These pictures are form Christmas Camp '08. We brought a small lighting package to light a rustic camp in north Georiga. We used the lighting during the worship sessions, a talent show, and also a party on New Years eve. We used 5 techno beams and 18 Versa Bar LEDs.
We found a creative diffuser for our Versa bars. A bent piece of white computer paper and some gaff tape. It worked amazing and gave us a Versa tube type look. We have since tried it with Colorblasts too, and it has worked ok.
As a true lighting guy, I love to use lighting as a set! Below are is a set I did based around lighting as a set. A little creative light placement and a small amount of time (2 people and 4 hours). This set is compromise of 4- 14' silver trusses and 24 par cans. We also added 2 16' towers in the back and moved our 2k washes onto them. The par trusses made a cool layer of depth and matched our proscenium. The boundaries the truss created changed the whole atmosphere of the room. It reflected light well and looked really cool. The amazing lighting in the pictures below was done by Bradley Nolff, our resident 17 year old lighting genius. Enjoy!
We have been exploring ideas of cool things we can do with the new scaffolding set. One of those ideas was using an custom architectural type mask. Below is how we did it. Just a warning, this is not super precise and is a pain to setup, however once it is done, it works amazing.
It took awhile to get a system down, but once that was established it went pretty well. We have 2 DL-1s hung in our FOH that are normally driven by a catalyst. Our set (same as the Battle of the Bands Encore) has 5 towers of scaffolding with big gaps between them, so rather than make a blended image across the set we decided to use two separate sources with 2 separate masks for each side.
Honestly, I came up with an approach that worked for me, but is certainly not the easiest or most fool proof way. I used a few sources to come up with ideas on how to do this. The Resolume Blog seemed the most useful for me. Here is the awesome video on a quick way to do a basic mask.
Essentially in the video these steps are taken:
1. "Set Piece" is built
2. The projector is set in its location (Must not move, or the mask with have to be re-done)
3. Using a computer with dual outputs, set your outputs to be the same (you can also use a VGA DA if you have only 1 output)
4. Next it says to use Photoshop in full screen mode to trace out the set. I did this a different way, see next section
5. Import mask into your playback controller and test it
I tried this way and found that, at the resolution I was using, I could not see the cursor in Photoshop. I changed the type of cursor, messed with it for quite awhile, and finally decided to go a different route. Paint.net (FREE PROGRAM!) is essentially a mix of Photoshop and MS paint. I am not a media designing genius, so Paint.net made it much easier for me to navigate and use.
The first to steps should be pretty self explanatory. On the third step, setting up the dual outputs, you need to set both outputs up to the resolution of the projector. Next, open up Paint.net. You need to start a new drawing at about 20% smaller than your resolution. So for my 1024 x 760, I used 960 X 700. This is done so there are no areas to scroll to. It is very important that you keep your mask stationary while building it. Next I used the fill tool and turned the entire surface black. Following that you need to view your drawing as actual pixels (View> Actual Size), then set your view to Full Screen mode, and then create a 2nd layer and name it mask. Make sure your tool set is set so that white is your primary color (in the color box at the bottom right hand corner). Now you can close some of the windows to help building the mask easier. I closed history, layer, and color. You can always bring them back from the window tab.
Now the fun part! Use the correct tool to cover your set piece. I used the line tool set to a width of 8 to cover the scaffolding legs.
Once you have covered your entire set save the file. I created multiple masks. One had the scaffolding, another had the truss too, and one had the truss only. That way I can vary between songs. I saved all of these files as a Jpeg and loaded them into the Catalyst. I put the mask on the 3rd layer and used the Inverted Mask color setting. It made the white invisible and the black stayed. On layers 1 and 2 I put media.
Once I loaded the mask into my media server, I had to make tweaks. Essentially some of the scaling and positioning was a little off. I cut and pasted one tower and made the necessary adjustments. This did, however, take about 6 tries to get it pseudo-close. Below are a few pictures of what we did with the mask. It is pretty awesome being able to make the scaffolding look like a structure of video. We were able to make some looks that evoked thoughts of Tron. Much fun was had!
Check out this cool blog discussing Architectual Projection too.
This set was used for a conference we did a few years back. The conference was about the life and writing of CS Lewis and was a lot of dialogue and video playback.
It was a very simple set. I was trying to make a look of eloquence. Not exactly sure if that's how it came out, but that was the thought none the less. The 4 pieces consisted of a 10' truss tower, a 6' pipe attached at the top, and a 6 wide piece of Sheer fabric.
I lite the scenic with 2 Mac 2k Perf. each. A simple set, but I think it worked well.
