Light painting is a technique where a shape is drawn with a light source while a camera is taking a very long exposure shot of it. To do this well by hand would take a lot of skill, so I naturally decided to make my “light art” with a CNC router.
Using this technique, the LED light is treated just like an engraving bit would be under normal circumstances. The difference is that the Y axis is swapped with the Z axis allowing for easy movement in the plane that you see displayed in the picture above. This allows the old Y axis to switch the light on and off in the same way that an engraving bit is lifted to stop engraving and lowered to start (explained here). Instead of a bit though, it’s a switch.
Be sure to check out the video of the router in action (with the lights on) after the break:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H31rBa46wbM]
If you’re curious about the router used, check out this [HAD] post. Also we have the [HAD] logo available in DXF format here if you’d like to use it in your own project. You may need to delete some layers depending on your use.
Next step in the evolution: use all 3 axis and make some cool 3D “renderings” of wireframe skeletons.
Oh my god!
I would love to see that made a reality!
And then we could put it in a time bubble and have true volumetric 3D displays!
I did this some time ago:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/hobby_discussion/142808-cnc_based_light_drawing.html
Shouldn’t that be the X axis swapped with the Z axis?
Y with Z, but yeah looks like it needs to be changed. Thanks!
RGB? Full colour light painting.
Next step is to add a green and blue LED for full colour pictures.
No doubt! I’m actually using a two color LED for this sequence, but I haven’t really figured out how to control everything correctly, so the other color isn’t used yet! Guess that’s what hacking is all about!