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Reply To: Nov 2023 Cakes Contest // Official Topic & FAQ
Hi Pyro_297730000, arranging individual shells (i.e., singles shots, cake shots, etc.) on the timeline is a great way to begin making a cake in smaller, more manageable pieces. Just keep in mind, to enter the contest, you need to submit the complete full VDL for each cake – you can’t submit VDL for individual effects within the cakes. This means you need to create the VDL for the entire cake by going to ‘Effects (menu) > Combine as cake effect’. There are several videos that demonstrate the steps to create cakes this way in the Creating and Editing Effects playlist in the Finale 3D Help Center.
Reply To: Nov 2023 Cakes Contest // Official Topic & FAQ
DrewFinale wrote: Hi Pyro_297730000, welcome to the Finale 3D community! Have you checked out the Glossary of VDL Effect Terms? I figured it out. But would I be ok with making the cakes out of shells on finale 3d and just timing each shot to the same pace as the cakes?
Reply To: Nov 2023 Cakes Contest // Official Topic & FAQ
I figured something out. But would I be ok with using just shells and timing it the same pace as the cakes?
Reply To: Nov 2023 Cakes Contest // Official Topic & FAQ
Pyro_297730000 wrote: Hello, I’m having troubles finding a solid looking red plum on the fade to red cake. I was wondering if that effect could possibly be under a different name other than plim? Thanks in advance! Hi Pyro_297730000, welcome to the Finale 3D community! Have you checked out the Glossary of VDL Effect Terms?
Reply To: Nov 2023 Cakes Contest // Official Topic & FAQ
Hello, I’m having troubles finding a solid looking red plum on the fade to red cake. I was wondering if that effect could possibly be under a different name other than plim? Thanks in advance!
Negative timecode
Since firing system controllers need to receive a few frames of timecode to “lock on” to the timecode, it is common practice to export soundtracks with timecode that begins at least a few seconds before the show begins. Thus, playing or broadcasting the soundtrack to the controller will give the controller a few seconds to lock on before the first events in the show. 10 seconds is a common amount of leading timecode, but some companies use one or two minutes, or in some circumstances even hours of leading timecode before the show. If you need to begin the timecode before the show and you are exporting a soundtrack with timecode from Finale 3D, the easiest solution that works for all firing systems is simply to begin the show at ten seconds or a minute or whatever leading timecode you need on the timeline; and slide the imported songs on the timeline to begin at that offset rather than beginning at zero. That solves the problem but is slightly awkward because, psychologically, it is just nice to have the show begin at zero instead of at an offset. Several firing systems — FireOne and StarFire — offer a nice solution: negative timecode. The concept of negative timecode matches the workflow you probably would find most natural. You script your show beginning at zero, and then when it comes time to export your soundtrack from Finale 3D or create a timecode soundtrack with the firing system’s software, you just tack onto the front of the soundtrack a period of negative timecode on the timecode channel and silence on the music channel. Voila! Export soundtrack from Finale 3D The “File > Export > Export soundtrack…” function in Finale 3D gives you the option to choose what goes on each channel of the exported soundtrack file, choosing among all firing system versions of FSK timecode, and the SMPTE timecode options, and of course mono or stereo music, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 – The export soundtrack function includes all FSK and SMPTE timecode options. If the show’s firing system is FireOne or StarFire, the “Negative timecode” field on the export soundtrack dialog becomes enabled. You can type into this field however much leading timecode you want to tack onto the front of the file. If you tack 10 seconds of timecode onto the front of a soundtrack that is 20 minutes long, the exported file will be 20 minutes and 10 seconds long, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 – The length of the exported file is the soundtrack length plus the negative timecode length. Importing soundtrack with negative timecode as a song Imagine what would happen if you create and export your soundtrack file with negative timecode using Finale 3D, and then subsequently import your soundtrack file into Finale 3D as a song. What would it look like on the timeline? When you import a song, Finale 3D examines the file to determine if it contains timecode of any kind — FSK or SMPTE. If it does, Finale 3D shows a dialog offering to silence the timecode channel and align the song to its timecode, as shown in Figure 3. FireOne FSK timecode is aligned 0.1 seconds early (see FSK alignment), which is why the dialog shows -9.9 seconds instead of -10 seconds. Figure 3 – Importing a song with timecode includes the option to align it on the timeline automatically. If the soundtrack contained 10 seconds of negative timecode, aligning the song such that its “timecode time = 0” aligns with the beginning of the timeline means importing the song to begin 10 seconds earlier than the start of the timeline. Finale 3D does that, and automatically crops the beginning of the song so that it begins flush at the start of the timeline.
