I’m planning a class for multiple consoles (coming up in LA July 14-18 at Lightscape in LA) that has two days of skills development centered around driving work effects. My gaffer(s) always request at least 8 titan tubes in 16 pixel mode, so I was looking for m113 in the Fixture Schedule. Annoyingly, it wasn’t there. Since my time with Hog as my darling console were long enough ago that virtually no Fixture Builder existed- I thought it was high time to use it. I hit a few problems that were extremely sneaky about how they show up, so I thought I’d make a tutorial for anyone wanting a basic walkthrough of how to edit an existing fixture to get what they need.
Press Open+Fixture to get into the Fixture Schedule. Looking at the top of the schedule, look for “Fixture Builder” and touch it.
There is a pulldown menu in the upper left. Choose “Copy Type”, since we want to save ourselves a bunch of work by just expanding what Hog has already done for us.
Now we need to choose the right profile. I saw that they have m126, which is D16 CCT+RGB No Strobe with 8 pixels. So I’m choosing that profile because I like it. Be sure to choose the Titan m126, NOT the Helios m126.
Press OK at the bottom.
Next we have two things to change.
I edited the name to say m113 and changed the pixel count to 16. Then, you (weirdly) HAVE TO EDIT THE REVISION NUMBER. This messed me up and was the source of the two mysterious problems. They were:
- The fixture could not be exported. Well, it would say it did but it was an empty file with a name only.
- When I later tried to add these fixtures to a Plot, only the first 8 pixels came.
When you have done both tasks, touch Parts on the left. This is where we will add the other 8 pixels.
To start this process, you need to click the blue plus at the bottom right. This brings a popup box that lets you choose what pixel to add. There’s only one choice if you haven’t been building other fixtures. Choose it and click OK.
Repeat this till you have all 16 pixels. Then click Build Type at the top to save your work.
That’s it. The revision thing caught me up, and embarrassingly- so did “Build Type”. That for some reason didn’t really announce itself as “Save profile” to me. But now that I know, it’ll be much easier to do in the future. Hope this helps. Anyone got some Fixture Builder knowledge to share? Hit me in the comments.
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Mark LaPierre is a programmer in film and television based out of Albuquerque. He grew up in live entertainment and has been a designer/programmer for musicals, concert dance, live music, circus and corporate. Mark is a proud member of IATSE, an ETC Eos trainer and an enthusiastic trainer of many other platforms and subjects. He offers Zoom console training as well as in person. If you enjoy his content, please consider commenting on his posts on the website to appease the Algorithm.