Glad to talk to another SD guy! 🙂   I think the trick here is to try and really understand what multi-color means on some effects.  multi-color on a strobing tail would look like a rainbow on the way up changing periodically? or would it pick a single solid color and stick with it for the entire duration of that effect – in other words it might pick a purple strobing tail?  There’s obviously some set of colors they’re using to modify effect colors, but do all of them apply to every effect like a strobing tail? Or do you really want the ability to define a limited set of colors for an effect and have it pick 1 of N for that effect?  Like pick one of RGB, but only from that set.   I’m a big fan of any advancement on the directives we can use in VDL, but the better we define the use case that we think is missing from the ‘real’ fireworks world, the more likely that enhancement will be done and make sense.   Do you have another example beyond the King Dragon tails?  By the way, great shells if you can some.

“where it makes sense” is pretty subjective since manufacturers are coming up with new effects all the time.   mabe it’s just my experience as a software developer but it seems to me that it would be simpler to support “multi-color” as a randomizer in place of anywhere that a specific color is accepted as input. more flexible and not limited to special cases like pearl and dahlia but nothing else.   example pseudocode: if (input == “red”) { color = colormap[RED]; } if (input == “blue”) { color = colormap[BLUE]; } if (input == “green”) { color = colormap[GREEN]; } if (input == “multi-color”) { color = colormap[random()]; }  

You can randomize other effects where it makes sense.  E.g. if you type “multi-color dahlia” you will get multiple colors.  I read your request as wanting to pick a single color strobing tail from yellow/red/green, which feels like a different use case.    

DrewFinale what would your recommended VDL for this product be?

bringing this back on track to my original question…   VDL appears to support color randomization for pearl only. it would be nice to support randomization for other effects.

The puzzle here is that King Dragon (and many other 1.75″ consumer shells) are not remotely random and often they have labeled effects on both the shells and the box.  I typically load a separate item number into my effects for each shell so I can track my inventory of each. If you don’t care, I suppose you could just make one and then your original request is valid, but randomizing within a defined set of effects for an entire kit sounds like a big enhancement.   King Dragon is as follows:   RA62401-01 : RED STROBING TAIL TO RED DAHLIA WITH SILVER CHRYSANTHEMUM RA62401-02 : RED STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW RA62401-03 : RED STROBING TAIL TO CRACKLES WITH RED PLUM BLOSSOM RA62401-04 : RED STROBING TAIL TO RED DAHLIA WITH WHITE GLITTER RA62401-05 : RED STROBING TAIL TO WHITE BROCADE CROWN RA62401-06 : RED STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH PEACH RA62401-07 : RED STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW TO PINK RA62401-08 : GREEN STROBING TAIL TO GREEN DAHLIA WITH SILVER CHRYSANTHEMUM RA62401-09 : GREEN STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH GREEN GLITTER RA62401-10 : GREEN STROBING TAIL TO GREEN PLUM WITH RED PLUM RA62401-11 : GREEN STROBING TAIL TO WHITE BROCADE CROWN WITH GREEN GLITTER RA62401-12 : GREEN STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH BLUE RA62401-13 : GREEN STROBING TAIL TO GREEN DAHLIA WITH WHITE GLITTER RA62401-14 : GREEN STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH TEAL RA62401-15 : GREEN STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW TO GRASS GREEN RA62401-16 : LEMON STROBING TAIL TO YELLOW DAHLIA WITH SILVER CHRYSANTHEMUM RA62401-17 : LEMON STROBING TAIL TO CRACKLES WITH GOLD PLUM RA62401-18 : RED STROBING TAIL TO SKY BLUE TO RED WITH SILVER PLUM RA62401-19 : LEMON STROBING TAIL TO GOLD PLUM WITH SILVER CHRYSANTHEMUM RA62401-20 : LEMON STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH BLUE RA62401-21 : LEMON STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW TO TEAL RA62401-22 : RED STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH RED PLUM BLOSSOM RA62401-23 : GREEN STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH GREEN PLUM BLOSSOM RA62401-24 : LEMON STROBING TAIL TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH GOLD PLUM BLOSSOM   If you want VDL that covers some of the details (no trail, can’t use Teal in VDL, etc), here’s a start for you: RA62401-01 : RED STROBING TAIL no trail TO RED DAHLIA WITH SILVER CHRYSANTHEMUM RA62401-02 : RED STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW RA62401-03 : RED STROBING TAIL no trail to popcorn crackling WITH RED PLUM BLOSSOM RA62401-04 : RED STROBING TAIL no trail TO RED DAHLIA WITH WHITE GLITTER RA62401-05 : RED STROBING TAIL no trail TO WHITE BROCADE CROWN RA62401-06 : RED STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH PEACH RA62401-07 : RED STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW TO PINK RA62401-08 : GREEN STROBING TAIL no trail TO GREEN DAHLIA WITH SILVER CHRYSANTHEMUM RA62401-09 : GREEN STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH GREEN GLITTER RA62401-10 : GREEN STROBING TAIL no trail TO GREEN PLUM WITH RED PLUM RA62401-11 : GREEN STROBING TAIL no trail TO WHITE BROCADE CROWN WITH GREEN GLITTER RA62401-12 : GREEN STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH BLUE RA62401-13 : GREEN STROBING TAIL no trail TO GREEN DAHLIA WITH WHITE GLITTER RA62401-14 : GREEN STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH aqua RA62401-15 : GREEN STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW TO GRASS GREEN RA62401-16 : LEMON STROBING TAIL no trail TO YELLOW DAHLIA WITH SILVER CHRYSANTHEMUM RA62401-17 : LEMON STROBING TAIL no trail TO popcorn crackling WITH GOLD PLUM RA62401-18 : RED STROBING TAIL no trail TO SKY BLUE TO RED WITH SILVER PLUM RA62401-19 : LEMON STROBING TAIL no trail TO GOLD PLUM WITH SILVER CHRYSANTHEMUM RA62401-20 : LEMON STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH BLUE RA62401-21 : LEMON STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW TO aqua RA62401-22 : RED STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH RED PLUM BLOSSOM RA62401-23 : GREEN STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH GREEN PLUM BLOSSOM RA62401-24 : LEMON STROBING TAIL no trail TO NISHIKI WILLOW WITH GOLD PLUM BLOSSOM

Is there any way to randomize colors for shells like it’s done for pearls?   finale3d randomizes the colors for the zipper in this effect:   Spirit of ’76 – MS622 Bring It On 3″ 40.00s 0.10 PFT 96 Shot rising multi-color pearl z shape cake     I would like to randomize the colors for shells like as done in this raccoon product. Strobing rising shell is randomly red, green, or yellow.    

I opened “create effect” and entered:   Bright Comet w/ Whistles   Then I selected the effect and “Edit in effect editor”   I hit playback in effect editor and it’s completely silent? I see the trail but no sound. The editor shows a “sound whistle” node.   It would be nice to be able to preview the entire effect as a cake instead of being limited to individual effects.

Got the email. I will investigate and follow up with you as soon as possible.

Email sent…