DMX Colour from Grandma or other dmx lighting controller to VDMX

mynameisavisual's picture

Hi,

I want to automaticly change the colours in vdmx when the Lightjockey changes the colours of the lights (true vdmx). So my visuals have the same coulours as the lights.

Is this possible?

Thanks

harrisonpault's picture
Re: DMX Colour from Grandma or other dmx lighting controller ...

I suppose there are two approaches: analyze the dmx stream, or analyze the light output. I would go for the light output, because it matches audience perception more surely and accounts for things such as relative power of different fixtures and the possibility that some of the lighting control isn't observable. So, one way to do this is to point a camera at the lights, and use patches such as image_pixels to sample it. Check out the built-in Image Histogram composition.

franz's picture
Re: DMX Colour from Grandma or other dmx lighting controller ...

If I know the lightjockey and can spend some time with him(her), I would create a virtual "VDMX fixture" that sends the master color on 3 channels (RGB) on a specific artnet universe. Then in VDMX/QC i would just spy on these 3 channels and build a color out of it.

mynameisavisual's picture
Re: DMX Colour from Grandma or other dmx lighting controller ...

I tried using the image pixels patch but it's not working properly. I thought about the sample & hold patch but neither dit that work.

I attached the QC file.

Warm regards

L

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capture-colour.qtz29.36 KB

harrisonpault's picture
Re: DMX Colour from Grandma or other dmx lighting controller ...

Hi,

So, a couple of things. Image pixel just looks at one pixel. You were looking at the corner pixel (0,0). So, depending, it could be sort of dark. Here is a mod that works fine for me. I centered the pixel on the video image, added an amplifier to scale up the RGB, and voila. But if you want to use this approach, you probably want to do an iterator over all the pixels, average the results, and maybe put a smoothing function in there. But you definitely can use this approach. Also, for extra credit, if you've got an Open CL capable GPU in your mac, you might poke around here for M.Oostrick's version. It will run more efficiently probably.

But don't overlook Franz's suggestion for the DMX feed. You need some cooperation from the lighting jockey, and some connectivity hardware to get the dmx network / lighting console to send DMX message to your mac. Maybe ENTEC for USB and an Artnet of one sort or another to get it to the ENTEC. If you can get the lighting system to report its average RGB then the Kineme Artnet product will let you receive that signal.

I don't know. My solution is empirical: measure the light hitting your camera and it doesn't take a networking guru to lash it all together...but in an ideal world you'd just get the color scheme off of the lighting guys equipment with artnet..

Happy pixel peeping!

Paul

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