Hey Andrew! Try this: If you make the grid pixels square and drop a sheet of translucent acrylic on top of that, the effect is pretty cool.
Here's a "Game of Life" display I made using this technique: https://digitalhorology.etsy.com/listing/1644589175
This is where I get the black LED acrylic:
https://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_pla...