Sidus Link’s Magic Program
How to Control Your Film Lights like a Wizard Part 1
If you’ve ever used Sidus Link’s wireless Bluetooth control app, you know there are many treasures to be found in its control features. From Quickshots to Color Picker, or even Picker FX, we’ve never had such powerful lighting tools so accessible before.
But there is one mysterious lighting mode that eludes users, as there has been little information to be found about it just yet. And that's Magic Program.
If you aren’t yet familiar with the Sidus Link app, you may find our Sidus Link 101 breakdown more useful to start before exploring Magic Program.
What is Magic Program?
Magic Program is Sidus Link’s most advanced lighting control tool which grants access to precise light editing and programming features. Here you can design, save, and execute complex lighting sequences, transitions, and effects on a 10-minute long node-based timeline.
Instead of juggling your light controls manually or in real-time, you can make adjustments to multiple fixture parameters by pre-programming unique keyframes that activate commands in individuals, groups, or all lights.
Sure, those lofty words sound great on paper, but what can you actually create with Magic Program on set? Well, picture this…
Maybe you could create a stunning swirl of light around an artist on stage for a music video, a creepy chorus of flickering lights in a horror film, or a 10-minute long sunrise effect for your one-shot scene.
If you want to explore the world of console-style lighting control without the wires or expensive transmitters...
This is where you go to make it happen.
Where to start?
The workflow may seem a little complex at first, but we’re confident you’ll catch on quickly. Let’s start by breaking things down so you can dive into Magic Program quickly on your iPad, iPhone, or Android device…
- Install or update the Sidus Link app to its latest version.
- Open the App and create an account (this saves your information to Sidus Link Cloud so you can sync Lighting Scenes, Quickshots, Presets, and CC Groups across multiple devices.
- Navigate to the Lighting Control System menu and create a new scene to work in.
- Add lighting fixtures to your scene. Be sure to update the firmware on these lights as well.
- Tap the center icon at the bottom of your device while in the fixtures menu. (Look for the globe icon).
Each of these steps has a link to further explain the process if you run into trouble.
Welcome to Magic Program! Now that you’ve arrived, let’s go through the core features that you’ll need to know. In this example, we’re going to demonstrate by using 4 MC lights.
How Do I Use Sidus Link’s Magic Program?
1) Create a Matrix
The first step to using Magic Program is creating a Matrix. The App supports a 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and 5x5 matrix arrangement allowing up to 25 lights to be used at once in this mode.
It is best practice to select a matrix of at least as many boxes as compatible lights you have available. You can also use a larger matrix if it helps you visualize the location of different fixtures more easily.
In this case with 4 lights, we’re going to select the 2x2 matrix.
Next, you’ll need to assign your lights to a matrix slot. You can complete this step by selecting a fixture (by tapping it), then tapping on a corresponding empty slot.
This process is done one fixture at a time, but you don’t need to fill every slot in a matrix to proceed.
If something goes wrong or you want to add more lights, you can always delete the matrix and start again. Just be sure to save your work first! We will be covering this later.
A helpful tip: Tap the grey bubble next to a fixture to “find lights” if you didn’t relabel your units before starting. This will activate an SOS flash sequence in the corresponding light so you visually see which unit you are about to assign to a matrix tile.
2) Exploring the Magic Program Layout
You’ve made it this far, but the number of icons is increasing. So let’s separate these further to avoid a button-mashing approach.
I mean you can if you want…
- Fixture Selection: By tapping a tile in this area you will tell the program which fixture(s) you want to assign a command at a given point. This is split up into “All” for all fixtures at once, “Fixtures” for individual fixtures, or “Array” for groups of fixtures.
- Fixture Controls: Here you decide what your fixture(s) will do when selected. This is broken down into (A/B) In/Out Points, flash, continue, off, and blank.
- Program Timeline: Here you tell the program when you want your fixture commands to occur by choosing a place on the timeline. When a fixture selection tile is tapped, the location of your cursor on the timeline is where the keyframe or “Node” will be generated.
Workflow: 1) Tap on a fixture control and set a default command. 2) Slide your cursor or double-tap along the timeline; moving it to the desired point at which the command will start. 3) Tap an icon in the fixture selection to assign the command.
A command node is then generated for that specific fixture or group of fixtures with a set of instructions at a specific point in time.
SET UP A SEQUENCE
Let’s run through an example of a workflow to get to grips with how these three functions interact when setting up a sequence.
By tapping on the Flash icon in the fixture controls area, we will be prompted with the following control options. CCT (Correlated Color Temperature), HSI (Hue Saturation Intensity), GM (Green / Magenta shift), FRQ (A measure of time *1 second divided by the Hz value), and Times (How many times the light will flash).
