Once fixtures are selected within an editor, you can modify their parameters.
Hog consoles provide several ways to adjust the different parameter types:
Command Line: Use for intensity and selecting palettes.
I-Wheel: Use for intensity.
Trackball: Use for position (pan and tilt). Use the top-right Trackball key to switch the Trackball between controlling the on-screen pointer and the position of selected fixtures.
Parameter Wheels: Use for all fixture functions. To change the parameter type currently controlled by the parameter wheels, select one of the fixed kind keys on the front panel: Intensity, Position, Colour, Beam, Effect, and Time or one of the user kind keys on the front panel. For consoles that don't have a dedicated user kind keys on the front panel you may select user kinds using the kinds directory as long as the guard button for the kinds directory is turned off.
If the fixture has more parameters of a particular type than there are parameter wheels you can press the parameter type keys to page through the parameters.
Center Wheel: Functions assigned to the center wheel in the user preferences can be adjusted using the inner wheel and outer jog shuttle controls of the center wheel. (Hog 4 Console Only)
Slot Toolbar: Use for parameters that have discrete rather than continuous values (known as ‘slotted’), such as the positions of a colour wheel. This gives you button-press control of the possible values.
The Slot Toolbar also has buttons to access the control functions: Enable, Mode and Control.
Spreadsheet: You can directly edit a parameter's value in an editor's spreadsheet view. Click on the cell, press Set, type in a value and press Enter.
Colour Picker: You can assign hue and saturation values for a fixture's colour using the Colour Picker. See The Colour Picker.
Gel Picker: You can assign the colour of fixtures to match a colour filter from various manufacturers' ranges using the Gel Picker. See The Gel Picker.
Fixture intensities can either be assigned from the keypad or using the I-Wheel, as well as the parameter wheels and by editing directly in the editor spreadsheet.
To assign intensities using the @ key and the numeric keypad:
Fixture
4@70, Enter : assigns Fixture 4 to 70%.
Fixture
4@5, Enter : assigns Fixture 4 to 50% (not 5%).
Fixture
4@05, Enter : assigns Fixture 4 to 5%.
To assign fixtures to full or zero:
Fixture
4Full : assigns Fixture 4 to full.
Fixture
4Out : assigns Fixture 4 to zero. The Out button is on the Main Toolbar.
The intensity of a fixture can be changed relative to its current level, for example:
Fixture
4@ +5, Enter : increases the intensity of Fixture 4 by 50%.
Fixture
4@ –10, Enter : reduces the intensity of Fixture 4 by 10%.
The intensity of a fixture can be scaled proportionally, for example:
Fixture
4@ /70, Enter : scales the intensity of Fixture 4 to 70% of its original value.
Fixture
4@ /120, Enter : scales the intensity of Fixture 4 to 120% of its original value.
On the Hog 4 Console and on Hog 4 PC only: Moving the I-Wheel changes the level of the selected fixtures. When selecting several fixtures and adjusting levels, the wheel will maintain relative differences between them, so that all intensities change by the same amount. For example, if fixture 1 is at 10%, 2 at 50% and the wheel is increased by 10%, then fixture 1 will move to 20% and 2 will move to 60%.
By holding the Pig key whilst using the wheel, intensities will be increased or decreased in proportion to their individual level. For example, if fixture 1 is at 10%, 2 at 50% and the wheel is increased by 10%, then fixture 1 will move to 11% and 2 will move to 55%.
On the Hog 4 Console and Hog 4 PC only: The Nudge Up and Nudge Down keys can be used to increase and decrease the intensity by a preset amount. The size of the increment is 10% by default, but you can change it in the Programming pane of the User Preferences window.
Using Pig + Nudge Up and Pig + Nudge Down will create a half nudge step. It will increase or decrease the intensity by half of the assigned amount. For instance if the nudge value is set to +10% a Pig + Nudge Up will produce +5%.
