Automated lighting programmers have a multitude of functions available to them to modify lighting looks. From gobos to color, to movements, the options are nearly limitless. One of the underused concepts is shaking of various elements… The most commonly used shake function tends to be a gobo shake. Generally this is a function built into a light and is accessible via a DMX setting. The resulting effect is an oscillation of the gobo wheel so that the selected gobo rocks back and forth within the aperture… Since the earliest moving lights, the ability to quickly flash between slots on a fixed color wheel has been a highly desirable look. Again, through a setting on a DMX channel, the speed of a color shake can be selected. Once set, the color wheel will oscillate between two neighboring colors, so a quick flash between orange and green or red and blue because instantly possible. The color shake can be made even more interesting if initiated when the color wheel is set to a split color instead of a solid color.
—Brad Schiller, from “Feeding the Machines,” PLSN March 2017
