Normally every head is aimed by hand: turn Pan, turn Tilt, look, correct. Ten heads — ten times over. Figures do all of that in one click: you pick a figure, and the app works out where to point each fixture so that the spots on the floor form a circle, an arc, a star or a heart.
It calculates from your actual room: where each fixture hangs, at what height, whether a stage deck sits under the beam. The size of the figure is set in metres, so a circle stays a circle both in a narrow club and in a wide hall.
The quickest way
- Select the heads (rubber-band in the 2D plan, by clicking, or by group).
- Press “Figures” in the FX Engine block.
- Click any figure — the beams spread along its contour at once.
Not what you wanted? Ctrl+Z — it is a single undo step.
The “Figures” window
The window opens near the right-hand edge so it does not cover the visualiser, it is dragged by its title bar, it does not dim the screen and it closes with Esc. Every knob applies immediately — the visualiser itself is the preview.
Inside there are four blocks: the figure, place and size with the room plan, the layout and the motion. The main action is the large “Apply” button at the bottom.
Which figure
Fourteen icons. Each icon is drawn with the very curve the beams will follow, so the picture cannot disagree with the light: add points to the star and the icon changes too. The name of the selected figure is shown on the right of the block header.
| Figure | What you get |
|---|---|
| Circle | A ring of spots. The classic for a dance floor |
| Arc to stage | A half-circle bulging towards the stage. The sweep is adjustable from 30° to 350° |
| Arc to audience | The same arc, bulging into the room |
| Line | A straight line of spots. Rotation makes it any line — across, along, diagonal |
| Snake | A smooth wave. The number of waves is adjustable |
| Figure 8 | A lying loop |
| Star | From 3 to 12 points |
| Heart | Tip towards the audience |
| Square | Spots around the perimeter |
| Triangle | Apex towards the stage |
| Cross | Two crossing strokes (X) |
| Spiral | Outwards from the centre, 1–5 turns |
| Vee | An open “bird” |
| Point | All beams in one bundle. Both a look of its own and a handy transition between figures |
Place and size
The block holds the plan of your room in real proportions. Grey dots are the fixtures, amber circles show where the spots will land, the violet line is the contour of the figure. Clicking the plan moves the centre of the figure where you clicked; you can drag with the button held down.
| Knob | What it does |
|---|---|
| Size | The diameter (width) of the figure in metres |
| Squeeze | Flattens the figure across: a circle becomes an oval, a square becomes a strip |
| Rotation | Turns the figure on the plan |
| Points / Waves / Turns / Sweep | The figure’s own knob: star points, snake waves, spiral turns, arc sweep |
| Shift | Where along the contour the hand-out to the fixtures starts |
Who gets which point
The order in which fixtures run along the contour is taken from their placement — the same logic as in the gradient.
| Layout | What it means |
|---|---|
| Auto | Reads the placement and decides by itself: along the row, into the room, or around the circle |
| Left to right, Front to back | Strictly along an axis |
| From the centre | Outwards from the middle of the selection |
| Around the circle | Walking a ring — for fixtures standing in a circle |
| By list | Ignores the plan and walks the fixture order |
Below there are two toggles:
- Nearest point (on by default) — hands out contour sections so each fixture gets the piece of the figure closest to it: beams stay short and do not cross. Switch it off and the hand-out follows the layout strictly, while you steer the rotation with “Shift” yourself.
- Reverse — turns the walk around. It works in both modes: with the automatic pick on, it gives the second sensible option that the automatic pick rejected.
- Split heads (on by default) — on a fixture with several independent heads (a moving bar, a twin head) every head gets its own point of the outline: such a bar draws the whole figure on its own, without neighbours. The heads are taken to sit in a row along the body, facing the way the fixture is turned. Switch it off and all heads look at one point — that is a trick of its own, the spot gets as many times brighter as the fixture has heads. On ordinary fixtures the button is inactive: there is nothing to split.
The second way: paint with brightness, not beams
The window header offers two modes: “Beams” and “Brightness”.
