PyroJam 2023 (official competition discussion topic)
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ArtiDanJoined: Oct 2022 Posts: 8 Location: Canada 
Charcoal
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 559 Location: United States 
SilverHi Drew,
Regarding Matt Loreto’s question about cakes and your answer, is it possible to reverse the firing direction of a Cake-Slice, so for example instead of firing left to right, it would become right to left ?
Thanks !
Hi ArtiDan, yes, it’s possible and it’s permitted in the competition because it doesn’t require any physical modifications to the cake. In the real world, the crew would simply place the cake on the ground in the opposite orientation. In Finale 3D, you can accomplish this by selecting the cake in your show, then going to ‘Script > Angles > Rotate cakes 180 degrees’.
ArtiDanJoined: Oct 2022 Posts: 8 Location: Canada Charcoal
bradJoined: Apr 2022 Posts: 14 Location: United States 
NewcomerAngles clarification. PROX and FRONT say no angle restrictions, but that only certain items can be shot horizontally.
For all other items, Is anything less than 90 degrees “not horizontal,” or is there a generally accepted max angle (e.g: 60, 80) we need to stick to?
Thanks,
– Brad
Engineer CatJoined: Jan 2023 Posts: 35 Location: New Jersey, United States NewcomerDrew, about a week ago I started to get notices that there is an update available. I have been ignoring it in fear I will loose or wont be able to open the current shows I’m working on since instructions at the beginning of the contest stated we must have this particular version of the software running to use the pyrojam template. Can I allow it to update?
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 559 Location: United States SilverAngles clarification. PROX and FRONT say no angle restrictions, but that only certain items can be shot horizontally.
For all other items, Is anything less than 90 degrees “not horizontal,” or is there a generally accepted max angle (e.g: 60, 80) we need to stick to?
Thanks,
– Brad
Yes, that’s correct, only certain items can be shot horizontally, and the items that qualify for horizontal shooting go on the Prox positions. For everything else fired from the Prox or Front positions, no angle restrictions mean you can fire at any angle less than 90 degrees from vertical. In theory, that means you could fire an item at 89 degrees, but since the non-horizontal items will be fired from ground level, it may not make sense to use such an aggressive angle. The spirit of the rules is to try to give you a much creative freedom as possible, that’s the reason no hard limit is set.
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 559 Location: United States SilverDrew, about a week ago I started to get notices that there is an update available. I have been ignoring it in fear I will loose or wont be able to open the current shows I’m working on since instructions at the beginning of the contest stated we must have this particular version of the software running to use the pyrojam template. Can I allow it to update?
Great question, the competition instructions say to make sure you’re running the 2022.12.19 beta release of Finale 3D or newer. The key words in this case are “or newer”. In short, you should not have any problem if your update to the most recent beta release. Additionally, if for any reason you did experience an issue, you could simply roll back to the release you were previously running. You can run any release of Finale 3D at any time just by downloading/installing.
Pyro_11810000Joined: Jul 2019 Posts: 1 Location: Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, United States NewcomerI have a question about a piece of product. Part number: (JY6-0276) Description: (Red Strobe willow) Size: 6″
My question is if I have it set to break at lets just say 00:38:820 but the actual break comes at 00:39:320 do I still set the shell to break at 00:38:820 or do I pull it back me to match when it actually breaks?
Thank you
Matt
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 559 Location: United States SilverHi Matt (Pyro_11810000), welcome to the Finale 3D forum, thanks for posting! Be sure to head over to your My Profile to customize your Display Name and Profile Picture.
Just like in real life, shell effects in Finale 3D typically have some timing variance. This means that if you launch multiple shells of the same kind at the same time, they will break (i.e, burst) at slightly different times. The variance is a percentage of the the lift time (i.e., rising time), so the larger the shell, the more difference you will see in break times. Best practice is to script to the cue marker/blip on the timeline, not to fudge the timing to get the simulation to look right.
You mentioned that the difference between your cue marker/blip and the actual appearance of the break in the simulation is a half second, that seemed suspicious so I took a look at the simulation and I found a small issue. For context, prefire time (the time from firing system ignition to the cue marker/blip) can be configured separately from the lift time (i.e., rising time) of a shell. In this case, the shell had a prefire time of 3.5s, but a lift time of 4s. This is why you were consistently seeing the shell appear 0.5s late. I fixed the simulation so the prefire and lift time are the same, you should be all set.
Now you might be thinking…
Okay Drew, but how do I get the updated effect?
You will automatically get the updated effect in the PyroJam catalog the next you login (which triggers a sync) or trigger a sync manually by going to File > Sync with network.
Okay Drew, I did that, but my shell is still breaking late in my show, what how do I fix it?
When you added the shell to your show, a copy of the shell effect was added to ‘Per-show effects’. Think of Per-show effects as the time capsule that contains all the effects for your show. This way, if you send your show to someone else, or if you open your show 6 months or 10 years from now and the PyroJam catalog is long gone, your show will still look exactly the same. The effects in your show aren’t automatically updated (i,e, Per-show effects isn’t automatically updated), but you can update them with a single click by going to Effects > Update Per-show effects.
