How Do I Keep My Image's Colors in a Laser Animation?

To keep an image's colors in BeamTracer Image to Laser, leave Preserve source colors on under TRACE. For a bitmap, COLOR lists the detected colors so you can change one swatch at a time. Turn preservation off when you want one palette color across the whole drawing.

Hi, I'm Trina with BeamTracer.com. Start with a few clear colors. It's easier to spot an unwanted change in a three-color emblem than in a detailed photograph.

The downloaded ILDA animation replaying in Cinema with an orbiting camera. Cyan, pink and yellow come from the traced image. This is a software simulation; all examples are silent.

How do I preserve the colors while tracing an image?

Use your own PNG, JPEG or WebP, or save this three-color sample artwork. The sample is an original line drawing with a transparent background.

Colors 3, Center line, Preserve source colors on and the PULSE Quick Start. PULSE creates a Soft Pulse modifier; this example uses its 3-second duration at 30 FPS.

The detected palette is a simplified version of the bitmap. Raising Colors can retain more shades, including small edge-color variations. It can also create more contours. Keep enough colors for the design, then inspect the picture and point budget together.

SVG artwork can retain its path colors directly. The bitmap controls above apply when tracing a raster image. The Image to Laser guide covers both inputs.

How do I change one color without changing the others?

Keep Preserve source colors on, then choose a source-color swatch under COLOR. Change that swatch to replace its detected region. RESET COLORS restores the detected palette.

The yellow region changes to orange, then green. RESET COLORS returns it to yellow. The other source colors stay in place.

A swatch controls a detected color group, so two separate parts of a logo that share that color change together. Use artwork with distinct colors when you need to recolor those parts independently.

How do I make the whole drawing one color?

Turn Preserve source colors off. The COLOR section now shows the laser palette. Pick a swatch to apply it across the traced paths.

Preservation off: the entire drawing changes from magenta to cyan, then yellow.

Turn preservation back on to return to the source-color workflow. If you want to judge those source colors, start with PULSE. A Quick Start such as NEON INK deliberately adds changing color, which makes that comparison harder.

How do I check the exported animation?

Press DOWNLOAD ILDA, then load the saved .ild file in ILDA Viewer. For this sample, set Playback FPS → 30 and Beat sync → OFF so you can inspect the three-second animation at its intended playback rate.

The source-color PULSE animation prepared for download. The native export contains 90 frames.

The downloaded file reopened in the viewer. Check this plain 2D view as well as Cinema: it makes the path colors easier to compare without the simulated room lighting.

An ILDA file contains colored points and animation frames. It does not carry the source bitmap or the viewer's camera and fog settings, and your external player controls playback speed. Check file health before connecting hardware, and follow the laser safety guide. A software preview cannot certify a projector setup or its color accuracy.