FEATURE
In the workshop: Lit lithophanes
Lit lithophanes
IN THE
WORKSHOP:
By Ben Everard Bringing an unborn child into bright 3D
Right
The final lithophane
at home in
our workshophis editor is about to become a
father for the second time and,
like many expectant fathers, he
went to the ultrasound scan. At
the end of which he got a little
printout of the baby in utero. It’s a
magical experience, but the printout leaves a little to
be desired. It’s done by a thermal printer in
monochrome. Is there a better way of representing
an unborn child? Time to get to the workshop to see
how we can use the render.Lithophanes are one of our favourite methods
of displaying monochrome data. The basic idea
behind them is that they’re a material that varies
in thickness. When light is shone through, the
thicker parts appear darker, and the thinner parts
appear lighter. Traditionally, these are handmade
out of ceramic, but we can 3D-print them using
translucent filament.
The key part of the aesthetic of lithophanes is how
they’re lit. There are loads of options for this – some
people turn them into lampshades, some mount
them in back-lit frames. We
wanted a small, evenly lit
option to add the image of our
unborn child to our workshop,
and we came across the ideal
solution in the form of LCD
back-lights. These are designed
to go behind LCDs and provide
illumination. They should give
even light across a rectangular
area, and some electronics
suppliers sell them. The
downside of these is that they
only come in the sizes of
common LCDs – these tend
to be a bit longer and thinner
than most photographs, but
are perfect for images of
reclining foetuses.
We got an 84 × 45 mm light,
so all we needed to do wasT