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tutorial:sequences_ideas:rainbow_tutorial

Rainbow Tutorial

This tutorial is created because some RGB fixtures only have the RGB channel and no macro / effect channel where it is possible to generate a rainbow effect.
In addition, FreeStyler doesn't have a function that generates this direct.



To do this it is necessary to create a sequence with 6 steps.
All 3 color faders are to be set to fade.
The RGB values are to be as follows.

1: Red 255 0 0
2: Yellow 255 255 0
3: Green 0 255 0
4: Cyan 0 255 255
5: Blue 0 0 255
6: Magenta 255 0 255


The sequence will, when it is played-back, fade from one color to the next.
It will start with red and fade to yellow with all the shades in between.

Looking on the selected fixture in FreeStyler it will only show final color red, yellow and so on.
The shades / rainbow effect comes from the fading in between the colors.


Now to some considerations.

Note this may not be right..

The color values above may be correct but what if the colors are generated by a LED fixture with Red, Green and Blue Leds.

If the red value 255 correspond to 1W power on red and the green value 255 correspond to 1W power on green.
Then the yellow will have 2W as both red and green are full on (255).
If this is a correct assumption then the power has to be reduced to half the value (127) for both.

If a sequence with only 3 steps , Red, Green and Blue is created then the following will be the case.

The step from Red to Green will then in the middle of the fading time be Red 255 → 127 and Green 0 –> 127.
Meaning equal amount of red and green (Red 127, Green 127 = yellow) but only with half effect 0,5W + 0,5W.
This gives yellow with 1W.
So a simple 3 step sequence with fading in between the steps will give a total power of 255 (1W) for all color shades

An alternative to generate a 3 color sequence could be to use the FX function in the sequence editor for generating a color change for the color channels. This could a “sine” or “cosine”.
There will then be a Red, a Green and a Blue sequence.
The trick will then be to start them correct.
If they all have 12 steps then the Red are first started, at step 4 green is started and at step 8 Blue is started.

In the end this is a question of trying it out and see what works and give the most suitable effect.

If people are looking direct into the leds then all they will see is a bunch of red, green and blue leds.
Not the color shade and then the rainbow effect may not be usable at all.





tutorial/sequences_ideas/rainbow_tutorial.txt · Last modified: 2015/12/27 17:03 by buzzy

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