Creating your first effect

  1. Click NEW near the dropdown box at the top of the effect page.

    1. NEW always duplicates the currently selected effect and modifies the name. All effects are saved to the node and NOT saved to the computer.
    2. Click RENAME to change the effect name
    3. Click and hold DELETE to remove an effect
    4. You may now add trigger Events to your effect.

  2. On the Events page, click event+

    Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 1.26.44 AM.png

  3. All Events must be valid for the save button to be enabled. Each event will list missing data and errors on the right side. Every event needs a camera, time, and instruction.

    1. All event times are executed from zero, so any every set to 0 will execute immediately
    2. Cameras numbers are automatically assigned based on the order of detected cameras. You can view camera numbers on the camera tab.
    3. Alternatively, you can use node and port numbers to target a specific port on a specific node. If you want to trigger a mono port you MUST use node and port.
    4. trigger instructions are a dropdown menu that have 3 options: ON/OFF/NONE

  4. To get started, enter the following:

    1. time: 0
    2. camera: 1
    3. trigger: ON

  5. Click Save otherwise your changes will be lost. If you are unsatisfied with your changes click cancel.

    Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 1.34.55 AM.png

  6. Now duplicate the Event by pressing the “page” icon on the right of the Event.

    1. Duplicate events are invalid and can not be saved.

  7. Add the following to our new event

    1. node: 1
    2. port: 7

  8. Notice that simultaneous camera and node.port targets are invalid. Delete the camera value for this new event and click save.

    Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 1.39.07 AM.png

  9. This new effect will trigger camera 1 and node.port 1.7 (typically a flash connected to the mono port) at the same time since they share the same time value of 0us. If your camera is calibrated and your ports channels are configured, the camera should sync with strobe.

  10. Lets say we want to trigger the camera twice. Once at 0 and again after 1sec. First we need to release the port after some amount of time.

  11. Duplicate the camera event.

    1. type “100ms” into the time cell and press enter/return on your keyboard

    2. change the trigger instruction to OFF

      Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 1.49.42 AM.png

  12. You’ll may notice that the time value doesn’t say 100ms. The value is automatically converted to the active unit of time. Click the dropdown in the upper right corner that says “micros (us)” and change it to “millis (ms)”.

  13. Duplicate the 3rd camera event and enter the following settings:

    1. time: “1s”
    2. trigger: ON
    3. click save

  14. You should see 4 events with a “held” notice indicating that the port is held for 100ms which is expected.

    Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 1.53.54 AM.png

  15. Navigate to the Graph Preview page and you should see 4 dots.

    1. The 3 green dots are the camera events. You may hover over them to see the camera number and event time. The camera triggers at 0ms, releases at 100ms, and triggers again at 1000ms (1s)

    2. The single yellow dot is the mono output (in this case a flash). You can see that we never added a trigger event at 100ms or 1000ms so the flash will sync with the first capture but wont sync with the 2nd capture.

    3. If you cameras are calibrated, change the dropdown in the top right corner to “calibrated time” to see how the calibrations are factored into the timing.

      Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 1.57.14 AM.png

  16. You can also preview the events on the List Preview page to see what the node calculated. Keep in mind, if a camera is not detected no calibration values will be applied. You can use the filters on the right side to enable/disable specific types of events, outputs, instructions, etc.

    Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 1.59.37 AM.png

  17. If you are satisfied with the effect, you can start using it immediately. Effects are automatically calculated and applied when you select an effect or click save. You may notice the status bar momentarily flash CALCULATING on top when changes are made.

  18. If you want to create more complicated effects, you can copy the Event data and paste it into a spreadsheet program.

    1. Navigate back to the Events pages

    2. Click COPY to copy all events to your clipboard

    3. Paste into a spreadsheet application (such as google sheets)

      Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 2.05.05 AM.png

  19. You can make additional changes to the effect in google sheets and copy&paste the data back into Leash. Here we’ve added the missing strobe Events so it matches the camera. Don’t worry about ordering the events, Leash will automatically re-order all events based on the delay value.

    1. Select all events including the headers

    2. Copy from the spreadsheet & click PASTE on the Event page in the Leash app

    3. All existing Event values in the effect will be deleted and replaced with the new values

    4. Click save & you are ready to trigger the event

      Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 2.08.11 AM.png

      Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 2.11.27 AM.png

      Tips & Tricks

      • When using Events with camera values, keep in mind that camera position are recalculated when devices are added or removed. If you only have a single camera plugged in, the camera can be plugged into any port and will always appear as “camera 1” if the node.port is changing.
      • The Preview pages display the event times calculated on the node and may differ from the programming if a error occurs.
      • Event calibrated times are only calculated for CONNECTED cameras, otherwise reference the event time.
      • Standard events can overlap group events without issue. They are simply merged into a single event. If two events with the same calculated time for the same camera port have conflicting instructions, it is possible to see which instruction is used on the preview page.