The Scenes screen is where lighting designers build, capture, and organize static lighting states, atmospheric color moods, and selective parameter presets.

Unlike dynamic animations or audio-reactive node graphs, a Scene represents a stable, reproducible visual picture on stage. Whether you need a warm acoustic ballad wash, a high-contrast theatrical spotlight on a lead singer, or a blackout, scenes serve as the foundational building blocks of your show.

🎨 Scene Anatomy & Selective Parameter Capture

A common pitfall of early lighting consoles was "all-or-nothing" recording: storing a cue recorded every single DMX channel, forcing operators to fight unwanted pan/tilt resets when they only wanted to change colors.

In Unilighter, scenes support selective parameter capture:

1. Full Rig Looks

Captures the complete physical state of all patched fixtures:

• Dimmer & Strobe: Master intensities and flash rates.
• Color: Perceptual HSV coordinates and motorized gel wheel slots.
• Position: Pan, Tilt, and fine coordinates.
• Beam Optics: Zoom, Focus, Frost filter, Gobo wheels, and Prism rotation.

2. Selective Presets & Palettes

You can record scenes that only govern specific parameter groups:

• Color Palettes (e.g. Mood Deep Blue, Sunset Amber): Stores only color attributes. Firing this scene transforms the entire stage's color palette without altering moving head positions or turning off dimmers.
• Position Focus Presets (e.g. Drum Solo Focus, Vocalist Center Stage): Stores only Pan and Tilt coordinates.
• Beam FX Presets (e.g. Breakup Gobo + Prism): Stores optical parameters while leaving color and intensity under live fader control.

🧩 Rapid Parameter Selection

Open Capture Scene in the top Scenes panel to create a scene from current fixture values. Tags in this dialog are selection shortcuts: selecting a tag selects all its current fixtures, and each enabled parameter stores that fixture's own value, including individual head values. The saved scene contains explicit fixtures, so later tag membership changes do not change its targets. Use the Scene Editor's live tag targets when you want a common value to follow tag membership.

Search in Capture Scene filters fixture names, IDs and channels, and filters tags by their own names, ignoring case. Selected only also hides tags whose members are not all selected. The dialog uses one scroll area so expanded parameter lists remain reachable.

Tags have blue backgrounds and borders, matching tag navigation on the Device screen, so you can distinguish group shortcuts from individual fixtures at a glance. A selected tag has a brighter border and background; its switch shows whether all current members are selected.

The Capture Scene selector remembers the parameter types you chose most recently. After selecting a fixture or tag, click another fixture or tag to inherit matching parameters that are available on the new target. This makes it quick to build a selective scene across a mixed rig without reopening the same parameter list for every fixture.

• Hold Shift, Ctrl, or ⌘ while selecting a fixture or tag to select all available parameters instead of inheriting the previous selection.
• Hold Alt to select a fixture or tag without inheriting the previous parameter set, then choose parameters manually.
• Refine the result with the individual parameter toggles. Snapshot All selects every available parameter for every fixture, while Deselect All clears the scene selection.

Snapshots preserve the Raw interpretation of captured fixture parameters, including a Boolean value of raw DMX 1. This applies to Snapshot All and individual parameter selections. When a named misc parameter shares a channel with a Gobo control, the snapshot captures the winning output according to priority and latest control changes. Saving and reopening the scene preserves these settings.

In the Scene Editor, touching the header of an already stored parameter preserves its Raw interpretation. This also applies to live tag targets. Explicitly editing the parameter uses the control's normal interpretation; for example, setting a Boolean to 1 means fully on.

Add scenes to the dashboard

Add to in Capture Scene lists every Function Widget on the dashboard, including widgets inside groups, shown as Group › Widget. Turn on one or more widgets before Create to add the new scene to the end of each of them. Nothing is added while every switch is off. The dialog remembers your choice for the next capture, so you can capture a series of looks straight into the same widget without switching the dashboard to Edit. The row is hidden when the dashboard has no Function Widgets.

Create saves the current scene name and captured parameters before adding its buttons to the selected widgets. Selecting widgets alone does not save or add the scene.

To place an existing scene, use the paperclip Add to widget action in its row on the Scenes screen, or Add to widget in the Scene Editor header. See Adding functions.

When that scene is open in the Scene Editor, choosing Add saves its current name and parameter edits before creating the widget button. The editor stays open. Opening and closing the widget list without adding leaves edits unsaved. After adding, Cancel discards only edits made since that save.

