Looks

What it's for — A Look is a named, reusable output state your cues fire. Author it once, reference it from any number of cues, then repoint it at something else mid-show without touching a single cue.

Renamed 2026-08-22. This screen was called Palette and its cross-protocol items were called Scenes. "Palette" is a real object on ETC Eos, Avolites Titan and ChamSys MagicQ — an attribute-level reference value, never a fire target — and "Scene" already meant two other things in CueSync: the middle number in Act.Scene.Cue, and a row of Cue Pads. One noun now: Look.

The screen, region by region

The screen is called Looks in the menu and the EdgeBar. It has two tabs — Looks and Pixels — naming the scope each board covers.

The Looks board is one library covering every protocol, GrandMA3 included: the separate GrandMA3 board folded into it at v9, because with one library behind them two boards showed the same Looks twice.

CueSync opens whichever board has content. A show with Looks opens on Looks; a rig whose only lighting is the built-in pixel wall opens on Pixels, so the one operator who can never populate a Look library is no longer the one guaranteed to be shown it.

Looks board

Looks list (left) — All Looks in your library, grouped into banks. Each Look tile shows its name and a usage count badge (how many cues reference it). The badge turns red when a Look is orphaned (referenced cues were deleted).

Look detail (right) — When a Look is selected, the right panel shows the GrandMA3 executor, cuelist, preset, or sequence it targets, plus any affinity settings Auto Pilot uses when selecting it automatically (phrase type, energy range, BPM range).

Console status chips (bottom) — One chip per connected GrandMA3 console showing whether the Look palette is synchronised.

Test-fire button — Fires the Look to the connected console immediately. A success or failure toast appears.

On the Looks board

Look list (left) — Every Look in the library, grouped into banks. Each tile shows its name, usage count, and an indicator when the Look is currently held (outputs are live).

Look detail (right) — When a Look is selected, shows what it targets: which outputs fire, what values they receive, and whether each binding is releasable.

Test-fire button — Fires the Look immediately — its one target, or for a Bundle, every child at once. A success or failure toast appears.

Pixels tab

Wall designer — The full-size view of the built-in pixel wall: the live wall itself with its index ruler, universe-wrap markers and named zone bands; the colour and accent ramps; and the per-phrase choreography score. Unlike the Looks board this tab is not a library — there is one wall, so it carries no count badge and no bank rail. Instead the tab shows a small status dot when the wall needs attention (a node that has stopped answering, or an identify pattern left running).

Live controls — Identify drives a rainbow comet so you can check addressing with no music playing; Release to Auto hands a cue-held wall back to the Auto brain. Both act on the same wall the EdgeBar PIX badge reports, so it does not matter which surface you reach for.

Rig card — Pixel count, channel count and frame rate, the wall's address, the master output switch, the house dimmer, and a button through to the patch.

Where it is saved — The wall's colours and choreography are app settings, not show data. They follow the machine, not the show file, and a show bundle does not carry them. The rig patch itself (how many pixels, which universe) lives in Settings → Pixels. To fire a pixel state from a cue, author a Pixels Look on the Looks board — that part is show data.

One noun, two boards

GrandMA3 Looks point at a single executor, cuelist, preset, or sequence on your MA3. Firing one tells the console to activate that element.

Every other Look targets something else — a Resolume clip, a QLab cue, an ETC Eos cue, a DMX channel snapshot, a pixel look. Most bind one target on one protocol. To fire several protocols together choose the Bundle type, which holds children across any mix of connected systems and fires them as a unit; Bundles are how you synchronise lighting, video and effects from one cue.

Both boards behave the same way otherwise: triggered from cues, pads or Auto Pilot, and released (returned to their prior state) when they end. The split is scope, not capability.

Common tasks

1. Create a GrandMA3 Look — Open the GrandMA3 tab and click +. Enter a name and select the GrandMA3 executor, cuelist, or preset to bind.
2. Test-fire it — Select the Look and click the test-fire button. Confirm the console responds.
3. Create a Look for any other protocol — On the Looks board click +. Name it, pick the target type, then set its address (each type picks an output and the value to send).
4. Test-fire a Bundle — Select it and click test-fire. Every child fires at once.
5. Check usage count — The number badge on each tile shows how many cues or pads reference it. A zero count means nothing will fire it during the show — consider deleting it or assigning it to a cue.
6. Delete a Look — Select the item and click Delete (or right-click → Delete). CueSync warns you if any cues will be orphaned.

Tips & gotchas

• A Bundle is the cross-protocol coordination primitive. For one cue to fire lighting, video and effects together, put those targets in a Bundle and reference it from the cue, rather than adding a separate action per protocol.
• Orphaned references become silent no-ops. If you delete a Look that is referenced by cues, those cue actions will silently do nothing at fire time. The usage count badge and a confirmation warning help you avoid this.
• Auto Pilot picks from both boards. Configure phrase, energy and BPM affinity on a Look to let Auto Pilot choose it for a musical moment. A Look with no affinity is deliberately excluded from automatic selection — it stays manual/timecode-only — so adding affinity is the opt-in.
• Test-fire paused Auto Pilot does not block the panel. You can test-fire from the palette at any time. Auto Pilot's "paused" state only suppresses its own automatic firing; manual test-fire always goes through.

Related

• Cues — Reference Looks from cue actions
• Cue Pads — Assign Look-firing cues to pads for live triggering
• Devices — Connect and verify your GrandMA3 console and other outputs