Artist-friendly, intuitive, and non-technical toolkit for ETC Eos and grandMA3 lighting consoles, powered by Blender.
Fast, fast, fast is all lighting consoles care about. How fast can you build effects? How fast can you build a show file? How fast can you integrate with a brand new rig? Fast is great for "gigs", but it's not great for art. Art takes time. Art is slow. Art is meticulous.
Because all the lighting consoles are built to get simple things done super fast, all effects look the same. All designs look the same. All shows look the same. They're algorithmic, formulaic, uniform. When the tools prioritize efficiency at gigs over emotional depth, it degrades the art form.
In Sorcerer however, there is no computer to do things for you. It's just 3D animation. This way, your "effects" can be extremely unique, motivated, and emotional. Sorcerer is for the lighting choreographer, the lighting artist, the lighting animator. You're the type who doesn't need super fast. You prioritize craftsmanship over speed, expression over versatility, and novelty over efficiency. You're the type who wants to sit in a dark room by yourself sculpting the magic in your imagination. You're an animator, not a programmer.
Full support.
Support is currently limited to core animation. Recording animations onto console hard drive may not be possible yet.
This functionality is currently only available by downloading from GitHub.
Not tested, but may have similar support as grandMA3.
This functionality is currently only available by downloading from GitHub.
Make lights do stuff with 3 dimensional controllers.
Make lights dance to music using a visual sequencer.
Put stuff wherever you want however you want.
Make macros on Eos with QWERTY and copy/paste.
Have as many ML editors on screen as you like.
Make gradients super fast by just choosing stuff.
Make flash effects by just typing in what you want in English.
Make offsets by just setting what you want and who should do it.
Sequence a bunch of lights doing the same animation.
Design an entire simple show with a simple popup screen.
Use the sequencer to send whatever OSC you want.
Generate simple Eos macros and fire them from the sequencer.
Use Shift+Duplicate, arrays, and curves to build your A3D rig.
Make your groups super fast using plain English.
Experimental: take cues the way a live video switcher does.
Use the Python programming language to control Sorcerer/Eos.
Orb is an automation assistant that does all the complicated, boring stuff for you.
This problem: As a theatrical lighting designer trying to get started with timecode for musicals, you are banned from using a video-editor-like software to sequence lighting effects. That's because the theater has a perfectly good ETC Eos console, you are expected to use that, and the console doesn't need a visual sequencer for timecode.
At your small, local theater, you're told that timecode can't be done, it's too complicated, and isn't really necessary anyway. Too many things can go wrong, it won't look good, and no one has the time to help you. When you do try to do it, you struggle. A lot. You're forced to use and remember complicated computer syntax, an excel spreadsheet (cue list), an effect editor that was last updated in August of 1979, and a Show Control tab that looks like it's for programming a rocket engine. On the forum, you're told that the reason you're struggling so much is because you just don't understand the software enough and so it's your fault.
You give up. It's too hard. All your focus is spent on getting the console to work with you and not against you. Your inner creative passion has been smothered. They were right. Timecode on ETC Eos is too difficult. The audience doesn't need a timecode show. Manual cues will do just fine. That's all anyone expects anyway. Extraordinary excitement is not needed here. This is the boring theater.
It's for anyone who works with ETC Eos or grandMA and definitely wants to keep using ETC Eos or grandMA, but who wishes it was more user friendly and easier to timecode on. Some features are specific to timecode use-cases, but others are helpful to any workflow, like the node editor.
Firstly, unlike many other sequence-based DMX softwares, this works with existing lighting consoles. It doesn't force you to replace a $50k professional lighting console with cheap, sketchy freeware from Github that you wouldn't trust to run a real show. This one is better because it supports your existing hardware without replacing it. It supplements Eos and grandMA's weaknesses without deleting their strengths.
Secondly, it wasn't built from the ground up. It was built on the shoulders of giants: Blender. It doesn't have to solve 80% of the problems that other projects have to solve like core UI, file management, undo system, UI customizability, viewport system, node system, sequencer system, etc. All that is provided by Blender for free. And Blender's version of all these things has been in development for 30 years, making it far more mature than anything Alva Theaters could possibly come up with independently.
Thirdly, nearly every feature category within Sorcerer is a first in the world of theatrical light design. No other known software provides sequence based editing, f-curves, 3D bitmapping, node editing, remote patching, or others to an existing console.
The following speed claims assume you already have Sorcerer and Blender installed and have a WiFi connection already established with the lighting console. If that is not already completed, that takes between 5 and 10 minutes to complete if a router or wired ethernet connection is available. The speed claims also assume you already know what channel numbers you wish to work on.
What makes Sorcerer stand out is how fast new variations can be tested and refined. This speed is absolutely critical for art and design. A Test-Refine-Test cycle in Sorcerer typically takes 1-3 seconds. Furthermore, animations can be stepped through frame by frame.
Imagine trying to play a piano with a lighting console. Doesn't make any sense. Now imagine playing a piano the normal way: with your bare hands. 1,000 times easier now, right?
Now, imagine playing a lighting rig with a lighting console. Doesn't make any sense. Now imagine playing a lighting rig the normal way: with your bare hands, with Sorcerer. 1,000 times easier now, right?
Sorcerer's job is to make that entire analogy actually work, within the context of timecode.
Blender is an open-source, fully-featured 3D animation suite that is comparable to the software that they use to make big 3D animated movies like Tangled, Frozen, Wall-E, and Up.
Arguably yes, when using it for CGI. However, Sorcerer is only making use of its core features like graph editor, video editor, and the very basics of its 3D viewport. That's how Sorcerer is able to stay very simple despite being built on top of such a complicated platform. You'll never need to learn 99% of Blender just using Sorcerer.
Blender will always be free of charge and open-source. Currently, Alva Sorcerer is also free of charge, and will always be open-source per GNU licensing inherited from its dependence on Blender.
Alva Theaters is a theatre company that seeks to mass-produce enhanced live performances with a network of 100 identical theaters across America. That national network will enable a national technical theatre platform, similar to social media. This platform will support ALVA content. ALVA stands for Animated Lighting, Video, and Audio. The holy grail is the instant and perfect reproduction of ALVA content at any Alva Theaters location at any time.
Developing Alva Sorcerer is the first step in learning how to make ALVA a viable artistic medium.
Learn more at alvatheaters.com.
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