Fine-tuning an effect's output

[PaulB]

Someone please help a newbie.  If I add an effect to an object, say a pixel tree, and want to tweak the output, how to I go about manually editing the output of the effect?   I can expand down to the channel-level & see how the effect is being rendered, but I can't do any editing.   I tried copying/pasting the output of the effect, but I get nothing when I paste.  I'm sure that this is an easy thing to do.

For example, say I do one of the spirals & want the spiral to start at the top of my pixel tree & move down (starting from an all-black tree).   Shouldn't I be able to pick the desired effect, render it somehow & then manually edit out the extra bits?

[Gilrock]

You can't edit the rendered output of an effect.  That's exactly what this program is trying to prevent you from having to do.  You edit effects not data.  You can place an effect at the node level that will overwrite any effects you have at the model level.  But to accomplish what you are describing the best way is to just use two layered effects at the model level.  I'd have to play around to get the exact settings but it would be something like a Curtain effect on top of the Spiral effect with the Curtain effect being used to create a mask.  You can arrange it so that the Spiral effect is hidden until the curtain moves downward to reveal it.

[dkulp]

Agree with Gil...

However, I believe you can drop "Off" effects onto the individual nodes to turn off things you don't want on.

[Gilrock]

Yeah that's what I meant when I said you could place effects at the node level to override the model level.  Off is an effect so you can use it to hide something being rendered by a model level effect.  But to do what you want it would be a pain to drop that many Off effects and then delete some of them every so many frames to make that effect you want.  You can also drop the Off effects at the strand level for a tree which could reduce the number of manually placed effects.

I usually discourage the strand/node level effects because they break the universal nature of our sequences being able to be easily moved to another display.

[rcowan]

Paul,

Welcome to the world of xLights. There is a weekly online user meeting on Wednesday nights at 6:00 PM Central. The meeting usually goes for a few hours and the topics can vary. There usually isn't a set agenda. Just drop in, ask questions, soak up knowledge, etc. There is screen sharing capability so perhaps someone can "show" you how to do what you want to do at the meeting.

Here's the link: https://zoom.us/j/175801909

[flyinverted]

I suggest you learn how use multiple layers and  layer masks and unmasks to do that.

There is no way to make the spirals effect just playback on the middle 1/3 of your tree. You can though use the Color Wash effect on the middle 1/3 of your tree. Create another layer for spirals and then set the Color wash layer to Unmask on the layer blending mode.  Now the spirals will show only where the color wash was taking up space.

You can do the same with curtains starting from the top. As the curtain pulls down, the spirals can be riding on the curtain so they come in from the top.

Reading and comprehending it is one thing. Going through all the layer options will open your eyes.

Here's an exersise to try:   Put butterfly on layer 1.  Put Curtains on a layer below the butterfly.  Now change the layer blending mode for butterfly, stepping through each of the 12 layer modes to see the results.  From there you can let your imagination explore.

Good luck!
Steve