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LIGHTING DIAGRAM SOFTWARE


keith

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HEY FELLAS FOR YEARS NOW IVE BEEN A HUGE PROPONENT OF LIGHTING DIAGRAMS, WHETHER IM DPing, LDing, OR GAFFING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS.

I SPEND BOUT 225 DAYS A YEAR ON SET AND PROBABLY ANOTHER 75 WORKIN ON PREPRO. I FEEL ONE OF THE ADVANTAGES I HAVE OVER SOME AND IS PROBABLY A MAJOR FACTOR IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF MY CARRER OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS IS MY ABILITY TO PROBLEM SOLVE AND PROBLEM SOLVE

IN A HURRY.

 

I LEARNED EARLY ON THAT WHEN I WAS PREPARED AND CAME TO SET WITH A PLAN THAT INCLUDED THE WHOS WHATS WHYS AND WHERES,NOT ONLY WAS I MORE AFFICIENT AND ABLE TO FOCUS ON MY JOB, BUT SO WERE MY BOYS, SO WERE OTHER DEPARTMENTS,AND GENERALLY SPEAKING, SO WAS THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION. SAFE, PRODUCTIVE, TIMLY, BEAUTIFUL IMAGRY, AND MOST OF ALL, FUN! HELL, PEOPLE PAY US TO PLAY, WHY NOT BE GOOD AND HAVE FUN DOING IT.

 

SO, THIS BRINGS ME TO MY QUESTION..... IVE SEARCHED HIGH AND LOW ON WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE NEVER ENDING INTER-WEB THATS FULL OF EVERYTHING ELSE BUT WHAT I NEED WHEN I NEED IT......

 

WHAT SOFTWARE IS OUT THERE TO HELP ME WITH MY LIGHTING DIAGRAMS,MY SKA'MATIKZ AS I CALL THEM????THERES GOTTA BE SOMETHING BETTER?

 

 

I LIKE THINGS NEAT, I LIKE 'EM TIDDY, I LIKE THEM IN A HURRY, AND GOSH DARNIT IF I HAVE TO SPEND 4HOURS IN MS-WORD TRYING TO MAKE IT DO THINGS IT WASENT DESIGNED TO DO JUST SO THAT THE BOYS AND I CAN HAVE A MORE PRODUCTIVE DAY..... THEN 4 HOURS IT IS!

 

IVE DONE THE MAJORITY OF MY DIAGRAMS VIA GRAPH PAPER OR AN 'OL MAC PROGRAM CALLED APPLEWORKS THAT JUST LIKE WORD, I MADE IT DO IT!!!

IM GETTIN OLDER,BUSIER,AND PROBABLY JADED''ER. WHEN THE COMPUTER CRAP IS THE TOUGHEST PART OF CREATING LIGHT,TIME TO LOOK ELSEWHERE.

 

CALLING ALL CARS CALLING ALL CARS, WE GOT AN A.P.B. OUT ON ANY AND ALL SOFTWARE PROGRAMS TO HELP PREVENT LIGHTING DIAGRAM CRIMES.

 

 

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME FELLAS,I HOPE THIS BLOG WILL BE USEFUL TO MYSELF ASWELL AS OTHERS TIRED OF NOT HAVING THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB!

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Never heard of anything for film. Too many variables perhaps? You get more of a choice in threatre, but then you only have one rig per show. For film it can be a different layout every day.

 

For theatre there's a range from Vectorworks to Rosco Crossplot. The latter will produce a completely rendered scene. Doubt that's what you're looking for. Crossplot will give you a lighting plan, but you first have to put in a plan of the lighting rig, and you then 'hang' your lights. Not exactly flexible, but would work in a TV studio. A free version is LXFree. They all output something like this:

30013_scr.jpg

Probably not what you want. And they're PC based.

 

If you're using Word already, you might consider Adobe Illustrator, or even Flash. Early versions will be less of a learning curve, but offer the functionality you require. Flash 4 would work very well. Plenty of drawing tools with vector based curves. You can create libraries of images (your plan views of individual lights), import them into a plan drawing, and rotate them as required. Then add arrows and text easily. You can also export as JPEGs to paste into word or email to your crew.

 

Consider buying a graphics tablet for quick drawing.

 

;)

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It seems like your other thread(s) was taken down but I figured I'd post again here.

 

OmniGraffle is a program for making diagrams. They have preset icons for lighting and cameras which means that it had filmmaking in mind for the program. Its only available for mac or on an Ipad though. Sorry if that wasn't clear in my original "responseless" post.

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My vote is for Vectorworks, my gaffer and I both learned it this year as we put in a show on several stages. Little bit of a steep learning curve but that's where Lynda.com comes in handy, the tutorials there are excellent. While VW is mostly a theatrical tool most of the major lighting companies have add-ons so you can use their instruments as well (Arri, Mole, KinoFlo etc...). We would start with the production designers blueprints and just build our lighting plots on top of those. You can also assign all your dimmer channels and gel packages as well. I've been super impressed with it.

Andy

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Let me see if I can figure out how to post...they are in a .vwx format which means you need vectorworks to open them but I'm sure I can convert them. Using it on a half hour comedy series for ABC, 3 stages at Culver Studios.

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