MA2 Crash Course - Program a Show From Scratch

GrandMA2 can be incredibly daunting to learn. In this video, I'm going to be giving you a full-length crash course to go over all of the major things you need to know to get a show up and running from nothing.
Consider this your "oh S#!*" guide to MA2.
Remember that the desk is only as complex as YOU decide to make it and that the only true way to become comfortable with it is to practice and experiment.
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Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
3:15 - Hardware introduction
4:15 - Streaming version
5:00 - The premise of this exercise
6:25 - Screen areas
8:00 - Command Line
8:50 - Key arrangement
11:00 - Patching your fixtures
21:49 - Sessions and networking
26:40 - Artnet
27:38 - Default DMX values
28:20 - Building a programming view
29:15 - Creating and sizing windows
29:46 - Command line feedback
31:02 - Preset pools
32:22 - Encoder options button
33:44 - Auto create menu
35:45 - Creating worlds
37:00 - Auto create color presets
37:52 - Channel faders
41:55 - changing values with the encoders
42:07 - Default Presets
44:55 - Active and Inactive values - the programmer
45:26 - Storing cues
46:16 - The concept of SelFix (Select Fixtures)
47:30 - Fixture instances (multi-part fixtures)
48:36 - MAtricks
50:02 - The If Keyword and wildcards *
52:06 - The difference between executors and sequences
53:45 - Cue data is stored in sequences
53:58 - Labeling
56:30 - Removing data from cues
57:05 - Store options
58:00 - The "main" selected sequence
58:30 - The different Go buttons
59:30 - Executor playback options galore
1:00:15 - Executor levels and activation
1:01:30 - Changing what faders and buttons do
1:02:30 - Sequence Defaults
1:03:10 -Layout views - the key to fast programming
1:07:35 - Arrange layouts by camera
1:13:00 - Fixing fixture position problems from the console
1:18:40 - The DMX Tester - output DMX values with no fixtures patched
1:21:25 - Using worlds to program with layout views
1:27:15 - Multiple cues in one sequence
1:38:00 - Fanning positions and other values with align
1:38:30 - Preset modes - Selective vs. Global
1:40:00 - Exec time - variable fade times for playback
1:41:00 - Ignore exec time option
1:41:30 - Advanced sequence assignment through the command line
1:45:00 - Align groups
1:45:40 - Mixing LED colors using playback faders
1:51:40 - Gobos and focus programming
1:54:50 - Opposite rotation gobos
1:58:20 - How selection order matters with effects
2:01:10 - Effect size fader

[@christianjackson]

Yes I know sACN is STREAMING not SCANNING.

[@ENPIus]

Hey Christian, how do you open the C2P file per the dropbox link for the stage and show file?

[@prasadbhise9567]

Prasad bhise says

[@memej1680]

Oil po ot your. @“”

[@MisterMotion]

I watched this video 2 years ago when I knew nothing about MA. Now, 2 years later I just got my Cert and am employed full time on an MA.. thanks Christian, I owe you one…

[@ReactionShot]

Nice!

[@Source713____]

Did you go to school kinda in the same dilemma just don’t know who offers classes in texas or what school to look for

[@haydenwadsworth7575]

@@Source713____ I went to school to learn a lot of the basics in theater on an ETC console. So this feels like learning a new language/dialect comparatively. Currently employed by a company that uses HOG4 and GrandMA2 and I’m hoping to become fluent in the both over the next few months.

[@LStranck]

Doctor: you have only 2 hours Me:

[@NoiseSignal]

show starts to catch fire. Cristian Jackson: "OH no! my stage is on fire!" but as u know i planted this in there. now lets see how you can fix this

[@nilsnrevents4956]

🤣

[@DJGeosmin]

oH nO tHe RiG iS cOlLaPsInG wItH mE oN iT *presses oops key*

[@quackers8848]

christian jackson: uploads new video Everyone: *happiness noise*

[@brianollom]

LoL so true!

[@matteotonini1604]

bro how can i import the file .c2p in 3d?

[@DigitalDyslexia]

Remember kids... when in doubt... "crashme" in the command line!

[@danmiller7294]

I do sound for all the school shows and this got recommended to me. I still watched it all. Thanks for opening the doors to lighting for me (a 15 year old aspiring theatre technician)

[@XxCaptainAudxX]

don't stop. don't let anything get you down if it is what you want. im just 22 and I've been doing this stuff since I was 12. guessing you're 16 now. it is a hard industry as most people aren't nice like christian here. I went through a 4 year dry spot as well after graduation because I didn't have resources and I just got hired onto a local shop about a year ago. (worked there after graduation, but had to leave due to issues with coworkers) if you are into lighting, ETC has lots of great courses that are pretty easy to get a hold of. MA, I have seen they offer online training. Christian has a website that I just found and there is so much more. Don't stop dreaming. And! if you have a computer that can handle it, there are virtual light boards, so far I have found ShowXpress, Eos family Element with ETC, and the GrandMA has one and that has a built in visualiser whereas the others you have to kinda find and program your own.

