GlowFireworks.com History + usage for VDL creation

[effreek]

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Just curious on the glowfireworks consumer visualization tech and how it came about and if there was any link to current software like finale3d.

 

Seems like there is already a consumer effects database somewhere that would benefit everyone if it could easily be converted to finale3d VDL.

 

Thoughts, comments?

I already have a semi manual working system to pull the effects “JSON” like format from a glow visualization instance but I can’t seem to get a good conversion working without having to go to the custom effects instead of vdl. ( I have been using chatgpt with a scrape of vdl terms to try and get close)

 

Also on that note is there a way to paste into the custom effects tab of finale3d? Any documentation on the structure? I want to make a converter but can’t without understanding the underlying structure. (Maybe I should make this question a separate discussion.)

[DrewFinale]

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Hi effreek, welcome to the Finale 3D forum!

 

We are not the developers of Glow so I can’t really speak to the history or on any technical aspects. If Glow supports exporting effects, it may be entirely possible to convert to a Finale 3D format.

 

All Finale 3D effects start out with VDL. A typical workflow is to use VDL to get a close as possible and then tune with the effect editor as needed. One benefit that VDL offers is speed. Another is that VDL can represent a multishot item like a cake, where as the effect editor currently only supports individual effects. To make a cake using the effect editor, the effects in the cake need to be customized individually, and then multiple custom effects can be combined into a cake.

 

You can copy any “node” of the “tree” structure in the Finale 3D effect editor using the copy and paste options in the ‘Actions’ menu that appears when you mouse over a node. Once you have a node copied, you can paste it into another application like Notepad or Excel to inspect the raw data. We don’t have documentation on the effect editor structure yet, so copying and pasting modes and inspecting the data is the best way to learn. Copying and pasting modes is also one of the best workflows for efficiency building custom effects.

[effreek]

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DrewFinale Thank you for the quick answer.

 

Sounds like I need to do some copy and pasting. There isn’t a way to paste from outside the editor is there? (Lets say I modify what I see in notepad and try to paste it back in)

 

Glow seems to be proprietary and very obfuscated from the data side but they have visualization for a lot of consumer effects (Since their goal is “increase consumer sales”) so getting the data is not straight forward but I was able to grab the decoded effects and inspect the structure. It looked very similar to how the effects editor has things structured which is why I was curious if it was a branch from finale. Sounds like it’s its own thing.

 

That being said it has timing and effects for a lot of the consumer stuff not in the finale libraries yet. I know consumer effects is something being actively worked on and sharing of those in a community manner is a project in the works. Just thought its a resource that might be useful for some to know about. Its a lot better than watching a video and trying to guess at timing, color, etc.

[effreek]

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Since a lot of what I send up is from friend and family and we have a phantom close by. . . .

 

This is a snippet from the decoded data of the Suspended Animation (g-390/BP2461) its by Brothers so there should be more data to compare against.

Here is the VDL I came up with to compare: 20mm Blue Peony w/ Popcorn Crackle w/ Blue Tail

“effects”: [
{
“type”: “shell”,
“caliber”: 0.75,
“data”: {
“breaks”: {
“petals”: {}
},
“randomness”: 1,
“stars”: [
{
“colors”: “blue”,
“density”: 0.5,
“duration”: 1.2
},
{
“data”: {
“spark”: {
“brightness”: 1,
“density”: 0.5,
“duration”: 0.7
}
}
}
],
“density”: 2,
“duration”: 1.2,
“terminal_velocity”: 0.8,
“type”: “crackle”
},
“tail”: {
“colors”: “blue”,
“duration”: 0.7
},
“position”: {
“z”: 0
}
}

Another section has the timing between shots.

 

“stagger”: [
1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3,
1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3,
1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3,
1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3,
0.05, 0.05, 0.05, 0.05
]

[effreek]

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https://fireworks.com/products/aerial/200-gram-repeaters/suspended-animation-25-shot

Click on 3D preview and you get the Glow player with the effect.

Also has the video.

 

You can see the value of decoding the effect from glow over trying to create it from the video.

[DrewFinale]

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effreek wrote:

There isn’t a way to paste from outside the editor is there? (Lets say I modify what I see in notepad and try to paste it back in)

 

There is a way! You can absolutely copy and paste nodes from outside Finale 3D back into the effect editor. The node data is just text. Finale 3D power users create “node libraries” in text files or spreadsheets to quickly reference and build custom effects.

[effreek]

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Excellent!

 

I will have to try this out. This might be the way to go to automate converting some of the consumer effects from Glow over. If I can figure out a direct conversion between their structure and a “node library” of sorts I should be able to automate it to a degree.

 

I like making effects, but I like scripting shows better. lol

 

Thanks for the help,

 

If anyone else has any feedback feel free to chime in.

[Author]

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