Dakota Hernandez, Ella Moon, Emmaline Mai, Ernest Wan, Nila Gao

Our show captures the lights and sounds of CMU’s annual Spring Carnival. We begin with a celebration of CMU by showcasing the tartan plaid red, blue and green. Next, we transition to a showcase of the sweepstakes buggy race: A grand countdown begins as tension builds on the bridge lighting with accompanying sound in preparation for the buggy race. When the countdown finishes, the buggies race back and forth across the bridge through the three sections of the buggy race. The race concludes with a close finish and the winner is revealed in our final winners’ circle section. Here, the winning buggy is revealed and their team colors are proudly displayed with Imagine Dragons’ On Top of the World accompanying the experience.

After this conclusion, an alternate version of the show runs with different countdown, buggy race, and winners’ circle sections.

Video:

Photos

Our group materials can be viewed here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Vd16P7fEDcgSx2tj5RSBaxMi2MXmb4Yy?usp=sharing

The “Welcome to Carnival” project involves creating a light and sound show for the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) annual Spring Carnival. The project will consist of multiple parts, including a countdown, three buggy races, and a winner’s circle celebration. The light show will be created using either Pharos or scripting, and the sound effects will include crowd cheering, drum beats, and bagpipes. Overall, the “Welcome to Carnival” project will be an exciting and visually stunning overview to the CMU Carnival and create an immersive experience for spectators and participants alike.

Lighting Description Overview

Countdown:

The countdown will be created using Pharos and will include turning on groups of lights over time. The sound effects will include a building crowd cheer and boop boop boop beep sounds to start the race.

Race 1 – Front Hills:

The first buggy race will involve pushers 1 and 2 racing up the Front Hills. The light show will be created using scripting and will involve experimenting with buggy light movements and speeds. The background could be a pale blue color, and the crowd cheering could be depicted using a flicker effect. Commentating will accompany the sound effects, and the crowd cheering will fade out as the buggies leave.

Race 2 – Freeroll:

The second buggy race will involve a freeroll, and the light show will be created using scripting. Commentating will accompany the sound effects.

Race 3 – Back Hills:

The third and final buggy race will involve pushers 3, 4, and 5 racing up the Back Hills. The light show will be created using scripting, and the crowd cheering will ramp up. Commentating will accompany the sound effects.

Transition to Buggy Show:

The transition to the Buggy Show will be created using either Pharos or scripting. Additional CMU songs or bagpipes could be played during this part of the show.

Winner’s Circle:

The winner’s circle celebration will involve a “confetti” effect, where the bridge background will be white with random colors popping in at 100% intensity. The light show will include fast-paced wave and/or chase effects, different types of dimmer and color chase sequences, and a mirror dimmer. The sound effects will include “victory music” and a drumroll.

Lighting Implementation

Show length: >5 min

1. Welcome to Carnival
   1. Probably doable in both Pharos or scripting but might be easier to do in Pharos
   2. We’ll need to experiment with different Pharos preset light effects, e.g. gradient, wave, rainbow
      1. Dimmer bounce, chase to center;
   3. Look into videos of different effects on the bridge
   4. Come up with a few keyframes and experiment with different ways to transition between keyframes
   5. Music backing: Drum beats or other gentle rhythm
      1. Bagpipes seem controversially popular
      2. People don’t recognize the CMU fight song
2. Countdown
   1. Pharos task
   2. Probably not too difficult, make groups of lights and turn them on over time
   3. Sounds: crowd cheering building up; boop boop boop beep sounds to start the race
3. Race: Front Hills (pushers 1 and 2)
   1. Scripting, difficult to have buggy lights move with pusher lights by hand
      1. Vary buggy speeds
   2. Could have like a pale blue backdrop, but might need something more exciting, crowd cheering (maybe jumping up and down – flicker)
      1. Experimentation needed
   3. Preliminary attempt: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sTIMRg-pFjMj7Xa_lmER5mgnTpF24z5j/view?usp=sharing 
   4. Sounds: crowd cheering fades out as buggies leave, commentating
4. Race: Freeroll
   1. Scripting
   2. Sounds: more commentating
5. Race: Back Hills (pushers 3, 4, and 5)
   1. Scripting
   2. Sounds: crowd cheering ramps up, more commentating
6. Transition into Buggy show
   1. Probably doable in both Pharos or scripting but might be easier to do in Pharos
   2. Additional CMU songs or bagpipes here
      http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~kiltie/lyrics.cgi
      
   3. 
   4. Sounds: “Victory Music,” drumroll
      1. Mario kart?
      2. Something to really signify the race being over
7. Winner’s Circle
   1. Pharos?
   2. “Confetti” effect: white bridge background (20% intensity) with random colors popping in (100% intensity)
   3. Fast-paced wave and/or chase effects
   4. Different types of dimmer and color chase sequences
      1. Mirror dimmer, lights start from ends and move to middle before bouncing back to the ends
      2. Break up bridge into sections and repeat the patter in different sections
   5. Sounds: more “Victory Music”? 

Implementation Proofs of Concepts

You can view some early concepts of our lighting designs in this Google Drive folder: link

Questions

• How to make the buggy rolling sections distinct?
• How to test sounds?
• Python
  • Documentation on sprites?
  • Changing speed of buggy to 1.5x? Something finer than just integer multiples
  • How to keep the buggy and person pairs together in a way that’s less sketchy than just timing them correctly

Part 1: Welcome to Carnival

Light Show Storyboard

Left to right
Start slow showing each color:

• Carnegie Red
• Black
• Iron Gray

Speed up showing each color

• Carnegie Red
• Black
• Iron Gray

Inspiration/Concept Images

Description

The carnival will start with introducing our school pride. We will show the CMU colors, first slowly introducing each color to provide an anticipation effect. After the four key colors are showcased, it will speed up and run through one more time representing excitement.

