Laser Projector v1.4.0Free · Lite · Pro Blender 4.2+ · Lighting · Cycles

Blender add-on · 34 animated presets

Lasers that
look filmed.
Not rendered.

Turn any Area or Spot light into an animated laser projector. Pick a pattern, layer a second one over it, reveal them behind a galvo trace and drive the whole thing off a music track. It all lives on the light’s own shader tree, so your scene gains a lamp and nothing else.

A red laser grid projected across a classical marble bust, neon tubes out of focus behind it Grid · Spot · red diode

Every projector is an ordinary Blender light. It moves, animates, parents, links and renders like one, because that is all it is.

In the box 34 presets Mesh beams Audio reactive Camera look

On the light itself

One light in,
one light out.

Adds nothing to the outliner but the light you asked for. No cutter object, no shadow-casting card, nothing to keep in frame.

View3D › Sidebar › LaserNothing rebuilt between presets

No geometry

The pattern is a node tree on the light. Nothing casts a shadow, nothing sits between the lamp and the subject.

Animate it

Keyframe the light, parent it to a rig, track it to an object. It is a light, so all of that already works.

Time in seconds

Motion is driven by frame over fps, so changing the scene’s frame rate does not change the speed of anything.

Open the tree

Every knob is a socket on a shared Laser: node group. Open the light in the Shader Editor and extend it.

Sixty seconds

Add. Pick. Play.

There is no setup step. The first click puts a projector in the scene already aimed at the 3D cursor.

01

Add a projector.

Put the 3D cursor where the light should land, then click Spot or Area. The light is placed above and in front of it, already pointed at the cursor.

The Laser sidebar before anything is selected: New Projector with Spot and Area buttons
The panel, before you startTwo buttons and a hint

02

Pick a pattern.

Click the active thumbnail and every preset opens in one popup, or filter by category to narrow it. Sweeping presets carry motion echoes in their icons, so you can read the direction of travel from a still.

The add-on’s preset picker: 34 named pattern thumbnails in a grid
The add-on’s own pickerAll 34, one popup

03

Press play.

Every preset is already animated. Nothing to keyframe, nothing to drive. Global Speed scales the whole light, Time Offset staggers a rig of them.

Spiral · Radial · 4s, seamless

The library

Thirty-four,
all animated.

Every one of these is a still from a moving pattern. Six categories, one shared set of coordinates, so switching preset keeps your framing. Each tile carries the lowest edition that ships it.

Grids

Repeating structure. Scrolls, slides and drifts.

FreeGrid pattern
GridScrolls
LiteDot matrix pattern
Dot MatrixPulses
LiteChecker pattern
CheckerSlides
LiteVoronoi cell pattern
CellsDrifts
LiteCrosshatch pattern
CrosshatchCounter-scrolls

Scans

Something sweeping across the aperture.

FreeScan bar pattern
Scan BarBounces
LiteScan lines pattern
Scan LinesRolls
LiteCross scan pattern
Cross ScanTwo rates
LiteDiagonal stripes pattern
Diagonal StripesMarches
LiteBarcode pattern
BarcodeStreams
LiteWipe pattern
WipeSweeps

Radial

Built around the centre of the beam.

FreeRings pattern
RingsRipples out
FreeRadar sweep pattern
RadarSweeps
LiteStarburst pattern
StarburstTurns
LiteCrosshair reticle pattern
CrosshairTicks round
LiteSpiral pattern
SpiralWinds
LitePerspective tunnel pattern
TunnelFlies inward

Organic

Noise-driven. Never quite repeats.

LiteContour lines pattern
ContoursMorphs
LiteCaustics pattern
CausticsFolds
FreeSine wave lines pattern
WavesTravels
LitePlasma bands pattern
PlasmaWrithes
LiteMoire interference pattern
InterferenceBeats
LiteFaceted polygon pattern
FacetsFlashes

Glitch

Stepped, random, on the beat of nothing.

LiteData rain pattern
Data RainFalls
LiteGlitching grid pattern
Glitch GridJolts
LiteFlickering bars pattern
Flicker BarsSwitches
LiteDigital noise blocks pattern
Digital NoiseFlips
FreeStrobe flash
StrobeFlashes

Beams

Built for the mesh beams. Discrete shafts, not a field.

FreeBeam fan
Beam FanSways
LiteCrossing beams
Beam CrossCrosses
LiteRing of beams
Beam RingTurns
LiteSweeping bar of beams
Beam ScanBounces

Custom

The two that carry no pattern of their own.

FreeFlood, an unpatterned beam
FloodNo pattern
ProA logo projected as a laser stencil
Image / VideoStills or clips
Scan Lines · SpotOff the test rig, onto real geometry

Then stop picking from a library.
Layer two. Draw them with a scanner. Hand the controls to a track.

Second patternLite

Two presets,
five ways to mix.

Slot B takes any preset in the library and keeps its own full set of settings. A grid cut by a scan bar is a different pattern to either.

