Shapes - Pearl DLC-C003 Operator's Manual

C H A P T E R F I V E
5.

Shapes

This chapter contains: Selecting a shape; changing the size and speed
of a shape; spreading a shape across multiple fixtures; editing shapes
which are running.
The DLC-C003, in common with other DORTRON's consoles, has a
shape generator. This allows you to quickly create exciting light shows
using lots of movement and changes, with the minimum of
programming.
A shape is simply a sequence of values which can be applied to any
attribute of a fixture. A "circle" shape, for example, applied to the pan
and tilt attributes, would cause the fixture to move its beam around in
a circular pattern. You can set the centre point of the circle, the size of
the circle and the speed of the circle movement.
In addition to beam position shapes, there are a large number of other
shapes available in the DLC-C003. The shapes are defined for a
particular attribute such as colour, dimmer, focus and so on. Some
shapes will not work with some fixtures; focus shapes, for example, can
produce nice "focus pull" effects on fixtures which have DMX focusing,
but will do nothing on fixtures which don't have focusing.
When you use a shape with more than one fixture, you can choose to
either apply the shape identically to all the fixtures, or offset them so
that the shape runs along the fixtures creating "wave" or "ballyhoo"
type effects. This is called the spread of the shape.
5.1 Playback
5.1.1 Selecting a shape
Selecting a shape is very similar to selecting a
value from a palette. When you choose a shape,
it will be applied to all selected fixtures.
1> Select the fixtures the shape is to be applied
to.
2> Press G [Shape Generator].
3> Press A [Playback a shape].
4> Press one of the A-E softkeys to apply a
shape to the fixtures (or the F and G
softkeys go up and down the list). The
screen describes the shape for each button.
• Most shapes are based on the current
settings of the fixture, so a circle would
move around the current pan-tilt position of the fixture.
• If the shape description says "Even" or "Parallel", this describes
the Spread of the shape. You can always change this later.
• You can change the base value of a shape (e.g. the centre of a
circle) by changing the attributes using the wheels in the usual
way. You can reduce the Size to zero (see next section) to help
you see what the base value actually is.
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