The Rem Dim button on the Main Toolbarsets the intensity of any unselected fixtures in the current editor to 0%. The Rem Dim button is disabled by default in new shows. To enable the Rem Dim button open the preferences window and turn off the "Disable Rem Dim Button" located under the programming tab.
To switch the Trackball from controlling the cursor to controlling fixture position, press the top right selection key adjacent to the Trackball. When controlling fixture position the Trackball will glow blue, and can be used in two modes. To change mode press the top right Trackball selection key.
Position Mode: In the default mode, the pan and tilt of the fixture follows the movement of the Trackball.
Ortho Mode: Ortho mode helps the accurate positioning of fixtures by constraining pan while changing tilt, or vice versa.
The Status Bar at the right hand end of the Command Line Toolbar shows when the Trackball is in Position Mode with the legend 'POS', and when it is in Ortho Mode with the legend 'Ortho'.
You can assign the way that fixtures move in relation to the Trackball. See Swap Axes.
![[Tip]](../images/tip.png) | Tip |
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An external mouse will always control the graphical pointer, so you can keep the Trackball in position mode to save having to change modes as you program. |
The pan and tilt parameters also appear on the parameter wheels after the Position key is depressed, and can be used as an alternative to the Trackball.
With some moving lights, there is more than one combination of pan and tilt that results in the beam hitting the same point on the stage. You may sometimes want to change the pan and tilt combination being used, for example to ensure that the fixture takes the most direct route during a position change.
The Flip function cycles the selected fixtures through the possible combinations in turn. To do this, select the fixture or fixtures and press Flip on the Main Toolbar.
Holding the Pig key down while pressing Flip cycles through the combinations the other way.
| Tip |
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When the Trackball is in position mode, the top left Trackball key also acts as a Flip key, for quick access while positioning fixtures. |
Colour and beam parameters can be either discrete (known as ‘slotted’) or continuous. An example of a slotted parameter is the gobo and colour wheels in a moving light, which can be assigned to values such as Gobo 1 and Colour 3. Examples of continuous parameters are the colour mixing controls on some moving lights, irises, and variable-speed strobes; these can be assigned to a percentage or real-world value. It is sometimes useful to treat slotted parameters as continuous; for example, you might want to assign a gobo or colour wheel part way between two positions to achieve a particular effect. Hog 4 OS allows you to treat such parameters as either slotted or continuous when assigning values to them.
To control continuous colour and beam parameters:
Press the appropriate parameter type key : Colour or Beam or any user kind key that contains colour and beam functions. The Wheels Toolbar shows the available parameters and their current value; see Figure 6.6, “Wheels Toolbar for the Beam Parameters of a Studio Spot 575”.
If the selected fixture has more parameters of the selected type than there are wheels, the Wheelsets Toolbar will open; see Figure 6.7, “The Wheelsets Toolbar for a Studio Spot 575”. Page through the available parameters by pressing the parameter type key again, or select a button on the toolbar.
Adjust the parameter value using the parameter wheels.
Some parameters that appear on the parameter wheels have more than one mode. These modes are shown as a list on the Wheels Toolbar, and you can select the modes by clicking on the wheel's button on the toolbar.
For parameters appearing on the parameter wheels, you can hold Set, then press the associated button on the Wheels Toolbar to open a direct value entry dialog; see Figure 6.8, “The Wheels Toolbar Direct Entry Dialog”
Enter a value for the parameter in the direct value entry box and select any available modes. Press Enter to complete the direct value entry.
When you have several fixtures selected, you can make all the values of a parameter the same as that of the first fixture:
Press and hold the / key while turning the appropriate parameter wheel.
You can assign a parameter to its endstop values:
Press and hold the + key and adjust the appropriate parameter wheel clockwise to assign the parameter to its maximum value, and anticlockwise to assign the parameter to its minimum value.
