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 ]

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.

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.

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.)

Excellent, that Ace Pyro video is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks Drew!

Hey Pyro_326840000, welcome to the Finale 3D forum! In Finale 3D, you can create a StarFire script that is either a "Standard" (fully automatic) script, or a "Semi-Automatic" (SequenceFire) script, not a script that does both at the same time.   When creating a fully automatic script, the Track column in the script window should remain blank. When creating a semi-automatic script, every line in the script window should have a Track value.   Defining sequences is generally quick and easy because Track values can be set for any number of lines of script simultaneously. For details, see: Dividing a show into sequences for semi-automatic firing using the “Track” field.   To learn about the Track values specifically needed for StarFire, see the Semi-automatic firing (SequenceFire) section in Table 2 of the StarFire documentation article.   For a StarFire/SequenceFire tutorial video, check out Basics and Sequenced Shows in Finale 3D (the demo on setting Tracks begins at about 25:17).

Does anyone here have experience scripting for the StarFire system and how I should use the "Track" functionality in Finale to combine sequences? Does every cue need a track value? Or just the scripted sequences I want to step through?

Thank you Drew, that will be used in the future.

Good catch! Another solution is to select the four "drivers" on each wheel and press Ctrl+H to chain them together. Once the drivers on a wheel are chained, Finale 3D will only assign them a single Pin/E-match, which most likely mirrors the construction of the wheels in real life.

Found the issue. I am using spinning wheels in my show. The code for my wheels is not in the inventories so I used one from a list and the chosen one requires an e-match for all four sections of the wheels. That is three extra e-match per wheel, 9 wheels gives 27 extra e-match. I changed the product code to one that requires just one e-match and everything is correct now. A new lesson learned.