Global Palette and Default Palette creation

I would like to see if there is a way to create global palettes or default palettes to load with every show.

Since like everyone else, we're always using different types of fixtures and different quantities but we are always short on timing any shortcuts help. Like some of the rest of you out there, part of the value I bring--part of what gets be the day rate I ask for--is when I can show up to a console with a bag of tricks in my inventory already.

I would like to find a way to enhance my inventory of tricks but being able to turn on a console, load my console preferences, and with it, a generic show that contains tons of pre-programmed global palettes. A lot of these would be timing and fx palettes but in many cases, color fx, and positions.

I'm not necessarily saying that I need them to load from the patch screen, but if there is a way I can create my own inventory of global palettes without actually having to add fixtures to get them then I would love it.
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    Todd,

    Global palettes are created with a single entry that applies to all fixtures. If you launch a new show and patch a single fixture, you will be able to record as many global palettes as you'd like. You can then remove the single fixture from your show. When you add and patch additional fixtures of any type, the global palettes will apply as long as the fixture parameters stored in the palettes apply to the fixtures that you have added.

    Keep in mind, however, that position palettes are recorded as per-fixture by default. You will need to explicitly specify that you want to record a global palette by using the record toolbar if you want to record any generic positions.

    When I was a freelance LD in the Wholehog 2 days, I carried multiple palette disks built for the specific fixture groups I often found myself working with. At the time, this made my life much easier and as my programming style evolved, so did my palette usage.

    When I bought my Wholehog 3, I built a generic "start" show with my palettes, much like I did with the Wholehog 2. The old-timers here probably remember the days of greedy and sequence palettes.

    What I've found as I program with the Wholehog 3 is that there is *much* less need for this than there was in the Wholehog 2. With conveniences like the slot toolbar, the color picker, and the + modifier for encoders, along with the fact that fixtures of different types can now be controlled together much more easily, I just don't need nearly as big a set of "stock" palettes.

    I still have a palette disk that I use when working with media servers, but I start with a small enough number of palettes when working with moving lights that I usually just build them for each show.

    My basic palette set usually consists of:

    INTENSITY
    MARK
    HIGHLIGHT
    HIGHLIGHT IRIS - This is not my default highlight palette, but it can make life easier when adjusting positions with ambient light to have a highlight palette with the iris as small as possible
    LOWLIGHT

    POSITION
    50/50 - I realize that this is technically 0/0, since the Wholehog 3 considers 0 degrees pan & tilt as the home position, but I just can't break my habit of calling this one 50/50

    COLOUR
    Open White
    HS Palettes for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, Congo - I try to do as much of my colour mixing as possible in the HS colour space. I find that this makes building many effects much easier and I avoid switching between colour spaces if possible. When mixing in HS, you can still see the CMY values in the output window, so I'll build HS palettes for the fully saturated primary and secondary colours so that I can easily grab them.
    "2x" palettes for White, Cyan, Magenta , Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue - The Studio Color 575 has a great 2x colour mode that lets you do fast colour bumps, so I'll set up palettes for the primary and secondary colours in this mode.

    BEAM
    Open Beam
    Open Gobos
    Open Gobo 1, 2, 3
    Stop Rotation
    Open / Full palettes for focus, zoom, iris, frost, beam shaper, etc.

    That's about it. It basically amounts to a few quick things that I often need to grab quickly. The vast majority of my palettes are show-specific and recorded as I program.

    I hope this helps.
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    Good feedback Tom. You and I are on the same page. Along with customizing the library files in Hog 2, I have also done some similar moves.
    Media Servers are the biggest Hogs of time during programming and I have quite an elaborate template of palettes I load. Of course mine are Catalyst since I own Catalysts but I do have clients that desire the functions of other media servers.

    I encourage anyone's additional feedback on this as brain storming would be cool.:outtahere:
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