Design How do they do this?

[Alec spear]

Hey ControlBooth people,

I'm a big Later...with Jools Holland fan, and was wondering how they build/light the set pieces they have, that glow from the inside. If anyone could shed some light on it for me, that would be great.

Thanks

Examples:

http://www.microcuts.net/gallery/data/media/378/vlcsnap4.png

http://www.wearejames.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/1-jools-rehearsal.jpg

 

[zmb]

Generally anything that glows is made of translucent plastic around some sort of frame. Then a LED source can be stuck inside both to provide control over the color and not risk a fire with a tungsten fixture.

 

[Robert]

Made out of 1 x 2 and florescent light diffusers. cut to size and glued into frames. And yes, with LED pars inside. From the play "The Scene." Pretty cheap and easy.

 

[lghtingguy]

As mentioned they are all internally lit. You can cover a frame with any translucent material. We use a lot of translucent fabrics on frames, milk plexi or lexan work great as well.

The real trick to getting it even is making sure the light box has a white back and top and do your best to bouce the light off the farthest point you can hit. If the light hits the trnaslucent material close to the source you just get a big hot spot.

 

[techieman33]

A local church used air filters to make crosses and it looked pretty cool.

 

[LDTommy]

I've used both frosted corrugated plastic (cheap; brand-name Coroplast®), and frosted acrylic (spendy) with good results to light with LEDs similar to what you're looking at. Florescent light diffusers work well, but aren't very bendable/flexible.

 

[Robert]

I've used both frosted corrugated plastic (cheap; brand-name Coroplast®), and frosted acrylic (spendy) with good results to light with LEDs similar to what you're looking at. Florescent light diffusers work well, but aren't very bendable/flexible.

Yes the diffusers had a tendency to crack when cut on our band saw and break if we screwed it too tight to the wood frames.

 

[Ford]

There are a number of companies (Chauvet among them), who make spandex style truss covers. Then you can just put an LED par (the flatter the better) in the end to make it glow, and change color.

HTH,
-Ford