"3D" Printing (Help)

[K-naynay]

I have a customer who wants us to print their cover in 3D. Does anyone know how to do this?
Questions I have:

• Is there special software to convert the picture into 3D?
• Does the photographer have to use special equipment?
• Where do I get the 3D glasses from?
• Should I go Stochastic?
• Do I use C-M-Y-K or is there another process?

Just wanna do it right the first time.

Thanks, Ken

[Kevin@Kodak]

If you do some Googling for "Lenticular Printing" you should find some basic info on what this is all about. However, it's not an easy thing to accomplish well. One of the reasons that people "hate" lenticular images is that it's often done so poorly... while those that specialize in it are capable of some stunning results. I'd usually suggest you outsource the covers to an experienced lenticular printing company.

Disclaimer: I used to specialize in photographically-printed lenticular images, and even ran a software company for interlacing software... but I'm not an offset-lenticular specialist, sorry!

A few resources to look up: Humaneyes (software), Toppan (lenses), and maybe there are some experienced printers on this forum too?

Kevin.

[Greglorious]

When I was in school, we used photoshop to manipulate the RGB layers and convert a photo into a basic 3D piece. (there are plenty of tutorials online.)

From my experience with this single project, you could easily make a 3D cover right out of photoshop (With that said, you could just as easily make a really bad 3D cover right out of photoshop.)

The photographer shouldn't need to have anything special to shoot with.. but I'd assume something that didn't limit the depth of field would be a +.

I haven't a clue of how you'd make a Stochastic cover... although that'd be really, really cool. (Axing the glasses would be a + all around. Cost, production and end user wise..)

[K-naynay]

Thanks Kevin, "Lenticular Printing" looks very interesting, but it's not what the customer is looking for. They want more of a retro 3D look. I'm investigating Photoshop plug-in's. This is a high profile customer so I was hoping this wasn’t gonna turn into a "wing-it" project.

[Kevin@Kodak]

Ah - if they're looking for a retro look where you used the red/blue glasses, that's called an anaglyph (also easy to google). If you have a pair of stereo images, it's easy to create in Photoshop, and not difficult to print either:

1) convert each image to grayscale
2) make one image the cyan channel in a new CMYK image file (the image for your right eye to see, usually... assuming "right eye red" glasses)
3) make the other image into both the magenta and yellow channels (resulting in red print, of course)

You can add black highlight detail if needed, which will visually appear at page-surface depth.

The difficult part is creating the image itself. If using a real photograph, you need to take 2 images of the same scene from different perspectives, usually a lateral separation of about 65mm for "natural" 3D effects. You can also take a normal photograph and simulate this (or do it with text/graphics) by shifting elements left and right between the two images.

Again, assuming "right eye red" glasses (where your right eye only sees cyan images):

if the "red" image is shifted left compared to the "cyan" image, it will appear behind the surface of the paper.

if the red image is shifted right compared to the cyan image, it will appear to float in front of the surface of the paper.

Don't go too far though, it gets hard on the eyes. You can experiment with a desktop printer of course, but you have to print to 100% scale or the effective depth changes. You can even preview it onscreen if it's shown at proper scale.

Good luck!
Kevin.


Kevin.

[K-naynay]

Ok that sounds easy enough. I'm gonna try this tomorrow. Thanks Kevin.