Light States and submasters
Hello,
I have a simple question, and I think that I'm missing something. In Millumin 4 theres a concept called "light states", that works similar to a "circuit" as far as I undestood. What I can't find is a way to work with the lightning decks concept of "submasters" or, in other words, a group of light with different values that works as a "light state".
Current setup: In my current show I have 11 dashboards, one for each scene of the theater show, and I need 6 "light states" for all the show.
For testing purposes, I'm trying to achieve 1 light state ("StateDay") that changes "L1" value on each "day scene" of the show:
- I add a new lights named "L1" and set it to 100%
- On Channel Grid mode, I press the (+) Icon on Lights / States row. I rename the new light state to "StateDay1"
- I drag and drop the state to Row 2. When I do this, the new state name changes to "StateDay1a", so I understand that this is a new element, not a new instance of the state.
- I rename the new state to "StateDay1" trying to "unify" it with the fist state.
- I edit in grid the value of L1 to 0% but, after exit editing in grid, the change in L1 do not affect the second instance of StateDay1, so drad and drop and rename in not valid.
I can't find the way to have a consistent "Light State" for all the show. I just need 6 Light States, but it's mandatory to have the option to do a little adjustment on a fixture that affects all the states on the show. I.E. A theater has a poor mantained fixture light and I need to increase 10% only this fixture for all the show, or If I need to do a general increase of "StateDay" during the show.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but I can't find the correct procedure.
Thank you,
Adrián
Comments
Hello,
I think the same !
It would be great if we could use the same light stat several times in a show, like instances !
You can vote here : https://millumin.uservoice.com/forums/114535-millumin-s-ideas/suggestions/40288915-create-light-state-presets
Best
Hello @adriancuervo,
I think you are missing 2 things : light groups (controlling several lights as a whole) and reusing states (as mentionned by @Manu44).
Unfortenatly, none of these features exist in Millumin. However, we hope to implement light groups this year, because this is the top request for lights.
However, before using the mode "channel grid", I do think you should use the mode "light plot" that is easier to use and that should be sufficient in your case : you create a "state" for each column you need to and that is all.
Best. Philippe
Hi Philippe,
Thanks for the clear response, and you are right, I've been talking about two different things, sorry for mixing them up.
I've been using Millumin intensively on my theater company for 5 years, on 3 productions. After dozens of shows during this time, I found that the most problematic point when arriving to a theater is to fit Millumin into the -sometimes- limited lightning capabilities of the theater. Simple things like splitting 1 channel into 2, adding 2 fixtures to reinforce a zone of the scenario, increasing just a bit one fixture that is repeated in 100 columns, or similar things, can be a real nightmare and put the show in troubles. I've spended more than an 1 hour doing hundreds of changes that can be solved on 2 minutes on a lightning desk with submasters., and you starts the show with crossed fingers to not missed any of the tons of changes that you have done.
This is a constructive comment, I'm just pointing the weakest point of the software in my opinion, and I'm talking from my particular experience, and a'm sure that this is not shared by other users.
On the other hand, each version improves lightning, of course, and the rest of features in Millumin are absolutely awesome. By far the best software for multimedia theater (a personal opinion based on my professional experience, again.) I arrived to Millumin searching features that other softwares don't have. I've been on vjing and visual production since 2003, and now I perform 90% of time with Millumin.
With the problem of submasters on the table, and after working side by side with a light technician, I will do a workaround for my new show, and it's to use in parallel a lightning software with submasters and flexible enough to do quick changes "on the fly" in a show with 11 decks and a total of 120 columns, but only 6 light scenes. The strategy will be to trigger this submasters via data tracks from Millumin, but being able to edit the fixtures on a more flexible way with a lightning software. Let's see how it works.
Well, I'm just writing this because I'm open to suggestions on submasters featured software. I've used QLC+ 3 years ago, but it's not stable on M1, so currently it's not an option.
Great thanks Philippe for this absolutely awesome piece of software, for the effort on responding to users suggestions and long life to Millumin :)
Hi,
If you just want 6 state lights, you can use timeline. It's perhaps the solution for now...
Best !
Manu
Hello @adriancuervo,
Thank you for the detailled feedback.
Sorry, I guess I misunderstood your need, but @Manu44 did. Indeed, you can create a timeline with specific values for your light (use keyframes). Such a timeline will have a "light" icon, because it only sends DMX : you can import it in the dashboard, then play with the "dmx-volume" parameter.
Does it make sense ?
Best. Philippe
I see... I didn't thought about working with lights on a timeline I'll try it next week.
Great thanks for the tip @Manu44
By the way, I'll keep on investigating on Millumin synced with a lightning software. I need to do a revamp of our first show and it's too complicated to use this timeline technique.
Best,
Adrián Cuervo
Hi @adriancuervo ,
have you made any progress with your research into synchronization between lighting software (and/or a lighting table) and millumin?
I'm very interested in your feedback.
Best, Boris