⏱️ Crossfade Timing & Transition Curves

Every scene features independent transition timing:

• Fade Time (ms): The duration over which parameters glide from their current live values to the scene's stored targets. A slow theatrical evening fade can be set to 5000ms, while a lightning strike or dramatic blackout can be set to 0ms (instant snap).
• Split Fade (In / Out): In theatrical stacks, incoming fixtures can fade up on a different timebase than outgoing fixtures fading down.
• Priority Assignment: Scenes default to normal playback priority (0). Setting higher priorities ensures critical override scenes take precedence over background animation chases. Read more in the Control Priorities & Layering Guide.

When a Boolean fade crosses between Raw and normal off/on values, both ends use their equivalent DMX values throughout the fade. For example, fading raw DMX 1 to off does not flash the channel fully on. The last frame restores the target scene's interpretation. The same conversion applies to cue transitions, including split fades; ordinary off/on fades retain their existing stepped output.

🌈 Unified Color Science & Calibration

Unilighter features a unified, perceptual color engine that translates HSV coordinates into optimal physical diode outputs across RGB, RGBW, and motorized gel wheels.

For in-depth mathematical RGBW strategies (blend, combined, desaturate, saturation), diode hardware calibration multipliers, and white balance matching across mismatched LED batches, see the dedicated Color Engine: Science, RGBW Strategies & Calibration Guide.

🚀 Live Triggering & Playback Integration

Show changes in the Scene Editor previews the edited values on real fixtures independently of Scene playback. It does not mark an inactive Scene as running. Playback can be started or stopped while the preview remains enabled; disabling the preview or closing the editor releases only that preview. Saving a project preserves the underlying playback without saving the editor preview as a running look.

Saving edits updates an active Scene at its current launch priority. A Function Widget priority override remains in effect even if you edit the Scene's saved priority; ordinary playback follows changes to the saved priority. Updates through connected automation use the same playback rules, including when capturing new fixture values into a running Scene. Cancel discards editor changes and releases only the editor preview. Running fades and cue transitions continue from their current progress at their launch priority, including when you leave the page. If playback was stopped while the editor was open, neither Save nor Cancel restarts it.

Saved scenes integrate seamlessly into every operational surface of the console:

• Direct Triggering: Launch looks directly from the Scenes Manager with visual active indicators.
• Live Dashboard: Place scenes on color-coded buttons inside a Function Widget.
• Theatrical Screenplays: Embed scenes as clickable cue tags inside actor dialogue using Theater Cue Lists & Scenario Script Mode.
• Physical Hardware: Bind scenes to velocity-sensitive MIDI drum pads or keyboard hotkeys via Assign Mode.

Read more in the Console Interface & Screen Reference and the UI Controls Overview.

Record by touching controls and use live tags

In the Scene Editor, use Search devices or tags… to filter fixture names, IDs or channels and tag names. Clearing the search restores the list. Selected fixtures and tags keep their settings and their control panels stay visible while filtered out. The same search is available in the embedded editor for step animations and in the device selector for bulk scene edits.

Scene Editor uses the same controls as the device desk. Touch a control to store that parameter in the scene, allowing a look to contain just the values you need. Tag targets apply to every current member, including fixtures tagged later. A fixture's explicit value overrides the corresponding tag value.

Blue tag selectors sit above the individual fixtures. Selected tags have a brighter border and background, and their control panels have blue frames and headings. Fixture panels keep their neutral appearance; green parameter frames still indicate stored values.

In the Scene Editor, hold Shift while clicking a tag to select its current members as individual fixtures, without adding a live tag target. If every current member is already selected, Shift-click removes those fixture selections and their stored fixture values. Existing live tag targets remain unchanged. An ordinary click still toggles the live tag target.

You can capture Strobe speed, mode and Shutter independently. Tag modes resolve by name per fixture; an unsupported mode leaves that fixture's own mode intact. See Strobe & Shutter.

Focus, Frost and Zoom each have a separate parameter frame. A green frame means that the scene stores that parameter; use Reset in its header to remove only that value from the scene. This leaves live manual control unchanged. To release a manual override, use Release on the Device page or Device Control Widget. The range description below each knob explains the active fixture function.

Reusable combinations

The Scenes | Combo tabs also provide a project library of Combo Functions. Combine existing scenes, animations and graphs without copying their definitions. Deleting a function with linked controls lets you retain repairable references or explicitly remove its linked controls.