video of show:

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

It’s About Time

Our show is entitled “It’s About Time”. It is a journey through time focusing on the music of each era from the 1920s to the 2020s, featuring protest music. The eras we are exploring are the Early 20th Century (1920s-30s), Rock and Roll (1940s-50s), Counter Culture and Protest (1960s-70s), Late 20th Century (1980s-90s), Modern Day (2000- Early 2020s). It then provides us a glimpse into what the future could hold. Our potential futures depend on if we follow a path of inaction or if we take control of the future of our world. We selected the title “It’s About Time” as a literal meaning of our exploration of the decades, but it has a dual meaning that it is about time for us to learn from the past. It is about time for us to step up and carve way for a better future for all.

Video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V-NSKwslzb4AIDVziHH9DDN-o6-xYelh/view?usp=sharing

Photos

more photos

Inside Out

Inspired by the film Inside Out, our show takes viewers on an emotional journey as they experience the story of 5 different emotions come to life on the bridge: Joy, Fear, Disgust, Anger, and Sadness. In the beginning, the audience is introduced to each emotion and we see white light, a combination of all of the colors of light, as all of the emotions come together. However, something is wrong. There is a glitch with the white light on the bridge and the emotions are not working together as expected. After this, we see individual segments for each emotion, highlighting the colors and personalities of each. In the end, the white light appears again, but this time it stays and the emotions are able to come together successfully. It is only after celebrating each emotion and appreciating the crucial roles that each plays throughout the show that they can all work together as a team. The show concludes with fireworks, bursts of color, and ultimately a strong, stable white light. Our show was programmed entirely in Pharos Designer 2.

Drive Folder With Videos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Sbxj1JBUe6i2eYHkMPD0JhUJAlT3bjLs?usp=sharing

We were able to test the a couple of key moments from the show including the intro, the chinese new years memory, and the christmas memory.

We are still working on combining things together and making transitions between each memory. Some of us are using apple motion and the rest are using Pharos.

Video showcasing 4 minutes of introduction, joy, and sadness: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MR0D7zlA7QEFQuAHZr4FgXg1KRF8Mfaz/view?usp=sharing

In the introduction, we begin the show with white, a combination of all of the colors of all of the emotions. Then we have individual introductions to each color/emotion and see all of the emotions interacting and moving around together. However, then, there is a glitch and there is a problem with the white light. Something is wrong.

In the joy section, we see lots of bright yellow. The effects demonstrate joy exploding across the bridge, the sparkling, glimmer, and movement of Joy’s personality, and joy spreading across the bridge in all directions.

Additional video showcasing finale: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WD7oy8TeWePRMUHpUo7TGb3hg80vfzzA/view?usp=sharing

In the finale, some sequences are repeated from the introduction to tie everything back together. However, instead of the white lights glitching like in the introduction, the white stays lit up and there is a celebration with fireworks and all of the colors/emotions!

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