skip to content

News

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!

How Monos was Designed

Apr 04, 2025 Posted by: Aaron Oppenheimer
How Monos was Designed
You got the origin story of Monos earlier this week - today we’re telling the next part of the Monos story, and diving deeper into its design. Missed Part 1? See it here.
 
Our Mechanical Engineer & Industrial Designer, Gene was able to take the concept Cameron and Ryan had lovingly conceived and developed into solid prototypes, and bring it to a fully fleshed out, manufacturable product. Here’s what he had to say about Monos:
 
Monos has a clean aesthetic that focuses on geometric balance and the 'square' axial symmetry. 
Showing off Monos' five separated illuminated surfaces 
We wanted this product to impart a visual sense of equilibrium and harmony through the use of simple, symmetrical shapes.
 
This energy makes the product feel natural. Like it inherently belongs and wasn’t made by an outside creator, but just appeared as an organic part of the space. The square motif is present practically everywhere in this product - imparting stability and grounded energy to the product and the space it's placed in.

The Monos Core - the LED base inside the outer diffusing shell. What we love about Monos is that it can be used with, or without the outer Diffuser.

I take pride in forming the concepts and driving execution behind many of the distinguishing aspects of Monos' presentation:
 
  • The hands-off IR sensor that allows contactless operation of the device is sure to be appreciated by everyone.
  • One of the signature design elements of the product are its individually-visible diffuser faces. What this means is that each of Monos’ five faces can be individually controlled, and set a distinct, separate color. 
  • I was able to integrate a “button” into the product that can be pressed just by squeezing the base. This kept our internal electrical system simple and compact, minding the tight space available.
  • This diffuser snaps onto the core of the product with ease. This allows people to easily enjoy Monos with, or without the diffuser. We also plan on designing and releasing different diffuser shapes down the road that can be easily interchanged and still be illuminated by the core of Monos.

A cross section of the Computer Design File of Monos, showing off the Outer Light Diffuser, the internal LED core (LEDs are the green dots) and the internal Circuit board in orange. 

Monos is clean and simple, but also has a great depth to it's refined design. I'm stoked to have contributed to this creation and look forward to seeing it shine its light all around the world. Check it out here.

~ The Fluora Team ~