a period of 2 seconds Which is what we want for this show You could change this setting to On in which case the scene would come on instantly ignoring any fade in times set for it but we don t want that in this first show so leave it set to In When the next event step in the sequence containing a scene and set to XT is triggered then the earlier Interior Scene lighting scene will use its fade out settings to fade out rather than go off instantly when it is told to stop by the next scene event step This is because ShowMagic assumes that if you have set an event step to fade In then you will also want it to fade out when it is stopped in the sequence which we do in this show and which is true in most cases You can however override this by creating another sequence step later in the sequence that contains the Interior Scene but with its action set to Off Go If the trigger setting for a sequence step is set to Go then ShowMagic will wait for you to either click on the top half of the big green Go button on the sequence panel to start this next step or alternatively if the sequence panel
66. nd a slope value of 25 are selected the beams will move smoothly to the next scene position over 1 second 25 of 4 seconds remain static at that scene position for 3 seconds 75 of 4 seconds then move smoothly to the next scene position over 1 second and so on So in simple terms the chase speed determines the time taken between scene changes the next step being triggered and the slope determines what percentage of that time is spent in getting there Run the chase and you can adjust the speed and slope faders on the fly to view the effect Thus far we have opened the shutter functions for the two scanners we are using so that we can see their beams moved the beams to specific positions stored those positions as position scenes dropped those position scenes into a sequence changed the sequence Type to a lighting Chase set the order in which the steps position scenes in that chase are triggered set the speed of the chase and set the slope of the chase We now have a lighting chase sequence that moves the scanner s mirrors in a specific way to achieve a criss crossing chevron pattern at a specific speed Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 37 Summary e Position gobo color scenes etc for fixtures or groups of fixtures should be recorded separately These can then be mixed and matched in different sequences Position scenes can be dropped into a chase sequence to provide constant movement of the pan
67. nd therefore their settings would be stored in a ShowMagic lighting scene when you record it The settings for any faders that have not been moved the ones with their values shown in dark yellow are not stored as part of that scene Please Note The above is true when the default setting Rec M Record Moved faders is displayed on the record button on the scene panel Refer to the User Manual for alternative settings for the record button When you run a scene it is only the faders that have been recorded in the scene that are moved to their recorded settings and their values are shown in bright yellow to indicate that they have been moved by a running scene cued The other faders on the desk are not affected they are left alone If you were to run two lighting scenes and then record a new scene this new scene will contain the settings for all the faders that were moved by the two running scenes This is because any faders that are moved either by dragging or selecting presets values shown in bright blue or moved by any running scenes values shown in bright yellow are recorded to a new scene In other words if a faders value is shown in a bright color blue or yellow its setting will be stored in a scene when you record it in the Rec M recording mode Any faders with values shown in a dark color blue or yellow will not be stored when a scene is recorded The next section explains the best programming practices to use in ShowMagic
68. ne channel is used to control the pan movement left and right and another channel is used for the tilt movement up and down As an example on a scanner a value of 0 on the pan channel might move the mirror to its leftmost position a value of 128 would select a central pan position and 255 would move the mirror to its rightmost position A value of 0 on the tilt channel might move the mirror to its bottommost position a value of 128 would select a central tilt position and 255 would move the mirror to its topmost position Similarly if the fixture possesses color change facilities then another DMX channel is dedicated to selecting the color and so on So now rather than the value between 0 and 255 of a DMX channel being used just to select the brightness of a lighting fixture a value of say 10 being received on a color channel could select blue a value of 20 might select green and so on Most intelligent lighting fixtures use rotating discs more commonly called wheels to provide colors and beam shapes A color wheel might contain 8 different color filters and by rotating the disc different color filters can be placed in the path of the beam thus changing the beam to that color To create beam shapes another disc with different shaped cut outs is rotated so that each shape can be placed in the path of the beam thus shaping the beam These discs are called Gobo wheels Certain fixtures also contain 4 mirror head movement channels