Part 2: Transition into Buggy Show

Light Show Storyboard

Bridge divided into 20 different parts, red and White chunks alternating
For first 5 seconds:
Red and white blocks of color move down the bridge to capture the excitement of buggy race/carnival starting
Next:
Starting from the middle, the bridge starts turning white one by one (or we can turn the lights off?)
End:
All white lights or fully off

Inspiration/Concept Images

Description

Red-and-white colors spinning, followed by opening from the center to reveal the next scene

Part 3: Countdown

Light Show Storyboard

Dimmer Bounce
Start:
Fully off
After 2 sec:
First section light (from the left) turns on
After 1 sec:
Next section turns on
…
End:
After the bridge is fully illuminated, the lights can blink really fast to signify the start of the race

Inspiration/Concept Images

Description

Starting the bridge fully off then gradually illuminating it starting from the left (10 sections), then bursts of light to signify the start of the race.

Part 4: Race: Front Hills (Pushers 1 and 2)

Light Show Storyboard

(See description)

Inspiration/Concept Images

Description

Two buggies (blue and green?) starting on the left side of the bridge, with orange “pushers” standing right next to them; each pusher slowly speeds up their buggy and then hands off to the next pusher (total of 4 pushers, 2 buggies)

Part 5: Race: Freeroll

Light Show Storyboard

Two buggies, represented by colors from storyboard panel 4, start from the right of the bridge and move left with one color entering the scene slightly earlier (the same color which was in front on the previous scene). In the middle of the bridge, the slower color overtakes the other color and arrives at the left of the bridge sooner, the scene ends after both buggies leave the bridge.

Inspiration/Concept Images

Description

Buggies move fast across the bridge, possibly looping around multiple times, with a clear blue/green backdrop. At one point, the rear buggy should pass the front buggy. Near the end, the buggy starts slowing down. Each buggy is represented by the colors from storyboard panel 4.
The sound design could include the sounds of wheels on gravel and cheering.

Part 6: Race: Back Hills (Pushers 3, 4, and 5)

Light Show Storyboard

Both buggies move from left to right, slowing down and passed off between orange pushers. At the end of the bridge they both stop, one having clearly reached the end first.

Inspiration/Concept Images

Description

Buggies slow down and are then pushed by orange pushers, handing off twice, until reaching the finish line (total of two buggies and six pushers). One buggy should obviously be in front during this part (having them pass during this part might make it harder to follow) and then when the buggy crosses the finish line then it starts flashing and the entire bridge fades to that color

Part 7: Winner’s Circle

Light Show Storyboard

Flashing patterns of the winning buggy’s color

Inspiration/Concept Images

Description

The buggy winner is celebrated with flashing lights in the color of the winning buggy, mimicking confetti. The color can take over from storyboard panel 6 by moving across the bridge from right to left, and then strobing (gently).

• Idea 1: Animal

The Carnival of the Animals(Complete)

Suite by Camille Saint-Saëns

(Lion, Hens & Roosters, Wild asses, Tortues, Elephant, Kangourous, Aquarium, Characters with Long Ears, Cuckoo, Aviary, Pianists, Fossiles, The Swan, Final)

Animals are our best friends in life, and we can always see a variety of wild animals or domestic pets on campus. There are also various animal-based festivals in different cultures, such as the Lunar New Year, which has a different symbolic animal for each year. Imagine that we use abstract light art to portray the qualities of different animals and make their presence felt every moment. In this composer’s carnival of animals suite, we can feel very directly the sound qualities, the character and even the colors of the different animals. The musical abstraction of the different qualities of the different animals provides an excellent basis for our lighting compositions.

• Idea 2: Carnival (Buggy)

Spring Carnival is one of the oldest traditions on CMU’s campus, dating back over a hundred years. A core event every year during Carnival is the Buggy races, where teams of students (hailing from both Greek organizations and independent groups) build and race small tube-shaped vehicles that are propelled by human pushers and raced across a course that has both a downhill and an uphill portion (where the buggy is propelled by gravity on the downhill and is pushed by a relay-race of team members on the uphill). It would be interesting to represent Buggy by having colored lights representing different buggies – there could be three or four different “scenes” – the first one has two different colored “buggies” speeding up (start of the roll), then both buggies going at a moderately high speed (possibly one passing the other), then the “relay race” portion where there are different colored moving lights to represent the three pushers that each push one part of the hill. At the end, there could be a celebratory light show showing which buggy won (by having two different versions of the video with the buggy colors swapped, so it would be possible to randomly select which buggy “wins” when playing the video). Music could include some kind of tense/exciting/fast-paced racing music; Sound effects (although these might get annoying) could include a countdown, cheering sounds, and celebratory sounds at the end.

• Idea 3: Carnival (Booth)

Spring Carnival is one of the oldest traditions on CMU’s campus, dating back over a hundred years. Booth is one of the major attractions during Spring Carnival and serves as a spectacular showcase. Various student organizations, including Greek organizations and other organizations on campus have the opportunity to construct multi-story structures centered around a selected theme each year. These booths feature engaging games and intricate ornamentations. All organizations move onto Midway the Friday night before the Carnival weekend, and work continuously until the opening on Thursday afternoon. Students construct walls for the booth and decorate with paper mache ornaments. The final outcomes are truly remarkable and awe-inspiring. For animation, we could show how each piece of the booth is built then constructed after they’re brought onto Midway. One possible way of doing this could be by having a vertical line of lights at equal intervals, then having each of these lines be expanded into one solid block. Finally, a colorful burst of colors could be added to show the detailed ornamentations of the booth.