a rgb laser for a 3d artist

[gabrielefx]

Hi all,
I'm new in this laser world and on this forum.
I found many confusing informations about rgb lasers on the web.
I understood that the most important features are power, speed and full spectrum colors.
I'm a 3D artist, I do photorealistic renderings with Max and I would like to draw 3D drawings for artistic installations in museums and architectural shows.
I would like to know what's is the cheapest full spectrum rgb laser to reproduce all the 16 millions of colors.
I was interested in cs 2000 rgb Laserword unit but reading on this forum its poor features and not realistic performance I understood that this laser is good only for disco effects.
Could you send me a list of rgb full spectrum models? My budget is 2000-3000 euros without software.

Many thanks.

Best regards,
Gabriele

[Steve Milani]

Welcome aboard on PL

Just sent you a PM.

Steve

[flecom]

your not going to find a 16 million color laser that is even close to 2000-3000 euros

hell, your probably not going to find a solid state projector that will do 16 million colors at any price

[taggalucci]

your not going to find a 16 million color laser that is even close to 2000-3000 euros

hell, your probably not going to find a solid state projector that will do 16 million colors at any price

Standard ILDA RGB 3 x 8 bit colour channels = 16,777,216 combinations (technically, though realistically this gamut is reduced by linearity and other issues).

So you probably want an analogue modulated RGB laser with at least 8 bit DAC per colour channel (most DACs). This is pretty standard.

[flecom]

I said you wont find a projector that will do 16 million colors, not you wont find an interface that will do 16 million colors

the QM2k is certainly capable of outputting 16 million colors, but good luck finding a DPSS green that will put out 8 bit color... now with diode based blues and reds you might get close, but your biggest weakness is going to be green... most greens just don't mod that well

if you do an Ar/Kr pair with a PCAOM you would probably get a lot closer

[LaNeK779]

Hi Gabriele,

Mr Milani already sent you a PM and by the little i know, you are already in good hands

16mil colours is indeed too difficult, if not impossible. But your budget would allow you to buy a good projetor for the price (maybe one of the smaller models of KVANT). But you can also get an even better laser if you could make a projector yourself or get it made for you

A good combination would be 5 colours (473(or even 488), 445, 532, 640 and 660nm) so you could get a wider colour spectrum.
If you are not after crazy ammounts of power, your budget could cover all that and a good quality set of galvos, too.

But then again, if architectural shows means projecting on the side of buildings, maybe you need higher powers.

Some more details about the intended usage would be good. Wellcome aboard!

[flecom]

I would put a yellow instead of a third blue and 457 instead of 473 just because 473 usually has terrible mod specs

something like

445 457 532 561 638 660

but ya that would cost a lot more than 3000 euros even at conservative power levels

[taggalucci]

I said you wont find a projector that will do 16 million colors, not you wont find an interface that will do 16 million colors

Yup, an important distinction!

I'm reading between the lines and suggesting the 16M colours is just an attempt at expressing that Gabriele wants a full colour RGB projector (analogue modulated vs TTL).

Unless I'm misreading and actually colour reproduction is important in which case a video projector would be better.

[White-Light]

If it's architectural you want from 3D Max and photorealistic renderings then you might be better off getting into 3D building projection mapping instead of lasers, as much as it pains me to steer you away from lasers:





With lasers this is pretty what you can hope to achieve (there's some nice abstract projections further into the video):





If you really do want to go the laser route then a custom built projector or a Kvant would be the way to go.

A 2W Kvant though with LM scanners is around 5,000 Euros and ideally you'd want Cambridge scanners which would take it another couple of thousand Euros higher.

A custom laser projector would probably be cheaper especially if you self built.

EDIT: I take the video projection thing back looking at prices, you're not going to afford it! The 7 Christie projectors used in the 1st vid have an SRP of $119,000 EACH!

There are cheap projectors out there but you're looking at 2,000-2,500 lumens instead of 20,000 in the Christies, so you may not have enough power for architectural.

[masterpj]

Hello Gabrielefx.
I myself am A 3D artist too, so nice to see someone from a similar field.
16 million is going to be difficult as mentioned but 3D graphics with a laser is possible.
Do be aware that the complexity you can display on a laser system is limited.
Are you aware of these trade-offs?
Photorealistic renders well not get you too far with 3D graphics .. they can help in a certain fashion.
3D laser graphics are more cartoonish and rely on similar algorithms als cellshading and such.
As you know the 3D graphics get converted to 2D things that give an impression of 3D.
If you still are interested:

Edit: I reread and see you use max, me too.