Thanks guys -
I posted a high-level "how-to" on my site. It's the presentation I gave at Lone Star Holidays this past summer (2012).
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
LoginAlso check out the "Technical Vids" page. I've basically done a picture in picture view for you to see what the Video I generated looks like when applied against the house. I'll try to do another of these this year.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
LoginEssentially I'm creating some base videos with generated "noise" or other clips I like or create. I use solid colors for flashes of light or for static parts of the display. I use the noise patters to give an almost textured feel to the show. I then exported the clips (in 25 second segments) for use in Light Show Pro.
In LSP, I imported my custom transitions and essentially automated the entire show with the transition tools in LSP. With 12k channels, it is completely impossible to try and create a show manually. I'm sure some people can do and in fact, do it very well, but I'm not one of those people. I reached my limit around 300 channels.
Obviously a downside is I don't (currently) have individual elements dancing around the yard, etc. The whole show sort of operates as ONE thing. As I get better (and I'm improving), I'm able to do some more creative things with both the video effects creation and with mapping effects to the show.
This year for example, I took a screen shot of my display elements as drawn in LSP. I imported that photo into Sony Vegas where I could start to see EXACTLY which elements would come on at which times with certain effects. Using this, I can do things like bring in a photo of the Grinch during the chorus of The Grinch. BTW - tonight was the first night having the Grinch suddenly appear on the MegaTree. I'm HOOKED. The kids LOVED it. This one night absolutely made my whole season. This little girl was SOOOOOO excited that she saw the grinch in the Christmas tree. Worth it!
I generated some of the crazier effects with the Winamp virtualizer called Milkdrop. I basically played back a song and let the visualizer create the cool color effects. I used a piece of software called Fraps to record the output in realtime. I then imported those videos into Vegas - same principle as above. I could then lay in the effects onto different parts of the display. The swirly pink / purple effects in some of the songs came from the iTunes visualizer. Same concept as winamp. Basically creates some cool organic effects.
Take a look at the powerpoint if you're interested. It's a very different way to sequence. This is my second year doing it, but the MegaTree really brought this method to a new level. You can just see so much detail in the tree.