This project is very customizable. Below you'll find instructions on how to design your own illusion, as well as the finished file in .svg format, if you'd like to make this one. It's easy to resize or adjust the rotation to get it looking just how you want.
This design was done directly in LightBurn, the software used by the lasers at my local MakerSpace. It's also not too hard to replicate in Inkscape or Illustrator if that's your preferred editing software.
Size & Depth
I used two pieces of 1/8" acrylic I found in the scrap bin at my local Tap Plastics which were about 20" long and 6" wide. I did some math and figured I could get 12 squares cut out of each piece, at 3" across.
I ended up using 21 layers total instead of 24 because I wanted the finished project to be cube-shaped, and needed to leave some space at the back of my case to fit the microcontroller.
At just 3" across, one strip of lights illuminates the whole thing very well. If I were to make a bigger version, which I very well may, I would try wiring up two strips of lights using the same GPIO data pin so they're mirrored, and putting one at the top and one at the bottom.
Open LightBurn and select the rectangle tool. Draw a rectangle or square the size you want. Get it exact by typing in dimensions in the Width and Height boxes. Click the lock icon to edit these separately, or leave it "locked" to change height automatically to scale with width.
Look in the toolbar for a button that says "mm" or "in" to change between metric or imperial units.
Select Arrange > Grid / Array to duplicate this box as many times as you have layers to cut. I used 21 layers so did 3 rows of 7 boxes, and I made the spacing between them pretty small for more efficient use of my plastic.
Import your shape. You can import a vector graphic or copy/paste a simple line drawing of the shape you want. If you're starting from an image, go to Tools / Trace and LightBurn will trace your image and make a vector you can cut.
Move your graphic inside your first box and size it so it fills most of the box but leaves enough around the edges so your finished piece will hold up. If it's too close to the edges it might break so leave a little space around it.
Click the graphic and then the surrounding box. You may need to ungroup the boxes if all of them become selected at once when you click one. Click the "center" button in the toolbar to center the shape inside the box.
Select only the star and copy/paste it into the next box. Center it. Now, add a slight variation in size and rotation to start to create "frames" for the motion effect we're going for.
Select the center radio button in the rotation grid so your star rotates around its center instead of its corner.
I resized the star to 98% (with the lock icon in the "locked" position I just need to change height OR width, not both) and then added 2 degrees of rotation.
Copy this new instance of your star to the clipboard and paste it into the next box. Repeat the same variation -- 98% size and 2 degrees rotation. Center the star, copy the new instance and paste into the fourth box.
Repeat until all the boxes are filled.
Tip: I found that using the tab key to "activate" my changes instead of clicking out of the box made my life easier here, since I didn't need to keep re-selecting the star again and again.
Also, feel free to experiment with the variations. In my finished project I made the last 6 layers shrink and rotate a little bit more: I changed them by 4% and 4 degrees instead of by 2. This makes the motion seem to accelerate a bit as it reaches the back of my box.
All lasers will have different settings for cutting acrylic. The settings will depend on your laser type and amount of power available. For the Aeon Nova laser at my makerspace, a speed of 20 and power of 95% worked great. If you're not sure, start with a scrap piece and do a few test cuts. Getting your laser dialed in so it cuts at the right speed and power will minimize burn marks and flash marks -- very important for this project since we want the acrylic to stay as clear as possible since we're shining light through it.
Once your pieces are cut, it's very important to keep them in the correct order and orientation. With this design it's hard to tell which is right-side-up and which is upside-down or sideways. Stack them up in order right from the laser bed and keep them that way, or you'll be flipping them all around and scratching your head to get them lined up again.
Page last edited November 03, 2025
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