Live Laser Show from Any Video Source

LIVE mode in Video to Laser traces moving pictures continuously and drives a laser in real time. This recipe walks four show-ready setups, from a one-song logo moment to a full VJ rig. Everything below runs from the same page: open Video to Laser and switch the toggle at the top to LIVE.

1. The "Laser Writes Your Logo" Reveal

The signature arena moment: a beam draws your logo onto a surface, stroke by stroke, with a bright pen-tip leading the line. This is the effect crowds read as "the laser is writing."

1. Source → FILE and load your logo — a high-contrast image (light marks on a dark background) or a short logo animation. Clean line art traces best; a filled logo works too, traced as its outline.
2. Leave Trace on its Silhouette default for a solid shape, or choose Edges when you intentionally want paired outlines from line art.
3. Nudge Detail down and Simplify up until the trace overlay on the left shows one clean set of lines — every stray speck costs points from the budget meter.
4. MODIFIERS → + ADD → Trace Reveal. Set Duration to taste (2–4 s reads well) and keep Leading dot on — that bright dwell dot is the "pen tip" that sells the effect. Leave Keep laser trace off when the projector should retain the revealed logo while the physical laser remains only at the active contact. Turn it on when you intentionally want the accumulated laser outline too. Hold sets the laser-off pause before a loop; turn Loop off for a one-shot reveal.
5. Optional: add Contact FX immediately after Trace Reveal for projector-only glow and sparks at the moving contact.

Make it read huge: pair the laser with a video projector

The famous stage versions of this effect are two layers on one surface: a video projector supplies a soft glow and afterglow, and the laser supplies the impossibly crisp bright line on top. You can build exactly that:

1. Point a video projector and your laser at the same screen or wall.
2. Send the same logo content to the projector (dimmed well below the laser).
3. Press GRID in the SOURCE + TRACE panel. The identical calibration pattern appears on the video preview and in the laser output — warp your laser's projection zone until the two grids sit exactly on top of each other, then turn GRID off.

The audience sees one luminous object: the projector's halo with the laser's live-drawn core. Alignment takes about a minute and needs no other software.

2. A Laser That Follows Your VJ Rig

If you perform with VJ software or any full-screen visuals, the laser can trace whatever your rig is already playing — no plugin inside the VJ app, no second timeline to cue, nothing to drift out of sync, because the laser is reading the same picture the audience sees.

1. Source → SCREEN and pick your VJ software's output window (or the tab or display playing your visuals).
2. Choose Trace: Edges for graphic content, Silhouette for high-contrast footage.
3. Raise Smoothness until the trace stops shimmering between frames — live video benefits from more smoothing than a static logo.
4. Layer modifiers on top. Spotlights with Follow subject on centers the moving gobos on the element; Beam Runners turns any clip into comet trails racing its outlines.

3. Beat-Driven Effects — the Laser Listens

Modifiers can follow the music directly, not just the picture:

1. Open Settings → AUDIO — the header gear, or the sliders icon on the playback pill over the preview — and choose a source — a microphone or audio interface (put the mic near your monitors, or feed it from your mixer), tab audio, a file, or the demo track.
2. Press BIND next to any numeric modifier parameter and click through the bands: LOW, MID, HIGH, overall LEVEL, or the BEAT pulse.

Combinations that work on a dance floor:

Modes stack — run Trace Reveal under Beam Runners and both react at once. SAVE PRESET writes the whole chain, bindings included, to a file you can reload at the next show or share with another BeamTracer user; the preset reproduces the complete look.

4. Live Camera Silhouette

Trace a performer, a dancer's hands, or yourself, live:

1. Source → CAMERA. Stand against a dark backdrop with light on the subject.
2. If the room still creates distracting lines, press REMOVE BG in the SOURCE + TRACE header so only the person reaches the trace. Leave it off when the backdrop already gives a cleaner, faster result.
3. Set Trace → Silhouette so the beam draws the body outline rather than every fold of clothing.
4. Keep Detail modest and Smoothness high — a stable, simple outline reads far better on a scanner than a jittery detailed one.
5. Add Spotlights with Follow subject on, and the gobos track the performer around the frame.

Going to Hardware

When the look is ready in Preview: pick your scanner speed, leave the default-on Motion guard enabled to fade a parked dot pattern to black at about two seconds, choose an output (Helios over USB directly from the browser, or Ether Dream / LaserCube through the BeamTracer DAC bridge with its pairing token), and complete the explicit two-step ARM. Any dot movement restores output immediately, while repeating lines and shapes remain visible because their scanner point keeps moving. BLACKOUT — the button or the Esc key — blanks output instantly at any time. Direct Helios frames play once instead of looping after browser delivery stops. Output blanks if the browser tab leaves the foreground, and nothing ever arms itself.

Further Reading