Creating Chaser Patterns

Chasers” are a type of LED animation effect that’s so named because it appears like points of light “chasing” along the LED strip. When the spinning of a hoop combines with the motion of a chaser, incredible illusions are created. The “Blizzard” setting on FutureHoop Pro is an example of a chaser pattern.

Remember, the hoop animates bitmaps one row at a time, from top to bottom. This means that each time playback advances to the next row of the bitmap, the point of light appears to chase forwards by one pixel.

To make a chaser-type pattern you’ll first start by creating an all-black bitmap. For now, let’s make it 20×20.

The simplest way to create a chaser is to draw a straight line from the top left pixel of the bitmap to the bottom right pixel.

Using a simple image editor that works in fine detail, like MS Paint, allows you to work at a good level of detail for creating chaser patterns.

Remember: If a bitmap’s width is less than the number of LEDs in the hoop, the bitmap is repeated along the length of the hoop. So if your hoop has 100 LEDs in it, and you made a 20×20 chaser pattern like described above, you will see 5 chasers. You can find out the number of LEDs in your size hoop here.

Once you have a chaser pattern uploaded onto a folder on the hoop, you can use Mode Options like ConstantSpeed and SpeedToggle to define how fast you want the chasers to move. A slower ConstantSpeed can look good when performing isolations and other off-body tricks. A faster ConstantSpeed creates an incredible illusion when the hoop is twirled.