“Brightness” is the figure made of your own placement. The fixtures stay where they are, and the contour is drawn by the ones that physically stand on the line of the figure: they light up, the rest go dark. No movement is needed at all, so a circle, a heart or a snake can be laid out with ordinary bars, battens and PARs.
| Knob | What it does |
|---|---|
| Thickness | The width of the glowing band around the contour, in metres. At the edge of the band the brightness fades softly — the figure reads even on an uneven rig |
| Background | The brightness of the fixtures off the line. Zero means a figure on black; raise it and the rig keeps shining while the figure simply stands out brighter |
On the room plan the fixture dots glow exactly the way the fixture itself will — you can see in advance who makes it into the figure. At the bottom of the window there is a counter: “lit: 5 of 12”.
Motion (the PRO add-on)
A figure can come alive: six kinds of motion.
| Motion | What happens |
|---|---|
| Spin | The whole figure turns around its centre |
| Run | The figure stays put while the beams chase each other along its contour |
| Breathe | The figure smoothly grows and shrinks |
| Drift | The centre of the figure travels in a circle — the figure floats across the room |
| Assemble | The beams gather into a point and open up into the figure again |
| Morph | The figure flows into another one and back. The second figure is picked right there, from the same grid of icons |
Below are the familiar knobs: speed from ÷4 to ×4 (the fraction of a bar per step), the smoothness of the transition between frames and the “Sound” toggle — step to the beats of the music instead of the tempo (light to music).
The button on the left starts and stops the motion: “Start” / “Stop”. The “To chase” button saves the motion as a permanent chase — it goes into the project file, into playlists and into LIVE.
How to keep it
- “Apply” — the figure lands on the selected fixtures right now.
- “To scene” — saves the current look as a scene. If a motion is running, the scene remembers it as a recipe rather than as finished angles: move the fixtures or change the room size, and next time the scene runs the figure is recomputed and comes out clean again.
- “To chase” — a permanent copy of the motion in the chase library.
If something is off
| What you see | Why, and what to do |
|---|---|
| “N cannot reach the figure” | The fixtures run out of axis travel. Make the figure smaller, move it closer, or leave those fixtures out of the selection |
| “The figure does not fit the room” | The “Fit” button next to it scales the figure to the room |
| “The selected fixtures are dark” | The heads turned, but there is no light in them — raise the brightness |
| “None of the selected fixtures can move” | “Beams” mode works with heads and scanners only. For everything else there is “Brightness” mode |
| “No fixture stands on the line” | In “Brightness” mode: increase the Thickness or move the figure towards the fixtures |
| “The motion is running but cannot be seen” | Every fixture has hit the end of its travel — the figure is too large or too far away |
| I click a motion and the fixtures stand still | There is no active PRO add-on (the buttons show a padlock), or nothing is selected |
Honest limitations
- The figure is drawn on the floor (a stage deck is taken into account). Walls and “a figure in the haze” are for the future.
- The heads of a multi-head fixture are taken to sit in a row along the body, spaced as the fixture profile says (no spacing there — 16 cm). With unusual geometry (heads in a circle, in two rows) this is approximate: the head still gets the right point of the outline, but the spot itself may land a few centimetres off.
- The “By brightness” mode works on the whole fixture: on a bar it lights the entire fixture, not its individual heads.
- The more fixtures take part, the better the figure reads. Out of four heads a circle is four spots; it looks good from five or six up.
Ready-made tricks
| Task | How to do it |
|---|---|
| A ring of light around the dance floor | Select the heads → Circle → centre in the middle of the room |
| A path to the entrance | Line → Rotation along the aisle |
| A slow carousel for a ballad | Circle → Spin → speed ÷4 |
| Beams chasing each other | Circle → Run |
| A heart for Valentine’s Day | Heart → “Brightness” mode on a bar of PARs |
| An explosion on the drop | Point → Assemble → speed ×4 |
| A smooth change of picture | Morph: circle → star |
| A finished number for a track | Set the motion up → “To chase” → the chase into a playlist |