Some parameters have values either side of zero; for example, gobo rotation speed. You can invert such parameters so that they have the same value but the other side of zero. In the case of gobo rotation, this reverses the direction whilst maintaining the current speed. To invert a parameter:
Press and hold the – key and adjust the appropriate parameter wheel.
To control slotted colour and beam parameters such as gobo and colour wheels:
Press the appropriate parameter type key : Colour or Beam. The Slot Toolbar shows the available parameters; see Figure 6.9, “The Slot Toolbar for a Studio Spot 575”.
Click on the required parameter, and an additional toolbar will open showing the available slot positions; see Figure 6.10, “The Colour Slots Toolbar for a Studio Spot 575”.
Select a slot from the available slot positions.
Fixtures that have continuously variable colour mixing create colour in different ways. The two main systems are:
CMY: this system is used by most moving lights that have continuous colour mixing; the colour is controlled by three parameters: Cyan (C), Magenta (M) and Yellow (Y). Fixtures that use the CMY system start by producing white light, and then filter out the unwanted colours to leave the desired colour; higher parameter values produce a greater filtering effect, so that setting them all to 100% produces black. To avoid wasting the light intensity of the fixture, you should always keep at least one of the CMY parameters at 0%, setting the other two at higher values to get more saturated colours. For example, values of 0%C, 0%M, 20%Y will produce a pale yellow tint, while 0%C, 100%M, 0%Y will produce a fully saturated magenta. Mixing two of the colours will produce further shades, so 50%C, 0%M, 50%Y will produce a middle-saturation green.
RGB: this system is used mainly by fixtures based on LEDs. The colour is controlled by three parameters: Red (R), Green (G) and Blue (B); with the three parameters at 0% the fixture produces no light output, and the higher than value of these parameters, the greater the fixture's total light output. If the three parameters have equal values, then the light output will be white (within the limits of the technologies used). Use one or two of the parameters to get the colour you want, and then add the other(s) to de-saturate it (‘dilute’ it towards white). For example, values of 0%R, 0%G, 100%B will produce a bright, saturated blue, while 80%R, 80%G, 100%B will produce a bright, blue tint. 50%R, 100%G, 100%B will produce a middle-saturation cyan.
While Hog 4 OS allows you to control the CMY or RGB parameters of fixtures directly, this method has several disadvantages:
With both the RGB and CMY systems, it is difficult to remember what combination of settings will achieve the colour you want.
With both systems, colour and fixture intensity are linked. Under the CMY system, giving all three parameters values above 0% unnecessarily reduces the light output; with the RGB system, fixtures often don't provide a separate intensity parameter so you have to control it with the colour parameters. However, it is usually much more convenient when programming to keep colour and intensity completely separate.
The different colour systems, together with different lamp types used, make it difficult to match colours between fixtures of different types. Furthermore, during cross-fades colours tend not to remain matched through the duration of the cue, producing uneven colour fades.
Hog 4 OS solves these problems by using a third colour system: Hue and Saturation (HS). Under the HS system, a fixture's colour is determined by two parameters:
Hue: the colour's position in the possible range of colours, from red, going through yellow, green, cyan, blue and magenta, and finally returning to red. As the range ‘wraps around’, you can visualise it as a circle with the colours positioned around the edge, with red at the top, green at the lower right, blue at the lower left, and the intermediate colours in between. The angle between 0 and 360 degrees specifies the hue of the colour: red has a hue of 0 degrees, yellow has a hue of 60 degrees, and cyan has a hue of 180 degrees. See Figure 6.11, “The Colour Wheel”.
Saturation: how ‘strong’ or ‘pale’ the colour is. Pale colours have low saturations, while strong colours have high saturations. Saturation is specified as a percentage between 0% (white) and 100% (the strongest possible saturation).
When you program with the HS parameters, Hog 4 OS stores all values as HS, and converts them to CMY or RGB as required when sending DMX data to the fixtures. As part of this process, the console is able to match the colours of different fixture types; see Using Colour Matching.
