lenticular (changes when you tilt) movie art

 by dave spencer
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Just so you all don't think I am limited to just making food for kids...

I have a good friend who is an awesome artist. She has given me all sorts of great paintings in the past few years. I wanted to give her a piece of art that would really stand out as different.

I wanted to experiment with lenticular sheets because I have always been amazed by them ever since I dug the first one out of a cereal box as a kid. These are the sheets that make an image change whet you alter the angle you are viewing it at. To learn more about lenticular lenses - wikipidia

We both have the movie "fight club" as one of our top 5 all time movies so I decided to use this as a theme.

Please note that the animated gif below is a composite image because my camera takes horrible images of the picture with the lenses in front of it.

Please check out my other instructables and I also have a diy podcast called mechanicalmashup.tv

 
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Step 1: Getting images

The first thing I did was watch the movie "fight club". I was looking for usable screen captures that I could use for the picture. VLC media player has a snapshot feature. I took the best photos and used fireworks (I don't use photoshop) to crop them and clean up the backgrounds.
For the backgrounds I wanted for my picture I found two panning shots from the movie. I took several screen captures and stitched them all together to create an extremely wide screen image. One of the narrators apartment with his IKEA like catalog descriptions floating in the air. The other was the debris outside his apartment after his stove blew up. Note the ying yang table in both images. I was having some trouble finding a second good shot of Tyler Durden (aka Brad Pitt). All the screen captures that were good were to dark. Luckily I found a promotional photo that was just about perfect.
Lenticular3d says: Mar 12, 2010. 4:16 PM
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Sobre Tecnologia (SOL) Sistema Optico Lenticular.
Es Una Tecnica, Para Crear Animacion 3D, 
Consiste en Entrelazar Varias Imagenes y Colocarlas
Al Reverso De Una Lamina de Plastico
Para dar la Ilusion de Movimiento, y Diferentes. 
Efectos Visuales como 3D, Flip, Zoom, Morph. 
EDUWIN FUENTES. 
WWW.LENTICULAR3D.WEBS.COM 
MAIL :  LENTICULAR3D@MSN.COM
Movil : 57-311-8 58 98 58. 
Bogota - Colombia
Gepetto Father says: Nov 1, 2009. 10:02 PM
What was the size of the image you did in the ible?
dave spencer (author) in reply to Gepetto FatherNov 2, 2009. 4:16 AM
it was about 2 ft wide as I remember.
Gepetto Father in reply to dave spencerNov 2, 2009. 12:44 PM
Whoa! I would find it very cool if some friend of mine done that for me!
RaNDoMLeiGH says: Jun 3, 2008. 10:17 AM
which programme did you use to interlace the pictures? I have just started exploring this as a potential special effects medium and want to play a bit. Also, if you want to de-stash some of your sheets, convo me privately. Thanks
hoganape says: Mar 2, 2008. 12:50 PM
Great Instructable. The fact that Fight Club is one of my all-time favorite movies doesn't hurt either.
Sodathief says: May 30, 2007. 5:37 PM
Wow what a great idea. Lenticular printing is expensive. I work for a ad studio and you can never get just one copy of anything so your left to make it yourself. Good Job
extremevision in reply to SodathiefDec 13, 2007. 1:06 PM
My company just launched a website that lets you create custom lenticular business cards and postcards for a reasonable price. Visit http://www.extremevisionproducts.com to check it out!
dave spencer (author) in reply to SodathiefMay 30, 2007. 6:15 PM
I can see how expensive it is for a production shop. Set up is very finicky and time consuming ($) but once you nail it it would not matter if you did 1 or 10,000.
LarrySDonald says: May 19, 2007. 10:07 AM
I made a few of these out of novelty ones back in the day. I've been meaning to do a better writeup with more pictures, but I have some ramblings about it up at http://194.23.44.10/ria/flipz.htm . It also has source and halfway working software for it, not grandly written just a quick homeroll - I couldn't find any more serious software to do it at the time. I'm sure most links are expired by now, but that's how it worked when I did them.
triefy says: May 8, 2007. 10:41 AM
Very cool idea. However, it would be useful to know where you got the sheets from in the States and if you made your image vertically or horizontally lenticular. Awesome job though.
dave spencer (author) in reply to triefyMay 8, 2007. 7:01 PM
I aligned my lenses so the lines go horizontal. My sheet was 19 inches wide. If I had run the lines up and down the pitch would have to be adjusted a lot to be able to look a the picture up close. The angle of view would be different from one side of the picture to the other. By running them horizontal you can see the picture across the room and then approach it to look close and it all looks good. You have to move your head up and down to shift images but once you are close, everyone recognizes the bumps and starts moving their heads around.
easement says: May 8, 2007. 10:48 AM
Awesome instructable. Can you post the name of the supplier you used for the sheets? I tried did some googling and all I can find are services that want to make the images and not sell the lens sheets. Also, did you find a formula for finding out the correct spacing/interlacing for the lens you used?
dave spencer (author) in reply to easementMay 8, 2007. 6:46 PM
It took me a long time to find a supplier. I lost the link a while back in a computer crash and looked for it again. I only found a few really expensive sites. One wanted $120 for ten 8x10 sheets. Way too expensive. Luckily I looked on the box that mine came in and it still had the packing slip.

The companies name is Micro Lens Technology http://www.microlens.com/

It was about a year ago that I dealt with them but I remember them being very helpful on the phone. They are also in NC, sorry, I think I said CA before.

My order was 5 sheets of 22" by 28" 30 lpi for $47.00 before shipping and taxes. (remember it was a year ago, prices may change)

Most if not all of the software that will interlace your project will print out test sheets to help you find the right pitch. It is very precise and measured in the thousandths of an inch.
holomorph says: May 8, 2007. 3:15 PM
It might be possible to get the sheets on Ebay, though a quick search did not turn up anything. Also might be a good place to get rid of your excess sheets :)
domesticatedviking says: May 8, 2007. 12:05 AM
have been looking to do a lenticular project myself, but can't seem to find a supplier for the sheets -- could you point me in the right direction? PS - Fight Club rules.
Office Viking says: May 7, 2007. 8:04 PM
I love this movie too! Definitely one of my favorites. I'm a graphic designer and I love this art you put together. Very nice. Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.
mysm says: May 6, 2007. 8:39 AM
This was really interesting. I had no idea they were called 'lenticular' sheets; I've always called them 'holographs' (Sp?). I think it's amazing the way you put them all together. Thanks for all your hard work (although I'm sure it was fun) and for sharing. Cheers!
thesparine says: May 6, 2007. 12:58 AM
very cool, I gotta try this !
jenn buckley says: May 5, 2007. 3:17 PM
NICE! Must have been a lot of work.
crazy artist chick says: May 5, 2007. 3:13 PM
You have to see this thing in real life, it's really amazing! What a wonderful gift. Your friend is a lucky girl!!!
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