How To Program Christmas Lights To Music

Getting your lights to dance to pre-determined music is pretty simple in concept, but will take some amount of learning for anyone new to it and a lot of time for just about anyone. That may sound discouraging, but the end result may well be worth all the trouble. Not only will you have the feeling of accomplishing something pretty cool, but you’ll have the coolest decorated house on the block and perhaps even a YouTube hit like the Skrillex Equinox display that was viewed over a million times in under three weeks.

Before you dive in and create your masterpiece, you’ll need a general idea of what’s involved. First, you’ll need to have some hardware and software to make the magic happen. The hardware (controller, etc.) will connect your lights to the computer that will run the show and the software will allow you to program the lights to react to music how you want them to. Software won’t be a problem for your budget, but hardware can cost anywhere from around $160 for 32 channels and more of a DIY, hands-on approach up to $1,200 or more for 64 channels and a lot less work. If you’re comfortable with soldering, you can spend less and do a lot of the work, but if you’re not, expect to pay a lot more for pre-built hardware. In addition to the hardware, you should be prepared to spend money on lights if you don’t have them already. The days right after Christmas usually reveal lots of great sales (that’s when I buy wrapping paper and accessories, too). And don’t forget your soon-to-be-bloated electric bill.

To get it all working, you just need to :
- Check with neighbors first
- Get your hardware and software (including lights)
- Design your display and plan what you want
- Program your show (get ready to spend a lot of time here)
- Test
- Let people know

Of course, there’s a lot more detail to these steps. Wikihow has a summary article, How To Make Your Christmas Lights Flash To Music, including a few software and hardware links, but a much more detailed resource can be found on the doityourselfchristmas.com forums.

Along with all the work involved, you’ll want to plan some things ahead. The last thing you want to do is spend months putting together the perfect Christmas light musical performance only to have something unforeseen prevent it from being displayed. Before you start, check with your neighbors and agree on reasonable start and stop times and dates. Check for any local laws, ordinances, or HOA rules that such a project my be in violation of. Plan your expenses before you buy anything and avoid fire and other hazards by talking to electricians or other experts. Planning ahead may save you a ton of headaches down the road.

When you’re all done, showcase your completed project in style. Collaborate with a local video company to create a professional-looking video and don’t stop at YouTube. Send it to local TV stations and related blogs. A viral video could help offset your December electrical bill.

As always, if you embark on this adventure, share your project here in the comments.

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Pretty cool, right? The best part is that this is super easy to achieve. Below, I’ll walk you through a few easy steps I completed to create my own interactive background.

Step 1: Create your images

To make this trick really work you want at least two images. The first is a two-toned image that represents the before and after imagery. For my example, I used grey on top and black on bottom. The second image is the gradient that creates the illusion. The gradient should fade in from the same top color to the same bottom color as your before/after image. Try to make both images close to the same height, but experiment with the positions of your artwork. Also, this works better if the two pieces of artwork don’t overlap each other. Just as important is the format. GIF files may work, but generally, PNG images are best.

Step 2: Create HTML

The HTML is really very simple. Inside your body tag, you want a div element with a class of “wrapper” and inside this, another div element with a class of “push”. Below those, you need a div element with a class of “footer”. You can use different names, as long as they match the CSS when you’re done. Be sure to fill up the “wrapper” div with enough content to make the visitor scroll.

Here’s my HTML:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="404143" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFFFF" vlink="#FFFFFF" alink="#FFFFFF">
<div class="wrapper">
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<div class="push"></div>
</div>
<div class="footer">
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
</div>
</body>
</html>


Step 3: Create your CSS

The final step is to create your CSS. This can be inside your HTML page or in its own .css file that the page loads. Either way, set up the CSS for the body and each div element you created as seen below. Of course, the height and margin values may be different for your usage.


body {
background-image: url(./twotone.png), url(./bottom.png);
background-repeat: no-repeat, repeat-x;
background-position: center bottom, center bottom;
background-attachment: fixed, scroll;
}
.wrapper {
min-height: 100%;
height: auto !important;
height: 100%;
margin: 0 auto -152px; /* the bottom margin is the negative value of the footer's height */
}
.push {
height: 50px;
}
.footer {
height: 320px;
clear: both;
link: #ffffff;
background-image: url(./footer-skulls.png)
}


With the third step done, the only thing left to do is check it in a browser and adjust as needed. Here’s the rough example I threw together here . I didn’t spend a lot of time on it, but for my example, I created a before/after image using a circuit diagram I found online and a one-color version of my logo. I also kept the skulls image for my demo because I liked it.