69. ne in the large step details display at the bottom of the panel In Go 00 00 Initially both these displays are empty because no events have been put into the sequence steps You will just see the step numbers in the first column 001 002 etc Our scene in the live and step details sequence displays The first scene that we want to run in our show is the Interior Scene lighting scene so simply drag and drop that button from the scene panel on the right hand side of the desk into any empty area in the bottom of the step details display on the sequence panel Note When 14 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial adding an event to the next empty step in a sequence you do not have to be accurate in dropping the event onto the step you can just drop it anywhere below the last empty step and ShowMagic will automatically assign it to the next available step for you 5 The Interior Scene lighting scene is now contained in step 001 of the sequence 6 Repeat step 4 above for the Forest Scene Night Scene and Sunny Scene events in that order 7 We now have the 4 lighting scenes needed for our show stored as 4 steps in the sequence There is just one last thing we now have to do to complete that lightshow we need to insert a Null Step to mark the end of the sequence and the purpose of this last step will become clear when we run the show The live and step details displays for our updated sequence 8 Click on any empty space at
70. ner 2 color scenes otherwise if they were both set to C one would turn off the other which is not want we want We also want new color scenes for scanner 1 to turn off any other color scenes for scanner 1 that may be running and likewise for scanner 2 On top of that you may want to run a Scans color scene at some time in the sequence and preferably you would want this single color scene to turn off any other color scenes that may be running for scanners 1 and 2 How can this be achieved This is where exclusive letter Sub groups come into play Exclusive Letter Sub Group Settings When we created the color scenes earlier for Scan 1 Scan 2 and Scans we used the exclusive group letters Ca Cb and C Ca was used to denote the Color scenes for scanner 1 a and Cb was used to denote the Color scenes for scanner 2 b this was so that we could differentiate between the first and second scanners when using exclusivity for scenes in a sequence The color scenes containing color presets for both fixtures however were given the letter C only no sub group letter This was done for the following reasons A sequence step set to Ca will only affect other steps set to Ca steps set to Cb Cc Cd etc are unaffected A sequence step set to Cb will only affect other steps set to Cb steps set to Ca Cc Cd etc are unaffected This means that we can use scenes in the sequence that only affect a particular scanner a or b i e we can run different scenes
71. ng scenes it ignores any other fader settings whether they have been moved or not Click on the Rec M button and it will then flash on and off in red to indicate that it is now ready to record that scene 5 Whilst the record button is flashing click on the scene button labelled A001 this will then record the current settings of the faders on the fixture panel to that scene button The button will then change to red to show that it now contains a lighting scene After the scene has been recorded and if the Clear button on the scene panel is set to it s default Clear Y setting the desk is cleared down and all the faders on the fixture panel will automatically be set back to 00 6 Double click on the newly recorded scene button to run the scene event and you will see the LED on the button go green to indicate that the scene is running and the faders will jump to the interior lighting scene setting that you have just recorded 7 Double click again on the button to stop the scene running the led will go off and the faders will be The scene details display cleared back to 00 You will notice that when you ran the scene the faders jumped straight to the settings recorded in that scene and when you stopped the scene the faders jumped straight back down to 00 This will look quite abrupt on the stage and in a lot of a cases you may want the lighting scene to z OSO e iriran slowly fade up to the setting when you run the
72. nter Scan 1 for the label prefix select G for Group and a for the Sub group and then click on the Generate button 8 gobo scenes for Scan 1 will then be generated onto scenes B049 to B056 Click on fixture fader 14 to select Scan 2 click on its fourth gobo function fader hold down the Shift key to call up the preset panel and check that the 8 gobo presets labelled Gobo1 to Gobo 8 are selected and shown in yellow 44 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 7 8 9 Release the Shift key click on the Rec T button hold down Ctrl and click on scene button B057 The scene generator dialogue box will then appear Enter Scan 2 for the label prefix select G for Group and b for the Sub group and then click on the Generate button 8 gobo scenes for Scan 2 will then be generated onto scenes B057 to B064 Press F1 to group the two scanners together click on the Rec T button hold down Ctrl and click on scene button B065 The scene generator dialogue box will then appear Enter Scans for the label prefix select G for the exclusivity Group and Off for the Sub group then click on the Generate button 8 gobo scenes for both scanners because they were grouped when the scene generator was called up will then be generated onto scenes B065 to B072 The last scenes that we need to create for our VRX scanners is the shutter settings These are currently locked at full brightness so that we could see the beams when creating the scenes for them so