This was a recent set we put together for the winners of our Battle of the Bands. We tried to make this the most complex and intricate set and lighting design we have ever done. We maxed out our rigging capacity, power distro, dimming, and control channels. Some of the things that stood out about this design are a versatile set, 40 moving lights, 140 pixels of LED mapping, 100 channels of dimming, dmx controlled front projected imagery (both live and during intermission), 8 universes of DMX control from a MA network, a kabuki drop, and a very intricately cued out show. We got full set lists and mp3s of the 2 winning bands and programmed a fully synchronized lighting show for the entire show. There were over 400 cues for the hour and a half long show.
Specifically on the set, It is compromised of 4' wide by 7' high walk-through scaffolding frames (normally used for construction). They are built into 5 towers that are 3 sections high (21'). The scaffolding had about an inch of concrete on it in most places, when we bought it. We cleaned it with hammers, chisels, wire brushes and scrapers of all sorts. It took about 150 hours total to clean the scaffolding and another 40 hours to paint all of it. We painted the scaffold with to a bright grey (high gloss paint). We then, built the first two levels of scaffolding from the ground and step ladders. The third row was a beast! It required 3 people to set each side. We used a genie lift and a person on each leg to assemble the tops. We used Colorblast 12's to light the actual scaffold frames. Behind the scaffolding we hung a drop made of clear plastic. This is the same drop we used in the Perfectly Plastic Design. It took light well and gave a great dimension tothe set. We used 6 Studio Colors to light the Plastic in the back.
Mike Walker programmed this amazing look!
We purchased all of the scaffolding used (through craigslist). We purchased 30 frames and 30 cross braces. All of it cost $750 (New cost is over $5000). We have been waiting and looking for a deal to make this set for over a year. Although, it was quite a bit to purchase this set piece and much more in cost of time to get it into the shape we needed, it will be useful for structure for some of our set designs in thefuture. Also, used scaffolding holds its value very well and could be resold at a very small loss.
It took a dedicated team to clean, paint, and build the scaffolding. This on top of the huge feat of setting up such a complex lighting system. Our crew was amazing and did an outstanding job. This is a list of our team.
Steven Hall (myself) - LD
Mike Walker - LD
Mike Spates, George Jackson, Melissa Lirones - Amazing Lighting Techs and Set crew
This set is our first custom built set. Everything before this was fabrics and light placement. Its a pretty simple set to build and decently cheap. We used this set first for the 2010 Battle of the Bands.
Essentially it each panel is comprised of 4 outdoor deck spindles, a 2.5' square piece of spandex, 40 or so staples, and 4 eye hooks. The angle cuts on the deck spindles make it easy. We built this set in stages, frames, then fabric, then rigging. This set should only require a screw gun, drill bits, a square, and a heavy duty stapler (Stapler link)
First align all of the deck spindles in a square. All of the angle cuts should be touching another angle cut. Once they are laid out, secure them into each other with drywall screws. We found it was easier to pre-drill a pilot hole, so that the spindles didn't break. Once you get to the 4th corner, you will want to check square and make sure you are somewhat close. Once this is done fasten your 4th corner and move on to the next frame.
The fabric is the easiest part. You should cut a piece of Poly stretch to about 30" x 30". You then need to staple it to on side of the frame. I made sure to staple mine behind the frame to keep the staples from reflecting light. Then stretch the material to the opposite side and staple it. You then stretch the top and bottom stapling the fabric to keep in nice and tight. There may be some extra spandex on the edges of the frame. It can easily be cut off with a razor knife.
Next is rigging. To start we made a mark on the top and bottoms of the frame. They were 6" in from each corner. (should have 8 marks per frame 2 at each corner) These are the marks for the eye bolts. Once all the frames are marked, the marks should be drilled out with a drill gun. I think we used an 1/8" bit. This will make putting the eye hooks in possible. Next, put 2 eye hooks in the top and 2 eye hooks in the bottom of the frame. The holes on the side will allow you to hang the set on an angle if you every want to in the future. Lastly, connect the frames together ,at the desired distance apart, with silver chain and quick links.
We found that front lighting it worked best. As always, any questions let me know.
,Steven
Materials (for 30 pieces):
120-3ft long Deck Spindles (Spindle link) {$106.80}
8 - Yards of Poly Stretch 120" wide (Spandex Link) {$204.96}
2 - boxes of eye hooks (Eye hook link) {$15.00}
100 - feet of silver chain
30 - quick links (Quick link link)
1 - Box of staples
1 - Box of 2" drywall screws
The past few weeks have been nuts! We have made a monster!
The new summer set in the Rink is done and it looks great. We built 5 towers of scaffolding with a total height of nearly 20'. The picture above is one of our preliminary programming. We essentially made the hugest and most complex set we could. We have no more DMX universes left, no more rigging capacity, and no more power capacity.
Oh and the NC Strb is like lighting! Mike Spates, Mike Walker, and George Jackson rocked building the set with me during the marathon of lighting.
We found a creative diffuser for our Versa bars. A bent piece of white computer paper and some gaff tape. It worked amazing and gave us a Versa tube type look. We have since tried it with Colorblasts too, and it has worked ok.