Quick Start Kit

I breezed through the steps a little, but it shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish if you have some knowledge of web page development. In any case, the easiest way to try this out is to create a new before/after image and play with what I’ve already done. For this reason, I packaged up the code, images, and a layerd PSD of my before/after image to get you started. Try it out for yourself and if you put it online, link to it in the comments so we can see.

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(Rally Fighter – view the full photo gallery)

The car shown above is LM’s Rally Fighter, the first in what Local Motors hopes will be a growing line of kick-ass cars that turn heads.

Design Your Dream Car Online

When asked, most people can tell you, without much hesitation, what their dream car is. Mine’s a Ferrari F430, but I have always loved the concept cars I see at the auto shows every year. Unfortunately, most of the concept cars remain just that… concepts. This is where Local Motors has found a niche.

Rather than creating concepts and never building anything, Local Motors decided to open the game up to the public to come up with the next winning car design. You start by joining the Local Motors website and if you’re creative enough, you can submit your own original car design. From the submitted designs, the community votes on what should be built. The most popular ideas then move on to co-creation, where the community helps decide the body, interior details, etc. Together, the community of site members design an awesome car from the ground up.

Even if you don’t plan to buy one, there’s plenty of incentive to join in and contribute. Local Motors hosts design contests in which the winners can win prizes or cash amounts up to $20,000, which is a great start towards buying the car you design or can just pay some bills.

Own One

When Local Motors decides to build one of the community designed cars, they begin accepting reservations. A reservation requires a $1,000 deposit, and gets your name on a list of future owners. When it’s your turn, you give them another deposit, this one for $5,000, to lock down your build date, and the remaining balance is due when you arrive to start building. After the two weekends of building, you get to take your car home with you.

At the time of this writing, the Rally Fighter, the first car available from Local Motors, is priced around $60,000, but I’m told this may go up with a move to higher-end parts being included next year. The cost, well above your standard sedan, buys you a car that looks like no other and is limited to only 2,000 built. To make your car even more unique, you’re encouraged to design a custom skin for your car. This can be accomplished solo or with the help of a Local Motors designer. This car is for the collector or enthusiast who wants something truly unique.

Get Your Hands Dirty

For some, the experience is pretty much complete at the time of purchase. For others, a big part of the experience is building the car yourself. While you don’t have to spend weeks painstakingly sweating over every little nut and bolt or even weld, part of your purchase is the experience of the build, itself. Over two three-day weekends and with the assistance of a builder, you put it all together in a Local Motors micro factory.

Local Motors provides a cafeteria, RV parking, the space, parts, and tools, and all you bring is some elbow grease and a desire to be immersed in the process. They encourage you to bring a friend, too, to help build and join in the experience.

From the outside, it looks like just a big warehouse with a car painted on the side, but inside is a well-lit, air-conditioned shop with all the tools and tech needed to get the job done. In addition to the human help, there’s also a couple large screens connected to computers with a specialized wiki detailing every step for your particular car.

Conclusions

As huge as the Rally Fighter is, it’s not very practical, but would make a great toy. The next car, I’m told, will be an electric vehicle, and I’m hoping it will be based on the Miami Roadster. For the auto enthusiast, this is a great package and unique experience, but the cost will leave the rest of us designing.

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Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of talk about 3D printing. I’ve seen examples from the plainest of plain to really cool product prototypes printed on 3D printers, but I’ve never tried any of the companies that offer 3D printing… until now. As a demonstration of what they can do, online 3D printing company, Sculpteo created a miniature sculpture of me using just a couple photos I had my wife take in our hallway.

Not bad, huh? If the reaction I got on Facebook is any indicator, this mini-me was a home run, but I’ll bet what you really want to know is how to get one and how much it costs. Keep reading.

How To Print In 3D

There are several ways to print in 3D with Sculpteo. The one I’m most familiar with, of course, is the method I used. Just take a forward facing photo and a profile and upload them. Include any notes you have about your design, approve the 3D render they create for you, and wait about 10 days. If you want a mini sculpture of yourself (or one of someone else as a gift), this is a good way to get it done with no fuss. They even picked up on the JoeTech shirt I was wearing and my sculpture’s shirt says JOETECH on it in teeny tiny letters. Great detail. Below is an example of the photos I sent in and the results.