73. o step 001 and move all the events in the sequence down by one step We now have an empty step at the start of the sequence 3 Drag the Show Music sound event button from the sound panel into the step details display and you will notice that steps are highlighted as you drag the event over them Drag the event over the first Null Step 001 and when the step becomes highlighted let go of the left mouse button to drop the event into that first step 4 We now want the Till FX sound effect to play whilst the Interior Scene is on so click on the next sequence step below the step containing the Interior Scene the Forest Scene event to highlight it and then press the Insert key A Null Step will be inserted between the Interior Scene and Forest Scene event steps 20 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 5 Drag and position the Till FX sound event button over this Null Step until it is highlighted and then let go of the left mouse button to drop the event into that step Please Note The volume stereo pan fade in and fade out settings as set on the sound panel for each event at the time they are dragged and dropped into the sequence are also stored in the sequence steps the same is also true for fade in and fade out times with lighting scenes These settings can be adjusted at any time but more on that later The step details display for our sequence 6 We now have all our lighting scenes and sound events in the correct order wi
74. o this Method A Use this method if you wish to combine dissimilar colors into each scene 1 Choose and run color scenes for Scan 1 and Scan 2 e g Scan 1 White and Scan 2 Red 2 Click on the Rec T button on the scene panel click on an empty scene button e g B041 to record it and then label it accordingly e g Scans White amp Red 3 If you then run scene button B041 both scanners will go to their respective colors 4 Repeat steps 1 to 3 above for all the combined scenes that you wish to record Alternatively you could of course select the color function fader for Scan 1 select the White preset select the color function fader for Scan 2 select the Red preset click on Rec T and record that setting as a scene The method above however is far quicker Method B Use this method if you wish to store the same colors on each scanner into each scene 1 Press the F1 key to turn on the F1 group the fader buttons below scans 1 amp 2 on the fixture panel will then be shown in red This means that both the scans are included in the group Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 41 2 Hold down the Shift key to call up the presets panel and ensure that the colors required are shown in yellow If not right click on any of these preset buttons to enable or disable them 3 Release the Shift key to remove the presets panel click on the scene panel s Rec T button but hold down the Ctrl key whilst clicking on the first e
75. on different scanners that are independent of each other in exclusivity A sequence step set to C however will affect any other steps set to C and any of it s sub group letters i e Ca to Cz We can use scenes in a sequence that affect just scanner or just scanner 2 or both For example step 001 of a sequence contains a color scene for scanner 1 set to Ca step 002 contains a color scene for scanner 2 set to Cb and step 003 contains another color scene for both scanners set to C When that sequence is run the first color scene is turned on when step 002 is triggered the scene is turned on and because it is of a different sub group letter the first color scene for scanner 1 remains on it is unaffected However when step 003 is triggered it turns off both steps 001 color for scanner 1 and step 002 color for scanner 2 because it is set to the main group letter C Theoretically you could use independent color scenes in a sequence for up to 26 different scanners or groups Ca to Cz that do not affect each other and other scenes set to C that affect them all Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 43 Summary e Icons can be applied to bank and page buttons for making the locating of scenes easier Double clicking on a bank page button calls up the icon selection area Right clicking on the icon selection area removes it The Scene Generator can be used to create a series of scenes for a fixture or group of fixtures Right
76. onds 00 00 and frames 00 00 To set the fade in time move the mouse pointer over the seconds digits to the right of In hold down the Ctrl key and then right click on the seconds digits to increment them to 03 00 Do the same for the seconds digits to the right of Out to set them also to 03 00 Please Note To change any settings on the ShowMagic desk that are shown in light blue you must hold down the Ctrl key at the same time This is a failsafe system to avoid these settings being changed inadvertently by clicking on them by accident 11 Now if you double click on the Show Music sound event button to run that event the volume of the music will fade in over 3 seconds to the level set by the orange slider in the top right of the sound panel this is the volume slider for that sound event The slider to its left can be used to set the stereo pan position Creating a Simple Show 19 12 We will assume that you are using stereo left and right speakers on the stage and you wish the music to play in the centre so you can leave the pan slider in the middle stereo centre position 13 If you double click again on the Show Music sound event button to turn off the event the music will fade out over 3 seconds and the event will then stop 14 Click on the Till FX sound event button to highlight it Its details are then shown in the details display and the two orange faders can be used to adjust the stereo pan position and volume for t
