Lasers

BlenderDMX Addon allows to visualize laser devices. The laser fixture definition is based on GDTF. By creating a custom GDTF, there is a lot of flexibility of the types of lasers: single beam, multiple beams, zooming, color changing, different shapes and so on.

The following laser specific GDTF properties are currently utilized for lasers in BlenderDMX Addon:

• number of laser geometries
• position and rotation of laser geometries
• laser diameter

Other GDTF properties like pan, tilt, zoom, color, dimmer are also used.

Examples:

Implementation in BlenderDMX Addon is based on this YouTube video. This principle does not use Blender lights for the laser rays but rather emitter material on a long thin cylinder, projected from the laser’s geometry onto objects which are in a Laser collision collection that must be created and then selected by the user.

Setup#

Add laser#

Add a Laser fixture by using the Add Fixture menu. BlenderDMX Addon comes with a default Laser included. It is useful to uncheck Add Target:

Add objects#

For the laser beams to appear, add another object or objects, for example a plane, move it a bit down, so it is below the laser:

Add objects to a collision collection#

• select this newly added plane and any other object(s) which should be affected by the laser:
• press m
• select Create New Collection, call it for example lasers

Set collision collection on lasers#

Go to Setup - Beam Volume and for Laser collision collection select the collection lasers

Turn laser on#

In Fixtures list, select the laser, set Color, Dimmer, Pan, Tilt… also, set Viewport to Shading. Success!

Extras#

You can make lasers look better by turning on Bloom:

Note on Laser collision collection#

• You need to have at least one object or bounding box in the Laser collision collection for the laser beams to be created.
• You need to add any objects which should stop/interact with the laser beam to the Laser collision collection.
• You can use the Volume Box as the bounding box and add it to the Laser collision collection.
• After adding any new laser into the show, make sure to go to Setup - Beam Volume - Laser collision collection and select the correct collection. This will add this collection as a collision parameter for all lasers in the show.