Director Effects
We've posted some tutorial videos showing how to use the new effects options in our Director software. The effects can be used to create lighting effects, sync mouth movement to a vocal track, or to create simple movements. Read on for more details and a video demonstration of each effect.
Lightning Effect
Use this effect to create realistic lightning animation in sync with any thunderstorm audio sound track. A few halogen lights and a DMX Dimmer Pack paired with a Flex or FlexMax is all that's required. The effect will create animation for any number of lighting channels. Stay tuned till at least 3:51 where you see the effect in action. For small setups requiring only two channels see our PicoStorm.
Speech Sync Effect
Use this effect to automatically animate an analog movement such as a servo to a vocal track. It can also be used to throb a light in sync with audio. This effect essentially replicates the PicoTalk's auto-talk functionality so it can be used with the FlexMax's servo outputs, or those on an external Servo card like our ServoDMX.
Flicker Effect
The default behavior for this effect is to emulate a burning candle. You'll get the small flickers like a real candle would burn, and also disturbances (such as a breeze blowing the flame). You can also use the Power Outage preset. This emulates the scenario of when you experience brown outs during power outages. The disturbances in this case, is when you get a drop in voltage and your light dims for a short period of time before coming back to full brightness.
Eyes and Head Effect
This effect will create random eye and head movement for a character with analog movements such as servos. Creating realistic eye and head movement really brings a character to life, but doing so manually for a long audio track can be extremely tedious. This effect combined with our Speech Sync Effect makes all the PicoTalk's features available to Director users.
Speech Spotlight Effect
The speech spotlight effect can be used to automatically illuminate a character's spotlight or LED Eyes when they speak.
Speech Sync Effect
As implied by the name, this effect is very similar to the Speech Sync effect. The major difference is that this effect uses digital outputs. You would use digital outputs for speech when using, for example, props controlled by pneumatic pistons. Timing for the mouth movements differ a little, so the options for this effect reflect that. Take a look at the tutorial video to get an idea of how to use it.
Pulse Effect
Use the Pulse Effect to turn on digital outputs when the audio passes a certain threshold. It can be used to sync a pneumatic mouth to a vocal track, air blasts or light flashes to sounds in the audio, and more ...
Sequence Effect
Use the Sequence Effect to create simple chase patterns or Knight Rider effects across multiple digital outputs.
Wave Generator Effect
Use the Wave Generator to create Sine, Triangle, or Square wave waveforms on analog outputs. These can be useful to automate simple repeated lighting effects or servo movements.
