💡 Stage Lighting Design Lab

You're at the lighting console. Mix red, green, and blue light into any color, aim it from the front, sides, or behind your performer, save every look as a cue — then press GO and run your show.

🎭 Design your first look

💡 Fixtures — pick a light, then mix its color

Red255

Green180

Blue80

Fixture intensity80%

Warm amber. High red, medium green, low blue — the classic "warm" stage wash.

🎨 Looks — one-click starting points

🎬 Cue Stack — save looks, then run the show

No cues yet. Design a look above, then save it. Save two or more and the GO button will fade between them — exactly how a real show runs.

Lighting Design Essentials

🔴🟢🔵 Light Adds Up

Stage lights mix additively — the opposite of paint. Red + green light makes yellow, green + blue makes cyan, red + blue makes magenta, and all three at full power make white. Try it on the sliders: start at zero and build colors up.

🔥❄️ Warm vs. Cool

When a director asks for a "warm" scene, they mean amber, gold, and soft pink — colors that read as sunlight, candlelight, comfort, and energy. "Cool" means blues and lavenders — night, moonlight, sadness, distance. The same set can feel like a summer afternoon or a lonely midnight with nothing changed but the color of the light.

🧭 Direction Tells the Story

Front light makes faces visible — necessary, but flat on its own. Side light sculpts: it carves out bodies in space, which is why dance is lit almost entirely from the sides. Back light separates the performer from the background with a rim of light — kill the front light and it becomes pure silhouette, the most dramatic look on stage.

🎚 Intensity Is Time of Day

A wash at 100% feels like noon; the same color at 40% feels like evening. Brightness sets energy: full intensity for a dance number, a dim pool of light for a confession. If a scene feels wrong and the color is right, try the intensity before anything else.

🎬 Cues Are Storytelling

A lighting cue is a saved "look" — every fixture's color and level — that plays back on the word GO. Shows are a stack of cues fired in order, each fade timed to the scene. A slow 5-second sunset fade and a snap blackout tell completely different stories with the same two looks.

Production Design Briefs

🗞 Brief 1 — Newsboy Energy

It's 1899 New York at dawn and the newsboys are waking up the city. Build a look that says grit, hope, and hustle — think warm but not cozy. Save it as a cue named "Carrying the Banner."

✊ Brief 2 — Revolution

The strike begins. What RGB values say defiance? Design the biggest, boldest look you can, then decide: does the back light make them heroes or shadows? Save it as "The World Will Know."

🍫 Brief 3 — Pure Imagination

Now flip worlds completely: the gates of the Chocolate Factory swing open. Candy-colored, saturated, magical — nothing that could ever appear in 1899 New York. Save it as "The Factory Reveal."

🏚 Brief 4 — The Bucket Shack

Poverty, cold, and love in a broken little house. How little color can still be beautiful? Dim, grey-blue, one fixture doing most of the work. Save it as "Bucket Shack," then GO between it and "The Factory Reveal" — that contrast is the whole show.

🌇 Brief 5 — Run Your Show

Put all four cues in order and press GO through the sequence. Watch the fades: does each transition serve the story? A designer's job isn't pretty pictures — it's the journey between them.