Other methods of printing from Sculpteo can vary quite a bit. You can sift through their gallery of models online and pick something out for the easiest route or you can create your own 3D models or buy one online to use and have something much more personal. Along the way, you can also choose materials and opt for a plain white sculpture or lots of color, and even customize the size. The web interface is done very well, so it’s easy to choose. The only problem I had was that as I’m not experienced in 3D printing, I was, at first, a little confused about what materials I had to choose from.

How Much Does 3D Printing Cost

The figure I got was 2.8 inches tall (7cm) and would have cost me $74.89. A larger version standing 3.9 inches tall (10cm) would have run me $129.90. Bulk orders get discounts. 10 units took my price (for the smaller figure) from $74.89 down to about $67.40 each. 100 units came out to just under $60 each and that price seemed constant even at 1,000 units.

That might be a little much for a casual birthday or Christmas gift, so I poked around the site and played with the pricing and design tools to see what other pricing was possible. I picked out a Manga Girl design and found that the pricing could go anywhere from just $3.66 for a one inch tall model with or without color all the way up to $1,133 for a color 12 inch model ($900 for no color). Interestingly, you can have that same model printed at a tenth of the price of the 12 inch size by just dropping down to 4 inches tall. When building your own model, definitely play with the size and any other options to get the most for your money.

Free Key Ring

I found out about this Free key ring offer while browsing around the site. You have to pay for the shipping, but it will still be pretty cool to get a free key ring, printed in 3D from any model I want to upload. I loaded up one of the 3D models from the gallery and got it all linked up, although I must say that the process of trying to link the key ring to the 3D model I chose was a confusing and tedious chore. I’m still not sure how it works, but it may be child’s play to someone who works with 3D models all the time. In any case, $6 shipping paid via PayPal has my otherwise free key ring on its way.

Conclusions

Other than my inability to work well with 3D models, the user experience of the site was really pretty good and the shipping time is decent. The costs can be super cheap to just scary and anywhere in between, so figuring out your size and budget should happen probably even before building your 3D model. The free key ring is a great way to get your hands on some sample product before spending money, too. From cool little gifts to professional prototyping, Sculpteo’s printing range should fit most needs.

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You don’t have to talk to a lot of computer programmers (or their families) to learn that sometimes they’ll skip meals to stay in front of the computer and keep coding. I’m no exception, but I try to get in my regular meals without losing too much coding time. This week, I departed from the drive through for a new kind of meal.

ampm wanted to know what a computer geek like me might come up with from their new menu and I was happy to create my very own food concoction for ampm‘s secret menu tab on Facebook.

For a few days, I headed to the ampm near my office for lunch and dinner. I started out with just a plain chicken sandwich and worked my way up to my food masterpiece. Along the way, I tried a variation of the Triple Dipper Dog seen on the Facebook menu and it was really pretty good. I took Nachos, loaded them up with nacho cheese, chili, and some diced onions, and dipped a corn dog in it. If I do that one again, though, I’ll crunch up the nacho chips into tiny bits before topping them.

The Turtle Burger Crunch

After some days of food inspiration and a couple experiments, I ended up with my own food concoction. I was going to call my new creation the JoeTech.com Turtle Burger, but it just didn’t sound right, so here it is with its final name, The Turtle Burger Crunch.

Here’s what you need (my cost was just over $4):
- Cheeseburger
- Hot Dog
- Doritos (or your favorite chips)

Here’s how it’s done:
- Remove the top bun from the cheeseburger
- Remove the bun from the hot dog
- Center the hot dog atop the hamburger
- Pile some chips on top
- Put the hamburger bun back on top and press down a bit

When you’re done, your hamburger will have a head and tail and crunchy inner shell. Eat any way you like. I uploaded this to the Facebook menu, too, so you should be able to find it there soon.

The Secret Menu On Facebook

I’ve mentioned the secret menu tab a couple times already because it was a handy source to look at for ideas on what I wanted to make. The menu is where I discovered the Triple Dipper Dog I improvised. Better still, they reveal new items every week and even let people submit their own menu items like I did.

Just a glimpse of a few of the existing menu items should give you an idea of what menu items to expect from ampm, and the user created items offer their own taste of creativity. Check them out and add your own. That is, if you think you can beat The Turtle Burger Crunch.

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I found these hard drive desk clocks for sale at the First Friday Art Walk in Phoenix and they can also be bought online at TimeRecycled.com. Though I haven’t yet bought one, they look even better in person and appear well made.