77. oom to display the details and settings for all those events at the same time Therefore if you wish to access the settings for an event you simply click on the event s button which highlights it and the details and settings for that particular event are shown and can be accessed in the black Details Display at the top of the event panel The current state of any events can be instantly determined by the LED in the top left of their event buttons if the LED is not illuminated then the event is not running if it is shown in bright green or red then the event is running if the LED is shown in dim green or red then it is in the process of coming on or going off e Double clicking on an event button runs the event stored on that event button Double clicking again on a running event button stops that event 4 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial e Motor control buttons Play Stop Pause etc are included on event panels where appropriate and these can be used to Play start Stop Pause etc the currently highlighted event button in a similar way to the motor controls found on hardware CD or Video players e Where timings are used in ShowMagic these timings are in the following format Hours Minutes Seconds and Frames shown thus HH MM SS FF a frame being 1 25 of a second e g 12 frames equates to half a second Where hours or hours and minutes are not appropriate the timings MM SS FF and SS FF respectively are used
78. or that fixture e g Left White and then click on Enter Do this for each fixture that we have assigned to faders 001 to 008 e Left White Right White Left Yellow Right Yellow Left Blue Right Blue Left Green Right Green 9 The next step is to tell ShowMagic what DMX addresses to use for these fixtures and this is called Patching Dimmer packs use a single DMX start address and each address or output on the pack is referenced from this DMX start address For instance if its DMX start address is set to 1 then DMX address 1 will control the brightness of the fixture connected to output 1 address 2 controls the fixture connected to output 2 and so on The Dmx test button in the top left of the patch screen can be used to find out what outputs each of the par cans is plugged into on the dimmer pack Simply click on this button to turn it red and then use the UP and DOWN cursor keys on your keyboard to test each DMX address the address being tested is shown to the right of Test DMX Addr For instance if the test address is 007 and the right blue par can comes on then you know it is connected to output 1 on the dimmer pack Make a note of the DMX addresses for each fixture 10 To patch the fixtures first turn off the Dmx test button by clicking on it to turn it back to grey You cannot patch fixtures when the Dmx test button is on 11 Click on the first fader row 001 to highlight it double click under Dmx Address in the top rig
79. ply right click anywhere in the icon selector area or click on the bottom right icon box labelled Exit to remove them and restore the scene button display We can now instantly see that bank A contains par can scenes and bank B is used for storing scanner scenes with position scenes being stored on scene numbers B1 B24 color scenes on B25 B48 gobo scenes on B49 B72 and shutter scenes on B73 B96 So to recap this is how to apply icons 1 Double click on the square box above any bank or page selector button to call up the icons 2 Click on the bank button to highlight it in red or if you are applying an icon to a page button within a bank click first on the bank button to select the bank then click on the page button within that bank to highlight it 3 Click on any icon to apply it to that button 4 Repeat steps 2 to 3 above for all the icons you want to apply 5 Right click anywhere on the icons to remove them or alternatively click on the icon labelled Exit You can of course apply any of the icons of your choosing to any of the bank or page buttons they are there simply as a guide to what is stored where so use the icons that best suit you You can also apply the icons before you actually create the scenes as we did above for the scanners color and gobo icons Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 39 If you wish to remove an icon from any bank or page button then simply double click the bank or page button then
80. rrect color and gobo settings and another scene that just opens the shutter dimmer later This would work but think of all the scenes you would have to create for every permutation of position color and gobo setting Again it is stressed that you should record separate scenes for all the fixture functions This takes a little more time initially but it makes programming much quicker and easier in the long run as we shall see Another good reason for recording position color and gobo scenes separately is that they can be used in their own separate lighting chases which we will now introduce as we will be using them in our moving lightshow Lighting Chases Up to now we have created static lighting effects using par cans This was ideal for our simple theatrical lightshow but intelligent fixtures can be used to produce the more dynamic lighting effects that are needed for concerts presentations etc color changers could be used to pulse between different colors moving head or scanner fixtures could be used to move the light beams across the stage change colors and change shapes but how are these lightshows animated This is where lighting chases come into play Chases are designed to run a series of static lighting scenes in a given order and at a given speed to produce movement of color shape or position For instance if you were to record a scene that positioned a fixtures mirror on the left of the stage and then record
