Laser solid line with dots - effect or the way the laser creates the line?

[ragerlazer]

I see a lot of laser shows (example, last night on VH1's Divas) where the laser projectors are making a line, or sine wave - you can clearly see the connection of the dots but there are definite dots that stand out within in the line. Is this a custom projection, or is it due to the laser itself/scanning? The laser makes a flat line (of whatever color) but within that line there will be equally spaced dots, as if the projection is really a dot projection, or a dot and line projection.

Anyone know why this is done, or if it's just these higher powered projectors? Or is it just the animation that the laserist is using?

[WookieBoy]

Probably how the animation is programmed.

I have a few sheet effects that are just the scanned line in sine-wave and some with additional 'hot spots' added to make a slightly different effect.

This, if I'm reading it right, sounds like the latter...

[james]

LaserBoy has an effect that lets you add moving dots to a line drawing!

You can also control the dwell time of the dots to control their brightness relative to the lines.

James.

[mixedgas]

It is usually "hot spots" added to a beam effect to give it more punch. You can do it by hand, by adding clusters of points to a frame so the galvo dwells there. You can do it with the "Sparkle" effect in some software. Or you can do it by overlaying two frames on different tracks. I have custom software that lets me add it to a frame or animation in terms of color, dwell time, and if the added part stays solid or is just a dot, or is animated to follow the frame path. Shockingly, the effect is missing in some of the best software on the market.

You may download some examples of a traveling hot point here, in "That Revolting Free Ware Frames Thread"

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...-frames-Thread

While not exactly what your looking for, they will give you a idea how its done...



Steve

[-bart-]

similar thread here

[White-Light]

Or you can do it by overlaying two frames on different tracks.


Steve

That's exactly what I usually do.

Create 2 versions of the same cue, 1 in beam mode and 1 in line mode. Then merge them so one overlays the other.

Only problem is its not very efficient in frame rate terms.

I'd be a bit wary of adding points to create hot spots, unless your placing them side by side as adding them on top of each other effectively creates hot beams. (I think you'll find the two cue method actually results in points very closely together but not overalying as I believe QS prevent this. Certainly when I look at a fan I did this to, the points (beam mode) appear to be very slightly above the solid fan (line mode) when veiwed on a wall.) In mid air, you can't notice this at all.