Introduction

Lasershow Converter 4D is a plug-in for the computer graphics program Cinema 4D. Lasershow Converter 4D automatically converts Cinema 4D objects into laser show animations. The objects can be any renderable geometric or shape object, including meshes1), particles, and NURBS. The objects can be created in Cinema 4D, or they can be imported from other programs supporting standard 3D formats like *.3ds or *.dxf.

Lasershow Converter 4D can look at these objects, determine the color and position of lines, and translate these into information needed for optimal display on a laser projector.

Since Lasershow Converter 4D is a plug-in, you can interactively create animations for laser display, with playback from within Cinema 4D. Once you are satisfied with the animations, save them as frames to be played back using Pangolin's BEYOND program.

Below you will see a few sample Cinema 4D scenes and their laser counterparts. As you can see, Lasershow Converter 4D makes intelligent decisions about where to put lines and what color to make these lines. It also optimally places points for laser projectors. And it does all of this with the click of a single button!

scenes 1, 3, and 4 are used by permission.

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1)
A mesh is defined as: “A surface composed of many connected planar facets, usually used as an approximation to a continuous curved surface.” A mesh model is defined as: “A graphical model with a mesh surface constructed from polygons. The polygons in a mesh are described by the graphics system as solid faces, rather than as hollow polygons, as is the case with wireframe models.”