Having made all of his or her design decisions and choices, the lighting designer can move on to the next stage, and begin preparation of the lighting plot and the related documentation and lists.
The lighting plot enables the designer to organize all pertinent technical data on one comprehensive plan which, together with various lists, will give the lighting technician responsible for
rigging
the luminaires the information necessary to follow the designers intentions.
Lighting plots can be drafted manually, or with a drafting or CADD software program. If you are doing the drafting manually, your most useful tool will be a template of scale symbols of all theatrical luminaires (at a scale of 1:50 or 1:25) .
Manufacturers of lighting equipment supply templates which correspond to the shape and size of their equipment. The USITT and the ABTT, aiming to create an objective international language of symbols which does not advertise the equipment manufactured by any particular company, have jointly developed a new template in which the luminaire types are assigned symbols .
The lighting plot is drafted over a ground plan of the scenery and a layout of the
stage
and auditorium, usually at a scale of 1:50, 1:25 or 1:20.
The layout should include all lighting positions in the theatre: FOH bridges and wall positions, elex pipes and all other lighting positions on-stage .
In repertory theatre, the plan will also include the permanently rigged lighting equipment.
Luminaires are marked onto the lighting plot using lighting symbol templates, in their exact hanging positions, and essential circuiting information is added to each symbol. The luminaire is usually drawn at an angle indicating the direction in which it will be focused. Each luminaire symbol is accompanied by other important information including sequential numbering of the luminaires (for the whole plot or per lighting position), the number of the socket and dimmer to which the luminaire will be hooked up, the number of the control channel, the number indicating the color filter, and information (usually graphic) regarding
accessories
such as barndoors, iris, gobo,
color changer
and so on .
All of this information is essential for the
rigging
crew to be able to follow the plot and to do their job smoothly and efficiently.
The lighting plot should usually include side views, showing those luminaires hung on balconies, ladders and other side positions. Another
cross section
through the center of the
stage
will show the height of the lighting pipes, hung scenery and drapes, and the placement of luminaires in relation to such scenery and drapes (including legs and borders) .
Accurate plans can
cut
rigging and focusing time hours shorter. The most difficult and arduous period of the production is still to come, and if the plans are not
clear
enough, the lighting designer
will have to spend all his or her time with the
rigging
crew instead of preparing for the next few days of hard work. When the
rig
is complete, most of the technical crew will be able to rest and take turns focusing, but this is when the designer will need to be on the spot and in top shape, so that if he or she is physically tired by this stage, the focusing too will be much less efficient.
Computer Aided Lighting Design
The computer is rapidly becoming an essential tool for lighting design, and can be of assistance in various phases of lighting design. Using a computer program is extremely time efficient, especially when updating the lighting plans during
rigging
and lighting rehearsals.
Most word-processors will enable the preparation and sorting of various technical lists such as hook-up, color call, and equipment list. These can also be laid out in any data-base program .
CADD (Computer Aided Design and Drafting) programs enable the designer to prepare his or her lighting plot, including side views and cross sections on the computer .
Although any CADD program can be used to draft lighting plots, there are specially designed programs for
stage
lighting which include libraries of the lighting related graphic symbols, as well as the ability to draw up lists from the information fed into the lighting plot.
Sophisticated lighting programs can also be of assistance in the selection of luminaires and of lighting positions.
These programs enable the designer to examine options such as different luminaires, positions, focus options and color filters, and include libraries of hundreds of types of luminaires and accessories. Beam angle and shape of light
beam
can be simulated, giving a visual rendering of the result. The photometric data of the luminaire (intensity,
beam
angle and so on) is also presented. The lighting designer can examine different cross-sections, make changes and reviews and update all plans and lists simultaneously. Such programs can be of great assistance for the designer in making his or her final choices of luminaires and hanging positions. They are also very useful for adapting the lighting when the show goes on the road.
Another aspect of the lighting design, the visualization of the lighting look and lighting changes, can be assisted by computer programs such as Compucad, which generate a complete rendering of the illuminated image, and illustrate light transitions in animation. This can be very useful, not only for formulating the lighting designers visual ideas, but also to communicate these ideas to the director and the scenery designer. However, rendering requires an extremely powerful computer, and the process of generating complex renderings of the
stage
inaction and of the light changes, is extremely time consuming.
Some
computerized lighting control
boards can assist the lighting team in preparing their plots and lists. These boards generate lists such as track sheets,
patch
lists,
electric load
distribution lists, and so on.
Advanced control boards allow the designer to save precious time in the theatre by plotting the lighting cues at home in an off-line mode, on a PC or a Mac with a software which is compatible with the control board. The lighting
control board
can then read and execute these cues.
WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, used in computing to describe a system in which content during editing appears very similar to the final product WYSIWYG. one of the applications is the CAST software. WYSIWYG by Cast is a high
level
of a design tool that allow the users to have: CAD and paperwork solutions, rendering, and pre-visualization.
