By watching other shows, you can be inspired by the creativity of others while gaining insights into what is possible through programming. Very early in my career, I saw a cool effect on a TV show that I just had to emulate – it created what looked like large, random raindrops hitting the stage. The look, on a stage with dancers, was created using a combination of the shutter, iris and gobo wheels, with each fixture opening its shutter and then irising in from a large size to a small size. A gobo added to the drop effect. This was immediately followed by the shutter, which snapped shut so that only the movement of the “raindrop” was seen. With a large selection of fixtures doing this same action at various intervals, the stage was filled with these hits.
—For more on how Brad Schiller emulated this rain drop effect using newer and classic programming techniques, read “Feeding the Machines,” PLSN, May 2012, page 48.