[@seffcraft]

I also do sound and a bit of lighting for my school student council's events and I really enjoy it. However we use MagicQ at school so I'm not sure which to learn first

[@adamhoeldke2841]

never stop learning young blood ;)

[@ErmanMete]

This world is bearable because of you and people like you. thank you so much for everything you are doing to teach us these!

[@matteotonini1604]

bro how can i import the file .c2p in 3d? what is the location?

[@rootuser9218]

@@matteotonini1604 ... that's a capture file.

[@dj-eme]

when the crash course is 2 hours long, you know its gonna be good.

[@unrestrictedhumanbeing9799]

I just watched this and programmed-finished a show from scratch as a sound-guy-never-touched-a-lighting-console. I don't know how much I can thank you. Thanks for the awesome content. Keep it coming!

[@modmiiwii]

The editing on this is brilliant. Makes it really easy to see everything. Never seen anybody do a hardware tutorial by zooming digitally like this. I'm guessing this took a little bit of time to put together. Thanks a lot for the effort.

[@analool7873]

I would never be so patient and watch 2 hours of me talking. This would annoy me beyond everything

[@CameronKurtz-tp1vy]

@@analool7873 Absolute facts! Me too!

[@thaerosthedragon1930]

Who else loves the names of the buttons? “Oops!” “Please” etc. are all such unique gems

[@scotts.8972]

Friend: “Have you seen stranger things 3 yet?” Me: “no” Friend: “why?” Me: “Christian Jackson.”

[@dewymilk2806]

At my internship in a theatre there isn't much to do during the actual show. So I tuck myself away in a storage room with a wing and some tutorials to get a bit ahead of the lessons. I really like this one because it's the perfect mix of basics and some personal tips and tricks that will make programming easier. Thanks so much for helping us newbs out :)

[@1985cgl]

Two hours of content and timestamps in the description, you're a real homie, thank you so much!

[@ryanrtw]

Christian, this is such an incredibly useful resource, thank you so much for doing this.

[@TheNateweaver]

I made it through the whole video. In another life, 25 years ago I was an LD. Always wanted to know what you could do on a MA. So awesome.

[@adamhoeldke2841]

For ALL of us that dont use the MA often enuff. Knowledge retention is tuff at times. You sir are OG LD Legend thank you !!

[@supidupidou]

Just worked on the grand MA 1 till now and need to learn the main set up of the grand MA 2, because I'm changing the company from a small one to a big company with better events and equipment. This video explained me everything I needed to know to start with the grand MA 2. Thank you so much. The world needs more people like you. :D

[@australianfisher2879]

Thanks so so much for this! I’m 13 and this video is unbelievably helpful! I often do lights on these board in from of crowd of about 1-2 hundred people. This video helps soo much!! Thank you

[@zenzeph926]

You are a god send. I usually program with eos because I'm more theater based, and I meant to learn MA when quarantine started and they offered the classes but.... didn't happen. Got a last minute gig with a company I just started working with and I needed to learn MA2 litterally in less time than this video because we were building all day. Litterally just from the intro I know this is what I need

[@christianjackson]

Good luck!

[@zenzeph926]

@@christianjackson thank you so much 😭😭😭

[@airplaneian]

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. I work in the commercial film industry and I'm trying to do more projects with complex lighting design and programming is obviously a huge part of that :)

[@alexphillips4325]

You’re alive! I look forward to getting more and more nerdy for this stuff as the video goes on.

[@calebk.1563]

This Video came out JUST IN TIME for me to be running my first solo MA2 show next month. You have been so helpful teaching me things and helping me grow in the industry. Thanks for all you do. Keep it up! PS. I love my ALLC jacket :)

[@user-hd5vk9it4k]

Thank you very much, Christian!!! Looking so much forward for the part 2!!!!

[@mikemills188]

This is really amazing. I am learning GrandMA and love seeing such a great, comprehensive view of how a pro does it. Thank you!

[@felipeburgos9719]

Man, I´m using GrandMA2 for the last 5 years and I learn so much with this video. This is amazing thanks to you very Christian.

[@brianollom]

Been working with MA2 for a few years now, and I'm still learning somethings new from your videos... Keep up the great work you do! THANK YOU!!!