The Hue and Saturation parameters of fixtures with continuous colour mixing are controlled in the same way as other continuous parameters; see Continuous Parameters: Colour and Beam. You can also use the Colour Picker and Gel Picker; see The Colour Picker and The Gel Picker.
One of the advantages of the Hog 4 OS's HS colour system is its ability to match colours across different fixture types. Assigning the Hue and Saturation parameters of two different types of fixtures will set them to the same visual colour (within the limitations of the fixtures), but it might send different DMX values to each. Furthermore, they will maintain that match through a cross-fade, ensuring even colour fades.
For colour matching to work, the fixtures need to have a colour calibration in the fixture library; you can check this in the Fixture window:
Setup → Patch
If the fixture has Yes in the Col Cal column, then it has a colour calibration. Fixtures that are not calibrated will use a standard DMX mapping to determine hue and saturation.
You can use the Colour Picker to graphically select Hue and Saturation values. To open the Colour Picker:
Hold down the Open key and select HS Picker.
Or:
Pig + Open + Colour
There is also a button to open the Colour Picker in the Colour Directory window.
The Colour Picker will change its display according to the fixture selection:
With no fixtures selected, you just see the colour wheel with saturated colours around the outside, and paler colours towards the centre.
When a calibrated fixture is selected, a dashed line will be superimposed on the colour wheel. This line represents the fixture's gamut, or range of colours that it can achieve. To select any colour within this range, simply click on it. The new selection will be marked by a superimposed cross and circle. If you select a colour outside the fixture's gamut, one marker (‘X’) indicates the colour that was chosen, while a second (‘O’) indicates the closest colour that the fixture can produce. The two markers are joined by a line to indicate they are related.
Fixtures that do not have colour mixing capabilities do not appear in the Colour Picker.
If you have several different fixture types selected, the lines on the colour picker change to display the range of colours that all of the selected fixtures can achieve (shown as a dotted line), as well as the range of colours that at least one of the fixtures can achieve (shown as a dashed line). When you select a colour, a single target marker (‘X’) is displayed, connected to a series of ‘O’ markers, one for each fixture type.
The Colour Picker also displays the gamuts and markers for fixtures that are currently in the editor, but not selected. These are shown in grey.
Fixtures that are not color calibrated use a standard HS method and the Colour Picker will appear without any dashed lines.
You can use the Gel Picker to select colours matched to traditional gels. Clicking on a button in the Gel Picker sets the Hue and Saturation parameters of the selected fixtures to values that match the selected colour as closely as possible.
You can select colours from the Lee, Rosco E-Colour, Rosco Supergel and GamColor ranges, using the buttons in the toolbar at the top of the window. You can also select whether to match to the gel as it would appear in a Par 64 or similar conventional tungsten source, or in a Source 4, which has a slightly bluer light output.
There is a button to open the Gel Picker in the Colour Directory window.
Note that the Gel Picker colours are not palettes, and will not be embedded in programming; they are simply shortcuts to the appropriate HS values. Gel Picker colours are a closer match when applied to colour calibrated fixtures than non calibrated ones.
Holding the Pig key and moving the encoder wheel allows fine adjustment of the currently selected parameter, so that each turn of the wheel will change the parameter value by a smaller amount. This is useful for making exact adjustments to values.
When you start to record your programming as cues you will find that only the parameters that you have assigned values to are stored; these are known as ‘Hard Values’. This is important because in cuelists values track through until they are changed, and this allows different playbacks to interact to create a single onstage look. For a complete explanation of tracking, see Tracking.
However you will sometimes want to ensure that a value is stored at its current value in a cue or palette. To do this you can Touch it:
To touch all parameters of the current selection simply press the Touch key on the Main Toolbar.
To touch only the parameters of a particular kind, press the appropriate parameter type key followed by Touch. For example:
Position Touch : touches all position parameters of the selected fixtures.
