In contemporary society, some may argue that man is plenty without tools, but perhaps Thomas Carlyle was on to something. Perhaps a stronger argument can be made for the fact that man improves with tools—so long as they’re the right ones. That sounds right to me, especially when it comes to design tools for the entertainment industry.
There are two basic tool sets when it comes to design: manual and computer-aided. With the first option, you can certainly whip out your pencils and drawing paper and go to town evolving an idea. While this approach might work when you have a clear idea of what you’re trying to create, what if all you’re really aiming for is a way to quickly test out multiple ideas and have a visual conversation with a client about how to achieve a certain look? What if you need to know with certainty that your design will absolutely work before some producer or event organizer spends tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to fulfill your vision? Will your pencil and paper be the right tools for the job and give you the necessary confidence to march ahead? I would argue, “No way.”
The smarter approach is to use affordable, computer-aided design software, which provides designers with a fully integrated 2D and 3D drafting and modeling environment with built-in databases and worksheets that can produce documentation, renderings and takeoffs.
» Streamline Your Workflow
Whether you design corporate events, theatrical productions, or commercial exhibits, using the right software to create your designs will minimize the effort it takes to produce your projects.
If you don’t already use design software, look for a program with a flexible nature that does not require a prescribed workflow. You should be able to easily collaborate with co-workers or colleagues who use other applications, and you should be able to design in an intuitive way, whether sketching an idea, modeling in 3D or putting together a presentation for the other designers or director.
» Make the Most of Your Software
The key to success with any design tool is knowing how to use it. Since many designers in the industry use Vectorworks Spotlight software, I’m going to share with you some tips for getting the most out of the program. Keep in mind that, as much as possible, things interact with each other in this environment pretty much the same way they do in real life. So the real key to making the most of Vectorworks Spotlight is to understand the benefits of three tightly-related core objects. Setting up these objects opens the door to the rest of the program’s streamlined capabilities:
Lighting Device Object: Lighting instruments are represented by lighting device objects in Vectorworks Spotlight. Lighting devices often need a place to hang and a place to point, so two other objects should be provided to work with these.
Focus Point Object: The focus point object provides a target of the lighting device to be aimed and allows you to calculate such things as throw distance and beam spreads.
Lighting Position Object: The Lighting Position object provides a place for the lighting device to hang. This lets you assign data like the trim and position name. Lighting positions know what instruments are hung on them and can manage things like counting instrument types, color cuts and cabling.
To complement these objects, Vectorworks Spotlight includes a feature to label instruments. When labeling instruments, designers must work within the drafting convention, but they almost always have special graphic requirements when it comes to how they want these labels to look. For example, some designers prefer their channel numbers to appear inside a hexagon shape; others eschew the shape but prefer the channel to appear off-center to one side or the other of the instrument. Some designers like to see the color tag inside the barrel and rotate with the instrument on pipe ends, while others like to see the color in front of the barrel and remain right reading no matter the instrument rotation. To mash up an old saying: two designers, three opinions.
The Label Legend gives designers a way to define how they want the labels to appear and applies that to each Lighting Device. Vectorworks Spotlight supports multiple legend definitions so you can account for variations in the desired look for labels of conventionals, movers, multi-circuit units or whatever.
» Meeting Specific Industry Needs
Event planners may not be aware that a series of commands and interactive objects make it simple to document commercial events, such as business meetings, in a straightforward manner. This functionality includes tracing out and scaling the venue from an imported image or PDF, creating the stage, populating it with video screens and lecterns and creating various seating layouts. This is topped off by an automatic command to create plans, side and front views and a perspective of the entire event.
Vectorworks has two-way database worksheets that capture the information from the light plot that is necessary to produce all the standard lighting paperwork documentation that lighting designers need. The software also lets users visit the default content that comes with Vectorworks Spotlight to add interactive versions of the paperwork worksheets as favorites in the Resource Browser.
In addition to these functions within the software, users can take advantage of several third-party products, such as pre-visualization tools and interactive lighting paperwork management on top of the onboard paperwork functionality mentioned earlier. Examples include ESP Vision, Lightwright, Cinema 4D and Light Converse. Plus, users can add the Renderworks application to produce a whole range of presentation styles from sketchy to super photorealistic. Visual elements such as light beams, accurate shadows, atmosphere and lighting looks are also available.
» What’s New in 2013?
The entertainment industry is in the midst of major changes. New light sources, new media, new fixtures and new interactivity among disciplines are emerging quickly. And don’t forget the demand for more data documentation and flexibility. Even if you’re already using Vectorworks Spotlight software, there are some new benefits in the 2013 version of the program that address these industry needs:
New Lighting Device: After years of incremental improvements, the lighting device has been given a complete re-engineering makeover. This gives a 10x increase in redrawing times to the workhorse Spotlight object while adding several new ways to use and process instruments. Existing users won’t notice a big, outwardly change and can continue to work just as they do in previous versions.
New Interaction with the Object Info Palette: If you’ve ever used the software during a hang, or in a hotel room while creating the plot for the next show — or you’ve been tasked as an assistant lighting designer to grind through hundreds of data entry items — you’ll appreciate the new ability to hide, show and rearrange the entry fields of the object info palette and save the settings to quickly go back and forth between customized setups. Vectorworks Spotlight stores 50 or more pieces of data about each instrument. Now, getting to each piece in a particular set is much easier. Plus, to keep up with the explosion of new lighting technology, devices, sources and formats, the program now supports unlimited, customizable user data fields. These fields now can be displayed and sorted along with all of the Vectorworks Spotlight native fields in the object info palette.
New Fully Automated Interaction with Lightwright: Now, when you lay a new Lighting Device down in Vectorworks, then switch to Lightwright, the instrument is there. Fill out some information like color, purpose and channel, and you’ll find that it’s already filled out when you get back to Vectorworks Spotlight. Vectorworks and Lightwright now work practically as if they are a single application. Press the big Vectorworks button in Lightwright and visit the Spotlight preferences dialog in Vectorworks to hook ‘em up.
I hope this information can save you time and effort by helping you make the most of your Vectorworks Spotlight software. Using the right tools will serve you well as you continue to create stellar lighting plots, enticing exhibits, outstanding productions and memorable events.
Frank Brault, with Nemetschek Vectorworks, has more than 30 years of experience in lighting design, software development and training.
