Hey gang, Tim here at Core Electronics and today I'm showing you what you can do with 3D printed lithophanes. Of the many great objects you can create using any 3D printer, lithophanes are definitely up there. Traditionally, lithophanes were an etched or moulded artwork created on a very thin translucent porcelain that can only be seen clearly when backlit with a light source. Nowadays, thanks to the emergence of 3D printing and CNC machining, you can now create lithophanes from many, many different materials.

A lithophane presents a three-dimensional image. This image changes characteristic depending on the light source behind them and this brings a lot of interest to lithophanes. And with modern LEDs, it has never been easier to change the light properties. So, simplifying all of this, lithophanes created in this tutorial are essentially embossed photos. Generated by a 3D printer. The print results do not show much at first, but when you shine some light through and you're in a darkened room, you'll be amazed by the amount of detail captured. The way it works is that light passes through the thin parts while being blocked by the thicker parts. In this way, the differences in light bring out the details of the image.

Any two-dimensional image can become a lithophane and it's honestly extraordinary how much detail can be reproduced. And you're not limited to a flat plane. A lot of different shapes can become lithophanes. For example, here on the table is a cylinder lithophane which rotates with the heat from the light bulb. It's a pretty wallpaper background and has multiple frames of a horse running wrapped all the way around it. All these lithophanes before you were made using the completely free online software by Nestedcube called Image to Lithophane. Now, there are many different tools for turning a photo, your photo, into a lithophane model. But virtually all of them work the same way. First, they guess the primary object of the photo and then emboss it. And they give it a nice border and provide you with a final file in a 3D format like an STL, a standard triangle language file. This STL file can be understood by any 3D printer worth its salt.

So, I'll jump into the computer and demonstrate how I use this software. So, you can find the software by typing this into your URL or you can go to our Core Xtronix tutorial page on lithophanes and find the link right there. So, as soon as I drag and drop an image file directly into this program, like so, the Nestedcube starts running. In this case, I've used a file image of the Starry Night, a painting by Vincent van Gogh, which final result you can see over here. And just like that, it has created a lithophane. Now, this file you can download using this button here, totally free. It will be an STL file, which is perfect for all 3D printing slicing softwares. Now, if you jump into the settings page, you can alter the model size. You can alter the thickness. You can alter the borders, which is the borders around your lithophane. You can set the thinnest layers, and this will maximize the range of shades possible. You can decide the vectors per pixel, which increases the detail of the final lithophane. You can decide the base's depth. You can even create a curved lithophane so it can stand on its own by altering this here. This is numbers and degrees. Back to the front section, you can also experiment with a number of different shapes, from flat domes to cylindrical shapes.

So, now you have an STL, and you may well ask, what is the best way to 3D print a lithophane? Well, ask no more. I'll tell you exactly how. Let us start with material choice. White and opaque materials present the best results. I would not recommend using clear materials, as the lithophane effect will just be lost. Now, if you're going to let the natural sunlight light the back of the model, then PLA is a good material to use. But if you're going to light it using electrical lights or LEDs, these can give off a lot of heat. So, let me give you an example of when you choose material poorly. This right here, this poor puppy, ended up getting a little bit warped because I left it in the light for too long. So, when you want a lithophane to be lit for a long time, utilizing high temperature resistant materials such as polypropylene or copolyester is a must to prevent potential deformation. Let us jump into Ultimaker Cura, and I'll show you the settings to get the best possible lithophane out of your 3D printers. Now, most slicing software will have these settings that I'm about to tell you about. So, what I describe here will be very transferable. Now, you can see we've imported the Van Gogh lithophane into Cura. So, start off by selecting an appropriate material choice. In this case, we'll use Ultimaker CPE+, and we'll make it white. Now that we've done that, you'll notice the orientation that I'm going to be printing this at. It's standing upright. Now, due to the mechanics of fused filament fabrication, a better print result will occur when the lithophane is printed standing upright. Next, we'll go into here. We're going to lower the print speed to a slower speed of around 20 millimetres per second. This will ensure no detail is lost and that the printer takes the time it needs to get good interlayer adhesion, particularly because of how thin each layer will be. Now, let's look at wall thickness, which I'll max out to a value of more than 10. This will ensure the inside of the lithophane, which will have the light shone through it, will have the same density throughout. This is because all internal lines will effectively become perimeter lines. This allows the image to come out looking sharp. Finally, let's have a quick look at infill. This we're going to max out to 100%. This is like a double measure, which really you should not need to do because the wall thickness is set correctly. But this is done also to ensure the insides of the lithophane will have the same density throughout. Now, scrolling down to the build plate adhesion type, which is here, we're going to keep this as a brim. This is done to maximize the stability of the lithophane while it's being printed. Often the actual lithophane is only two to three millimetres thick, and that can become quite precarious as it gets very tall. And finally, let's minimize the layer height up here to the smallest one you're happy to do, as this will allow the maximum amount of detail to be captured in your lithophane. You can go all the way down to extra fine. And that's it. Doing this will give you the best settings. And these are the settings I use to print the lithophanes that you can see before you.

Now, the question that's been on everyone's mind, how do you get more colours into lithophanes? And I dig it. The more colours, the better. I found a number of different solutions, which you can see on our Core Electronics website. But on this Van Gogh lithophane over here, I've transferred colour onto the backside of it using laser printed paper and acetate. It can take a lot of effort to rub the colour from the laser printed paper onto the surface of the plastic. However, when you've done it right, you get colour that perfectly matches the image. Now, to get the colour onto this particular PLA Vincent Van Gogh painting, I used four separate A4 sheets of laser printed paper and a small container worth of acetate. I then laid the paper and rubbed the colour onto the back of the PLA after moistening both sides with acetate. In this case, gloves and masks are essential. Now, I reckon there are easier ways to get this result using transfer paper.I'll definitely be exploring in the future content. Another option is just to have a laser printed sheet stuck to the back. A simple solution that gives a good result, even if it blocks some of the light getting through the lithophane. It is also important not to let the sheet get too hot, as it would be liable of melting or catching fire given enough time.

One of the cool things about doing it this way is you could do colour adjustments to the paper print, as the opacity levels of the particular lithophane can alter light when it travels through it. Another easy way is to run LED lights with different colour choices. This will alter the whole cue or feeling of the picture just by altering the background lighting. And you can end up with some excellent looking, vibrant results. Particularly good when most of the image is a single color.

Or for those particularly artistically gifted, you can go through the process of either painting the inside or outside. This will block some of the light, but traditional lithophanes were often painted and the results would be gorgeous.

And that's all I have for you today. Hopefully this has inspired future 3D prints. And until next time, stay cozy.