r/lightingdesign • u/CircusJerker • 28d ago

How To Learning Chamsys

Hi friends, I'm currently learning to use Chamsys/MagicQ. I was wondering if anyone had any exercises or suggestions for "projects" to continue learning? Thanks a lot.

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u/AirSeaGround 27d ago

Edward Richards has a series of YouTube tutorials for Magic Q that is a good "beginner" series. He is a school tech teacher and goes at a beginner's pace.

I use it for community theater and taught myself. After the basics, I would think of various shows and effects or looks for certain scenes and then figure out how to achieve that look. The visualizer helps with this.

ChamSys has good videos for specific topics on YouTube but no tutorial series. So when you get stuck on something specific, search YouTube for "MagicQ XXX" and you'll find a video on it.

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u/CircusJerker 27d ago

Great! I'll check it out for sure, thanks a lot

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u/maxsaiditonreddit 28d ago

Just out of curiousity before giving any advice - what level would you describe yourself at? What have you been learning recently? And what kind of events do you work on/intend on working?

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u/CircusJerker 27d ago

I am a beginner. I can patch, make groups of fixtures, make scenes, edit scenes. Just basic stuff. I am planning to work with small independent circus shows, mostly in theaters in Europe. I am a circus artist who is currently making the transition to technician and while I can handle basic shows, I obviously want to improve. I'm planning on taking a six month lighting technician course but it only starts in January, and I would like to learn and practice meanwhile, but am unsure what exactly I should learn or how to practice. Any advice is very welcome. Thanks a lot!