81. s eat Casta ts 16 CAU oia 18 Adding Sound Events to a Sequeira 20 Section 4 Creating an Automated Moving Lightsh0W ocooooonccononononnnonccnccnonnccncnccononononocccnoos 25 Whatis DIO A AAA 25 A A A A TAI 26 Movie Heads A tai 26 A O O A ie ia ca ea aa 26 Color CHALETS A sale 27 Effects A E A E eae ene A a a aT 27 Controlling Intelligent FARTS o MN Se IA Ei Sura uaa tee 27 Setting Up Intelligent FiIxt res usar al 28 Using the Function Fader us AA a 29 Recording Scenes Tor Intelligent FixtUrES co icaoicona indico incinico airada raices ideada is 31 Lighting EE O e a e de 32 Creating Position Ei di 32 Creating a Movement Chases iupiri Dit adidas 35 Chase Step Di A A A le 36 Chase Speed and Slope EMMA coa 36 Applying Icons to Scene Bank and Page Selector BU LODNS o ooonoocnnnccnonacincconnancnonancccnannnccnnnnnno 38 The Scene E os 40 Exclusive Vetter Group Grp SINS 23 eo tr dehd veg etsrber eae ce hen ac ateraig maatdeedaten aes 42 Exclusive Letter Sub Group IS A teal 43 Timed SEUS dir a 50 Setting Trigger Times in Timed Sequence i 50 Event Layering zanien a a ig culties Saas a Yea A Sasa Cau Collab Ge o R E 53 INS O A E AR EA N E E A AEE AE 54 iii Notes on using the Beginner s Tutorial The screenshots in the Beginner s Tutorial are taken from the SL Plus model of ShowMagic Screens on different models will vary slightly but the operating methods are consistent throughout the range It is assumed that the reader is
82. scene and then slowly fade back down to 00 when you stop it This is where the fade in and fade out settings pie for that scene come into play ee z Label Scene A001 Out Scene Enter Cancel To select fade in and fade out times do the following The edit scene dialogue box 12 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial 8 Click on the scene event button to highlight it and its details will be shown in the details display 9 Click anywhere in the details display and an Edit Scene dialogue box will appear To set a fade in time for that scene click on the button to the right of the Default button and above the In button and type 2 0 0 This will store a value of 02 seconds and 00 frames To set a fade out time for that scene of 3 5 seconds click on the button to the right of Default and above the Out button to highlight it and type 3 1 2 i e 3 seconds and 12 frames then click on the Enter button to set those times 10 Now if you double click on that scene event button to run it you will see that the faders will move from their 00 setting to the recorded scene settings over 2 seconds Similarly double clicking again on that scene event button to stop it will move the faders from their current settings back down to 00 over 3 5 seconds You will also notice that the LED on the button will be shown in half bright green wh
83. sequence You will notice that the 2 and 3 faders at the top of the sequence panel will change into purple speed and slope faders Double click on the yellow label in the details display and re name the chase sequence as Scans Chevron Pattern The default speed of a chase is 60 beats per minute i e the steps in the sequence are triggered every second and this value is shown under the 2 speed fader The percentage value of the 3 slope fader selectable between 00 and FL 100 defaults to 00 If you now click on the big green Go button on the sequence panel or press Spacebar the selected chase will start and the Scans Chevron A B amp C scenes contained in sequence steps 1 2 and 3 will be triggered every second in the order 1 2 3 1 2 3 and so on continuously until the chase is stopped The beams on the VRXs will subsequently jump every second to the positions stored in the Scans Chevron A then B and then C scenes Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 35 Chase Step Options The item to the right of Opt in the chase sequence details display determines in what order the sequence steps are triggered The default is Down and this means that ShowMagic runs down the steps in our Scans Chevron Pattern chase sequence and they are triggered thus 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 and so on The Chevron Pattern chase would however look far more symmetrical if the position scenes were triggered in the following order 1 2 3 2 1 2 3
84. shape will be projected It sounds simple but that is basically the same technology that is still being used today to produce everything from the simplest of productions to amazing light shows color and shape of light In the architectural and entertainment lighting industry the colored films that are placed in front of a white light source to produce color are called color filters or gels The shapes that are placed in front of a light source are called GOBOs pronounced Go Bows In multi channel intelligent fixtures colors can be provided using a color wheel that contains a variety of different colored filters by turning the wheel inside the fixture the correct color filter is placed in the path of the beam The same goes for gobos using a gobo wheel containing different shaped cut outs ShowMagic Events ShowMagic can be used as a complete integrated show controller There are numerous elements that can make up a show so to keep things straightforward these different elements are all treated simply as ShowMagic events E g Lighting states are stored in ShowMagic as lighting Scene events Audio such as music backing tracks speech sound effects etc are all stored as Sound events Control commands to operate external devices are stored as Control events and so on The ShowMagic virtual desk screen is split into two halves one on the left and one on the right and each type of event is stored on it s own event panel
