Sounds like you may have a bug, I had one with one of the puzzles I did but after I reloaded my game a time or two, the bug corrected itself & I was able to complete the puzzle. You will get to a point to where you can't move the laser down anymore, after that you should be able to use your limpets to slow down the lift enough to jump the pedestals and get on it before it moves up.
I thought this was bugged too -- you can't be right up next to the laser, you have to be on the ledge opposite and far enough away. The game does give you an indicator that Animate will be available (glowing glyph), but it's definitely not obvious what's going on here. This is one of the many puzzles in the game that are frustrating in similar ways and could have used a bit more polish.
