Anamorphic and Other Computer manipulations

ANAMORPHOSIS

This post recaps and continues the discussion from the February 17, 2020 blog posting.  

The first drawing in thats blog posting, was distorted with the software Anamorph Me!

The version below gets resolved when seen from an oblique angle -- in the same way that the odd shape in Holbein's painting "The French Ambassadors" resolves itself into a skull. 

To be seen from an "oblique angle"

Image to be seen in a "cylindrical mirror"

To be seen in a "conical mirror"

I "anamorphed" Drawing 019 from my book, resized and printed it out at QueLab, and it worked with the reflective cylinder at QueLab

...and it worked with the reflective cylinder at QueLab

Cylindrical mirror image

Reflective cylinder on printout

Close up of image in reflective cylinder

The "Luycho Mugs" work with the same concept, using a reflective coffee cup as a "cylindrical mirror," as seen in the YouTube video below:

Anamorphic image on the saucer

reflected in the cylindrical coffee cup

I especially like how the saucer image looks like two birds, and the reflected image looks like a dog face.  In other words, both the original image, and the anamorphic reflection look like two different concrete images.

Whereas, the image below looks very abstract, before being resolved in a "conical mirror" reflection:

 This online pdf -- users guide --gives more explanation.

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I aspire to do drawings that look like two different concrete things -- and anamorphosis is one way to deliver two different images, from the same drawing, depending on what angle the viewer sees the image.  That kind of image could describe a type of "Nepantla," neither here, or an "in-betweeness" (like living in El Paso/Ciudad Juarez).

***

Salvador Dali created a painting -- "Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea" -- that looks like two objectively different images, depending on what distance the viewer sees the painting from. From a distance, the painting is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.  Up close it is a nude painting of his wife looking out to the sea.

It is based on Leon Harmon's work at Bell Labs, discussed in the November 1973 issue of Scientific American.

STEREOGRAM

I used online software -- Easy Stereogram Builder -- to make a stereogram (or "magic eye") image from my drawing 019.

Stereogram of drawing 019

LITHOPHANE

I used an online lithophane maker to make a lithophane image of the Drawing 019 in my book -- an STL file (download here) ready for 3D printing.

Online STL file viewer

Other Lithopane options:

• 3dp.rocks
• PhotoToMesh
• Luban

• Picengrave (for laser cutter)

OTHER STUFF:

Light Shaping Surface sample (by Rayform) (also check out Mem Gems, for custom images)

Diffractive Optical Element (referred from Futation)

Image to STL -- 2D to 3D converter