When it’s time to start getting the lights ready for the season, you want to have a general idea of how much you want to space them apart?
The standard pixel light distance is about 30 centimeters. Now, some pixels you have the option to space them from anywhere from 1 inch to 3 inches apart.
But the answer really depends on where the lights are positioned and the look you want to give.
Distance
The closer your house is to the street or closer how close the pixels will be to the eye of the watcher the closer you will want to have your pixels together. How close you put your pixels together visually is up to you.
The closer you do put your pixels together the more “Hi-Def” your video or animation is going to look. But this can be a problem because if you move your pixels from 2 inches to 1 inch apart you almost will have to double your pixel count. Which would mean you need twice the amount of power supply, wires, and almost twice the amount of pixels.
Go Test It
Whenever I am thinking about how to approach my pixel pitch or even helping others with their pixel pitches I always go back to saying, go test it.
For example, I tried the 2 inches apart pixel for my pitch and I felt it looked great. If I had doubled that originally I would have cost myself a lot more in the long run.
Another thought to consider is that most of us are not running our pixels at the full 100%. This means that if we are running them at 50% we only get half of the resolution.
Visuals
As I mentioned earlier the closer the house is to the road and onlooker the less distance you want to put in between your pixels. But because of this, you won’t have to run your pixels as bright either.
Now, if your house is farther from the road you can actually space your pixels farther apart but you should run them brighter.
My Recommendations
My recommendation is starting with a 2-inch pitch. Depending on what other lights you are working with may look better with either less or more distance between the pixels. I know that for my set up I did set the roof of the house to be 3 inches apart because it’s the furthest away from the road.
The great thing is that when using programs such as Vixen to help design your layout you’ll realize that you are not tied down to one solution. Be sure to test out different pixels and distances to see what will look better for your setup.