post your eye melty abstracts here

[Bradfo69]

LOL! It's been an interesting conversation in here! For what it's worth, the color mod is getting closer but will still take a bit of time to get it complete. I've not had much luck finding a decent enclosure for an external box and kinda like the idea of making the color mod a 2U panel to be added to the Z-5 console. Hoping to have something available in early 2015.

That would be really cool versus a separate box. Would that just be a rewiring of the front plate? It also appears there were/are a number of controls for the color mod. Will that all fit in a 2U space?

[laserist]

Someone referred to the planetarium "industry" at the IMERSA conference last year. I said, "Giant Screen Cinema is an industry and planetariums are at best a community." Everyone referred to it as the "planetarium community" for the rest of the conference. My point at IMERSA was that you have to actually be in business to be part of an industry.

As to your ongoing juvenile self aggrandizement, my point was that your unfounded opinions, your self righteousness in the face of ongoing failure, and your persistent attempts to blame your pathetic attendance on the people who were actually successful at what you're just parroting are symptomatic of everyone who also have a hand in killing the planetarium community.

LOL

ok buddy

I am killing planetarium shows, you got me!

you hear that eveybody, IT WAS ME!!! MUAHAHAHA!!!

(although I do appreciate you thinking so highly of me that I would have the ability kill an entire industry!)

[laserist]

I don't insist anyone agree with me. I could have gone on doing Laserium once a month in St. Louis forever, but I couldn't have done it well. In St. Louis they set the marketing budget for this year last year and there's no provision to take part of the gate from a current success to advertise to continue the success. Catch 22 - planetarium style.

There's an assumption that if I or others from the golden era just shared what we know - then any f**king idiot today could do what we did back then. Sorry but any f**king idiot couldn't do it back then either. I wrote about that here. But it's worse than just individual ability - there's no business model today. Laserium was a business and a Brand and we made money and paid a lot of REALLY talented people to work on our product - I'm not one of those people who sees the free market as the solution to everything, but when you have a system where high quality and success aren't actually required for continued employment - guess what happens...

There's also a COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED assumption that what - "what's his name" calls the "laser Illuminati" would EVER agree on what's missing and what should be done in any specific case. The difference wasn't that we all agreed on one answer - The difference is we were always trying to make it better, and if that meant trying somebody else's idea - that's what we did. Our shows evolved.

I really don't agree with a lot of your views but I am completely in agreement on this point. I don't buy this rationale for one second. The reason is because no show I have seen today looks anything like the old school planetarium shows, Laserium or other. I also agree that we have let computers do too much of the heavy lifting. Graphic shows are a waste of time. Graphics have a place but you can't get lost in a vector cartoon. It's the mind-blowing undulations of abstracts, the nebulous clouds of lumia scatter and the music/light fusion that is what it's all about. Yes, the industry has lost its way as it pertains to planetarium shows. Arial beams and club/rave shows fit where they're at. Graphics are fine for trade shows. None of those techniques belong in a dome. It's not that people have become desensitized, it's that they aren't even being given a mind blowing show. Good looking women are still great to look at and the media bombards us with them. Why shouldn't it hold true for a *great* laser show?

Why do you really think the industry has lost its way? Is it because of the emergence of point and click shows? Mediocre (as in no artistic talent) having access to "good" equipment? Couldn't it also be that the real artists admidst the sea of mediocrity are not being passed on the information and tutelage of the "pros"? I'm not implying that it is, but couldn't it be? Certainly there are many other facets to the problem but withholding information or ONLY doling it out to those who are deemed worthy is also destructive. Yes, it would be nice if someone worthy took the knowledge forward but to be selective is, for a lack of a better word, stupid.

I am also disappointed to hear that you have faced an uphill battle in your recent attempts to revive the planetarium scene. I can understand your reluctance.

***Back to the interest of this thread: One of the many major differences that I see between Laserium shows and modern shows are borders. One of the things I am trying to do with my shows is to remove borders. I don't like a "virtual screen" and I try to make sure that none of my abstracts touch the edge of the drawing area. It's one of the things that made Laserium cool. The fact that the entire dome seemed to swallow you. It didn't look like it was just a big screen.

[Galvonaut]

WTF ~
Anybody rememeber when this used to be a REALLY cool thread to showcase some really awesome laser abstracts and the ways to produce them?

Wait, here it is, way back on page 19...
http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...608#post304608


+1 on planters' comments to keep it current.
Otherwise -
Way to derail folks...

Here here!

I have been a bit busy recently and got all excited that my favourite thread had so many unread pages.

