InDesign is absolutely required to follow the process I’ve described. Let’s get the bad news out of the way up front. The cleanup requires both visual finessing and updating displayed colors. LimitationsĪ notable limitation of this process is that once you’ve merged in the channel number, system name, and color data into your new merged document, the magic sheet will require a moderate amount of manual cleanup. Using InDesign’s data merge greatly reduces the amount of tedious work required to make attractive and functional magic sheets. During this time I became familiar with InDesign and learned how to use InDesign’s Data Merge feature to merge in bios submitted by the cast. In a previous position at a private high school in South Florida, one of my responsibilities was laying out and printing the playbills for our shows. The data merge capabilities built into Adobe InDesign can be used to automatically fill in the channel numbers for each cell. What unlocked the magic of magic sheets for me was the realization that it was relatively easy to automate the monotonous steps of creating a magic sheet. In my experience, the tedious part of laying out a magic sheet is creating all the “cells” and populating them with the relevant channel numbers. Magic sheet from the 2022 Fundraising Gala at Virginia Stage Company Numbers surrounded by a box represent the group that controls the entire system and any number with an underline selects the lights within the system in a single lane on stage. If you’re unfamiliar with this magic sheet style, the linked article is essential reading! One example of an adaptation I’ve made is how I denote group numbers. When I do have time, my preferred style is adapted from Lighting Designer Mike Wood’s excellent visual style. Sometimes I use the default cheat sheets that Lightwright generates as a stand-in when I don’t have the bandwidth to create my own. In most cases, I will create a magic sheet, at best, a day or two before programming a show in the theater. Copying and pasting, then changing relevant numbers and colors consume too much time. The problem with creating attractively laid-out magic sheets manually is that it’s exceedingly tedious and time-consuming. I’ve been infatuated with the idea of creating beautiful magic sheets for my designs. Lightwright 6.0 also introduced an Avery label database, with label design and printing capabilities.Automating the Creation of Paper Magic Sheets using Excel and InDesignīy Ryan Bible / professor_bible Introduction Lightwright 6.0 (2016) introduced a Consol Link which, through the OSC protocol, provides integration with ETC Eos lighting consoles. ![]() Lightwright 5.0 (2009) was written using RealStudio (now Xojo) for both Windows and Mac, and introduced Data Exchange in support of simplified data sharing between Lightwright and Vectorworks. The subsequent two versions-Lightwright 3.0 (1998) and Lightwright 4.0 (2003)-were maintained using separate code (Visual Basic / ZBASIC) for each operating system. Lightwright 2.0 was released in January 1995 for both Microsoft Windows and MacOS, and written in Visual Basic and ZBASIC respectively. Lightwright 1.0 was written in QuickBASIC for MS-DOS and released in August 1988. The software is widely used in the production of Broadway and other live entertainment shows, and across a number of educational and arts institutions. professional theater, Lightwright is the industry standard lighting database program. It also provides error-checking and lighting-specific data entry shortcuts. ![]() ![]() Developed and maintained by John McKernon, the Lightwright software combines a relational database with a graphical user interface in support of user generated instrument schedules, channel hookups, and other lighting paperwork from a single spreadsheet/ database. Lightwright is a proprietary software that manages theatrical lighting data and paperwork. Microsoft Windows XP or newer, Mac OS X v10.4 or higher
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