Actually it's not meant to display any kind of animation. Just on/off for each individual LED or on/off for a group of LEDs.
I thought about LEDs at first, but is there some other light source/bulb type with which I can get different colors (white, blue, green, red, orange, yellow)? Maybe something simpler to implement?
Would it be easier with just red, green, blue? How about one color?
What I need is basically a grid with light sources, with individual addressable points, controlled by a computer. The ability to use different colors would be a big plus.