Definitely not quicker and easier, but artificial sunlight (like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bqBsHSwPgw) has impressed me and wondering if there are ready made solution for that
Interesting. You could do this parallel rays effect with a lot of lower power leds and microlenses too? Could work with air cooling then (more surface area).
I think the second link with the collimating lenses is more what's needed. I was just looking at another page and saw that you can also buy collimating reflectors which might be cheaper than lenses. I wonder if that's something you could 3D print and then coat with something to make it reflective. It'd probably be better to build a tool to punch them out of stainless steel sheet metal and then polish them to a mirror finish.