Matt Kizer has some excellent Open Education Resources available at https://scenicandlighting.com/lightlabs/
The three bars on the top right are to Exit Light Lab.
Dance Lighting is an amazing virtual resource giving you control over HUE and SATURATION/DIMMER for Cyclorama, Sidelight and Toplight. There are Intensity controls for High Side SL and SR Gobos as well as footlights with dancers in Down Stage, Middle Stage and Up Stage positions. The specials allow you to highlight each dancer individually.
Gobo Lab lets you select which direction the light is coming from. Top of the screen is the audience, so the top centre light will project the gobo onto the actors and the cyclorama behind them.
Clicking on the light source brings up a dimmer slider.
You can have have more than one gobo on, but one gobo per light.
Color Lab is a virtual McCandless design. Try a cool light from one side, a warm light from the other side and a strong backlight.
The top slider control is HUE
The middle slider control is SATURATION
The bottom slider control is INTENSITY
Virtual Swatch Book is Rosco Color Chart by Color and Number with guidelines on useage.
Vintage Instruments gives detailed description and data for conventional lighting .
Fresnel has an animation showing how the lens was created.
PAR CANS allows you to rotate the oval beam.
Ellipsoidals – Profiles in Australia shows focus and shutter operation., beam width change with lens focus.
Follow Spots show Iris, Gate, Dowser, Focus.
Strip Lights show cyclorama light coverage for distance from the cyclorama.
Cyc Lights has a diagram explaining the equal intensity from top to bottom. Use in conjunction with Strip Lights.
The Drama Machine
Prepare yourself for THE DRAMA MACHINE. This is an interactive application that randomly combines the variables that we deal with in production: Script, Director’s Concept, Venue, Budget, and Time. It churns out the circumstances for a hypothetical production with gaudy special effects and noises. Have students come up to the machine, one at a time, and generate a new set of circumstances. This turns your class into a game show for the day, and inspires extraordinary discussion about how designing is always problem solving.In my classroom, we use this on a Smart Board. Students come up to the machine in turns and create a new set of circumstances. Embarrassing goggles or eye-ware are especially helpful for anyone operating the machine. This machine makes some great noises, so TURN UP YOUR SOUND! ;)If you do not have a smart board, you can still use this.
- It could be used with a projector or other type of screen. I would suggest coming up with some way to make a big deal out of pushing the next button each time. Maybe a drum-roll.
- Students can operate this on their own, either in class, or as an assignment.
- Students can operate this on their own devices in groups.
- I have a former student who uses this in the classroom to generate design paper assignments. Students run the machine in class and are then required to write a design concept statement based on the results.
Page updated 16 February 2022