[@araugh]

Fairly new to MA here, spent most of my time with Avo, Onyx/M-PC and ETC. Just in getting into the explanation of the action/verb buttons vs object buttons you've done a better job in communicating not just the methods, but the thought process behind them than any other console tutorial. Really well done

[@markstephenson4258]

im an avo user myself and I feel like I learned a ton of tricks i can bring to my titan just from how he sets up his pallets and fx

[@joshuamugabi1281]

hey Jackson, never stop being good, so many people find sharing knowledge a very hard thing but when it comes to you, you never hold back, that isn't cheap bro. thanks alot.

[@vincentverweij1053]

I'm sending this to all my friends who think that lighting is "automatic", it'll show them how long it takes to build it all from scratch :-D Thanks Christian for sharing this with us, it would have been great if I had this like 5 years ago when I started with the desk :-P Also nice how you integrated some of the issues that one might stumble upon. A big thumbs up!

[@thestageman18_]

I have only watched half of the video right now, and you have already helped me a lot.

[@karabardin]

Two hours of pure gold! Even after two years of grandma2 programming, I found something important for me in this video. Thank you!

[@2RealQuestions4SouthAfricans]

How do you move the Motorised Monitor Wing up and down?

[@timdmx512]

as a basic AVO user, this was an amazing video to watch. first-class production values as always brother!

[@thatslit8809]

Best Grand MA video out there...great job!!!! Thank you!

[@ii-jk6ct]

Thanks, Christian! This was very helpful!

[@kristindibble8356]

Thanks Christian, I had a small crash course in college, but it went way to quickly. I am happy you made more videos .

[@lereujS]

Learned a lot trough this video! Thank you so much Christian for all your time and effort!

[@CSTEntertainment]

I'm really good in MA but the time and effort you put into this video is amazing. Brilliant!

[@isaacsmartin]

1:20:25 wHoA it’s at address 420 what are the odds 😂

[@Reazintful]

@@flashyStrobe i dont feel like this response was appreciated enough.

[@samhannqi2499]

You're an inspiration. Thank you for the crash course !!

[@mitcholla]

I’ve been thinking of either finishing my lighting degree, or jumping into the lighting world again. I don’t know where to even begin... but this gives me hope I have a chance. Thanks for posting. as always, love your content.

[@RRDio]

Christian thanks for this video. It really give me the grasp on how to work with a MA console. Thank you once again for opening doors of opportunity in my life ❤

[@AtesMarc]

Been Watching this video again and again and again over the last years. Finally today while preparing a busking show: I not only used but understood everything you explain so patiently well including that weird layout selection logic on fx waveforms, fx stomp on executers, ltp/temp difference and even how to use subfixture architecture of titan tubes! THANK YOU!!!

[@danieljensen761]

Very awesome. Thanks Christian.

[@Steve-pd4yg]

Thank you, Christian! Awesome work :)

[@orchester-ohne-grenzen2816]

Thank you so much for this great Crash course

[@GlxyEntertainment]

Im glad these videos are so long. I always pick up small time daving and useful features.

[@zeyol]

"2 hours crash course" : took me 2 weeks to go through the whole video while programing the show at the same time ! totally worth it, I had learnt a lot of the concepts already but this brings all the pieces together ! thx

[@mylesmartin6377]

WOOOO The ALLC Hoodies are back!! Definetly got mine. Bout to where it all tech week. Great video. Learned quite a bit to expedite my work flow.

[@anthonyabrilla]

useful and effective! Learning is a continues process. thank you, learn a lot and thanks for always spreading the knowledge

[@ChristianFloydLewis]

Thanks. I always learn new stuff from your videos

[@khalilludman8662]

Thank you so much for making this video sir salute🫡

[@jessheath2478]

Life saving video. As someone whose self teaching myself how to use the console this is so helpful! Going to be an amazing 2 hours watching 😍

[@michaelmills3576]

Thanks for the video!

[@randysteven88]

I would not have mind you talking for another 2 hours, so much to learn :D Great course! Thank you!!

[@soepet]

Learning from the master himself😄 Thanks so much for this!

[@Butlinsgvn6]

You're a legend Christian

[@manueldiaz786]

Thanks for the crash course Christian, it has been very interesting to start using an MA, as well as cash !!!

