LD2000 abstract to frame file ~newbie

[polishedball]

Is there anyway to capture the output of the abstract generator to a frame file in LD2000? Or to make any beam effect pans frame files instead of the shortened method i can't seem to figure out.

I have a sequence that is timed to music that I built but in the places where I wanted beam effects I left blank frames. This show is timed to the music track about 10mins and now I am looking to replace the blank/black frame areas with some beam show or abstract. I really don't want to output it to ADAT and then capture back in the frame ala LCADATfile so please someone tell me how I can do this.

This seems to be a problem as I don;t want to break the timing of the rest of the show, but open to any ideas.

[buffo]

Not exactly sure what you're trying to do, but yes, you can save abstracts that you create in LaserShow Designer and then load them into Showtime and drop them onto the timeline. In fact, one of my early shows (the "Clocks" show) is nothing but abstracts that I created in LaserShow Designer. It's not a very good show, but it does demonstrate that you can make an entire show out of nothing but abstracts...

As for the beam effects, normally you just load in the frame with the beams and then apply whatever effects (pan, zoom, rotate, etc) you want to it. If you need to do something really advanced, you might need to make a short module with the frame and some effects first, and then output that as a string of ILDA frames. Then load that resulting frame file back into Showtime and add the extra effects you want.

Again, it would help to understand exactly what you want to accomplish. From your description, I don't see what the problem is. If you've got blank areas in the time line, you can certainly drop in any sort of frame you want, be it beams, abstracts, or whatever...

Adam

[LASERGUY]

I am a little confused also....

You have created abstracts within LD2000?

You wanted to now incorprate these abstracts into your Showtime timeline?

When creating abstracts within LD2000 you effectively are creating frames....

These abstract frames you create can be placed into the timeline just like any other frame can

Maybe I am missing the complexity of your problem?

LaserGuy

[polishedball]

What I did was took the total length of my music, divided it down to find out how many frames i would need at 20fps. Took this total amount of frames and made one track the full length of the song start frame 1 enend frame 8XXX.
I then filled in all the needed graphic frames, but now i want to build the beams and abstracts. This is where the moves or animate seem to come in, but because I built the timeline the way i did it would seem best to have individual frames instead of redefining times since i already defined the total lenght.

Now when I goto fill in an abstract it looks fine in preview, but how can i make it last more than just one frame. Do i just keep adding the same frame over and over or will it lose and or continue to spin properly or start over each time.

How can I adjust the duration of it without breaking my defined frame lenght that I have done above already with the graphics.

Does this make any sense what i am asking?

Thanks

[polishedball]

If i output the abstracts to ADAT and capture back in using LC-ADAT i get the frame file i am looking for. A real amount of frames for each second of play. How can i get this same thing without going to ADAT and back in?

[buffo]

Ok - I think I see the problem...

If I understand you correctly, you made a timeline with just one main event on it. You selected the "animate only" effect, and clicked on the first frame in the list and dropped it on the timeline. Then you grabbed the end of that effect, dragged it to the end of the song, and finally set the last frame pointer to 8xxx, right?

This is *not* how you want to do this.

Normally, you select the first frame in a series, then select the "animate only" effect, and drag the first frame onto the timeline. Then you drag the end of that effect to the spot where you want that first animation to end, and finally you change the end frame to be the last frame for that one animation.

Then, when you want to switch to the next animation, you do the same thing with the first frame of the next animation... So for each discrete animation you have an area of the timeline blocked out for it.

Perhaps if you e-mailed me the show file I could make some changes to it and send it back so you can understand better. But a simpler solution might be for you to load up one of the pre-made shows that came with your LD-2000 so you can see how this is done. (Do you have my "Why" show? It's one I'm very familiar with, so if you have that one I can walk you through each and every effect until you understand exactly how the show was created...)

I'll be home in about 2 hours if you want to chat about it. Give me a ring at (843) 767-0061.

Adam

[polishedball]

Ok - I think I see the problem...

If I understand you correctly, you made a timeline with just one main event on it. You selected the "animate only" effect, and clicked on the first frame in the list and dropped it on the timeline. Then you grabbed the end of that effect, dragged it to the end of the song, and finally set the last frame pointer to 8xxx, right?

This is *not* how you want to do this.

Normally, you select the first frame in a series, then select the "animate only" effect, and drag the first frame onto the timeline. Then you drag the end of that effect to the spot where you want that first animation to end, and finally you change the end frame to be the last frame for that one animation.

Then, when you want to switch to the next animation, you do the same thing with the first frame of the next animation... So for each discrete animation you have an area of the timeline blocked out for it.

Perhaps if you e-mailed me the show file I could make some changes to it and send it back so you can understand better. But a simpler solution might be for you to load up one of the pre-made shows that came with your LD-2000 so you can see how this is done. (Do you have my "Why" show? It's one I'm very familiar with, so if you have that one I can walk you through each and every effect until you understand exactly how the show was created...)

I'll be home in about 2 hours if you want to chat about it. Give me a ring at (843) 767-0061.

Adam

Thank you very much for the offer, I do understand that I did this wrong. I do understand how to do it correct after watching the tutorial DVD a little late i'll add

With that said, That is why I am looking for the fix work around for this one show. I do not want to lose all the timming so the only fix I see is dropping in real frames. That is why i am trying to get an output of frames out the abstract generator without the process of going out and back in.

I can get it to work on a new timeline as you describe fine, thats how i proved I can play that out and capute it back in. I'd like to know if this can be done without using that process.

[buffo]

Well, in a word - no. At least, not without a *significant* amount of extra work.

You'd have to make a new module, place the abstracts in it, output everything as a stream of ILDA frames, then load those back into the frame list of the original at exactly the right places.

Then you'd need to do the same thing with the beam frames....

A better way might be to recreate the entire show using the correct method in the track immediately below the one you already have. That is, load the original show, and then start re-creating it using track 2. Adjusting the timing will be easy... Just zoom in until you can see where the frames end, and drag the effects on the second track until they line up.

When you get everything done, you can delete the first track and you're all set.

Adam