Laser Canvas Editor

Applies to SuperStage 26H2.6 and later ｜ Read first: Laser Animation Asset

Double-click a laser animation asset to open the editor.

1. Interface

Position	Tab	Content
Left ~20%	Layers	Layer list: add, remove, reorder, show/hide, lock
Middle ~52%	Canvas	The canvas
Right ~30% (Layer in front)	Layer	Shape parameters for the current layer
	Effects	The effect stack
	Details	Asset-level settings: scan profile, tempo, preview devices, export settings

Day-to-day shape work happens on the Layer page; the scan profile and preview devices live on the Details page — that is where to look when you cannot find point count or point rate.

The strip under the canvas is a transport bar (play / stop / clock readout / tools / device dropdown / frame rate / display toggles), not a timeline — it has no scrubber. See Animation Asset, section 6.

2. The Three Tools

Three tool buttons at the top of the canvas, each with a shortcut (matching Illustrator / Photoshop):

Tool	Shortcut	Purpose
Select	`V`	Pick and drag layers
Nodes	`A`	Drag path points and their handles
Pen	`P`	Click to lay down path points

F also resets the view.

3. Canvas Operations

Operation	Description
Middle-mouse drag	Pan the canvas
Wheel	Zoom
`F`	Reset the view (zoom back to 1, pan to zero, fitting the window)

The device dropdown on the transport bar selects All Devices (ignore device routing and draw every layer) or one device, so you can see what that device actually projects. It only appears when there is more than one preview device, or the content contains per-device chase effects.

The canvas draws the scan field itself — a constant [-1, 1] square — not one device's real-world projection area.

4. The Select Tool

Operation	Description
Click	Select a layer
Ctrl / Shift click	Add to the selection, as in the Content Browser and outliner
Drag	Move the selected layers
Transform handles	Corners scale freely; edge-midpoint handles scale one axis only
Shift + corner handle	Uniform scale, so the shape does not distort

Clicking a layer that is already selected does not clear the rest of the selection — otherwise multi-selecting and then dragging would collapse to one layer the moment you pressed down.

5. The Nodes Tool

Layer content is cubic Bezier curves, with handles stored as offsets relative to the node, so handles follow when a node is dragged.

Operation	Description
Drag a node	Change the shape
Drag a handle	Change curvature. Both handles move symmetrically by default
Alt + drag a handle	Breaks the symmetry, so each handle moves on its own
Ctrl + click empty space	Inserts a node on the nearest segment
Drag in empty space	Marquee select
Ctrl + A	Select every node in the current layer
C	Toggle the corner marker (section 7)
Delete / Backspace	Delete selected nodes

Deleting several nodes merges into one undo. Switching layers clears edit state bound to indices, so it does not leak into the new layer.

Alt only breaks handle symmetry; it does not touch the corner marker. Combining the two would mean Alt-dragging a handle also marks the point as a corner — and a corner suppresses handles, so you would drag for a while with nothing happening.

6. The Pen Tool

Click to lay down path points one at a time. Esc finishes the stroke — use it when you want to start a separate contour, otherwise every click keeps extending the same one.

7. Corner Markers

The corner marker on a node is not decoration — it genuinely affects the bake. A node marked as a corner is allocated dwell samples during baking, giving the galvo time to turn. Unmarked nodes are treated as smooth transitions and the corner comes out rounded.

8. Text Layers

Text takes Bezier curves directly from font outlines, with no bitmap in between. So:

Scaling stays crisp;
It can be converted to a path and edited per node;
The point budget is allocated by the arc length of the glyph outlines, not by pixels.

Multi-line text layers copied and pasted across assets are not cut in half (the clipboard uses Base64 encoding).

The Layers page: a layer list with add, remove, reorder, show/hide and lock. Layers can be copied and pasted across assets (the clipboard uses Base64, so multi-line text is not cut in half).

The main toolbar has just three buttons:

Button	Purpose
SVG	Imports an SVG / Illustrator path as a new layer. It reads the vector data straight out of the file — nothing is imported into the project
Import ILDA	Reads a `.ild` file. A single frame becomes an editable shape; an animation keeps every frame and loops at its own rate
Export ILDA	Bakes to a `.ild` file. It asks how many frames first — this asset has no length of its own, so one frame gives a still and a sequence gives an animation

Add Layer sits on the layer list's own toolbar; To Path (turn a primitive or text into a per-node editable path) and the device dropdown sit on the transport bar below the canvas.

The five Add Layer groups:

Group	Contents
Import	SVG, ILDA, Trace 3D Mesh
Basic	Circle, Ellipse, Rectangle, Polygon, Star, Line, Arc, Cross
Curves	Spiral, Lissajous, Wave, Rose Curve, Heart, Grid
Beams	Single Beam, Beam Fan
Text	Glyph outlines from a font; edit the string and it regenerates immediately

Trace 3D Mesh traces a static mesh's outline from a view angle you can keep turning. It uses the mesh selected in the Content Browser, if there is one.

Two menu labels differ slightly from the primitive names: Rose Curve is Rose, and Single Beam is Beam Dot.

10. Curve Subdivision

A layer's Curve Detail (4–256) controls curve subdivision, and changes genuinely reach the evaluated result. Higher subdivision gives a more accurate shape and spends more of the point budget.

11. Transport Bar

The transport bar wraps: on a narrow canvas the controls fold onto the next row rather than being pushed out of view.

Import and export are on the asset editor's main toolbar.

Last updated Aug 30, 2026 · 6 min read