3D Anamorphic Street Art

In the style of Julian Beever and Eduardo Relero, I tried to create a 3D anamorphic image (an image that from one vantage-point appears 3D).

This was my first but definitely not my last- it's just too much fun once it starts working;). So, thanks for stopping by, be kind and stay humble- mistakes are how we learn! I hope this information helps you make some bad-ass quality inspiration out on the street where it belongs.

ps- anamorphic art is used all around, for example try looking at words written for traffic on the road from the side whilst standing still- yay anamorphic way-finding devices:)

Step 1 Scope out the location.

Depending on your patience, you'll want to find a place without too much car traffic. I happen to live on a nice quiet street where the elder brooklynites find hipster art projects amusing:)

Comments

[FastgrafX]

Where the Wall graphic you were talking about? Im a graphic desinger who specializes in signage and vehicles, wanted to apply this to doing my floor graphics and woulld liek to see some wall graphics. I have been foolin around with the floor graphics using the grid tech. But really wanna see the walls and how its done. WOuld like to apply some techniques to my vehicle wraps also!

[SneakyRobot]

It would totally rock to draw a big brick wall in the middle of the road so that drivers would hit their brakes while the illusion lasts. ideally right by an intersection so anyone turning onto the road won't see it from a distance & know whats up.

[siafulinux]

haha, excellent. Would also be great in neighborhoods where people drive WAY to fast; but once they figure it out, it may not work as well. :)

[gaveat123]

I think they did that in Canada. They had an anamorphic drawing of a child crossing the street that was really realistic, it slowed down the traffic a lot. But there is an obvious downside, the drivers get used to "running" over little kids... I think the same could happen with the Brick walls.

[inkjacket]

 HA!  can't believe it took me so long to reply to this.  You're hilarious sneakyrobot.  Next project: brick wall;)

[theawesomeninja]

My plans exactly ; ) . Actually somewhere I read some garage managers painted people in their garage in this style, so when drivers get to it, the pictures pop up, and it startles the driver enough to slow down, before continuing

[weirdscience]

Great instructable, I do anamorphic anaglphs which were inspired by this art form if you have a pair of red/cyan glasses you can see one of mine of a pregnant woman at :
http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/21155704
Just like your work the image needs to lay flat and you look down at a 45 degree angle.

[bions]

Instead a projector you can use BSAsidewalk3D to create accurate grids that make it easy to transfer the image projections. And it works at any time of day. The attached image shows a Rubik's cube done this way (as a paper cutout to avoid being rained away). The boy is real, the Rubik's cube is the anisotropic image. Go to www.BionWare.com for details.

[Zorink]

Great job! While I was reading this I had an idea - would using a projector to project your (normal, non distorted) image from your vantage point automatically distort it to what it needs to be?

[inkjacket]

SO funny, just talked about that this morning w/some friends, it CAN work for the parts that need distortion, i.e. the parts that should be the most 3-dimensional, and I think it'd be a huge help w/ detailed work that don't fall into nice basic shape outlines- so i say a hybrid of techniques is in order:) Thanks!

[Zorink]

Cool, I'd love to see how it turns out if you ever try it. I just thought of another method that should work too. Take a large square with known dimensions and lay it out where you want the art to be. Take a picture from the vantage point to see the distortion. Then use an image editing program (like GIMP) and open the pic you want distorted. Place the picture you took of the square in another layer and stretch them out until the picture of the square is square again. I'll post some pics later for a better explanation

[Zorink]

There were no squares in your pic, but the manhole cover is a circle so I used that as reference. I stretched it back to a circle and the basketball should now be appropriately(ish) stretched.

[cowscankill]

That is brilliant! I'll use your method to make my own images :D But how did you make the manhole a circle again?

[Zorink]

Use any image editing program (I used GIMP)

[cowscankill]

Wait--I have gimp, but how did you reproportion it like that?