I've not designed anything recently but will re-share a few things that most of you have seen, just to get us going again! You never know, I might even get LSX out again soon

These are LSX video output videos as I've STILL not begun putting the big pile of components I have here together yet!

[laserist]

My primary goal was to answer the question would people still love those early shows, or would they just yawn? I had a number of lessor goals, but just the one primary goal. I honestly thought they'd love it, but a sanity check is always a good thing. If I had it to do over again I'd let my boss invest in the project and set things up QUITE differently, but in reality the project may never have happened at all if I'd pushed too hard...

Life is complex. It has both real and imaginary parts...

(I didn't want to get into this but...)

Yeah... that made no sense to me either. You're doing sold out monthly shows for several years now and.... on the flip side... he's had a failed attempt at Laserium in a smaller Midwestern city and (as written) didn't bother to be involved in marketing it, and assumed it would be done for him.

If I'm investing that kind of time and money into a project of that nature - and I'm the one with experience - I think I'd share how it needs to be marketed with the people I've entrusted my business with. And be checking up on them.

Oh, wait... there's that sharing thing again.


Seems to me people around St Louis presently could now have the lingering perspective of, "Huh.. Laserium... Well, I guess that didn't last long."

And yet people in Miami? "Dude... what are you doing next Friday? You gotta come check out this Floyd show."

Who exactly, has done more to "kill" it again??

[flecom]

As to your ongoing juvenile self aggrandizement, my point was that your unfounded opinions, your self righteousness in the face of ongoing failure, and your persistent attempts to blame your pathetic attendance on the people who were actually successful at what you're just parroting are symptomatic of everyone who also have a hand in killing the planetarium community.

I love you man, well I will continue laughing all the way to the bank with my "failure"

even though none of that has anything to do with my original issue...

as someone else stated knowledge not shared is knowledge lost... in the end people will remember persons that did something and published it, so it could continue to be developed and/or reproduced... also at no point did I say "anyone can do it" but if nobody has the tools available, then guess what, nobody can do it

at no point in recent history did an idea simply come out of thin air... progress and inventing is an evolution of ideas, if you don't have those initial seeds then the idea will die...

it's probably a big reason why analog consoles are all but dead, I don't think it's because of computers (although that's obviously a big factor) I think it was the people that were making them were so obsessed with keeping everything a secret that people just went the easy, well documented route with a support community

the planetarium show business is not dead, I am truly sorry it didn't work out for you... perhaps you should try again and take an active role in marketing it?

[Stuka]

Here here!

I have been a bit busy recently and got all excited that my favourite thread had so many unread pages.

I've not designed anything recently but will re-share a few things that most of you have seen, just to get us going again! You never know, I might even get LSX out again soon

These are LSX video output videos as I've STILL not begun putting the big pile of components I have here together yet!

NICE!

I especially like the Transcendence show -
must look awesome in "real laser"!

My primary goal was to answer the question would people still love those early shows, or would they just yawn? I had a number of lessor goals, but just the one primary goal. I honestly thought they'd love it, but a sanity check is always a good thing. If I had it to do over again I'd let my boss invest in the project and set things up QUITE differently, but in reality the project may never have happened at all if I'd pushed too hard...

Life is complex. It has both real and imaginary parts...

Dude -

Maybe you guys (flecom, et al) could start your own thread and quit cluttering up this one with a lot of back-and-forth banter that really has nothing to do with the original thread subject?

With the exception of the last few pages, this has been one of those rare, long-running threads that pretty much stuck with the original subject, has a LOT of good content to share, and for the most part, was really low on the drama.

It would be nice if this thread could return to its original intent...

[planters]

It would be nice if this thread could return to its original intent...

Agreed.

Regarding the abstracts, I have only seen these projected (YouTube) and I wonder do they loose their appeal when viewed toward the projector in the same way that you loose the value of a graphics show or do they behave more like a beam show and get better?

[swamidog]

Agreed.

Regarding the abstracts, I have only seen these projected (YouTube) and I wonder do they loose their appeal when viewed toward the projector in the same way that you loose the value of a graphics show or do they behave more like a beam show and get better?

my shows tend to work very poorly as beam shows. in the same way most beam shows are quite boring to watch at termination point. it requires a different structuring of the light.

[flecom]

my shows tend to work very poorly as beam shows. in the same way most beam shows are quite boring to watch at termination point. it requires a different structuring of the light.

pretty much this... shooting graphics and abstracts through a rear-projected scrim can sometimes look neat but just watching them as beam shows usually ends up looking like a big mess