Videos for Creating Cool 3D Light Objects Using Only a Tablet and Camera

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We’ve shared a few pretty cool cross-section light painting projects before, but none of them were ever very… shall we say… cheery. Both projects — 21:31 and Andy Leach’s hologram photo — were created using the same eerie video of human slices from the Visible Human Project. But for those who wanted to toy around with cross-section light painting and re-creating 3D light objects in their photos, that’s all they had.

Well, not anymore. Photographer Hugo Baptista has put together a Vimeo group called “Cross Section Objects for Light Painting“. It contains a number of videos that you can load onto your tablet or smartphone and use to create 3D light painting objects.

That 3D light painting of a Lambo seen above was created using this video:

Here’s another photo/video example, this time of a monk:

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If this sounds intriguing you’ll have your choice of monks, crocodiles, sharks, Lamborghinis and more for your first foray into three dimensional cross-section light painting.

To make it work, all you have to do is swipe the tablet, computer, or smartphone the video is on across the frame as you shoot one long exposure. Each object will take about 10 seconds to create, and you can rotate them in space however you’d like based on the direction the video is moved.

It’ll take a bit of trial and error, and it’s not the most intuitive thing at first, but the results speak for themselves. It might not qualify as fine art, but this project can definitely make a boring Saturday night at home a lot more interesting.

Cross Section Objects for Light Painting [Vimeo]

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