Lighting Designer · Programmer · Operator

CHRIS
HAYNES

Open the Scratchpad Studio See the Work MA3 Plugins

Tours & Festivals

Flatland Cavalry on the Work of Heart Tour, all-white beam look over the stage

Flatland Cavalry: Work of Heart Tour

Lighting Designer / Programmer / Operator, 2026

10 photos →
Flatland Cavalry, Flatland Forever Tour: blue beam bursts over a sold-out crowd in Omaha

Flatland Cavalry: Flatland Forever

Programmer / Operator, 2025

15 photos →
Flatland Cavalry, Whirlwind Australia: arena wide shot with beams over the crowd

Flatland Cavalry: Whirlwind Australia

Programmer / Operator, 2026

5 photos →
Atreyu, We Want Your Misery Tour: purple and pink beams over the crowd

Atreyu: We Want Your Misery Tour

Programmer / Operator, select dates supporting Iron Maiden & Godsmack

4 photos →
EDM festival stages, beam looks against a dusk sky

EDM Festivals

House Lighting Designer / L1 at Lights All Night, Freaky Deaky, Texas Eclipse and more

28 photos →

Sketch a rig in your browser

The Scratchpad is the plot tool I built for my own prep and then left open for anyone to use. Hang truss, drop fixtures onto it, set your trims, auto number and auto patch the whole rig, then take it somewhere real.

  • Free, and there is no account to make
  • Your sketch stays in your browser and is never sent anywhere
  • Exports MVR for grandMA3, Vectorworks and pre-viz
  • Exports a printable plot and a fixture schedule
Open the Scratchpad
The Scratchpad's 3D view of a rig: three curved trusses over a stage, hung with colour coded profiles, washes, beams and strobes Drawn in the Scratchpad
The same rig rendered in Capture, warm beams fanning out over a stage The same file exported as MVR, rendered in Capture
One export, no rebuilding it at the other end. That is the whole point of it.

grandMA3 Plugins

Workflow tools written on real tours, for real showfiles. All of them are free, over on Patreon.

Every one of these is free. They live on Patreon, where you can grab the files and get the updated versions as I write them.

Know when something new drops

New plugins, updates to the ones you already own, and the odd workflow trick from the road. Nothing else, and you can unsubscribe any time.

Chris Haynes silhouetted against white beams at the desk in Sydney

Behind the desk

I’m Chris Haynes, a lighting designer, programmer, and show operator. From production design through the last cue of the night, I build shows that hit as hard visually as they do sonically.

When I’m not on the road, I’m building grandMA3 plugins that make programmers faster.

Let’s build a show

chrishayneslighting@gmail.com
Instagram @ChrisVsLights