Overview:
Using only a cheap digital camera, some masking tape, and Illustration or Photo-Editing software, you can make some amazingly-handsome Trompe-l'oeil/Forced Perspective wall-art (yes... very much like that awesome parking garage that everyone on earth forwarded you). Your friends and neighbors will be astounded by your cleverness.Viewed from the proper angle, the illusion of a 2-dimensional "flat" image is presented, but viewed from the side you will see the gross distortions that make the "proper" angle possible.
Note of Thanks: This Instructable was influenced greatly by--and wouldn't have been possible without--the help I received from this thread on AskMetaFilter. There are some smart and creative folks there who can really help a guy out with a project. (If you can wade through the questions about recipes, pets, or relationships, you'll find some absolute gems.) Thanks guys; awesome input.
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Signing UpStep 1: Tools and Materials Required
Required:
- a Blank wall meeting at a corner
- a Vector or very-high-resolution raster image or logo (here's one source I like... there are hundreds more)
- a Digital Camera - I used a cheap, old 6 Mp Canon, but I suspect you could get good results with even a 3 Mp camera. Much lower than that, and you might have problems.
- Drawing or Photo Editing Software - (I used Illustrator and Photoshop CS2, and provide instructions for these packages, but there are several other Free and Non-Free software packages that would work just as well).
- a Measuring Device
- Masking Tape (Must be a visibly different color than your wall).
- a Printer or other output device. - You can Rasterbate your image, or have it done fairly inexpensively at a print shop. I'm not big on Kinkos, but they can do it pretty cheap -- (<$5)
- a Utility or X-Acto knife
Optional:
- a Spirit Level
- a Second Color of Masking Tape
- a ladder or step-stool
- a Second Set of Hands (makes the ceiling bit a lot easier... but far from a requirement).
- a Protractor or Combination Square
- Sandpaper (for surface prep)
- a Vinyl Plotter (or make a friend in a sign shop. Completely optional -- looks great printed, too.)
- Cleaning Solvents (for surface prep). I used a mild soap and then rubbing alcohol
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If you read the Instructable itself, or any of the many slide- and overhead-projector-related comments below, you'll see just how much I wish I could've used a projector. Sadly, I could not.
I live in a very small country, Caspiar, that has been suffering from several economic and political hardships for quite some time. We are admirers of the culture and people of the United States, but very few Americans have heard of our struggles (which is understandable... we are a very small country).
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, not one new slide- or overhead-projector has been imported into my country. Now, we keep the ones we have as nice as we possibly can -- our tradesmen are miracle-workers in fixing and salvaging them -- but it is a sad fact that we lose many of them each year, and none can be replaced.
The ugly irony is that the handful of overhead projectors that remain in my country are all in the homes of the exact same oligarchs and politicians who are most responsible for the shortages! We have a saying here... "When Ivalyo Pavlovich [Tonev, the Prime minister of Caspiar] gives up his projector!" -- This means that whatever it is you are talking about will never happen!
On the black market a projector like the one you speak of, even in a very bad state of disrepair would cost 5, or maybe 6 months of my salary. As much as I would like to have it, it is simply not a possibility for me.
So I made this instructable to work around my limitations. Where there is a will, there is a way! Cheers
There is no shortage of projectors 'round here. The choice to not use a projector was very much intentional.
Projecting on a wall and tracing is a perfectly legitimate and effective method to create this effect... but I wanted to output to vector, which a projector can't do.
If you want to output to vector (printer/plotter), or simply do not have access to a projector... then this instructable was designed for you.
And your offer is a very generous one, and it speaks to your kind heart. But we are a very proud people and we can't accept charity... even from the kind-hearted.
What I don't understand is why in one post, you stated how hard projectors were to get, and then the very same day, only a few hours later, posted how projectors aren't hard to come by "round here".... I guess you were just being flippant again.
I could see that green star picture is a basic overlay, however.....whoever said photoshop would have problems with that, obviously has NO CLUE how to use photoshop, and it's features. I do designs like that (not needing to print them after however) for people online, as I'm a graphic designer. I like your ible, it's really a neat idea, and easy to carry out in photoshop.
Oh, one more question.... why wouldn't you just use vanashing point to modify the angle of your cuts? It saves time over using the transform method you talked about. If you ever want to talk, or ask a question, just PM me here, I use CS5 adobe products, and CS4 is where I have the most experience, but they are similar in their operation, and methods.
Have a great day!
I agree that Photoshop alone would be more than sufficient to complete this instructable. (As would Illustrator alone, or Gimp alone for that matter). I used Illustrator because I was exporting to EPS (though, come to think of it, I'm sure that there's a documented or undocumented way for Photoshop to export to eps as well... I was just going with what I knew). There are many ways to work with this concept -- some, no doubt, quite a bit more clever than what I have come up with... I'm excited to see how people customize this.
I'm not understanding how I'd use a vanishing point (is this a tool in an Adobe product?) on this project, but if you have a second, tell me about it. Thanks.
since i only have a normal A4 printer, does that mean my design has to fit on, and so be no bigger than an A4 sized rectangle ?
Short answer is "no, you're not limited to the size of a single A4 sheet" (for those in the U.S. -- this is roughly the size of a sheet of "letter" paper. A little shorter, and a little fatter). Even if you wanted to do everything in-house with your printer (and without tiling), your max size would be (roughly) a triangle made of three tiled sheets of A4 (all meeting at one corner, as in the picture in Step 4). I'd not limit yourself in this way, though. Your options are several, but here are the two cheapest and least resource-intensive:
1.) Send this job out. Kinkos (a discount print shop here in the states, or your country's equivalent) will print in larger format for you for fairly cheap. If it's black and white, you can print up to, like, 24"x26" for a couple bucks here.
2.) If you absolutely MUST print this off at home, and you want to go bigger, you're looking at doing what's called "tiled printing". A popular (free, simple) web resource for doing this is called "Rasterbator". I'm sure there are many more out there. I haven't done tiled printing very often, but perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I could give some options.
Many thanks for the offer, though... I just don't want to get either of us in any trouble.
I will not suffer this abomination in my house for even one more day. TOMORROW I am going to tear this off of my wall and re-do it according to your specifications. One question, though: how does the "cut-out and bright light" method get the eps files to my vinyl plotter? Should I, like, project it, then paint it, and then photograph it, and then orthorectify it, and then convert it to eps, and then cut the vinyl, and then paint over it with white, and then lay the vinyl over where I painted over where I originally painted it? That seems like the easiest way.
It'd be kind of like a fusion of my original idea and your helpful suggestion. Basically, I'd just use the cut-out and the bright light like you suggest... paint it, paint over it to "start fresh", and then I could just follow the steps of the instructable above, starting at the beginning? Yes?
I feel so, so good about this!
And for the record: Headphoned's method absolutely would work. The question is not one of working or not working; but instead one of "why would anyone suggest using a projector in an instructable entitled 'DO X WITHOUT USING A PROJECTOR.' "?
Lest the blame for this fall on Headphoned's shoulders, I'll cop to the fact that I must've communicated something poorly, because there've been a dozen or so folks in the comments suggesting that I use a projector. It started out as "Huh? Why would they suggest this?" but by the sixth or seventh one, I thought it was pretty hilarious and just went with it. It was supposed to be playfully chiding; if it sounded at all mean or nasty or community-negating, then I apologize.