About a year ago, I reviewed a new app called Lighter. It's one of many apps you can find on The App Store that will run dynamic scenes, animations of light on your Philips Hue lighting system. What sets Lighter apart is that it feels more personal, in comparison to others. The layout and design are not overdone. It's clean and concise. Others feel like click-bait to me.
Prior to Lighter, I was an Ambee power user. What I loved, and still love, about Ambee is it's super saturated animations. I'm talking about rich colors so deep you could fall into. What I love about Lighter is that it's the complete opposite, lots of subtle, desaturated colors that meld together. Sort of like watercolor versus oil paints. Don't get me wrong, I love both. It really depends on my mood. The two apps go together like yin and yang, completing a sort of illumination feng shui in my home, and I highly recommend getting both of them if you're into Hue.
Another thing about Lighter that I like is that the scenes are on the cloud. This is how you can have access to hundreds of scenes on demand without overloading your bridge. Bridge capacity is a real sore spot for me. I only have a handful of scenes that I created myself due to the limitations of space on the bridge. But...why would I want to run static scenes when I can run dynamic scenes?
Another thing about Lighter that I like is that the scenes are on the cloud. This is how you can have access to hundreds of scenes on demand without overloading your bridge. Bridge capacity is a real sore spot for me. I only have a handful of scenes that I created myself due to the limitations of space on the bridge. But...why would I want to run static scenes when I can run dynamic scenes?
I'm a color geek. When I see good uses of color, I have a response, like the kind you get when you smell a pleasant fragrance, or taste a succulent food. It's pleasing, even uplifting, sometimes almost narcotic. The science behind color fascinates me, which is why I did so well in Color Theory in art school.
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Please excuse the quality of the photos. I don't have the technology or the knowledge to really do them right. If you click the photo below, you can see a video of Psychedelic Lemonade in action.Everyone develops a "go-to" app for Hue. Lighter is currently my "go-to." There's lots of themes, with many wonderful scenes. My favorite is the Night Life theme, in particular, the scene called Psychedelic Lemonade, it's the quintessential Hue animation.
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| CLICK PIC TO SEE VIDEO |
Talented developers don't just throw darts at a color wheel when they're designing their scenes. Careful and meticulous thought goes into picking the color palette for each scene. Otherwise they wouldn't make sense, and you'd get a sort of color soup. Psychedelic Lemonade uses a palette of pink, peach, periwinkle, lavender and lilac. Sounds like a bath bomb doesn't it? A bath bomb for your mind. Every time I turn it on, I want to put on some LoFi beats and pour myself a drink. The colors broaden the sense of space in my home; I usually run my scenes throughout the whole home for fullest effect. The perfect balance of saturation and color prevalence is a constant reminder of the reason I started this Hue obsession in the first place.