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Diagram features

Frames

Written By Clayton Combe

Last updated 6 months ago

To add a frame, just go up here to the quick items and click add frame. You see that's also the F keystroke. So it's going to add this 8 foot by 8 foot frame. If you use the F keystroke, can add them wherever your mouse pointer is. So now that we have this 8 foot by 8 foot frame, we can resize it. You see we have our four control points here. I have snap on, so it's going to snap to whole feet. So I can resize this to any size and whole feet. Whatever works for me. What do we end up with? Not bad. 10 by 9. Let's make it a 10 by eight. And now obviously we can rotate this around, but we can also tilt it. This doesn't actually do anything three dimensions, but it looks like it does. And you see if you get it down far enough, you only get two control points. You can only resize it that way. But that's fine because if you need to your details. You can always change the height and width. Once we have that, we get to choose some of the materials here. So, right now it defaults to white diffusion, but we have a whole bunch of different materials we can choose. We have our solid, we have our nets, our silk, some bounce materials here, and then some bounce patterns. We also have blue and green screen here. And if you want You can add a custom color. So when you change it on here, you also see the label there is updating to uh to reflect whatever it is that you chose. As long as you don't change that, then it's going to keep updating. But if you do happen to change it and it's not updating anymore, then just go in here and delete it and it will default to what it should be doing. Now, if none of these are working for you, you can set a custom color. So, once you do that, you can see that we have our pipe and our material color here. So, you can set whatever you want there for the inside, just like stroke and fill. You can set whatever you want for the outside, something weird like that. But if you go in here and decide you want to go back to one of these, it's easy to do. You do that and you're back to where you are. For pipe here, open frame. Obviously, that's for like 4x4 and smaller. So, 10 x10 is a bit large for that. Butterfly is the default, but you can set it to speed rail, which is a little better for this size. Blackpipe if you want something darker. We'll stick with speed rail. And then we also have our control grip. This just comes in different uh different angles. And it's just going to show up like that. And remind everybody to put the egg crate on the frame. So now that we have this, you can even add it to your favorites up there. But you do it the same way you do with this. You can drag it up there or you can just add to favorite like that. So let's say we want it to be number seven. So now we have it there. And the great thing about this is that whatever we've configured here, it's going to it's going to stay there. So that's frames. It is a really wonderful flexible way to display what your light control is going to be like. And uh can't say wait to see it in action.

Frames are a flexible way to add light control to your Diagram. Their defining characteristics are:

  • Set the height and width to any size (100-foot maximum)

  • Rotate freely (not targeting-based)

  • Use the slider control to tilt the Frame between flat and vertical

  • Choose the frame and “skin” materials (including Gels)

Adding Frames

  • To add a new Frame, click or drag it from the Quick Items

  • Shortcut: use the F key to add a Frame at the location of your mouse pointer (or in the middle of the screen, if you don’t have a pointer)

  • Frames can also be added to Favorites, and added from there

  • Frames are added in a default size of 8×8 feet, with white diffusion

Size and position

These properties determine the Frame’s position on the Diagram:

  • To resize the Frame, drag its corner points

  • To rotate the Frame, drag the rotate control on the upper right

  • To tilt the Frame, drag the slider handle on the upper left

  • All properties can also be set in the Details sidebar

Materials

Control a Frame’s appearance:

  • Choose “Material” → what the Frame is “skinned” with

    • Scenario includes a variety of materials presets, including diffusions, nets, and different bounces

    • Choose a custom color if needed

    • Choose Gels

  • Choose the “Pipe” → what the outer frame is made of

    • Select open frame, butterfly, speed rail, or black pipe (or, no outer frame at all, for a “wrapped” frame)

    • Control the Pipe color with custom colors, if needed

  • Choose a “Control Grid”

    • Available in angles from 20º - 60º

Add to Favorites

Use the standard methods to add Frames to Favorites:

  • Drag the Frame to the Favorites bar, into the slot you prefer

  • Right-click and select “Add Favorite” in the menu

  • Use the CMD number keystroke

Once it’s in a Favorite, your configured Frames can be reused easily.