kalevalaSage
Member
Hi guys,
Trying to avoid King/Queen of the Booth complex, but for some background, I happen to be the only person at my high school interested in lighting, or for that matter anything stagecraft-related besides stage management (probably because the way tech is set up people view SM as the "only" leadership position to aspire to). Our school brings in professional lighting designers to do all of the lighting work minus board operation for us, so I've never really had the opportunity to learn about or do any patching, hanging, etcetera-- the most I've done is design a few non-mainstage productions like dance recitals or, recently, the summer musical. But even then the only reason the powers that be are asking me to do that is because I'm the only student who can turn things on via channels as opposed to submasters, and the only one who even knows what a submaster is.
So to cut to the chase, I decided to learn me some pre-viz software to learn more about lighting this summer in as hands-on a fashion as I am capable (setting up plots, or reproducing paintings as I seem to recall being suggested for beginners).
I've managed to set up grandMA 3D and grandMA onPC and I promise I've searched this site and Google extensively (I like search functions! They've enabled me to have never needed to post here, among all of you legitimately skilled and VERY intimidating tech guys, until now). But I can never get a clear answer-- is grandMA the wrong solution for what I'm trying to achieve? I noticed something was amiss when I tried to add some S4 PARs or ERSs to the plot-- the first thing I want to do is replicate my school's stage and "default" plot-- but all the fixtures listed are intelligent ones, and I'm totally lost!
I'm really wordy and I apologise, so here are my questions:
1. Is grandMA 3D traditionally used to pre-viz only moving lights, or would I have to upgrade to WSIWYG or ESP (neither of which I can afford) to incorporate conventional lighting, too?
2. If grandMA is only for moving heads, what should I use first? Might as well turn this into a learning experience for some fixtures that are industry-standard enough that familiarization with them would be useful...
(The only name on the fixtures list I even recognize/know how to use is the Morpheus ColorFader!)
Thanks so much in advance!
Sage
EDIT: I don't have any grandMA experience, at all; that's just the only free option that I know of. My school has a Strand 300 and I've used an ETC Expression 1 once and that's about it. But I have many months/the rest of the future to learn if grandMA would be useful!
Trying to avoid King/Queen of the Booth complex, but for some background, I happen to be the only person at my high school interested in lighting, or for that matter anything stagecraft-related besides stage management (probably because the way tech is set up people view SM as the "only" leadership position to aspire to). Our school brings in professional lighting designers to do all of the lighting work minus board operation for us, so I've never really had the opportunity to learn about or do any patching, hanging, etcetera-- the most I've done is design a few non-mainstage productions like dance recitals or, recently, the summer musical. But even then the only reason the powers that be are asking me to do that is because I'm the only student who can turn things on via channels as opposed to submasters, and the only one who even knows what a submaster is.
So to cut to the chase, I decided to learn me some pre-viz software to learn more about lighting this summer in as hands-on a fashion as I am capable (setting up plots, or reproducing paintings as I seem to recall being suggested for beginners).
I've managed to set up grandMA 3D and grandMA onPC and I promise I've searched this site and Google extensively (I like search functions! They've enabled me to have never needed to post here, among all of you legitimately skilled and VERY intimidating tech guys, until now). But I can never get a clear answer-- is grandMA the wrong solution for what I'm trying to achieve? I noticed something was amiss when I tried to add some S4 PARs or ERSs to the plot-- the first thing I want to do is replicate my school's stage and "default" plot-- but all the fixtures listed are intelligent ones, and I'm totally lost!
I'm really wordy and I apologise, so here are my questions:
1. Is grandMA 3D traditionally used to pre-viz only moving lights, or would I have to upgrade to WSIWYG or ESP (neither of which I can afford) to incorporate conventional lighting, too?
2. If grandMA is only for moving heads, what should I use first? Might as well turn this into a learning experience for some fixtures that are industry-standard enough that familiarization with them would be useful...
(The only name on the fixtures list I even recognize/know how to use is the Morpheus ColorFader!)
Thanks so much in advance!
Sage
EDIT: I don't have any grandMA experience, at all; that's just the only free option that I know of. My school has a Strand 300 and I've used an ETC Expression 1 once and that's about it. But I have many months/the rest of the future to learn if grandMA would be useful!
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