Reply To: Nov 2023 Cakes Contest // Official Topic & FAQ
DrewFinale wrote: Make the cake the same way you would any other – arrange the shots of the cake on the timeline with the desired timing and angles > select the shots > go to the Effects menu > Combine as cake. If Finale 3D can’t simulate the cake using a standard firing pattern, it will automatically switch to the exact syntax. The exact cake syntax allows the angle, effect, and timing of each shot to be specified individually. That’s what I figured I would have to do… I didn’t now if there was a way to JUST use the VDL language to do this.
Reply To: Nov 2023 Cakes Contest // Official Topic & FAQ
Curtis B wrote: Next question then as it relates to what we are talking about: If I want to make 2 parts of a full cake have varying degrees, how would I go about doing this? Say Rows 1,3,5 are a 60 degree cake and rows 2,4,6 are a 40 degree cake… as in Rows 1,3,5 have degrees from -30 to 30 and 2,4,6 have degrees from -20 to 20. Make the cake the same way you would any other – arrange the shots of the cake on the timeline with the desired timing and angles > select the shots > go to the Effects menu > Combine as cake. If Finale 3D can’t simulate the cake using a standard firing pattern, it will automatically switch to the exact syntax. The exact cake syntax allows the angle, effect, and timing of each shot to be specified individually.
Reply To: Nov 2023 Cakes Contest // Official Topic & FAQ
Next question then as it relates to what we are talking about: If I want to make 2 parts of a full cake have varying degrees, how would I go about doing this? Say Rows 1,3,5 are a 60 degree cake and rows 2,4,6 are a 40 degree cake… as in Rows 1,3,5 have degrees from -30 to 30 and 2,4,6 have degrees from -20 to 20.
Reply To: Nov 2023 Cakes Contest // Official Topic & FAQ
Hi Curtis B, great question. The VDL snippet you provided is an example of the Exact simulation syntax for cakes. The cake combiner uses this syntax as a fallback anytime it can’t find a way to make the cake using one of the Standard firing patterns. Don’t worry, you will not be disqualified if your cake VDLs contain exact simulation syntax. Keep in mind, if the reason one of your cake VDLs uses the exact syntax is because of a mistake, that could hurt your score. For example, suppose you designing a simple 3 row fan cake that shoots a flight of 7 aqua comets every 3 seconds, fanned at 70 degrees. The VDL for the cake would be: 30mm 21 Shot 6.0s 70 Degrees Cake (a) Aqua Comet, 3 Rows, Rows 1,2,3 (3.0/aaaaaaa/FNT) However, if you accidentally fan the last flight to 85 degrees (instead of 70 degrees), then combine the cake, you end up with: 30mm 21 Shot 6.0s Cake (a) Aqua Comet, 1 Row (-35a0/-23a/-12a/0a/12a/23a/35a3000/-35a0/-23a/-12a/0a/12a/23a/35a3000/-43a0/-28a/-14a/0a/14a/28a/43a/CAK) In the example above, the standard syntax is being used because of the angle error. In other situations, it could be that the only way to represent a real-life cake is the exact syntax. Bottom line, if you see the exact syntax being used when you combine a cake, you just want to make sure it’s being using because you need it, not because of a mistake.