New Effect: Fan

[Gilrock]

Well I wasn't supposed to do much coding this weekend but I was working on a sequence yesterday and really wanted an effect like this so I spent a few hours yesterday and today creating it.  You should see this in the next release.  Below is a tutorial showing how to use it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saKYDRhb5LA

[MrChristmas2000]

That is cool. Thanks for the add of that effect.

More things to add to a show.   

[jnealand]

If we have the fan do we still need the pinwheel.  Seems like an enhanced pinwheel effect, and I don't mean that in a negative sense, just questioning if we need to have both.

[danj]

Thanks Gil   We are going to have sooooo many effects to choose from!!!!

[Gilrock]

I'm always hesitant to delete an effect because it may exist out there in user's sequences.  So it would probably take conversion code to fix any old instances if we did make a change.

I really hadn't used the Pinwheel effect so I didn't realize it was that close until after I was done.  I think I tried it right before I started and it seemed like parts of it weren't working like the 3D blending.  After I tried again later I realized I was in one of those states where the effect doesn't update.  That can happen if you are in a pause mode.  So it messed up my evaluation of it.  So it does seem like there's not a need for it because you could craft the same thing in my new version.  I would have been happy using the Spiral name for mine.

[flyinverted]

I like this effect, I will definitely use this effect.  It is very close to Pinwheel. Can pinwheel be updated with these new controls or would that break existing sequences?

[Gilrock]

While I could probably figure out how to create anything that was in the Pinwheel effect it would be a pain to do programmatically.  Also the Pinwheel is randomly picking colors so if you have 3 blades and 2 colors you get 2 blades of the same color.  I'm subdividing the blade by the color count so I can create that same look but you would need to select the same color twice and use a single blade with the 3 color divisions.  The Pinwheel uses the state variable to determine speed and I'm using a precise number of rotations so I'm not even sure how I would programmatically match the speeds of rotation.

I'll let Sean decide if we should try to combine them.

[jnealand]

You are correct about causing import problems with older sequences.  That would cause problems I had not thought about.  The new effect is much better, maybe we should just change the screen for the pinwheel to add a line suggesting that folks use the fan instead so that there will be less new use of pinwheel.

[MrChristmas2000]

I like options,  some people might like the pinwheel effect, some people might prefer the fan effect. If having both does not impact the performance of the program I say keep them both.

[JonB256]

I'm using the Fan effect across a group of 10 mini-trees.

Two things I've noticed. When I have it going in the default direction (not the Reverse Option), the color sequence from the palette plays backwards. I have Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Purple, White.  But it is sweeping (quite nicely) in the opposite order. If I go to Option and check Reverse, it changes direction and then plays in the expected order.

Also, at the end of the 6th color, it goes and stays Black, rather than repeating my 6 colors immediately.

This is actually running now on all 10 trees in my back yard and I'll get video when it gets a little darker.

[Gilrock]

The colors order is always clockwise so if you are arranging it across a group of models the color order will depend on the direction you spin the fan.  I did just notice one thing I want to change.  A negative blade angle is causing it to reverse the spin direction.  I will change that so only reverse switches the direction.

If you have it across several models and are seeing black then that's probably the gap between the blades.  Each color is not a blade like in pinwheel.  In Fan each blade is subdivided into the number of colors selected.  So if you have a blade width less than 100% you are going to get a black gap between blades.  Try making the blade width 100% and that black should go away.

[JonB256]

Blade width to 100% and that pesky black area went away.

https://youtu.be/6H-f2dJqpvs

[JerryPlak]

You are  cooking

[Phrog30]

Blade width to 100% and that pesky black area went away.

https://youtu.be/6H-f2dJqpvs

Are those Boscoyo medium 180 degree minis?

James

[fdunham]

The colors order is always clockwise so if you are arranging it across a group of models the color order will depend on the direction you spin the fan.  I did just notice one thing I want to change.  A negative blade angle is causing it to reverse the spin direction.  I will change that so only reverse switches the direction.

If you have it across several models and are seeing black then that's probably the gap between the blades.  Each color is not a blade like in pinwheel.  In Fan each blade is subdivided into the number of colors selected.  So if you have a blade width less than 100% you are going to get a black gap between blades.  Try making the blade width 100% and that black should go away.

Very cool Jon ... even in daylight!