Computer Art Timepieces

Here’s a little more information from the site:

These are hand-crafted timepieces created from recycled hard drives out of personal computers. Each hard drive is disassembled, painted, and fitted with a timepiece and custom stand. Each unique stand is cut out of recycled motherboards, modems, video cards, and other various electronic components. No two clocks are the same!

Clock hands and hard drive components can be painted in a variety of colors:
- Black, White, Gray, Dark Blue, Blue, Dark Red, Copper
- Red, Orange, Neon Orange, Yellow, Neon Yellow
- Purple, Pink, Dark Green, Green, Neon Green, Teal
- Custom Color Combinations are available

Each clock comes with a “AA” battery so your clock will be ready to keep time.

The clocks run $30 to $40 and cost $10 to ship. That’s not bad for these geeky conversation pieces, but I emailed Ben and he was cool enough to provide a 10% discount to all my readers! Mention JoeTech.com at the time of purchase and he’ll knock 10% off the clock price. Throw one on your desk at the office and let me know what you think.

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The sculpture above is called “Speed Junkie” from what I can gather and I just love it. I loved a lot of his work, in fact. I was sure to grab one of his photo-postcards as a reminder that one day I’d have to buy one. I haven’t bought one yet, but that day will come, I’m sure.

About Adam

When I saw him in person, he was busy with a (hopefully) paying customer, so I didn’t want to bother him, but judging from his site, he’s a laid back guy with a sense of humor. Here’s what his site says:

Originally an 8th grade English teacher, Adam left teaching for the arts and has been sculpting full time for 14+ years now. Adam is one of the premier steel sculptors in the country and his work is included in the collections of Pixar Animation, Industrial Light and Magic, Clint Eastwood, and various private and corporate collectors.

The Female Form and Other Things

Adam has some cool robot sculptures, but I think one of my favorites is the one seen at right called “Self Made Woman“. It’s more than I can budget for art at the moment, but it’s smart and fun to look at. This piece is part of his Female Form pieces which includes other fun female-themed sculptures.

Having done this for so long, Adam has amassed a wide array of sculptures that crawled out of his imagination over the years, including birds, fish, dinosaurs, dragons, trolls, etc. Rather than listing them all out, I’ll let you take a look for yourself. While some are in more of an art enthusiast’s price range (from what I can recall), smaller sculptures were priced for everyone to enjoy.

Thanks for some awesome art work, Adam!

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Seating and tickets
When purchasing tickets for any show, I always want to know where the best seats are and how much they cost. As soon as I found out that we were near the rear center of section 102, I looked it up to see how good those seats were.

Adult tickets run from $69 to about $150 for adults and about half that for children. The pricing depends on the seating category. Being where we were, I figured our view would be pretty much in the middle of the scale from worst seats to best seats. When we got there, I realized that these were pretty great seats. Although they were definitely not front row or the best seats in the house, the view was great. In fact, it looked like all the seats had a pretty good view, with the possible exception of the far edges on the left and right. Every seat has speakers in the head rest, which sounds more like you’re just in the sweet spot for the sound rather than that you have speakers right behind your head and some cast members wander around through and interact with the audience. Wherever you’re seated, it seems you’ll be pretty immersed in the experience.

Photos and video
If you want photos or video, you’ll want to look at the KÀ web site because you can’t use your camera in the show. I asked about this before attending, as you should with any show you plan to bring a camera to and I was told that there’s a pretty strict policy against the use of cameras in Cirque shows. When we got our tickets, “No cameras” on the ticket, itself, reminded us about this rule and we saw signs when we arrived that served to make sure people know about the camera rules. Still, amazingly, a lot of people were taking photos before the show began and the show staff were quick to politely remind these people of the rules. Just to bring the point home, they had a small theatrical example before the full show of why not to use your camera. So how do you get a lasting memory of that special occasion with a friend or loved one? The offer some professional photography before the show.

While we waited for everyone to arrive and be seated, photographers from Cashman wandered around to take photos of those who wanted it. We had ours taken by Jeremy and after the show we decided to purchase the album shown above out of the two he presented us. It came bound nicely and the photos are professional quality (though I think they were just a bit bright). At $44 each, the album has two photos in it and is great to have, but not something I would get every visit to Cirque. My wife and I were out celebrating our wedding anniversary and made KÀ a part of it, so we purchased one.