The Grid preset alone Grid and Scan Bar screened together Grid showing only inside the scan bar Only where the grid and the bar overlap Grid and bar summed, the overlap blown out The bar punched out of the grid
Grid alone Grid + Scan Bar · Screen Grid + Scan Bar · Mask Grid + Scan Bar · Intersect Grid + Scan Bar · Add Grid + Scan Bar · Subtract
BlendWhat it does
ScreenBrightest of the two. Both patterns stay readable.
MaskB masks A. A grid cut by a scan bar, rings through a strobe.
IntersectLit only where both are lit.
AddSum, clamped. Overlaps bloom out to solid.
SubtractPunch B out of A.

Both layers keep their own knobs, so you can slow one down and leave the other running. Image / Video is slot A only — it owns its own UV node.

Galvo tracePro

A real one draws
with a single dot.

Switch the trace on and the pattern is hidden, then revealed along a scan path behind a bright head with a decaying trail. The ILDA look, on any preset in the library.

Raster pathHead, trail, persistence

Four paths

Raster serpentine, Radial arm, Spiral and Linear. Rows and Turns shape the route itself.

Scan Rate

Complete passes per second. Negative runs the dot backwards.

Head and trail

Length and brightness of the drawing dot, and how far behind it the glow survives.

Persistence

Floor brightness, so the rest of the pattern stays faintly there instead of going black.

EffectsLite

Bend the space,
then bend the result.

Two stages that apply to every preset. Shape runs before the pattern is drawn, Level after, and the difference is the whole point.

The Facets pattern three times: plain, kaleidoscoped, and reduced to outlines
Facets · plain, kaleidoscope, outlineOne preset, one camera, two switches

01

Shape

Bends the coordinates before the pattern samples them, so it reshapes the geometry rather than dimming it.

Controls

Mirror X/Y folds the aperture. Kaleidoscope cuts it into mirrored wedges, with its own spin. Pixelate quantises it. Distort pushes it around with noise at its own scale and speed.

02

Level

Reworks the finished mask, once the pattern already exists.

Controls

Invert. Outline keeps only the edge. Gain multiplies then clamps, which fattens thin lines. Pulse with rate and shape. Edge Fade vignettes toward the rim of the beam.

AudioPro

Point the kick drum
at any slider.

Bake a track’s loudness onto the projector, then route it. Light power, global speed, line width, strobe rate — anything with a number.

Bake

A file browser, a frequency band and an attack/release. 20–120 Hz is the kick.

Gate

Square bakes a hard on/off instead of an envelope.

Route

Light Power, Global Speed, Emission Strength, or any knob on the pattern, second pattern, effects, trace, shape or colour stages.

Range

Each route gets a Quiet and a Loud value. The baked range is measured, so a quiet clip still moves things.

After

Routes are ordinary Map Range nodes in the light tree. Tune them by hand in the Shader Editor.

Low band › Power + Line WidthThis one has a track

Volumetric beams

Beams in the air,
without the fog.

Real volumetric scattering is the expensive way to see a beam. These are geometry: one thin emissive tube per beam, raycast so it stops where the light lands.

Red laser beams fanning past a dark statue, each shaft crisp in the air Beam Fan · mesh beams · no volume in the scene
Geometry, not scatteringSeconds, not hours

Renders in seconds

Camera-visible geometry, so it is noise-free at any brightness. Let the tubes carry the intensity and keep the real light’s power low.

Works in Eevee

The beam object is a mesh. Only the projected pattern needs Cycles.

Casts nothing

No shadows, no bounce light, nothing for the rest of the scene to react to.

Beam fan
Beam FanA row, swaying
Crossing beams
Beam CrossWarehouse look
Ring of beams
Beam RingTurns, breathes
Sweeping bar of beams
Beam ScanSweeps, bounces

Shape

Hairlines are 3 mm.

Radius in metres, taper along the length, a max length for when a beam hits nothing, and the Hit Surface it raycasts against.

Hit spots

An emissive soft disc where each beam lands, drawn by the light’s own shader so both sides agree. Noise-free, which is what lets the real light sit at a low power.

Look

Core, halo, falloff.

Intensity and edge glow on the crisp core, halo size and strength for the soft scattered glow around it, extinction for brightness lost per metre.

Forward scatter

Beams brighten when the camera looks back toward the source, the way real haze does. It is the detail that stops mesh beams reading as tubes.

Life

Dust and flicker.

Drifting motes along the beam at their own speed and scale, per-beam brightness jitter, and a fade out.

One source of truth

Beam count, width, sway, speed and seed live in Pattern Settings and reach the geometry through drivers, so the tubes and the projected pattern can never disagree.

Colour

A laser doesn’t
pick its colour.

It emits one wavelength, and that decides everything. Choose from the lines real diodes and DPSS modules actually produce, and the colour follows.

405 → 660 nm, one power settingWatch the lm/W, not the swatch

Nothing changes in that clip but the wavelength. The number beside it is luminous efficacy — how much of that optical power the eye actually registers — and it runs from 1 lm/W at 405 nm through 607 at 532 and back down to 131 at 638. That is why a green show laser looks so much brighter than a red one of the same wattage, and why two of the lines come back flagged outside sRGB, desaturated to display: your monitor cannot reach them.

