20/01/2024
SEEKING ADVICE: I NEED A FLASHLIGHT WITH A TINY BEAM THAT ISN'T A LASER POINTER
Okay. Hi. I have a bit of a puzzle to solve, and I hope someone will be able to help me. Basically, I'm looking to animate a tiny Einli, and he carries around a lantern. The lantern needs to shine from within. The tiny Einli is about 2" tall, so it won't be possible for this lantern to be battery-powered or hooked up to a hidden wire. My theoretical solution: his lantern will be some kind of translucent bead that diffuses a beam of light cast by an external source.
So I plan to mount a light near the animation set using an articulating arm and aim it at his tiny lantern. Ideally, the translucent material will diffuse the beam, creating the illusion that the light is coming from within the bead. But my problem is that the bead will have to be something like half a centimeter in diameter. (The ruler is in inches, and the lantern he's holding is a placeholder.)
I need a flashlight whose aperture can be adjusted to the point where the beam is like half a centimeter in diameter, maybe even less, preferably about 1-3 feet from the source. I tried using a laser pointer, but it caused a scatter effect and cast like a thousand little points of light instead of a steady, even glow. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
If you have any other solutions, please don't hesitate to let me know! I'm open to suggestions! I dunno, maybe someone knows about a battery-powered light that's like a quarter inch long.