[Zorink]

just stretch the image manually until it looks good

[inkjacket]

HA! This is amazing! thanks for taking the time out man! lol i like your wordage- appropriately(ish) ha.

[5533888]

That's cool!

[cookie and cream]

thanx foe the tutorial but im kinda stuck on this step could you please go into a bit more detail?

[Greasetattoo]

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-do-3D-Anamorphic-Artwork-and-Sidewalk-Stre/

Enjoy...

[Xenel]

Do you think you could aim a flashlight that's at the chosen perspective point, at the basketball and trace the shadow?

[jetse]

that, actually, is a genius idea. You make a drawing or take a picture of the object to 3D'Alize (is that a word) Then you cut out the outlines on a piece of a cardboard. you than aim a lamp (like they use on building grounds) onto the spot where you want your 3D art. and then with the lamp at eye height you put the cutout cardboard in front of the lamp and let it rest there (maybe a tripod or something) you then just make lines on the shadow of your projections. you than have the contours of the 3D object in super realistic perspective (when your standing on the place were the lamp previous stood). don't know if this is handy, but in my opinion it's the most fast and realistic way to draw 3D world. if anyone wants to try it, DO IT, and let me here how it worked out Greetings jetse

[FooL111394]

Very good idea.:3

[gfella]

I'll bet it'ill cause car wrecks from people trying to avoid it. Still Awesome though.

[raimen]

thats a good idea :D make something that looks real to the drivers :D (atleast from one direction) and make them think theres a giant gaping hole in the ground or something :D

[Wesley666]

hahahahahahahahahahaha. LOL!

[Arbitror]

This is great! 5 stars!

[XOIIO]

Amazing! That's one of the best optical illusins iv'e seen. Scratch that, it IS the best!

[pechka]

Love this! Thanks. I know from preserving my son's toddler drawings on cement, that pouring floorwax over chalk drawings will extend their lives quite a bit, though I don't know how long they'd last under tires. (The more layers of floor wax, the longer the drawing will last.) I'd think that w/o any "coating" that the drawing would be wiped out by one car. How does the technique change for doing a 3-D drawing on a flat verticle surface like a wall?

[inkjacket]

Thanks pechka! The floorwax sounds like a smart way to go- definitely would not have been the first thing to come to mind lol. As far as the tires go- it was ran over COUNTLESS times while we were working, some people were nice enough to go around it but my positioning didn't make it too easy for the almighty SUV. Because the tires didn't really drag across the image it did little to nothing during the process:) For the wall I'd say it's just a matter of perspective-realism in general, check out Timofly's comment below! His wall piece is crazy good! thanks again:)

[Timofly]

On the wall.:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16159&id=511304752&saved#/photo.php?pid=1830638&id=511304752

[inkjacket]

dude, the door is SICKNESS. definitely in need of some public outdoor space audiences-wink wink*

[Timofly]

haha thanks, I didn't want to do it in chalk, because everyone likes to do it in that....and i don't want to put effort into something that will be gone the next day..or week, so I painted it. TOo bad the wall had brick textures...otherwise it would've been more convincing.

[Greasetattoo]

Here ya go... A homage to INK!

[inkjacket]

LOL! Much love grease:)

[Greasetattoo]

Very Cool. GREAT Job... Have you ever tried the grid method? I drew up a grid in Coreldraw, then take a photo or picture, and stretch it to the grid in Coreldraw. Then, I go to the sidewalk and draw the picture gridded out. Works pretty good. I have the grid if you want it..You will need Coreldraw, though... www.tattoosfromgrease.com

[zWizart]

hey i need that grid and more details about it.. can i somehow create a sticker istead of draw it on pavement? nice job inkjacket, i tried to do this few times on paper.. ;)

[Greasetattoo]

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-do-3D-Anamorphic-Artwork-and-Sidewalk-Stre/

[zWizart]

that's what i was looking for! 10x!

[inkjacket]

WORD.