CREATING BITMAPS OF YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS
The Light Show consists of 64 RGB LEDs placed within 8 rows and 8 columns that make up a Matrix! Using some simple understandings of how colors are mapped, we're going to draw out simple block drawings of some of our favorite characters and then learn how to encode them!
STEP 1
HOW COLORS CAN BE MADE WITH RED, GREEN AND BLUE
Each of the LEDs in your light matrix are RGB LEDs, which means that they have a RED, GREEN, and BLUE output of the light, as you can see to the right:
Awesomely enough you can use these three colors to make a lot of other colors. Go ahead, see for yourself using the sliders below:
The more control you have over the brightness level of each color (i.e. those sliders), the more colors you can make and the higher resolution your picture can become.
So if your RGB lights can only be ON or OFF, then you have 3 BIT scheme (1 bit per light x 3 lights)
This is called BIT DEPTH and determines how many different colors you can make.
Check out this video explaining bit depth and this page which illustrates differences in resolution.
STEP 2
HOW TO CODE FOR YOUR COLORS IN HEXADECIMAL OR BINARY CODE CODE
In our case, you have a HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, and OFF state for each of your three lights.
Those four states can be encoded using 2 digits (see RIGHT).
So this means you have (2 bits per light x 3 lights) so you have a 6 BIT setup.
In RGB codes, LOW = 85, MEDIUM = 170, HIGH = 225
So how exactly do you code for OFF, LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH?
You're going to have 6 digit binary numbers from 000000-111111 (Hint: there's 64 combinations!)
HANDY GUIDE:
110000 = RED 001100 = GREEN
000011 = BLUE
STEP 3
LET'S LOOK AT HOW THESE CODES LOOK ON YOUR LIGHTSHOW MATRIX
Here are the 64 different binary combinations that are possible and how they will look on your Light Show!
B000000,B000001,B000010,B000011,B000100,B000101,B000110,B000111, B001000,B001001,B001010,B001011,B001100,B001101,B001110,B001111, B010000,B010001,B010010,B010011,B010100,B010101,B010110,B010111, B011000,B011001,B011010,B011011,B011100,B011101,B011110,B011111, B100000,B100001,B100010,B100011,B100100,B100101,B100110,B100111, B101000,B101001,B101010,B101011,B101100,B101101,B101110,B101111, B110000,B110001,B110010,B110011,B110100,B110101,B110110,B110111, B111000,B111001,B111010,B111011,B111100,B111101,B111110,B111111,
So when you see rgb(0,85,255), the binary code will be B000111 and the color will be BLUE
STEP 3
NOW THAT WE KNOW HOW TO ENCODE COLORS, LET'S USE THEM TO DRAW OUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS
First, draw the basic designs of the characters on a 8x8 pixel grid
Second, map each of the colors onto each pixel of the grid
Put the color codes together into a matrix to upload to your light show!
MINECRAFT ZOMBIE
Trace how the zombie eyes and frown make up this face and then fill in the rest of the colors!
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B000100 |
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B001000 |
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B000000 |
B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,
B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,B001000,B001000,B000100,B000100,
B000100,B001000,B001000,B001000,B001000,B001000,B001000,B000100,
B001000,B001000,B001000,B001000,B001000,B001000,B001000,B000100,
B001000,B000000,B000000,B001000,B001000,B000000,B000000,B001000,
B000100,B001000,B001000,B000000,B000000,B001000,B001000,B000100,
B000100,B001000,B000000,B001000,B001000,B000000,B001000,B000100,
B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,B000100,
PIP THE MOUSE
Trace how the colors make up Pip's eyes and mouth and then use your colors to fill the ears and nose!
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B110100 |
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B010000 |
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B000000 |
B110100,B110100,B110100,B000000,B000000,B110100,B110100,B110100,
B110100,B010000,B110100,B000000,B000000,B110100,B010000,B110100,
B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,
B000000,B110100,B111111,B110100,B110100,B111111,B110100,B000000,
B000000,B110100,B000000,B110100,B110100,B000000,B110100,B000000,
B110100,B110100,B110100,B010000,B010000,B110100,B110100,B110100,
B000000,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B000000,
B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,B110100,
PIPERBOT
Trace how the colors make up Piperbot's eyes and mouth and then use your colors to fill in his face!
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B000001 |
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B011101 |
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B111111 |
B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,
B000001,B011101,B011101,B011101,B011101,B011101,B011101,B000001,
B000001,B011101,B111111,B011101,B011101,B111111,B011101,B000001,
B000001,B011101,B000000,B011101,B011101,B000000,B011101,B000001,
B000001,B011101,B111111,B011101,B011101,B111111,B011101,B000001,
B000001,B011101,B011101,B011101,B011101,B011101,B011101,B000001,
B000001,B011101,B011101,B000000,B000000,B011101,B011101,B000001,
B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,B000001,
Are you able to understand the code? If yes, hit next!