Here we’ve set the light to a 5600K daylight balance and adjusted the frequency and time to flash once a second, for 1 occurrence.
Lastly, we will select the “Set as Default” icon in the top right-hand corner. If you forget this step your adjustments won’t be saved!
Now that we have our default settings, we can start animating lights.
With the Flash icon still selected (highlighted green), every time we tap on a fixture tile whether it is All,1–4, or an Array, those corresponding fixture(s) will be programmed to flash at that point on the timeline.
Here’s the sequence in action below…
When we tap each individual tile, a corresponding node is created on the timeline with a grey tail stretching 1 second. Its tail represents how long that node’s action will last. Note that the cursor defaults to one space after the node created, and must be dragged further to the second marker if we are to prevent overlapping.
Tapping the next number tile will create a new node and assign a command for the next corresponding light. The empty circles represent unfilled nodes that do not currently contain a command. They are considered “Blank”.
Now with our 4 lights programmed with 1 command each, we push the Play button to start the sequence.
Notice the adjacent gray circle is used to either loop the sequence or allow it to play out just once.
Adjusting Nodes:
- If you want to make adjustments to an individual node after it is set, you can tap it in the timeline and the controls for that node will appear. Be sure to hit confirm after you make changes.
- Alternatively, you can return to a fixture control menu and change the default setting each time before assigning a new command to a fixture.
Other notes to follow
- The timeline’s programmable space is a maximum of 10 minutes long. (But can be used as a continuous loop)
- The shortest amount of time between each node is 200ms.
- Commands can overlap, but only one command can be set per node.
- You can control multiple lights per command, but they must be in an Array or by selecting All.
Visually we can see by the light gray tails how long the effect of each command lasts by moving the cursor position to cover that specific node. In this example, multiple lights are being activated at the same time, but notice only one command per node is used.
These tails also match the color of the effect and tell users when that light is “safe” to perform a new action when its previous action has been completed.
These tail visuals are only available in the iPad version of Sidus Link.
Additional Function Buttons
Color Palette: This is a shortcut to recall specific color sources to use in tandem with fixture controls.
For instance, instead of choosing a specific color in the Flash control menu, you can select one from the Color Palette menu. You drag and drop your chosen color swatch into one of the open preset boxes and that color can be saved for future commands. The color palette icon now assumes your chosen color and works as your default color in tandem with your default flash command when assigned to a fixture tile.
This differs from the Flash and Continue fixture control menus because you cannot save your color selections as presets to recall there. There is a max of 10 preset color slots for HSI and 8 for CCT mode.
Deleting Nodes: To delete a node, drag the cursor so it rests over the node you want to be deleted (or simply tap on the node) and press the trash icon. This will auto-shift the entire timeline left to fill the vacant space.
Blank: To add a space of time before, after, or between commands, tap the Blank button which will add an empty node to the space your cursor is occupying, and auto-shift the entire timeline following to the right.
If you want to create a large number of Blanks, drag your cursor further along the timeline to the desired point and tap the Blank button. Every space since the last assigned node will be filled with blank nodes until the position your cursor occupies.
Off: To temporarily disable a fixture, move your cursor over the desired node and tap the Off button. The node’s color will disappear and leave only its fixture’s corresponding number. This way you can distinguish a Blank node from an Off fixture.
You can return to this node later and press off again to reactivate it; returning to its original color and settings.
Reset: This will reset your entire timeline, ARE YOU SURE YOU DON’T WANT TO SAVE FIRST? Speaking of…
SAVING YOUR WORK
Just like the Presets and Quickshots features that can help you store lights settings for later, Magic Program has the Store function. This is where you can save your advanced sequences for later and recall them.
For iPad users, the Store icon is at the top right of the screen. For mobile users, it’s in the bottom right corner. You can tap the icon to save the current version of the sequence you are working on, name it, delete it, or recall a previously saved sequence and load it to your current setup.
When loading a saved sequence, you must have the same fixtures connected that were used when creating the original sequence.
PART 2 OF MAGIC PROGRAM
Wow, that’s a lot to unpack! For now, this should be enough to help you become familiar with the basic functions and capabilities of Magic Program. From here you can let your creativity guide your learning or step into our next part of our tutorial.
We will continue our discussion with more advanced lessons including how to use the Continue control mode. CLICK HERE FOR PART 2.
Alternatively, here is a simple user guide from the Sidus Link website that covers all these features if you’re in a hurry: Magic Program Guide.
We can’t wait to see what you’ll create with these new tools! Have fun and light on.
