Comet run timing question

[ssmith512]

Greetings All!

First time pyro here. I will be attempting a scripted show for the first time soon and had a question that hopefully you experts can answer.

One effect I am wanting to try is a comet chase or comet run. All comets will be shot vertically. Comets will be spaced 10 feet apart. I want to start from the outside (each side of center position) and fire them in sequence so they chase each other towards the center position. What kind of timing between each comet is generally used? My initial thoughts are 0.1 secs or 0.15 seconds. Not sure what is too fast or too slow for timing so the "chase" looks good.

Any advice or suggestions is much appreciated!

Thanks!

Steve

[displayfireworks1]

It may help if you post what product you are using for this effect. The type of firing system and software you are using. Not sure if you know but there are sweep slice (modular) products out there with three ignition point depending on what type of sweep you are looking for. Left to right , right to left . middle to left/right etc. I cover this in my Articles of Pyrotechnic education program.

[ssmith512]

It may help if you post what product you are using for this effect. The type of firing system and software you are using. Not sure if you know but there are sweep slice (modular) products out there with three ignition point depending on what type of sweep you are looking for. Left to right , right to left . middle to left/right etc. I cover this in my Articles of Pyrotechnic education program.

More info would be nice LOL! (my bad)

Will be using Cobra (purchasing my first system Black Friday!!) I purchased Cobra Show Creator a couple of months ago and have been learning/scripting away on it. I plan on using single shot comets from Spirit of 76. The comet run will be about 70 feet long on each side of show center, with comets spaced 10 feet apart, shooting vertically. I want to start the run with the outer most comets (farthest away from show center) on each side and have them "chase" or "run" towards the center. At center I have a brocade mine fan as the last piece firing.

Thanks!!

Steve

[Salutecake]

Wouldn't the music to your show dictate the speed you would need to accomplish your effect?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

That sounds like a really cool idea. Going to eat up a lot of cues though. I'm with Salutecake here. I would think the pace of the music would dictate the pace of the comet run with (I assume) the center fan slice being the major hit piece.

Take the time from the start of the run to the firing time of the fan, and divide by the number of comets on each side, and poof! You have the sequence timing.

[ssmith512]

Only music during my script will be the cacophony of pyrotechnics deflagrating. :D

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Hey now... Let's try and keep it clean! We'll have no "deflagrating" in here! It's not that kind of board! :eek:

Well, if you have no music, then I guess I'd maybe use .5 sec between each one. If you have a Cobra system, write a script with 18 cues at .5 sec and watch the lights as you run the script and see what you think.

[Birdman]

Even though there is no music I assume you have some sort of vision for how you want it to look. I would time how long it takes for the comet to reach it's peak. From there I would decide what effect I was going for since there is no music to dictate pace. If I wanted the first comets fired to go dark before the last ones fired I would slow the pace down so it would be more of a wave effect. If I wanted more of a curtain closing affect I would fire them faster so that when the last ones fire the first ones are near peak. To keep things simple I would just fire each one at the mid-air time of the last (e.g. every 1.5 seconds for a 3 second comet). I would also take into account the type of comet. I think a comet with a longer brighter tail may be better for a slower pace while those with shorter tails might be better fired at a faster pace. I never tried this so I'm just guessing. But I did put some thought into it before now. I wanted to do a comet run in my next 4th show but I ran out of cues. It will need to wait for another show.

That's my 2 cents....take from it what you will.