For my project, I want to make a light box with swappable, laser-cut silhouette layers. I think this will be well within my skills, as I have experience with laser cutting and creating vector graphics – but making an assembly out of laser cut parts will be new to me.
Examples of static light boxes with laser-cut layers:
Each layer of wood and paper diffuses and blocks the light coming from the back of the box, creating moody, detailed scenes with a gradient of tones.
Instead of gluing each layer in place, though, I am interested in having these layers be reconfigurable. I have a couple ideas for how to let people re-shuffle layers as they wish:
Right side: use a frame, and just slide each layer into a slot in the frame/box
I also have some thoughts on how to make individual layers interactive/movable. For example, a layer made of two parts like this can be rotated in place by a user:
Here, the light passing through the star hole could be shifted around. The circle would be kept in place by paper in the corners of the frame.
This idea is fairly open-ended, so I’m curious to hear everyone’s thoughts on where this could go.
- Would you like to see more types of movement within each layer?
- Does one of the options I showed above for combining layers (pegs through holes in each layer, magnets, or sliding them into a box) stick out as being the most intuitive?
- I’d be curious to also cut some small shapes of colored plastic, to add some new shades to the final image. Do you think this would look interesting, or make the image too visually confusing?
This is really cool Matt. In regards to the movement within each layer, I wonder if you could use the rotational movement to create a slide that shows the passing of time with a sun or a moon. You could hook up a potentiometer and do something else like change the temperature of the light as well. I think that small shapes of colored plastic could look really cool as well if used as an accent color. That way it draws your attention to a specific part of the light box. Lastly, I would say that sliding each “frame” into a box sounds the most intuitive to me. If you have the time you could incorporate magnets so that nothing falls out and breaks.
This is really cool! It would also be cool to have lights in between the sheets to play with perspective and brightness and color more. That’s not something I’ve seen before.
Regarding moving the sheets, you could have them attached by a single peg so you can swing them in and out easily. Otherwise sliding them in and out seems good to me.
The colored plastic idea might be good, but I think that’s something you could play around with.
I’m curious what you are going to put though. I didn’t see a concept of what you will draw and cut out — do you have a rough idea?
To be honest, I haven’t thought about the subject of the piece thoroughly. I’d like to try something in the style of Simon Stålenhag, who is known for his moody paintings of abandoned/overgrown futuristic structures in the Swedish countryside. I think that element of dreary calmness would work well with this medium.
This is an awesome concept! Hmm, both options for combining layers seem solid. The right option is more intuitive and was what I first thought about but the tolerances for each opening might be pretty tight. The pegs through holes/magnets will affect how easy it would be to switch the layers. It might be difficult to change a middle layer, especially if you use pegs through holes.
It would cool if you told a story using the interchangeable layers. Do you have a favorite short story or scene in a movie/book/video game? The colored plastic might be visually confusing but it could be good for an important element(s) in the story. Like, if you were to do Wizard of Oz, you could use plastic to make the ruby red shoes, golden brick road, and Emerald City stand out.
Thanks! I was split between magnets and the pegs – but you bring up a good point that with the pegs, you’d have to remove multiple layers to change one in the middle. I think that would interrupt some of the fun of this, so I’m definitely leaning more toward the magnets now.
I didn’t touch on it in the post, but I agree that a benefit of changing the layers is that different variations of the story could be told. As I mentioned in my reply to Tarang, I’m interested in doing something with a futuristic abandoned environment – so I’ll be trying to think of some layers that can be used in multiple ways.
I can definitely imagine too much color would be visually confusing, so I’d limit it to a few small, key parts as you suggested.
I really like this concept and think it is really well thought out. I also like the idea of creating moving components and think you could create some sort of gear or drive train that allows you to move one rotor that moves a bunch of different components. I also really like that you are doing something with the laser cutter and I am looking forward to seeing the composition you create with the combination of different materials. I believe there are a lot of options on what you are trying to go for and how you want the light to shine through different materials. I like the idea of having a box with different pieces you can add and slide in and out because I think that makes the piece very interactive and allows you to make many different pieces all at the same time. If you need any help with the laser cutter or materials in the makerspace, just let me know cause I work in the makerspace and prototyping lab! Looking forward to seeing what you make!
Gearing is an interesting idea – I don’t think I’ll have room for axles (since the gears would be in the same plane as each layer), but I could probably fit a rack gear somewhere. I was wishing I could get some more range of motion than the ~90 degrees I showed in the gif, so gears may help expand that range a bit.
Good to know that you work at the lab, too! I think I’m pretty comfortable with the workflow of cutting wood, but I might ask for some advice on cutting paper and plastic if I wind up doing that.
I think the amount of movement you have is good. If you use a good balance of the colored pieces it would look good, to much and it might be overwhelming.
I think this is a really cool idea, and I like the depth that the layers and lights create. What scene are you planning to make? I think you can really use that depth element to your advantage. I’m not sure if colored plastic would look as good as a white matte surface in terms of reflecting the light. One possibility to add more color is to use multicolored (or maybe addressable?) LEDs. Including movement amongst the layers would be interesting and unique, I’m excited to see where you go with this!
I really like the concept you have with the ight boxes. Are you planning on having the different panels form a story of have an underlying theme?
I feel like only one moving element will keep the piece simple and more appealing to the eye.
I would go with a combination of slides, and magnets to hold them in place.
As for the plastic, I think that it might become too visually confusing.
The frames seem like the easiest way to make the piece reconfigurable, and strategically placed color in only a few parts could make it very interesting. For movement, you could have the front layer moving faster than the back layers to give the appearance that you are actually moving through the scene, or you could have more natural movements of the scenery like water bobbing slowly and clouds moving in the sky. It all depends on the subject matter, but you could have a lot of fun with this!
I don’t plan on making this automated, so speed is ultimately up to the person constructing the box – but I’ll consider some ways of making motions *feel* fast or slow, just by the nature of each mechanism. I especially like the idea of slow, soft movements for clouds and water as you suggested – I didn’t have any particular environment details in mind, but I’d really like to try fitting in something like that!
The modularity aspect of this sounds really cool! I would say the sliding in/out would probably be the most intuitive to me, though the other designs seem perfectly reasonable as well. I really like the movement aspect as well. The colored plastic would be interesting, and even if it does become too visually confusing you can just not use those layers since it’s all manipulable.
This is a compelling idea and one that I think will be fun and challenging to create.
I like the idea of having one or two interactive layers that can move. I imagine those could be simple puppet movements, that could transport a character through the changeable scenery that was assembled in the other layers. Or provide special effects like water flowing, etc.