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The Secret: A Video Launching Monos to The Public

Aug 14, 2025 Posted by: Aaron Oppenheimer
The Secret: A Video Launching Monos to The Public
Earlier this month, we released my favorite video we’ve ever made. 
 
Here’s the story behind it:
 
Our videographer Zev and I are long time friends, and have always talked about wanting to work together. A year ago, we were able to carve out a budget to begin producing more premium videos than what our internal team had been making with an iPhone.
 
Zev’s a talented director, and also a Fluora fan and customer. He was the perfect to help us take Fluora content to the next level. 
 
Zev started out just editing raw footage that our internal team had filmed into finished videos for social media. Next, he made a series of product assembly and demo videos that served a specific purpose on our website.
 
After a few months, Zev came to me and said he didn’t think he was doing his best work with us. What he truly wanted was to oversee the whole creative process of higher concept videos, from ideation and scripting, to filming and directing, then editing the final video. I was weary to dedicate even more resources to content, but could tell we needed to give it a shot.
 
We made two videos with this new workflow, which were released a couple months ago. Both helped us really tell the story behind what we do and our products in a more elegant way and reach tons of new people. One of them has over 1.3 million views on TikTok. It was clear he was right, and that we had finally figured out a way to produce higher value content for Fluora.
 
We studied the success of the viral video, which we called “The Problem” and doubled 
down on the main elements that we felt made it special. One of those things was an attention grabbing first shot that differentiated “normal lights” from the LED Art products we make. This would grab a viewer’s attention and set the stage for us to tell a longer, more heartfelt story. 
 
The first shot for the secret would involve me breaking a light bulb with a plastic hammer. Over the top? Definitely. But we felt empowered to go for it. The day of filming, we filmed the glass breaking shot first at around 9 am - and nailed it in one take. This set the tone for the rest of the shoot, where the following scenes all just seemed to come together and flow.
The final video shows off both Zev’s, and the rest of the great Fluora team's skillset and dedication beautifully. Our new product, Monos is the star of the video. Monos is the culmination of everything we’ve learned over the last 10 years of making Art Installations, and represents our team fully hitting its stride as artists attempting to manufacture products for the home. Meaningful contributions from everyone that we’ve worked with are on display in this video, and that is why it’s my favorite we’ve ever made.
 
Hope you like it!

Mirage: A Perlin Noise Inspired Lighting Animation

Aug 14, 2025 Posted by: Aaron Oppenheimer
Mirage: A Perlin Noise Inspired Lighting Animation
Today we're diving deep into our newest and most sophisticated animation yet: Mirage.
 
Mirage really makes Fluora feel alive, and pushes the limit of the technology we've been developing for the last 5+ years. It's a lighting animation that unfolds and changes over many hours, rather than a typical lighting animation, which repeats itself over and over again. 
 
Because of this, you can display Mirage in your home night after night, and have it create a tranquil, soothing vibe in your space that never feels old or stale.
 
It's been no small effort to re-build the 3D lighting engine we use for larger installations for Fluora products, which have way less resources to perform complex calculations.
 
Because of this, for a while, we weren't able to create more dynamic "procedural animations" for display on Fluora products, even though we used them in our bigger art installations. After lots of lighting engine and overall software optimization, we are finally able to use the Fluora lighting engine to display lighting animations that are generated in real time using algorithms.
 
Mirage is the first of many to come of more elevated, interesting animations that you will be able to pick from when enjoying our products.
 
The backbone of the animation is an algorithm called Perlin Noise - which is essentially an advanced random number generator. Perlin Noise was created by an engineer to give more realistic texture to nature and natural textures, when recreating it in video games and computer graphics. It was first used in the original TRON movie that came out in 1982. 
 
Here, we've re-imagined it, and added in unpredictable color changes and gradients, a virtual reflecting lens, and some other surprises.  
 
To display this animation, make sure your Fluora is updated to the most recent firmware and go into the control panel within manual mode, and select the Mirage animation from the list.
 
Hope you like it as much as we do!
 

The Cloud Room at Electric Forest Music Festival

Aug 14, 2025 Posted by: Aaron Oppenheimer
The Cloud Room at Electric Forest Music Festival
Today we wanted to do a deep dive of our recently Cloud Room installation, which was a part of the famed Dream Emporium at Electric Music Forest Music Festival in Michigan back in June.
 
The concept was an LED Cloud room - with the entire ceiling and ground covered by clouds, making someone feel like they had just stepped into the sky. All of the clouds on the ceiling are laced with addressable LED lights, allowing them to shimmer and sparkle with mesmerizing lighting animations and effects.
 
We wanted the audience to feel a sense of wonder and calmness when spending time in the room, and stay for a while as they relax and connect with each other.
 

Festival go-ers enjoying the Cloud Room

Getting to the Cloud Room was no small feat. It's a secret space nestled inside a gigantic maze of rooms constructed inside an old Aircraft Hanger transformed into a multi hour immersive experience. To enter the room, you have to climb up a small ladder on top of the bed of a Monsters' Inc. inspired bedroom, somewhere inside the Emporium.

The entryway to the Cloud Room. You entered by climbing up one of the two ladders in the back up into the room.

Here's how we built it:
 
We broke the installation down into individual "cloud panels" that were about 6 feet by 3 feet wide. Each panel was made from a chicken wire mesh frame, which natural cotton polyester filling was attached to, which made up the cloud and the cloud's internal structure. On the inside of the cloud were LED strips, which were pressed up against the cloud so they could shine through the surface. 

The guts of a single LED Cloud. Notice the chicken wire mesh that gives the cloud it's shape, and the LED strips ziptied to the mesh.

All of the cloud panels were built on the ground, then lifted up and stapled to the ceiling one by one.

Installing the individual "Cloud Panels" onto the ceiling

After the physical installation was complete, the lighting programming was done - a process we call "designing the experience."
 
The vision was to have a 30 minute, looping audiovisual experience that mimicked an entire day, starting from Sunrise and Morning time, to Afternoon, a Thunderstorm, to Sunset and then finally Night Time. The soundscapes for each phase would match the lighting programming directly, really making the audience feel wholly immersed in a world of clouds.

Cameron, working on programming for the 30 minute audiovisual experience

Thousands of festival go-ers came through the room over the 4 day festival - we loved seeing their reactions, joy, and amazing connections they made while in the room.
 
It's always a bummer to have to tear down temporary installations we put so much time and energy into, but we're excited to have it back up at next year's festival!

The finished experience!