What’s a Light Plot?

Are you getting started as a lighting designer? Or are you simply curious about what lighting designers do to bring amazing productions to life?

Look no further. This blog will shine a light on everything you want to know about light plots.

A light plot is a schematic drawing that shows where lighting instruments are placed in relation to each other, the architecture of the theater or venue, and whatever scenery there might be.

Simple light plots only need to be 2D, since they are presented in a bird’s-eye view known as a “plan view.” Sections and elevations can be created to help understand where the lights are in 3D space.

To create a light plot of your own with Vectorworks Spotlight, follow these steps:

Make sure you understand what you’ll be lighting. If you’re lighting a musical production, for example, read the script and listen to the music that will be performed.

As you do this, write down your ideas about when and where the musical occurs. Note the production’s emotional overtones. These ideas you come up with will be implemented into your light plot.

Next, begin drawing the venue. This is called a ground plan, which is a flattened, 2D view of the scenery and venue.

Typically, your ground plan is drawn in 2D on a layer labeled either “Venue” or “Architecture.” 

If you want to draw the venue in 3D, you can use the Wall tool or trace polygons and extrude them to the correct height of the venue.

On a new layer, draw the scenery that’s provided to you by the scenic designer. Label the layer “Scenery.”

If the scenic designer also uses Vectorworks Spotlight, you can use Viewport Referencing to bring in their design. The scenic layer should include all borders, legs, and curtains, as you’ll need to make sure these objects will not interfere with the lighting of your production.

The next step is to draw a side view of your venue, also known as a lighting section. 

If you’re drafting in 3D, you can use Clip Cube, the Create Section Viewport command, or the Section Solids command to have Vectorworks do all the work for you. 

If you’re working in 2D, you’ll need to draw your section on its own layer. The section will help you determine the lighting angles and fixture types for the front and backlight. Typically, you’ll use ellipsoidals or lekos for the front light and parcans or fresnels for the backlight.

The section will also determine the trim heights of the lighting pipes for the audience’s sightlines. 

The elevation will help determine the side light angles and the types of lighting fixtures you’ll need. These fixtures are typically ellipsoidals.

If your elevation is a 2D drawing, it should be on its own layer.

To draw the light plot, use your previously created section to determine where to place the electrics on the downstage and upstage plane.

The way you label lighting positions is very important. Lighting positions are labeled from the proscenium or plaster line going both downstage and upstage and from stage left to stage right.

Starting at the proscenium, the first lighting pipe is “#1” or “1st Electric,” and then the “#2” or “2nd Electric,” and so on until you have all of your upstage lighting labeled.

Moving downstage from the proscenium, you’ll begin labeling again. The closest position to the downstage edge of the proscenium will be “FOH #1” or “Catwalk #1.” As you move further downstage from the proscenium, you’d label the next position “FOH #2.”

If you have a lighting grid, the grid pipes are labeled in the same manner, denoting upstage and downstage. However, these are labeled from “Pipe A” at stage left, moving to “Pipe B” as you head stage right.

So, for example, “A pipe,” “B pipe,” and “C pipe.” Lighting terms or box booms in the audience or front of house are then labeled as “SL #1 Box Boom,” “SL #2 Box Boom,” and so on.

Before you get to channeling and unit numbering, you’ll need to set up a Label Legend. Label Legends are unique to Vectorworks Spotlight, and they’re a graphical representation of how the information relates to a lighting instrument. Your Label Legend can be displayed in 2D or 3D space around a light.

For more on creating a Label Legend, click here.

You’ll now use the elevation in combination with the section to place your overhead lighting. You can also use focus points or focus circles to make sure that the whole stage is evenly lit.

Lighting instruments are numbered from stage left to stage right again.

Channel numbering organizes the lights in a plot in the manner you want to control them.

Channel numbers do not have to equate to dimmer numbers, as modern lighting consoles have what is called “soft patching.” This allows you to channel any way you want. One common method of channeling is to think of the different groups of lights as “systems.” 

You’ll have a front light system, a backlight system (or two if you’re using two-color backlight), a cross left (or xl) sidelight system, a cross right (or xr) sidelight system, and maybe some gobo or template systems. You can start with the first light that will illuminate the downstage left-most corner of the stage and call this “Channel 1.” The next light onstage would be “Channel 2” and so on across the stage in a single lane.

Color choices are another important tool lighting designers use to help tell the story onstage.

There are hundreds of colors or gels you can choose from, and many LED lights allow for literally millions of color choices. In a traditional light plot, color is indicated by a letter representing the color manufacturer and a number representing their specific color. So, you might have “R80” (Rosco 80 Primary Blue) or “L152” (Lee Pale Gold).

You would also put diffusion in the color field. Diffusion is used to soften the light or to change the beam of the light. If you use color and diffusion in a light, you would say “R80+R132” (Rosco 80 Primary Blue and Rosco 132 Quarter Hamburg Frost). This would indicate that there are two pieces of gel in a single light.

If you’re using a template or gobo in a light, you can experiment with split colors to achieve different effects. To indicate split color, you would enter a slash between the colors, so you would say “L164/R47.”

Ellipsoidal lighting fixtures can also take a template or gobo. Templates are metal, glass, or even plastic patterns that can be projected from the light. Gobos come in a wide variety of patterns. Some represent images like trees or leaves, while others are more abstract.

Note that many modern LED fixtures get hot enough to melt or damage plastic gobos, so you’ll need to check with the manufacturers to make sure you can use a plastic gobo in a particular light.

After you have drafted your light plot, section, and elevation, and you have entered in all of the unit numbering, channeling, color, and template information, you’ll need to make an instrument key and a title block. If you are using Vectorworks, you can create a key using the Equipment Summary Key Tool.

You can also make a title block using the Title Block Border tool.

Featured image courtesy of Goedde Productions LLC and Abby Matthews.