Lasers for VFX

Using a galvo based laser projector for this probably will not work. For a start, it sounds like it's being used to set up cameras or something on relation to points on the screen. A galvo based system would flicker on camera, so 1/2 the grid probably wouldn't show up.

It's also expensive, and can't handle many points before serious flicker kicks in.

What you might be better off doing is using a higher powered laser (15mW is not going to blind anyone through any kind of diffraction grating), and use some sort of filter to decrease the intensity of the center dot. A basic lighting gel would work for these powers.

wow guys, thank you for all the great info. i will do some research on projectors and get back you. i do have a decent budget so i really need to figure out what is going to be the best method for my purposes.

A laser projector might be the way to go. If a galvo projector is going to flicker then yes that would be very bad for my purposes. the orientation of dots and relation to the camera are not very important but they must be stable, essentially as if a grid were printed onto the screen itself.

the center dot being brighter is also not a bad thing, just the edge dots falling off to the point of not reading on camera would be bad. IE fewer visible dots.

I am not sure if a standard projector would do the trick because of brightness. The dots would have to be visible in daylight situations as well as low light.

Unfortunately, I can't do much research today but when I can I will devise a plan and definitely check back in here before I take any action.

Thanks again to everyone for the great advice!!

Laser projectors are galvo based projectors so as Things said, that wouldn't work for you.

Just a bit off topic but I gotta know...
Where/how/why did you pick your username as "space" ?

Knew a guy 20 years ago in the TV biz and he ended up being nicknamed 'Space".

What about a Kenect? It projects a grid of dots which are safe to view apparently.. their IR though if you don't need to see them with the naked eye that would work too... If you do need to see the points that wouldn't work and you can ignore me

@kevlar
ahh i get it now, laser projector = galvo = flicker. yeah that won't work for me. I'm thinking my best solution is going to be sticking with the laser pointers and maybe adding more of them if i can fashion some sort of rig.

@guyfromhe
IR won't work for me because they need to be visible to the naked eye, and therefore also visible to a standard camera.

@shortyincanada
I don't really have a good reason for space as my username other than I use it as my username for many other sites. I've only been in the biz for about 12 years, but maybe one day i will run into your buddy "space".