Augment3d lighting project

Learning something new

In the summer of 2020, ETC released the new addition to their lighting software called Augment3d. Augment3d is a visualizer software that is built into the lighting control software allowing the user to build a virtual theatre, import the set, and be able to control and design the lighting in a three-dimensional space digital space.

Prior to this software being released, I had a basic working knowledge of how to control and program lights on the ETC software. The great part about the timing of the release of this software was that I, like most other people, was at home quarantining from the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing me the time to fully jump into this software and learn a new skill.

When ETC released the software to the public, they teamed up with the Lighting Team for Hamilton to create something called “The Hamilton Programming Project.” This partnership was created with the intent of allowing users to learn the new software and how it works on a Tony Award winning lighting rig. They also created a project guide that led users through everything from patching lights and focusing conventional and moving lights to recording and building cues from the show. After completing this project, I wanted to be able to start this process from scratch as if I was working on a show in a theatre.

A few weeks later, I was approached by some former colleagues about the opportunity to design the lighting for an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in cooperation with the CDC’s protocols for entertainment events. Immediately, I knew I wanted to use the Augment3d software in my design process because with the pandemic still going on, I thought that this tool would let me do a large portion of the programming and cueing before we even got into tech helping to minimize the time that we all needed to gather together. The second reason was knowing that this was an outdoor production occurring in the summer, so an issue I foresaw was trying to fight the sun around tech rehearsals and maximize the productivity of tech.

At the same time, I was finishing up my degree at Troy and one of the classes I was in was a project based independent study. Since the production ended up getting cancelled due to a funding issue, I decided to still complete the project from a theoretical standpoint. Below is a video that summarizes and showcases the usages of the software and shows some cues that I programmed.