Virtual Light Lab Gets an Update and Video

Virtual Light Lab has been in my lighting tool box for over 15 years. I only know its been this long because I started using it before I was married. Virtual Light Lab is a tool used in the early stages of design to work out basic color, angle and intensities for your lighting design and can be used to story board your design to communicate your thoughts to a director or other members of the production team. Without taking time to hang a lot of lights, you can quickly hang a light then move it to over 50 positions in order to get the angle you want. At the same time you can choose from over 1000 different color filters or us a color mixing system to choose the perfect color. Before I used light lab I tended to stick with colors I knew or at least one companies colors. Since light lab I now regularly use three or for filter manufacturers. Once you create a look you can put your model into a stage scene and record that look to play back in a slide show. Each look you save you can have the looks fade in time and create a storyboard for the show.  Another feature I like when teaching lighting is the draw beam function. It shows the beams and gives some basic information about the beam angles. Below are the list of features for the Westside Systems Website:

• Over 70 lighting positions including footlights
• 1,100 standard filter colors
• CMY and RGB color mixing
• CIE chromaticity map
• Breakup gobo
• Display beam angle and direction
• Face lighting detail view
• Place multiple models on the stage, each lighted differently
• Select from over two dozen model poses and orientations
• Five backdrops, plus import any image as a custom backdrop
• Four-circuit color mixing on backdrops, top and bottom
• Record scenes, then play them back with timed fades
• Create QuickTime movies
• Print or export stage images
• Easy to learn and use
• Fast image rendering

Some of the new features in this update include better backdrop management, color names were added to the program, insert blackouts  and in a lighting look you can see the CIE chromaticity of your color palate.  The drawbacks are the program could use one or two gobo choices  and it needs ability to paint the model and keep the skin tones a different color from the model. On of the best new features was you can now record a video of your slide show with several different video output options. Here is on I created in just minutes of downloading the upgrade.

This application is a must have for a designers toolbox. The prices are reasonable $149 and $239 for an individual license. The upgrade is$ 20 for the individual and $50 for a site license. It saves me time in my early design phase by giving me lighting angles at my finger tips and saves me time looking through thousands of gel swatches. It also is a great way to show off your preliminary work to your fellow designers and directors. Its easy to use and a great teaching tool. Each year I do a lighting workshop for high school students and with in five minutes of turning on the program they are creating lighting looks. I have argued with some over the years who say Virtual Light Lab is not 100% accurate. I say find me a visualization program that is that accurate. It is hard to represent on a 2d screen what light that is emitted from a source, bounces off an object, absorbs some light and then is reflected into the eye.  If you want a program that will show off how the lights will work in the space another program like WYSIWYG or Vectorworks, but the set up time in those programs is 10-20 time longer.  Virtual Light Lab is fast, easy to learn, and can help you narrow your choices in order to start to do some real world tests.I highly recommend this product and suggest downloading the demo today.