85. ss levels You will also often need to run more than one scene for a fixture at the same time or at different times e g you might want to position its beam on a particular area first scene 1 then select a color scene 2 select a gobo scene 3 and then last of all turn the beam on by opening the shutter scene 4 By running the first 3 scenes BEFORE running the last shutter scene the beam is off when the mirror is moved to the correct position and the color wheel and gobo wheel are turned to their correct position so that when you finally run the shutter scene the beam appears in the right spot and in the correct shape and color Moving heads mirrors color or gobo wheels etc are mechanical devices and as such they take a finite time to physically turn to a particular position If you had recorded the pan and tilt color gobo and shutter dimmer settings together as a single scene then when you ran that scene the Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 31 audience would see the mirror head move and the color amp gobo wheels scroll through their various settings to reach the desired position on their wheels because the beam would be already turned on This can look very messy This is why it is recommended that you record the scenes for each of the function settings separately Alternatively you could have achieved the above desired effect by recording 2 scenes one that contains the pan and tilt position along with the co
86. t to G and step 003 contains another color scene set to C When that sequence is run the first color scene is turned on when step 002 is triggered the gobo scene is turned on and because it is of a different group letter the first color scene remains on it is unaffected However when step 003 is triggered it turns off step 001 the previous color scene because it is set to the same group letter but the gobo scene in step 002 is unaffected By using exclusive letter group settings we do not need to use extra steps to turn off previous scenes when new scenes are run in a sequence the exclusive letter settings do this automatically for you it s a neat way of tidying up what events are left running and what events are stopped The most logical group letters to use are C for Color scenes G for Gobo scenes P for Position scenes and so on but you can use any letters you prefer when setting the exclusivity of sequence steps If we are running a sequence in which both scanners show the same colors at the same time then we can use the Both Scanners color scenes to do this and as the next Both Scanners color scene is triggered in the sequence it turns off the previous color scene as they are both set to the same exclusive letter C 42 ShowMagic Beginner s Tutorial However if we want to run different color scenes for each of the scanners in the same sequence then we have to use different exclusive letters for the scanner color scenes and the scan
87. the bottom of the step details display and press the Insert key This will insert an End step in the next available empty step of the sequence i e step 005 9 Double click on the sequence s yellow label in the top details display and type Sound amp Lighting Show as its new label using the Enter Label dialogue box 10 Let s now run what we have so far We don t need the scene panel anymore so click on the fixture panel tab on the right hand side of the desk to display the fixture panel on the right We can then view what the faders are doing as we run the show 11 Press the Spacebar key to start the sequence and you will see the clock below the details display on the sequence panel start counting in hours minutes seconds and frames This clock is used to show how long the sequence has been running The first event in the sequence step 001 Interior Scene is also triggered when you start the sequence and you will see the faders on the fixture panel move to the settings recorded in that Interior Scene event using whatever In times have been set ShowMagic is now waiting for you to press Spacebar again to trigger the next step in the sequence i e step 002 Forest Scene 12 Press the Spacebar key again step 002 Forest Scene will be highlighted in the sequence panel s live display to show that it has been triggered and you will see the faders move from the settings stored in the Interior Scene to the settings in the Forest S
88. thin the sequence Lets now run the show as it stands and see what happens 1 With the sequence panel still on the left of the desk press Spacebar the first step in the sequence will then be triggered Show Music played at the stereo centre of the stage and will then play with a volume fade in over 3 seconds to the volume setting stored for it in that sequence step 2 Press Spacebar again the Interior Scene fades up but the music still plays this is because it has not been told to stop step 002 containing the nterior Scene with its group setting set to XT when triggered will turn off any other events of its own type i e red lighting scene events but as the sound event in step 001 is an orange sound event not of the same event type it is not affected by the XT setting in step 002 3 Press Spacebar again the Till FX sound effect plays on the right of the stage and the Interior Scene stays on but the Show Music now fades out and stops This is because step 003 Till FX is an orange sound event set to XT As step 002 is a red lighting scene event it is not of the same type and therefore it is not affected Step 001 however is an event of the same type as step 003 so it is told to go off and as it was set to fade In on step 001 it will also fade out when it is told to go off 4 Press Spacebar again the Forest Scene fades in and the nterior Scene fades out The Forest Scene step is set to XT so step 002 Interior Scene which
