Roofline & two 48 node snowflakes- New to all of this

[WayOveMyHead]

Hi everyone, I'm pretty new to the world of Pixels and sequencing. This is my first year owning a house and I wanted to get into pixels to just get my feet wet and that way I can build on what I learn from year to year. As of now I'm running an AlphaPix 4 controller with Pixabulbs outlining the front roof line and then two 48 node snowflakes that will be on the front of my patio facing the street.

Being my first year I'm not looking to sequence, just run animations for now. I have been playing around with xlights and wanted to know what you guys would do in my shoes.

If I got this right it looks like I got 30 seconds per sequence for just animations and will need to create multiple sequences to put together a playlist that I can then schedule to play.

Please let me know if I'm missing something or if there is a better way to approach this. Thank you in advance

[Gilrock]

Animations are the same thing as sequences they just don't have an associated audio file.  When you create them you can change the duration to something else in the settings dialog.  If the change the length later after you've created the sequence you need to delete the FSEQ file and reopen the sequence.

[WayOveMyHead]

@Gilrock
Thank you. Do you know the max length I can make a sequence? It sounds like I can just make on large sequence with different effects and let it run on repeat on the scheduler instead of making multiple sequences.

[Gilrock]

Yeah but some have made their sequences too long and then crash when rendering probably due to windows 32-bit memory limit.

[WayOveMyHead]

Ok so it sounds like its best to make a playlist of multiple animation sequences to play it safe

[babybear]

I'm also new this year and also doing animations only. Things I have found by playing.  It took me 15 hours to do my first 10 minutes. Yes you can just slap in things but you want to make then look christmasy.  A lot of red and green. My first set was 10 minute block (600 minutes). After that I would do 30 second to 1 minute blocks and just add then into the schedule. That way your show is up and running. the other thing I learned was keeps your effects short no more than 30 seconde as you will lose the interst of people going by. I kept my anywhere from 15 to 20 secondes per effect.  If you keep up on reading these blogs you end up learning a lot of tricks with the effects.   Remember two things, have fun and the kids that go by.

[WayOveMyHead]

@BabyBear when you say 10 minute block (600 minutes) are you saying you started with a 10 min show and now are at 600 minutes of show? or would you put 15-20 second effects into 10 min time block. So much to learn haha.

[babybear]

Oops sorry about that   A 10 minute show is 600 seconds  When you first start a new animation before you say done you can put in the time you would like. but it is inputted in seconds. I would share my sequences but the would not come close to fit your models  Im running 2 mega trees 16 x 50 by 180deg and 8 x 25 by 180deg plus 4   25 nodes arches.   I let my show run from 4:30 to 9:30 each night.  Then I bring up a second xlights to work on a new sequence. 

[jnealand]

The first year I had pixels, I made a 30 sec animated sequence that changed every 10 min.  Then I had other things I wanted to try so I extended to 60sec.  The I went to 120 sec.  Finally everyone seemed to like it so I just picked a song and added a few more 10 sec animations and played it.  No one seemed to care that it did not match the music beats and everyone like it so I used it in the show.  Not a great sequence, but a very good learning experience.

[WayOveMyHead]

Hi Jim,

Would you have the 30/60 sec animation replaying during the 10 min over and over?

[jnealand]

Each 10 sec increment is just a different effect such as a simple all blue with sparkles,  others might use spirals or single strand or anything that I wanted to try out.  When I added a 3 minute song to make it a musical sequence I just made it one entry in my playlist.  If you are just going to use animations, you can still put it in a playlist as a single entry and then just have that playlist repeat as long as you want.

[babybear]

Everything in my 10 minute sequence was not a repeat.  the other 1 minute sequences I have added on also fresh.  with a mega tree its a little easier as I can draw pictures on it.. I have a snowman, Grinch. Santa,  stocking, candy canes and presents.    I drew a snowman on one layer and then have snow falling on another.
  My big mega tree is 23 feet tall  is thanksgiving with red white and blue with what was going on in the world.  if my attachment worked

[WayOveMyHead]

Working with only the roof line is what is killing me. Next year will have to get some mega trees

[WayOveMyHead]

Anyone know why I can't put effects in past the 30 sec mark. I changed it to 60.000 before putting effects in and every time I get to 30 it stops playing. Trying to put together 5 minutes of changing effects and colors on my roof line that I can put on repeat tonight as I keep learning the SW.

[jnealand]

i just use notepad++ and edit the xml sequence file.  Delete the fseq and then open the xml in xlights and save.  XML is pretty easy to read, just change the time to whatever you want it to be.