Before you get into the specifics of using Chameleon, you should first understand the basic concepts of how to build up a show.
The most fundamental building block within Chameleon is the channel. A channel controls the intensity of a fixture. The most simple fixture is a dimmer channel, and in this case the channel directly control the intensity of the lantern connected to the dimmer.
The fixture may be more complex than a dimmer channel, for instance and LED Par can, which has not only an intensity setting, but also a colour mixer. Or the fixture may be a moving head, in which case it would have many different attributes. In these cases the fixture i still represented by a single channel in Chameleon, and the channel fader always controls the fixtures intensity.
The most useful building block is a scene, sometimes called a look on some lighting desks. It is quite simply a collection of channels with their associated settings.
A scene enables you to control all the channels in it with a single fader. Brining up scene fader will change the intensities of all the channels within the scene. You entire show will normally be made with a collection of scenes. They can then be brought up, cross faded, and brought down as required.
You can have as many scenes as needed, and as many of them can be on at any time as desired.
A scene can also contain one or more chases. When a scene is faded up the chase will automatically start, and when the scenes if faded down the chase will automatically stop
A chase is simply a list of scenes, or channels, that are turned on and off one after another. You can set the time between scenes (called the step time) and what happens when the chase reaches the end of the list, for example it can start again, or play the list backwards.
You are able to set if a chase simply steps between scenes, or cross fades (that is fades out one scene whilst fading the next in).
A Chase is what allows simple disco type effects to programmed.