My New Hobby - Animated Christmas Lights

[markrvp]

I moved on from arcade cabinet building to a new hobby - Animated Christmas Lights.

My first year display went on at our portrait studio Thanksgiving night.  I have 48,000 lights controlled by 144 separate computer channels.  The music for the songs is broadcast on a very low-power FM transmitter so you listen to the music in your car.

Take a look at the videos of the display and tell me what you think:

[Hoopz]

Very impressive.     I hope you feel proud about what you accomplished as it looks amazing.

I have trouble keeping the strands of lights I hung on the house all lit for some reason.  Your work looks great.

[FrizzleFried]

Awesome!   What did that cost to get up and going?

[orion]

Looks good ! Sounds like your having loads of fun. Have you looked into investing in some Martin roboscans? Perhaps a few ellipsoidals with some cool gobo effects?

[markrvp]

Awesome!   What did that cost to get up and going?

I tried very hard not to keep track. 

Bess guesstimate is between $5k and $7.5k

[Hoopz]

Awesome!   What did that cost to get up and going?

I tried very hard not to keep track. 

Bess guesstimate is between $5k and $7.5k

That's quite a few Led-Wizs....   

 

[ChadTower]

Holy crap.   

[polaris]

Looks good ! Sounds like your having loads of fun. Have you looked into investing in some Martin roboscans? Perhaps a few ellipsoidals with some cool gobo effects?

Martin roboscans, dont insult the man , hes done a good job here.


Mark very impressive, and i've worked with the best lighting designers in the world

[saint]

Gobos. I want to learn more about gobos.

Mark, I'm in awe.

[polaris]

Gobos. I want to learn more about gobos.

gobos are things put in a light that you can focus, that will then project the image of the gobo, they can be metal, say like the bat symbol or glass which could then be a full colour image, if you want more info i can certainly provide it.

EDIT reworded it

[saint]

Is there such a thing as a gobo that will do animated scenes? I guess that would make it a projector.... I have a gobo (one of those relatively inexpensive ones they sell with pre-cut holiday scenes you can use), I also have one of those animated snow flake things but it's fairly lame. I saw one once on the side of a building in downtown Atlanta, with huge snowflakes gently falling against a green lit background, snowflakes were very sharp. I want to do something similar at home.

[orion]

Looks good ! Sounds like your having loads of fun. Have you looked into investing in some Martin roboscans? Perhaps a few ellipsoidals with some cool gobo effects?

Martin roboscans, dont insult the man , hes done a good job here.


Mark very impressive, and i've worked with the best lighting designers in the world

I didn't mean it as an insult, but if your going to go go all out.... that and if he has the means he would probably love playing with the things, you have to admit they can keep you entertained for hours. So you have worked with some of the best LD's in the world aye? I worked with some with some of the biggest egos in the world!

Saint,
As Polaras has stated, gobos are thin sheets of metal that you put in a certain lighting instrument called an ellipsoidal. Sometimes they are made of glass ( for multi colors)They will project the shape of whatever the pattern is. They can be custom made to order. You can use gels to change the color of the light. Used ellipsoidals can go for cheap. In lighting it's usually the dimmers and the boards where you will shell out the most cash. Just imagine you could have a custom made BYOC gobo made, and shine it on... well whatever.

Here are some links to learn more.

http://customgobo.com/

http://www.gobosource.com/

http://www.barbizon.com/catalog/index.cfm?Series=2&brand=10&BrandTitle=Patterns%2FGobos

[orion]

Is there such a thing as a gobo that will do animated scenes? I guess that would make it a projector.... I have a gobo (one of those relatively inexpensive ones they sell with pre-cut holiday scenes you can use), I also have one of those animated snow flake things but it's fairly lame. I saw one once on the side of a building in downtown Atlanta, with huge snowflakes gently falling against a green lit background, snowflakes were very sharp. I want to do something similar at home.

They probably used a robo scan for the snowflakes... with out seeing a video or a picture though it would be hard for me to say how they would have created that particular affect.

[polaris]

Is there such a thing as a gobo that will do animated scenes? I guess that would make it a projector.... I have a gobo (one of those relatively inexpensive ones they sell with pre-cut holiday scenes you can use), I also have one of those animated snow flake things but it's fairly lame. I saw one once on the side of a building in downtown Atlanta, with huge snowflakes gently falling against a green lit background, snowflakes were very sharp. I want to do something similar at home.

you can get what you call an animated gobo,  a wheel with loadsa snowflakes on it and as the wheel turned different parts of the image on the wheel would pass by the light and project that part of it, making it look like moving flakes, then add a different wash light just for the green. what your talking wouldnt be that expensive to hire for a season.
one k4, a gobo ,a single channel dimmer for each light , couple a codas for the wash.  ill find some pics

orion i wasnt trying to be rude, more of a joke to you as you seem to be aware of the kit you're talking about, i was just trying to say 'no not a martin for christ's sake', for a joke, cos martins piss me off.

and ego would be me saying i'm one of the best, that i have worked with the best is just ,well, true . i'm not trying to gain anything by it, it was just meant to be a complement to markrvp

[polaris]

Saint , have a look here i think they heard you asking

[orion]

Is there such a thing as a gobo that will do animated scenes? I guess that would make it a projector.... I have a gobo (one of those relatively inexpensive ones they sell with pre-cut holiday scenes you can use), I also have one of those animated snow flake things but it's fairly lame. I saw one once on the side of a building in downtown Atlanta, with huge snowflakes gently falling against a green lit background, snowflakes were very sharp. I want to do something similar at home.