89. to the sequence and set its trigger time before the chase trigger time This puts the mirrors in the correct start position for the chase However at some point AFTER the Chevron chase is triggered the Scans Chevron A scene will need to be stopped otherwise when the chase is stopped the mirrors will move back to the Scans Chevron A scene position which is still running this is because of the way events are layered in ShowMagic which we will now describe Event Layering To best describe how event layering works we will use an example 1 First check that the Desk Precedence item on the Options menu is set to Latest LTP the default setting for a complete description of desk precedence please refer to the User Manual 2 Next double click on button B017 Scans Chevron A on the scene panel to run it the scans will move to the position stored in that scene 3 Double click on scene button B018 Scans Chevron B the scans will move to that position Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow 53 4 Double click on scene button B019 Scans Chevron C the scans will then move to that position but you will notice that the LEDs on all three scene buttons are illuminated in green to indicate that they are all running Because the desk precedence is set to Latest LTP the mirrors move to the position set in the last scene that was run If you were to double click on the Scans Chevron C scene to turn it off the mirrors will then mo
90. turn the group off 3 With Scan 1 s color wheel function fader still highlighted hold down the Shift key the scene panel on the right will then be replaced temporarily with the preset panel that contains preset buttons for each of the colors available for that scanner You could now click on a preset button such as Red which moves the color fader to the red setting let go of the Shift key to remove the preset panel click on the Rec T button on the scene panel and then click on an empty scene button to store that scene and so on for each of the colors There is however a much quicker and easier way to create these scenes using ShowMagic s scene generator feature The Scene Generator 1 With the Shift key held down and the preset panel shown right click on the following color preset buttons White Red Blue Green Yellow Orange Pink and Magenta As you right click on them you will notice that their labels change from white to yellow meaning they have been Fade In 00 00 00 00 selected for inclusion in the scene generator Fade Out _00 00 00 00 F Automatic Overwrite 2 Release the Shift key to remove the preset panel and view _Cancel the scene panel again click on the Rec T button but this time hold down the Ctrl key when you click on scene button B025 A Scene Generator dialogue box will then be displayed Label Prefix Group XT Sub Off The Scene Generator dialogue box
91. up half way until the value 50 is shown in the box below that fader Once a fader has been moved and its value changes to light blue you can also tweak the fader setting by right and left clicking on the value shown blue below the fader to increment decrement that value The left hand of the stage would now be illuminated in white at 50 brightness Alternatively with any fader selected by clicking on it you can also type 50 by pressing the keys 5 0 followed by Enter and the fader will move to that value The key is used to mean at so when you highlight a fader and then type 50 you are telling that fader to output at 50 There is usually more than one way to do things in ShowMagic choose the method that you most prefer Creating a Simple Show 11 4 With the scene on the stage set to your liking you can now store that scene as a lighting scene event Please Note For versatility ShowMagic features multiple types of recording mode For this first simple theatrical lightshow the best mode to use is the default Record Moved mode indicated by the label Rec M on the scene panel s record button In this mode any and all faders that you have moved will be recorded to a lighting scene event In Creating an Automated Moving Lightshow p 25 we will be using the more appropriate Record Tagged mode the Record Tagged mode only records selected tagged function fader settings to lighti
92. ve to the position stored in the Scans Chevron B scene which is the scene that was run just before it Turn off the Scans Chevron B scene and the mirrors will move to the Scans Chevron A positions which is the scene that was run before that Turn off the Scans Chevron scene and the mirrors will return to their home position because no scenes are now running to position them This logic applies when running scenes or chases either manually using their buttons or when running them in a sequence unless they are set to the same exclusive letter group of course Color scenes gobo scenes etc can now be dropped into the remaining Null Steps in the sequence to achieve color changes etc at the right times in the music or whatever effects you choose to create and use Using what you have learned in this tutorial you can now go on to add more steps to the sequence populate them with the events that you want to happen in the sequence and set all their trigger times so that the events occur at precisely the right times in the music The last thing you should then do 1s set the last step to the time when you want the sequence to finish this could be the time when the music stops as shown to the right of To in the event details display for that sound event You can continue recording trigger times and adding inserting steps from any point in a sequence you don t have to start from the beginning each time and all this is fully described in the ShowM

ShowMagic Beginner`s Tutorial - SIRS-E

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