Propeller Powered Display Wins Best at E3!
JonnyMac
Posts: 9,107
Congrats to Steve Wang and his team at Biomorphs for their Diablo III Tyrael display winning best of E3. Have a look:
The tendrils -- which support the display and carry all of the lighting channels from the base -- each have 6 to 8 channels. We used rolls and rolls of strip LEDs (white) and brough the control wires for each strip down to the controller so that we could control the segments in each tendril.
The program uses a simple throb-and-shimmer effect at about 70% brightness and every few seconds there is a "burst" animation that emanates from the back of the character out to the ends. It's not in the game but Steve liked that behavior when I showed it to him and Blizzard Entertainment (client) let us keep it in.
In the base is my original Propeller Platform and my DMX board. The Propeller acts like a DMX master with a very small universe -- this lets me update the channels more frequently than standard DMX, allowing for smooth animations. We used off-the-shelf DMX "bricks" for outputs providing a 12v, 10A supply for each brick. There's a lot of LEDs and a lot of current. The craziest part is that all of the wires run from base, up through the main tendrils, then into the body where they are split out to the other tendrils. There's a lot of 2-pin Molex connects in the body so that tendrils can be removed for shipping.
I love working with Steve and his team at Biomorphs, and especially using the Propeller to do really cool lighting control. Yep, they're just LEDs, but they are way freaking cool and now an award winner!
The tendrils -- which support the display and carry all of the lighting channels from the base -- each have 6 to 8 channels. We used rolls and rolls of strip LEDs (white) and brough the control wires for each strip down to the controller so that we could control the segments in each tendril.
The program uses a simple throb-and-shimmer effect at about 70% brightness and every few seconds there is a "burst" animation that emanates from the back of the character out to the ends. It's not in the game but Steve liked that behavior when I showed it to him and Blizzard Entertainment (client) let us keep it in.
In the base is my original Propeller Platform and my DMX board. The Propeller acts like a DMX master with a very small universe -- this lets me update the channels more frequently than standard DMX, allowing for smooth animations. We used off-the-shelf DMX "bricks" for outputs providing a 12v, 10A supply for each brick. There's a lot of LEDs and a lot of current. The craziest part is that all of the wires run from base, up through the main tendrils, then into the body where they are split out to the other tendrils. There's a lot of 2-pin Molex connects in the body so that tendrils can be removed for shipping.
I love working with Steve and his team at Biomorphs, and especially using the Propeller to do really cool lighting control. Yep, they're just LEDs, but they are way freaking cool and now an award winner!
Comments
When you and Steve get together, it's always a winner!
As the Rolling Stones sang, "I know, they're only LEDs but I like 'em, like 'em, yes I do!!"