To touch a single parameter you can hold the Touch button while moving that parameter's wheel slightly. The current value will be touched without modification from the parameter wheel.
Untouched values appear in the editor with a white background. Once you have touched parameter values they are available for recording in the same way as any value that you have assigned. They are shown with a blue background, indicating that they have been modified:
You can bring parameter values into an editor without touching them using Pig + Touch. As the parameters haven't been touched, they won't be recorded as part of the contents of the editor. This can be useful if you want to have the parameter values in the editor in order to copy them to other fixtures.
For example, to copy parameter values from fixtures 1-5 that are on stage to fixtures 6-10 in the current editor:
1Thru5Pig + Touch : select the fixtures 1-5, and bring their onstage values into the editor without touching them:Copy
6Thru10, Enter : copy the parameter values to fixtures 6-10:Record : the contents of the editor is recorded with only fixtures 6-10, not 1-5.
If the above example had used Touch instead of Pig + Touch, then you would have to untouch or knockout 1-5 before recording.
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Values with a dark or light blue background in the Programmer or editor are recordable, while those with a white or gray background are not recordable. |
You can copy the parameter values of one fixture to another.
![[Important]](../images/important.png) | Important |
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If you copy parameter settings between fixtures of different types, only those parameters that the fixtures have in common will be copied. |
To copy from the current selection:
Copy
8Enter : copies the parameters of the current selection to fixture 8.
To copy from specified fixtures:
Fixture
1Thru4Copy8Thru11, Enter : copies the parameter settings of Fixtures 1-4 to 8-11.
To copy parameter values from the fixtures of one group to the fixtures of another group within an editor:
Group
1Copy Fixture Group2Enter : copies the parameter values of the fixtures in group 1 to the fixtures in group 2.
You can add parameter, location and destination masks to any copy command:
1Thru4Intensity Copy List3Cue1Fixture8Thru11, Enter : copies the intensities of fixtures 1 to 4 in the current selection to fixtures 8 to 11 in cue 1 of cuelist 3.
You can use Copy to reverse the order of values. For example, if fixture 1 is at 10%, fixture 2 at 20%, and fixture 3 is at 30%:
1Thru3Copy3Thru1Enter : the fixtures will now be at 30%, 20% and 10% respectively.
| Tip |
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When you press the Copy key, the words ‘Copy to’ appear on the command line. This is a useful reminder of the syntax of the copy command. |
You can copy fixture data by using the Copy and Paste commands: click the right-hand mouse or Trackball button on the desired cell(s) in the editor window and select Copy or Paste from the menu.
You can also use the Pig key to copy and paste selected cells:
Pig + Copy : copy
Pig + Record : paste
By default, when you copy parameter values from one fixture to another, the console will copy exactly the data from one fixture to another, including any palette references. You can optionally have the hard values from within the referenced palette copied to the destination instead of the palette references:
Fixture
1: select the fixture you want to copy.Copy
Deselect the Allow Refs button on the copy toolbar.
8: select the fixture to copy to.Enter : copies the parameters of Fixture 1 to Fixture 8, converting any palette references to hard values.
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You can copy a fixture to itself with Allow Refs deselected to convert palette references to hard values. |
You can reset parameter values to their default settings by using the . (point) key or Pig + . keys as a modifier. Default values for parameters can be set in the Edit Fixtures window.
When using the . key as a modifier, modes such as gobo rotate will be restored to default value but the current mode will remain (gobo rotate). When using the Pig + . keys as a modifier, modes such as gobo rotate will be restored to default value and default mode (index).
To restore the default value for a single parameter of the current selection:
Press and hold the . key or Pig + . keys and turn the appropriate parameter wheel.
To restore the default values of a parameter kind for the current selection:
Press and hold the . key or Pig + . keys and press the appropriate kind key.
To restore the default values for all parameters of the current selection:
Press and hold the . key or Pig + . keys and press the Fixture key.