Nine real lines

405 violet through 660 deep red, including 532 nm DPSS green — the classic show laser, and the reason shows are green.

Gamut honesty

Several laser lines are outside sRGB entirely. The panel says so rather than pretending, and desaturates only for display.

Rainbow

Blend the flat colour into a hue sweep across the aperture. Repeats sets the cycles, Hue Speed animates it.

Per element

Hue from the pattern’s own cells, bars or beams instead of position. Real multi-colour RGB looks.

Camera look

A laser in a photo
is never clean.

The beam is. The camera is not. One compositor group puts the sensor and the glass back: bloom, anamorphic streaks, halation, dispersion, vignette, grain.

The same render twice: clean out of Cycles on the left, with bloom, halation and grain on the right
Left: Cycles · Right: Laser: CameraSame render, one node between them

Stages run in optical order, because that is the order a real camera applies them and swapping any two looks wrong in a way that is hard to name. Each one is a slider; set it to 0 and that stage is off.

One node

It splices itself into the scene’s compositor. Nothing else to wire.

Ten knobs

Exposure, Bloom and its size, Streaks and their angle, Halation, Chromatic Aberration, Distortion, Vignette, Grain.

Grain

Needs Blender 4.5 and is simply absent on 4.2 and 4.4. Everything else is on every supported version.

The Laser: Camera compositor node, with ten labelled sliders from Exposure to Grain
The node itselfDefaults shown

Three editions.
One package name, so a .blend opens in all of them and upgrading is install over the top.

What you get

Free, Lite
and Pro.

All three are on this page — pick one at the top. Lower editions are not the full add-on with buttons greyed out; the modules are physically absent from the zip.

FreeLitePro
Animated presetsEvery one is already moving 83334
Area and Spot projectorsAim at cursor, convert between types, preview wall ✓✓✓
Volumetric beamsMesh tubes, hit spots, dust, forward scatter ✓✓✓
Wavelength colour and rainbowNine real laser lines, eye-response weighted ✓✓✓
Camera look compositor groupBloom, streaks, halation, dispersion, vignette, grain ✓✓✓
Scene helpers and render optimiserDemo target, atmosphere, laser-friendly Cycles settings ✓✓✓
Second patternAny preset layered, five blend modes —✓✓
Effects: Shape and LevelMirror, kaleidoscope, pixelate, distort, outline, gain, pulse —✓✓
My PresetsSave, copy and paste a whole look between lights and files —✓✓
Galvo traceFour scan paths, head, trail, persistence ——✓
Audio reactivityBake a band, route it to any setting ——✓
Image / Video presetProject a still or a clip, masked on alpha ——✓
Text and SVG projectionRendered to a transparent image and projected as a stencil ——✓
Sold hereAll three are variants of this listing — pick one at the top of the page ✓✓✓

Start lower and move up whenever you like. The package folder is laser_projector in all three, so a file saved in one edition opens in another and upgrading is installing over the top — no migration, no rebuilding a scene. Presets a lower edition does not ship simply are not in its dropdown.

Before you install

What it needs.

One hard requirement, and it is worth knowing which half of the add-on it applies to.

Blender

4.2 LTS and newer. Tested through 5.2 LTS.

Renderer

Cycles for projected patterns — light node trees are a Cycles-only feature. The panel spots another engine and offers a one-click switch.

Eevee

Volumetric beams are geometry, so they render there too. The projected pattern does not.

Install

A zip, through Preferences › Add-ons › Install from Disk.

Where

3D Viewport sidebar (N), Laser tab.

Output

Shader node groups on the light and an optional Geometry Nodes object. Plain Blender data, no bake step.

Licence

GPL-3.0-or-later. What you make with it is yours.

Known limits, stated up front

Eevee

Ignores light node trees entirely. Mesh beams still work; the pattern does not appear.

Area size

An Area projector’s beam is exactly the size of the light. A 4 m object needs a 4 m light, or a Spot.

Audio bake

Needs a Blender window; it cannot run in a background render. Bake once, save, and the curve renders fine on a farm.

Slot B

Takes any preset except Image / Video, which owns its own UV node and stays in slot A.

Images

An Image projector keeps its picture on the light tree, so switching away from the preset and back forgets it.

Before you buy

The honest answers.

Click a question.

Half of it. Blender only evaluates light node trees in Cycles, so the projected pattern is Cycles only and there is no way around that from an add-on. The Volumetric Beams object is ordinary emissive geometry, so beams, hit spots and dust render in Eevee at Eevee speed.

Laser Projector v1.4.0

Lasers that look filmed.
Not rendered.

One light, thirty-four patterns, and a node tree you can open when you want something the panel does not offer.

Blender 4.2 – 5.2 Cycles GPL-3.0-or-later Free updates

Also on the shelf

Two more
for the camera.

Same author, same approach: everything they make comes out as plain Blender data you can keep working on.

Cineflow

Place timed waypoints, get an arc-length path you can reshape, then retime speed, lens, look-at and shake from one panel.

View on Superhive →

Cine Drone

Draw a line through the scene and a physics pilot flies it, banking into turns, braking early, running wide when pushed.

View on Superhive →