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Thread: Please help!

  1. #11
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    Have I got this right? You are displaying a recorded animation in different parts of a room under which you want to project a laser line, that due to the size and duration of the animation at its various display positions in the room requires the laser line to be different lengths and projected for different durations of time.
    Sound like you need a time line sequence. That will enable you to create frame sequences of the different length, duration and display position for each of the laser lines then string them together in an overall sequence to match the animation.
    Cheers

    Colin.

    Anyone wanting to be a politician, should automatically be excluded from being one!

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by WolfMax View Post
    Have I got this right? You are displaying a recorded animation in different parts of a room under which you want to project a laser line, that due to the size and duration of the animation at its various display positions in the room requires the laser line to be different lengths and projected for different durations of time.
    Sound like you need a time line sequence. That will enable you to create frame sequences of the different length, duration and display position for each of the laser lines then string them together in an overall sequence to match the animation.
    That's about right, and I think it would be achievable in entry level commercial software like Quickshow but I'm seeking a little more control, if I wanted to playback the overall animation at faster rates/slower rather than the first solution wouldn't I need to generate an output with a new timeline sequence for each discrete rate in most programs out there? That's what it looks like and if that's the best I can do that's okay, but I'll keep searching until I'm sure that's the case.

    At the moment I'm exploring distortion of the scanner input, one approach could be to use vvvv, a graphical programming interface with a module intended for distortion of desktop displays to external projectors/monitors so that they project 'correctly' onto irregularly shaped surfaces. Maybe I could make that work.
    Last edited by vide0n; 02-08-2015 at 04:20.

  3. #13
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    if you go with the idea of using a simple function generator and a few pots you could make a line projector that could produce a line from horizontal to vertical and anything in between.

    If you feed the same signal to both scanners you will always get a line. If you turn the Y all the way to zero, you get a line on X. As you increase the amplitude of Y the line will rotate counter clockwise toward a diagonal (X = Y) and as you decrease X it will continue toward vertical.

    Amplitude on the both X and Y together will adjust the length of the line.

    A function generator, 2 linear pots and a stacked stereo pot.

    That's about as simple as it gets.

    You could also simulate this in software by using a wave player in a loop. Volume is line length and balance between the channels is the angle between horizontal and vertical.

    Since you would only need a periodic, zero sum function like triangle or sine wave, you wouldn't even need to modify the sound card.

    James.
    Last edited by james; 02-08-2015 at 11:18.
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  4. #14
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    You can't speed up / slow down timeline playback so yes you'd need different timelines.

    An alternative would be do the performance live. I think you could have a workspace page of cues with each column on the timeline containing cues of the same line but at varying animation speeds.

    Each column would contain a different line.

    So if you had 10 columns, you could have 10 cues with the 1st column consisting of cue line 1. A 2nd column consisting of cue line 2. A 3rd column consisting of cue line 3 etc.

    As you went down the rows in a column the speed of each cue would increase (pre-set in the animation).

    So if you wanted cue 3 at medium speed you'd choose the line in column 3 and the mid row. If the next cue was a fast line 1, you'd choose the next cue from column 1 and the bottom row etc.

    If you wanted it to be random and automatic, you could use Virtual DJ (in Pangolin software), to randomly pick cues from the workspace.
    Last edited by White-Light; 02-08-2015 at 12:35.

  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by White-Light View Post
    You can't speed up / slow down timeline playback so yes you'd need different timelines.
    Isn't that software dependent? I can't imagine an advanced laser program doesn't allow a variable playback speed.

  6. #16
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    A line is Y = mX + b. The capacitor on a sound card will not make it possible for b to be non-zero, so you end up with Y = mX.

    m is the slope of the line; the ratio of Y to X.

    To get a line with a negative slope, you would need to invert the input of one or the other of the scanner amps.

    With a capacitor decoupled sound card, the center of the line will always be at zero X and Y.

    James.
    Creator of LaserBoy!
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  7. #17
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    I just reread your original post and other descriptions in an attempt to visualise what you are trying to achieve. In them you said you wanted a single line that grows and shrinks in a looped fashion. The ends of the line to touch certain points around the room as the line grows to be achieved by rotating the projector to different positions, but you want to be able to control the growth/shrink of the line and position of the line ends around the room on the fly. I fear you are going to need bespoke manual controls to achieve this (especially for rotation of the projector).
    Last edited by WolfMax; 02-08-2015 at 14:18.
    Cheers

    Colin.

    Anyone wanting to be a politician, should automatically be excluded from being one!

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by colouredmirrorball View Post
    Isn't that software dependent? I can't imagine an advanced laser program doesn't allow a variable playback speed.
    What vary the timeline playback in real time?

    Can understand for Live Play and Pangolin software does that but why would you want to vary the timeline playback speed as the speed is determined a) By the speed of the song (BPM) and b) all the cues are adjusted for time in relation to each other....
    Last edited by White-Light; 02-08-2015 at 14:28.

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