The show
I had my choice of a few of the Cirque shows and I opted for KÀ because it looked best suited to my tastes. There’s plenty to choose from, so if KÀ isn’t your cup of tea, there may be another show that is, like Mystere, O, Zumanity, The Beatles Love, and Chris Angel Believe. Right now, they’re celebrating their 25th anniversary with some cool promotions and breaks on ticket pricing. We made sure to grab a drink in a souvenir cup while there. Before we were even seated, the experience had begun. The atmosphere was incredible, from the ushers in full costume to the scenery that enveloped the whole theater, the mood was set right away for a majestic evening. I was already a little impressed and my wife was excited for the show to begin.

The detail in the set design was incredible, and that’s an understatement. There wasn’t a traditional stage, but rather a stage area where a stage could rise up, rotate, elevate, etc. Surrounding the stage was a several stories of almost scaffolding-like but very decorative platforms on which many of the actors played out their roles. From a technical standpoint, the stage was a marvel. It spun in many directions and any side or corner could be elevated to as much as 90 degrees to help create the array of amazing effects that Cirque shows are famous for. The stage also included lower platforms, trap doors, and posts that rise out from the surface, all to add to the effect and provide function for the actors. As a geek with a love for unique engineering, I was pretty excited about the stage, but it still couldn’t detract from my amazement at the show itself. The video below should give an idea of what to expect, but really doesn’t do it justice.

Around every corner, I was in awe of the flawless execution of every stunt or acrobatic feat performed and I was moved by the beauty of the show as a whole. From impressive baton twirling to airborne acrobatics, the actors in this show are truly a collection of talent that I’ve not seen anywhere before. That of course, is not to discount the talent of those behind the scenes, as well. The creative affects with video, lighting, smoke and fire as well as the larger-than-life puppets continued to keep me immersed in the show.

Words like spectacular, amazing and incredible really fall short of conveying how I felt when it was over. I remember not wanting it to end and wondering when I could get to the next Cirque show. I think this show could be enjoyed from any seat in the house, but I would definitely shoot for somewhere in the middle of section 102 as that’s a pretty good area to get the whole experience without having to be too close to too far. Is it worth the cost? Definitely. I would have liked the option for a $10 or $15 photo in a cardboard sleeve that I could frame myself, but the show itself is a masterpiece and well worth the price of admission. Cirque is now in my travel budget for my next trip to Las Vegas and should be in yours, too.

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…an adaptation from a a Japanese word meaning blur. In photography this term is used to describe the quality of the areas in the picture which are not in focus.

How to make a bokeh photo
To describe it is easy. To pull it off might take a little practice. There’s much more detail in the article I linked to above, but here are some basics.

What you need:
1. A camera with a manually adjustable aperture setting (most DSLRs will do)
2. Black construction paper
3. Uniquely shaped hole punch
4. Pencil or pen
5. Scissors
6. Tape

Here’s the heart shape hole punch I found at a craft store. It was about $6, I think, and a manly shade of pink. The website has a few other choices, as well.

What to do:
1. Place your camera lens on the construction paper and trace it with your pen or pencil.
2. Cut out the circle (A), but cut it so that it has three or four little tabs (B) on it.
3. Cut a strip of construction paper (C) that is just longer than the circumference of the circle. If you’re unsure, just cut it long enough that it can wrap all the way around your lens and the ends overlap.
4. Wrap the strip (C) around the outer end of your lens and tape the end of the paper to the piece it’s overlapping.
5. Using your hole punch, punch a hole in the center of the circle of paper (A).
6. Hold the circle (A) to the strip (C) and fold over and tape the tabs (B) to the strip (A). to complete a DIY Bokeh lens hood.
7. Adjust the aperture to its lowest setting.

You should now be ready to make some pretty cool photos. It seems to work best with lots of smaller lights. Bust out that strand of Christmas lights and start shooting.

My semi-successful attempt
Using a borrowed camera (I still haven’t bought a DSLR for myself), I attempted to create my own Bokeh mask with an Exacto knife and ever-waning patience. The outcome, I’m sure, would have been more favorable if I had used the hole punch.

Other fun things to try
Contre-jour
French for ‘against daylight’, refers to photographs taken when the camera is pointing directly toward the source of light. An alternative term is backlighting.

Digiscoping
A method of obtaining photos using a digital camera through a spotting scope, telescope or, less often, binoculars.

Try your own techniques and post links to your results in the comments. I’d love to see them.

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