[@StageVisualLX]

This video is sooo cool thank you man for taking the time to put this together..I Work operating EOS ETC Ion Xe Console in my local theater for the last 3 years. I Legit just downloaded GranMA on PC like 10 mins ago and when i mean new I mean legit out of the box new no idea what is what and I'm already 30 min into the video..I know how to patch fixtures and setup my snapshot display window for operating . I believe it's called presets pools , It make it easier to wrap my head around it to understand if I figure it as EOS Software. I'm taking little break now to have lunch but I can't wait to get to the juice stuff later setting up a 3DAugment Stage Visualizer with some absolute and 2 step effects and gobos recording sub masters..I use a cherry pos keyboard as a programming wing . I cant wait find the hotkeys and macros to speed up a lot of this clicking ..The only thing I don't like right out the bat SO FAR is all the windows boxes and tabs are different colors I wish they was all black or grey and then changed color when it was in blind or live mode again that's probably my EOS force of habit from Blue to Yellow

[@helle_larsen]

Thank you for this!

[@arvidjohann7093]

I love your humor!!! Keep on doin it. Gained a big sub!

[@jplumansoc]

Scratching my weekend plans to learn some new skills!

[@lo2032]

Thank you very much for sharing this tutorial .thank you.

[@daniel2183]

Thank you Christian, best Grand Ma 2 learn video. Great

[@jkewlo]

Yuss!! Amazing as always!

[@TheMazz123]

Thank you so so much for this been following you video for a long time I'm a chamsys guy been trying to lean MA can not wait to watch this I'm I'm a gig right now

[@ucenyalcantara885]

Very nice explained Christian Beautiful.

[@janis161]

nobody: God: Okay, let´s auto-create some worlds!

[@AmirCohenStageCraft]

Great Video, saw to the end, gathered some PTips. Thank you Christian.

[@KidTonyGaming]

Finally this is what I've been looking for. 💙

[@duridavide]

Wow, thank you for this video, is very well done

[@pejskunespi]

Thank you, Christian, for uploading this.

[@christianjackson]

Gladly!

[@tonyribbons9531]

Found me at an appropriate time, perfectly packed crash course

[@patratv932]

thank you, i was actually jumping in on a lunch time xx

[@therandomgamer274]

been using grandma2 for 3 years only learnt about smart view today what a software!

[@gilhadar5623]

Hey Christian just got to say after seeing lot's of your videos that is always a pleasure and so educational (in many ways) I just think your videos are brilliantly helpful specially in the way YOU make them JUST KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK !!! wish you and your channel the best :)))

[@2RealQuestions4SouthAfricans]

How do you move the Motorised Monitor Wing up and down?

[@eykleidis21]

One of the best videos in learning ma2 ...

[@proyectosAV]

Excelente explicación Máster. Muchas Gracias

[@ulifrisch7973]

thx, good video some new things to know!

[@diosconnosotrxs]

Thank you very much man🙏

[@frederikvanwynendael1223]

thanks a lot for this amazing tutorial

[@TheCarlosAlfaro]

Best video on youtube! Waiting for part 2!

[@domodiak]

Loved falling asleep to this

[@jacobstruble8254]

Currently run avo proficiently and have watched your videos for inspiration such as making a similar color picker as you use but for avo. I’ve dabbled in ma here and there… but Watching this video now in prep for grand ma courses at ldi next week! Thanks for all that you do!

[@dukewabusia2186]

You just made it easy you know, more videos please

[@gwenfire57]

thank you for this video i have to do my first grandma show in 4 days and i will be able to do it because of you thank you 🙏💫🧡

[@tsimafei8826]

Thank you a lot!

[@DJDigital98]

Thank u so much. I searched this for a lot of time...

[@MrJbbean]

Very interesting and helpful buddy

[@kaankzldere9569]

Totally awesome thanks alot

[@kylelam5383]

Have no idea what he’s talking about but I can’t stop watching so much information it’s like learning a foreign language

[@superkaboose1066]

This was so perfect, can't believe I didn't know about some of the "default" stuff for pos's and the auto create stuff, makes me so annoyed wasting so much time haha, Thank you!!! and yes MORE! You could almost do an entire video on just the best key shortcuts, did not know about the double tap align with MAtrix...

[@romanlapuente9123]

Very instructive!

[@napelitrbx2668]

Yay you uploaded! You should post more, I love your covers and tutorials!

[@mcbeall23]

I owe you multiple day rates for this video.. saved my ass, love you bro

[@LethalEnergyTM]

Thx a lot man, u doing amazing things :3

[@davisparkhurst6637]

Amazing! Watched this for movie night.

[@Bagge0]

Nice video! Thx

[@armandpochon]

Wow this video was made for me. I have to run to shows tomorrow that are easy to me but a third one in the evening with a MA that I never used. SHIT YOU HELPED ! THANKS !