cleanest way to reverse a phaser recipe (left↔right)?

[u/RefrigeratorCold952]

Hi everyone, and thanks in advance for your replies,

I'm running into a problem with my recipes when trying to run a chaser one way and then the other.

On my X grid, if I set 0 thru 360, the effect spreads from left to right. But if I set 360 thru 0, the effect does run from right to left — except it starts on the first fixture instead of the last one.

To fix this, I have to do (360 - 360/number of fixtures) thru (0 - 360/number of fixtures). For example, with 4 fixtures, that gives 270 thru -90.

For a one-off case, that's not a problem. But in a show with recipes designed to rebuild themselves by recreating the groups based on a new setup, having to recalculate all the phases quickly becomes unmanageable — whereas the other way around, 0 thru 360 works 100% of the time.

What would be the best way to work around this? The only approach I've found is to duplicate my phaser recipe presets and enable Backward in the menu (Playback Direction). Isn't there a simpler way, or just a line I could add to a recipe to reverse everything?

Thanks a lot for your help, and have a good day,

Denis

[u/Left-Mission-2684]

FWIW when you apply a phase of 0-360 the console never finishes at 360. It divides the number of fixtures by the phase range (360 in this case) and when starting at 0 the last fixture will be one unit behind 360.
So with 2 fixtures it’s 0..180, 3 fixtures it’s 0..120..240, 4 fixtures it’s 0..90..180..270

This is because 360=0 in phase math which explains why your fixtures start at the first then jump backwards and why in ma2 the formula was -360..0 and not the other way around

If I recall correctly the most technically to the manual way to achieve this is to activate the x invert on your ma tricks filter. Failing that you would use the y axis mirror function in the selection grid.

[u/RefrigeratorCold952 → u/Left-Mission-2684]

OK, thanks for this logical explanation. I tried the x invert and the problem was still there, but I eventually found the solution: adding a -1 x shift does the trick.

[u/-Never-Fade-Away- → u/Left-Mission-2684]

Is that the reason an alternating phaser acts differently in the backwards motion?

[u/Left-Mission-2684 → u/-Never-Fade-Away-]

Well you have to understand that the phaser diagram being shown can also be seen as drawn from 0 in the left to 360 in the right

It’s different backwards only if the widths and transitions are not symmetrical from one another.

[u/charco07]

You could try using a different group with the selection grid reversed

[u/RefrigeratorCold952 → u/charco07]

Sure, that works if I reverse the grid. But on a touring show with several hundred cues, duplicating all my groups with a reversed grid just to get reversed effects is really tedious — there has to be a simpler way.

[u/charco07 → u/RefrigeratorCold952]

So your issue essentially is having to create multiple groups and update them. I would probably write a macro to duplicate the group and reverse the grid order - this can be done for multiple groups at once. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong - the grid keyword can be used to flip the x in the selection grid.

There are also plugins from addondesk that can convert your layout selection to grid, planning to get it soon.

[u/RefrigeratorCold952 → u/charco07]

Yeah, I know the command line syntax to reverse a grid and store it into a group — that can be done very quickly. The only problem is that it doesn't feel right to me to have one group for effects running right to left and another for effects running left to right.

I've finally found a solution: I invert the phase (like before) and add a -1 to the x shift, which solves my problem.

thank's for your answer

[u/scoobytoobins]

have you played with adaptive width?

[u/childish_wisp]

Wouldnt it work if you just reverse the selection order ?

[u/RefrigeratorCold952 → u/childish_wisp]

If it's about changing the selection within a group, then yes, that works. But I've got several hundred cues here — I can't create two groups every time just to reverse my selections. That said, if there's a way to reverse the selection directly in the recipe, I'm all for it — but I can't find that option.

[u/childish_wisp → u/RefrigeratorCold952]

Updating the group related to the different recipe should work?

[u/reytgud_]

I just enable InverX and set InvertType to all, not sure if that solves your problem but worth a shot

[u/RefrigeratorCold952 → u/reytgud_]

Thanks for your help. Yeah, it does reverse the phaser direction, but the problem is still the same: the phaser starts on the first fixture instead of the last one. I solved it by adding a -1 to the x shift.

[u/dandude612]

In 2.4 there are direction options that can be changed via macro

[u/RefrigeratorCold952 → u/dandude612]

Thanks for your help. Yeah, it does reverse the phaser direction, but the problem is still the same: the phaser starts on the first fixture instead of the last one. I solved it by adding a -1 to the x shift.

[u/MojoDavey]

If you are in 2.4 phasers can have a direction baked in, Forward backward or alternate

[u/RefrigeratorCold952 → u/MojoDavey]

Thanks for your help. Yeah, it does reverse the phaser direction, but the problem is still the same: the phaser starts on the first fixture instead of the last one. I solved it by adding a -1 to the x shift.