you can get what you call an animated gobo,  a wheel with loadsa snowflakes on it and as the wheel turned different parts of the image on the wheel would pass by the light and project that part of it, making it look like moving flakes, then add a different wash light just for the green. what your talking wouldnt be that expensive to hire for a season.
one k4, a gobo ,a single channel dimmer for each light , couple a codas for the wash.  ill find some pics

orion i wasnt trying to be rude, more of a joke to you as you seem to be aware of the kit you're talking about, i was just trying to say 'no not a martin for christ's sake', for a joke, cos martins piss me off.

and ego would be me saying i'm one of the best, that i have worked with the best is just ,well, true . i'm not trying to gain anything by it, it was just meant to be a complement to markrvp

By no means did I think you were being rude! It's kind of cool that you have a background in lighting... not many people do. Yes Martins can be a real PITA when they want (I really enjoy it when you spend hours programming a few scenes, turn them off for the day and when you fire them up again they are pointing nowhere near where they are supposed to... fun times) Please don't think I was implying that you have an ego... it was just a joke about LD's in particular. I do agree that markrvp has done a great job! At first glance I realized how expensive it had to have been for him... he must really enjoy it! He has taken Christmas lighting to a whole new level and is obviously very good at it. I would predict that he is going to try to keep pushing the envelope year after year, and the next logical thing for him to start playing around with is some more theatrical style lighting.  Oh and by the way, the low power FM transmitter is a nice touch!

[polaris]

aha seems a fair bit of misunderstanding from me then, how could i miss a joke about LD's and egos 

[orion]

aha seems a fair bit of misunderstanding from me then, how could i miss a joke about LD's and egos 

Yea I was wondering about that!

[patrickl]

Wow that is quite cool!

On the other hand, I think I'm quite happy my neighbours don't have this hobby though 

Is this hobby becoming more widespread in the US? I've seen several examples of people doing there house like that after that first house a few years ago.

[markrvp]

Wow that is quite cool!

On the other hand, I think I'm quite happy my neighbours don't have this hobby though 

Is this hobby becoming more widespread in the US? I've seen several examples of people doing there house like that after that first house a few years ago.

Yeah, it's a growing hobby.  Not growing rapidly, but growing nonetheless.

[Donkey_Kong]

Mark, That is one awesome display dude! I had to get the entire family in to check it out. I'm thinking for our hosted Christmas party this year we will loop your videos on the TV! Seriously, very impressive! 

At the end of the first song "Music Box Dancer", when the white lights came in I was like dang you need to use more white. Then I watched "Carol of the Bells" and, walla! Winter Wonderland was a nice mix of all colors. All of it was very nicely done though. It makes our collection of lights really, really, weak. 

[DaOld Man]

Wow Mark!!
Your display is awesome.
I have wanted to do something like that for the past couple of years, but Ive read that you need to start on it 6 months before Christmas.
Maybe next year.

Again, great work!!
 

[mccoy178]

Mark, it looks great!  I'm going to pass the idea on to Larry Peters, as I think he would dig it as well.

[danny_galaga]

holy crap! bet the power company likes you 

nice touch with the fm radio thing...

[Ed_McCarron]

Gobos. I want to learn more about gobos.

He was a Fraggle...

[danny_galaga]

Gobos. I want to learn more about gobos.

He was a Fraggle...

oh yeah! that brings back memories (",)

"dear nephew gobo..."

[Hockeyboy]

Those are impressive displays, very nice work.

I've been wanting to do this for years, ever since I saw my first display with some TSO as the music. It will be a lot harder to do now that I had to move to Portland from Colorado Springs where I had much more house and yard area to work with.

We'll see, maybe we can do a small version, lol...the wife is already okay with this stuff, just need to figure out how to start.

[Donkey_Kong]

I would like to set up a mini version of this indoors. We don't actually do much outdoor decoration but a lot of indoor stuff. However this looks like a very expensive hobby. 



But yea, you would not need the FM transmission this way. I just wanna do the inside tree...maybe around the windows and stuff, doorways, etc. Should be entertaining for your family and guests.

Mark, any suggestions for people wanting to do a micro mini (fairly inexpensive) version of your display? 

[billpa]

Great display. Those sequences look very familiar. Are you using Richard Holdman's?

[Donkey_Kong]

Mark, any suggestions for people wanting to do a micro mini (fairly inexpensive) version of your display? 

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=87973.0

Cool! You gotta start somewhere, right?

I could see this hobby as being highly addictive. I'm sure by Christmas time next year I might be looking more and more like Mark W. Grizwald

[patrickl]

I could see this hobby as being highly addictive. I'm sure by Christmas time next year I might be looking more and more like Mark W. Grizwald

Houses with a lot of lights always remind me of "Deck the Halls" where Danny Devito is trying to make his house visible from space (on Google earth)

[Singapura]

If you ever get a chance to go and see the light show in Hong Kong, you should. It's basically the same but instead of christmas lights they use whole buildings. Awesome sight!

[Donkey_Kong]

If you ever get a chance to go and see the light show in Hong Kong, you should. It's basically the same but instead of christmas lights they use whole buildings. Awesome sight!

It's so awesome that they show a blip of it on the show "Seven Signs of the Apocalypse" on the History channel. No joke, I seen it on there.

Seriously, that is one heck of a light show in Hong Kong...but why no "carol of the bells" ?   

[Dartful Dodger]

Because of the ice on my gutters I haven’t taken down my lights yet.  There are a lot of homes by me that still have them up, but this weekend nobody turned them on.

Christmas and the excitement for a New Year is officially over.

[markrvp]

Great display. Those sequences look very familiar. Are you using Richard Holdman's?

Yes.  In fact, you can see that Richard commented on one of the videos on Vimeo.  He was very helpful.

I've got three other sequences I made from scratch that I will eventually get posted.