LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging. A sensor fires very short laser pulses and measures how long each one takes to bounce back. Because the speed of light is known, every return turns into a precise distance, and together with the angle the beam was fired at, into a point in 3D space.
A real scanner fires hundreds of thousands of pulses per second, either spinning a full 360° or sweeping a fixed field of view. Each hit becomes one point, and millions of them build a point cloud: a dotted, measurable copy of the scene.
Every beam records only the first surface it hits. Objects in front block everything behind them, leaving empty "shadows" in the cloud. That occlusion is what gives scans their characteristic look, and it's why real surveys move the scanner to several positions to fill the gaps.
LiDAR is used in self-driving cars, land surveying, architecture, archaeology, film VFX and even phones. This demo works the same way: rays leave the sensor, and a point is placed where each ray first lands. Move the sensor and watch the shadows shift.
LiDAR C4D is a Cinema 4D plugin that brings this scanned, point-cloud look into your own scenes. Instead of simply spraying particles over surfaces, it casts rays from your camera and places points where they land, with the same occlusion a real sensor produces.
Available on aescripts + aeplugins.