3D Lithophanes from photographs

[Trevor Bailey]

does anyone have any experience with this type of work? i am looking for a process from start to end.

[Leehound]

Are you going to use PhotoVCarve? If you are you can go to this website: http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectric/sup...e_tutorials.htm

for the tutorial.

 

This is the tutorial I used. Sorry I have no pictures right now.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Trevor,

 

I've used ArtCam to produce Lithophanes before. I'm not sure if Mastercam Art can do it. Anyone know?

 

For ArtCam:

 

Import a grey scale photo into ArtCam. Set options and ArtCam assigns each pixel a Z depth based on its hue. Create toolpath.

 

Load a block of translucent material into the machine (I used corian). Machine part. When backlit, the machined part looks like a photograph...

[Keith Butzgy CNC Software Inc.]

Trevor, I've used Mastercam Art to create lithopanes. My experience says that a higher quality picture doesn't necessarily create a better lithopane. I typically dumb-down the picture because too much detail is not necessary. Then once it's in Art, I smooth it down a lot. Also, when it comes in it's the negative of what you want....so you'll want to reverse the Z.

 

A rought set of steps to create a lithopane in Art:

1. Crop the picture in any photo-editing software to the size you want.

2. Bring it into Art. Go to Art - New Art Based Surface - From Image. For a typical 4x6 picture cut into 0.250 thick stock, I'll make the z value (Height range) about 0.12-0.15 in. Note - this greatly depends on how much black and how much white is in the picture. A wedding picture of just a bride is a good example. Typically there a lot of lighter colors....not much dark colors. Remember...the darkets part of the picture will be the thickest and the lightest part of the picture will be the thinnest. So if the picture is mostly dark colors....the lithopane will not be that impressive without some extra work. When you're done with the settings...click the check mark to bring it in to Art.

3. Flip the Z values. Go to Art - Xform Art Base Surface - Mirror/Rotate. Select Mirror Z and click OK.

4. Smooth the picture. Go to Art - Edit Art Base Surface - Smooth. It'll ask for a chain. If you don't have geometry around the suface you want to smooth, you'll need to create it. (Note: When initially importing the picture there is an option to create a boundry at the same time. I do this because I always use the boundry for smoothing.) Choose your smoothing values and click the check. The defaults are typically a good place to start.

5. Cut it. Art - Toolpath Art Base Surface. If you are cutting a picture where there is an area that has high detail I often create spline containment boundaries and create an additional toolpath with a tighter stepover in that area. General rule of thumb that I follow: If I'm cutting a 0.250 thick piece I'll use a 1/16 ball with no roughting. Watch your entry moves though...you will want to play with that in Art. I do a stepover of about 8%.

 

Hopefully this helps. I have learned that every picture takes a little bit of thought a head of time because every picture is different. My opinion...the best pictures to work with are close ups of faces.

 

Good luck!