Present implementations can display 3D illuminations using Flying Light Specks (FLS). Each FLS can include a miniature (hundreds of micrometers) sized drone with one or more light sources to generate colors and textures with adjustable brightness. The FLS can be network enabled with a processor and local storage. Synchronized swarms of cooperating FLSs can render static and motion illumination of virtual objects in a pre-specified 3D volume, an FLS display. Present implementations can consider the limited flight time of an FLS on a fully charged battery and the duration of time to charge the FLS battery. Present implementations can accommodate failure of FLS as a norm of operation, rather than an exception. A hardware and software architectures for an FLS-display can compute flight paths of FLSs for illumination. With motion illuminations, one technique can minimize overall distance traveled by the FLSs significantly.