Filament is a desktop LED mapping tool for VJs and visual artists — a better way to put your LEDs exactly where you want them and drive them with animations or external video streams.

Filament

Filament is a desktop application for mapping physical LEDs to video content. If you've ever wrestled with Resolume's Advanced Output panel trying to get your string lights, WLED boxes, or LED matrix panels to do exactly what you want — Filament is the tool that makes that process intuitive.

[GRAPHIC: Hero image of the Filament canvas with colorful LED curves drawn over a stage photo reference. Conveys that this is a visual, spatial tool — not a spreadsheet]

Who is this for?

VJs and live performers who want to drive LED installations from Resolume Arena without drowning in channel numbers
Installation artists building pieces with WLED-powered LED strips and matrices
Anyone using Art-Net or sACN to send DMX data over a network to LED controllers
Resolume users who want a dedicated, visual tool for the "Advanced Output" part of their setup

You don't need to be an electrician or know what "universe 3, channel 47" means before you start. Filament lets you draw your LEDs on a canvas, point them at your hardware, and get them lit.

How Filament fits into your setup

A typical Filament workflow looks like this:

Map your stage — draw Bezier curves on a virtual canvas that matches your physical space. Each curve becomes a strip of LEDs.
Assign fixtures — tell Filament what kind of LED pixel is on each strip (WS2812, matrix, etc.)
Route to hardware — choose Art-Net or sACN for each Surface, then set its destination and universe
Play — use the built-in animation engine or connect an external stream such as NDI, Syphon, or Spout to drive the LEDs live
Export to Resolume — when you're happy, export an XML file that Resolume's Advanced Output can read directly

[GRAPHIC: Simple diagram showing the flow: Stage photo -> Canvas with curves -> Output routing -> LED controller -> Physical LED strip]

The main sections

Getting Started

Create your first project and understand the workflow

Library

Import Surfaces from Resolume and manage your fixture definitions

Canvas & Drawing

Draw LED layouts with Bezier curves and freehand paths

Selecting & Editing

Move, transform, duplicate, and refine your LED layouts

Output & DMX

Route channels to your hardware, detect conflicts, inspect transport, and discover Art-Net devices

The Live Player

Drive your LEDs with animations or external stream sources

Palettes

Built-in palettes, the live editor, and sharing your own as .filament-palette files

Custom Animations

Install community animations or author your own with WGSL

Settings & Export

Configure Resolume paths, export XML, and manage preferences

Key concepts

Surface — A Surface is one routed DMX output target: protocol, destination behavior, universe, and channel space for one physical controller or receiver. Your project can have as many Surfaces as you have controllers.

Fixture — A fixture describes the pixel type on your LED strip. A single WS2812B LED is a fixture. A 16×16 LED matrix panel is a fixture. The fixture definition tells Filament how many DMX channels each pixel takes and in what color order.

Curve — A Bezier curve drawn on the canvas. When you configure a curve with an LED count and fixture type, Filament automatically spaces the LEDs along it and assigns DMX channels in sequence.

Slice — Each individual LED (or pixel) placed on the canvas is a "slice" in DMX terms. Slices are the lowest-level element — a curve with 60 LEDs creates 60 slices.

What is Filament?