OK, I suck at DMX Software programing

[VJ LouNYC]

I own MYDMX 2.0. It is going very slow in learning this program. I am looking into making shows using (2) American DJ Inno Spot LED's and (2) American DJ DOTZ Floods. These are my primary lights. I have uplighting that I do not wish to DMX at this time.

Anyone live in Central New Jersey and want to make a few bucks programing some show for me?

Let me know, Thanks.

[Irrational_Fear]

I own MYDMX 2.0. It is going very slow in learning this program. I am looking into making shows using (2) American DJ Inno Spot LED's and (2) American DJ DOTZ Floods. These are my primary lights. I have uplighting that I do not wish to DMX at this time.

Anyone live in Central New Jersey and want to make a few bucks programing some show for me?

Let me know, Thanks.

What specifically are you struggling with? I've just started using MyDMX 2.0 having only used hardware controllers previously. I've only had approx 3 hours on MyDMX but I've been blown away with just how straightforward it is.

This guy on Youtube has done a series of videos covering the basics of programming with MyDMX, in my opinion these are essential viewing:

https://www.youtube.com/user/CGPDJS/videos

I think it is worth putting a couple more hours into and seeing if it clicks. Obviously it does help if you have the space to have your lights setup (for programming) in the same manner you would set them up for a gig.

Feel free to drop me any questions and I'll see if I can help! I'm still figuring some of it out for myself but I've already set up a few basic scenes with it and largely replicated what I already had with my hardware controller, and it's taken about a 10th of the time.

For reference I am using 2 x Showtec Phantom 50 LED movers (Chauvet 250 LED spot clones), a Chauvet 4-Bar, and Chauvet 4-Play. All mounted overhead on a 3-meter section of triangular trussing.

Unfortunately I'm a bit far to drop round! :D

[VJ LouNYC]

Thanks for response. I am getting the hang of it with wash lighting. I am having a harder time with moving heads. I would like to be able to create scenes in "scene builder". I want to create about 10-20 useful scenes for weddings and Sweet 16's.

[Irrational_Fear]

The scene builder is a great tool for the moving heads, it has made programming movements a heck of a lot easier than with a hardware controller.

I find the easiest thing to do is firstly set them up with whichever specific colour / gobo / prism / rotation etc you want for that scene.

Then go to the 'effects' > 'position effects' and choose a simple line (with just 2 points).

I find this easier to start with than a circle as the ends make it easier to determine the position of the lights relative to where you want them pointing. Experiment moving the line around the grid until you have the lights drawing a basic sweep back & forward across what would be the dance floor. You will probably need to change both:

-the position of the line on the grid (use this to keep the lights facing in a forward arc if you don't want full rotations)
-the 2 end points of the line. These 2 points will determine how far across the dance floor your lights will pan. The grid itself represents 360 degrees of travel so if your line stretches all the way across the grid then your lights will do a full rotation. If you are just after a pan across the dance floor you will need a much shorter line!

One other thing to mention- I think the line on the screen is horizontal by default- this may in fact translate to a vertical movement of the lights depending on how you have them positioned. If this is the this case, simply move one of the end points of the line through 90 degrees to make the line on the screen a vertical one.

Remember also that increasing or decreasing the 'duration' will slow down or speed up the movement of the lights!

I found once I was happy quickly setting up a 2 point dance floor sweep as above, I did the same thing but used a 4 point rectangle (the default under polygon is a 4 point square). Using the exact same principles as above, set the points to get your lights to draw a rectangle/square shape on the dance floor.

Again the easiest way to start is to simply adjust the 4 points so you have a loose square that is aligned to the axis of the grid (the default one is at an angle). Then move that grid until the lights are roughly facing forward, then adjust the widest points (across the horizontal axis) to set the upper limits of horizontal travel (i.e the outer sides of the dance floor). Then match the other 2 wide points to these.

All you are left with then is adjusting the distance between these two horizontal lines- this will determine the amount of vertical travel on the lights. Set the bottom of the rectangle so that the lights are sweeping across the front of the dance floor at their lowest point, then set the upper line so the lights are sweeping across the top of the dance floor at their highest point.

Once you have nailed both of these (i.e you can set one of these up within a few seconds) it is relatively easy to simply add in more points to the polygon using the slider below. It is easiest to do this one at a time to start with, moving each point as you add it.

I find you get the best effects by keeping the points relatively far apart- this makes the lights produce broad sweeps rather than very small adjustments which tend to get lost. A good shape to get used to adding points with is to start with a rectangle as above and then add in several points on opposite sides to make the lights produce a big zig-zag motion (either horizontal or vertical) across the rectangle.

By this point it becomes relatively simple to setup circular sweeps etc using the circle presets.

Just make sure that once you have finished setting the movement effect, make sure your colour / gobo presets are all as you want them before you go back to the effect section and click the big 'tick' to generate that scene. It will ask you if you wish to create a new scene, click yes and the scene you have just setup will be that new scene. You can then re-name etc.

One last point to mention is that if you have the MyDMX version that contains the 3D beta, when using the grid on the position effects you get an indicator that travels along the lines you have drawn. This shows where the lights are currently pointing and obviously the direction of travel too. This is unbelievably useful for determining which side is which etc, and something which is not in the standard version of MyDMX 2.0.

I don't know if any of that was useful or not as I don't know what level you are currently at, but that is what I managed to figure out after two evenings of use (approx 5 hours total). So I am certainly no expert but in that time I have managed to get some pretty cool scenes programmed already.

Over the next couple of weeks I'm planning on trying to learn this software inside out so I will gladly help out with any queries if I can, but if anyone more knowledgeable comes along then that's a bonus to both of us!