Matt LoretoJoined: Jul 2019 Posts: 15 Location: courtdale pennsylvania CharcoalEngineer CatJoined: Jan 2023 Posts: 35 Location: New Jersey, United States NewcomerEngineer CatJoined: Jan 2023 Posts: 35 Location: New Jersey, United States NewcomerDrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 559 Location: United States SilverI downloaded the 2023 beta update just now and it resolved the camera problem. I had updated to the full release version yesterday so maybe that was the issue.
Yes, the latest full release is from 2022.09.18 (September 18, 2022) and doesn’t include the front view orientation features. For PyroJam, you need a release from 2022.12.19 (December 19, 2022) or later.
Engineer CatJoined: Jan 2023 Posts: 35 Location: New Jersey, United States NewcomerIs there a way to do a mass audit of the products placed in firing positions to make sure none of the effects are in the wrong positions? Such as 4″ shell placed in a CK position instead of 2.5″ – 4″ shell position? Or is going through the final script and checking each cue the only way to do this?
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 559 Location: United States SilverGreat question, Engineer Cat, here are some approaches you could take for auditing your design that would be much quicker and easier than going through your entire script chronologically.
1) Filter and sort the Script window to simplify the script and timeline and break the show into easily auditable sections. For example, you could filter your script to 2.5″, 3″ and 4″ shells, then sort the script by position. This would bring anything that isn’t on a 2.5″-4″ position to the top or bottom of the Script window. Alternatively, you could filter to specific positions then sort by size. This would bring any items of incompatible size to the top or bottom of the script. If you filter to a row of positions, you can look at the colors of the duration bars in the timeline. For example, if you filter your script to the Cake positions and you see an item with a bright blue bar on the timeline, then you know there’s a 4″ shell on a Cake position.
2) Filter the script to specific Subtypes then use the simulation window to identify position assignment issues. For example, you could filter your script to all Subtypes of single shots, then press Ctrl+A to select the entire script, then orbit the camera viewpoint in the Design window to see if any single shot items are being launched from the wrong position. These are just a few of the many ways to use the filters and column sorts in the Script window in conjunction with the timeline and Design window that will be much easier than trying to do a full-script chronological audit.
3) Create a custom report that summaries the items in each position by size or some other criteria to easily identify items in the wrong positions.
Engineer CatJoined: Jan 2023 Posts: 35 Location: New Jersey, United States Newcomer
Marius ColitaJoined: Jan 2022 Posts: 15 Location: Craiova NewcomerHello! Excuse the confusion…I hesitate to ask the question, I’ve been putting it off for a long time regarding “Title/Theme & Description”: What we need to know, we’re doing an “essay” like in school. story…what did the author of the song mean or us or…and the author/composer and us…?
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 559 Location: United States SilverHello! Excuse the confusion…I hesitate to ask the question, I’ve been putting it off for a long time regarding “Title/Theme & Description”: What we need to know, we’re doing an “essay” like in school. story…what did the author of the song mean or us or…and the author/composer and us…?
Hi Marius, you absolutely do not need to write an essay. You also do not need to write about individual songs. You don’t even need to write in English, you can write in whatever language you are most comfortable writing. Your show simply needs to have a theme and a title, and when you submit your show, you just need to provide a short description explaining your theme. When the judges review your show, 5% of your score will be based on your theme and how well it is represented by your fireworks design.
Here are the exact requirements from the competition page:
Show Title & Description
Pick a theme for your show. The theme can be anything you like. When you submit your show, you will be asked to provide a show title and a description of your theme. There is no specific length requirement for the show description, it should simply be of sufficient length to introduce your show to the judges and the audience. For example, a show description could be a few sentences.Marius ColitaJoined: Jan 2022 Posts: 15 Location: Craiova NewcomerI understand thank you !
Now I come with other questions, I think it has already been answered, but I want to be sure! 1. Can I tilt the products used from the “P” or “F” positions in any direction? Including towards the direction of the public? (SS Mine, SS comet even SS Shell or Cake) and 2. Here, when I want to put a single one in the table, it shows me 6 or 10 pieces, how many are actually used? Does the software count the number of “shots”, firings or how many “batteries” are used(photo 1)
?
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 559 Location: United States SilverHi Marius Colita, great questions, and thank you for the screenshots, they are very helpful.
1. For safety and other production considerations, effects can only be angled left or right, not toward or away from the public audience.
2. The effects in your screenshot are pre-made chains of shells. These are shells that are connected together by the manufacturer on a single fuse. Finale 3D can count each chain as 1, or it can count based on the number of shells on the chain. The PyroJam inventory quantities are based on the total number of individual shells available, therefore Finale 3D should be configured to count the number of shells. For example, when you add 1 chain of 10 shells to your show, the ‘Used’ quantity in the Effects window should say 10. Your screenshot shows that your settings are configured correctly. The chain settings are described on the PyroJam competition page in the ‘Show Budget’ section, here’s a screenshot from the page:
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