Lenticular scripts?

[_Jesse_K-S_]

For the past couple days I've been trying to find Photoshop scripts for creating lenticular images, but haven't found anything useful. The most promising site was in French, and didn't offer downloads, anyway.

Does anyone know where I could find lenticular scripts, or else have any advice for creating them myself?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[_plumeragent_]

I looked into this in regards to printing them a few years ago and found this site:

http://www.didik.com/

Click on the Stereo 3-D Pages column for more info and maybe you'll find a reference to combining stereo images in software.

[_Jesse_K-S_]

Thanks for the link, but good god, why do all these lenticular sites look like they haven't seen a web designer since 1998?!

[_plumeragent_]

Totally! I guess there's not a lot of money in it or they could afford to update.

[Carl_Stawicki]

>have any advice for creating them myself?

I'm not familiar with making lenticular images, but if you can list the specific steps involved with making them I'm sure someone can help you make a script.

Carl.

[_Jesse_K-S_]

Carl, basically a lenticular flip image interlaces two images together. For my purposes it will be 30 horizontal lines/inch per image, so 60 lines/inch total. So the script would need to take two images, subdivide them into 30 equally-sized horizontal lines/inch, then interlace them into one image.

You can read a more detailed and technical description here:
http://www.lenticular-plastics.com/lenticular_process.shtml

[_Mike_Sosnoski_]

Jesse,
You could drop both images into separate layers and add a mask to the top layer. Press the alt key (PC) and click on the mask. Assume your photo was 300 dpi. Make a rectangular selection 5 pixels high, the width of your document. Fill it with black. Select and copy a strip 10 pixels high, the width of your document and paste it back into the mask. Align the black strip of the pasted image 5 pixels below the original black strip. Repeat selecting 20 pixels high, then 40, then 80 etc. With a geometric progression, it shouldn't take too long.

You may want to build this mask as a separate document, then paste it into the mask of the lenticular document you want to make.

Mike Sosnoski

[Rags Gardner]

Jesse,

This sounds interesting. I might be able to help if you contact me offline from my web site www.rags-int-inc.com.

This does not sound too difficult but I would need two sample images for a prototype test. I would convert both to PS RAW files first. This should make it easy to slice the image buffers and recombine them.

As to the fee, a small donation to your favorite charity would please me. If it works well, I would post it to my existing script tools on my web site.

Cheers, Rags :-)

[_Jesse_K-S_]

Mike, you're right. I haven't been thinking about this correctly, and creating a striped mask file for use in an action would seem to be the simplest answer (or starting point).

I tested this out and it appears it will work once I get the bleed and lens pitch correct.

Rags, I will try this on my own, and will let you know if it is beyond me. I like your suggestion to donate to a charity. It's encouraging to see the information gift economy is still strong in some Internet communities :)

[_Mike_Sosnoski_]

Jesse,

I created a Visual Basic program that will generate the mask for you. All you need to do is create a new document with the same dimensions as your photos, run the program, enter the height of the lenticle and press start. You can watch it create the mask stripes. You'll have to copy and paste the new document into the mask of the top layer of your target. It will work with any width, height or resolution of photos. You can have it for the same fee structure as Rags 🙂 Just let me know where to send it.

Mike Sosnoski

[_Jesse_K-S_]

Thanks Mike, but I've created the mask file myself, and it looks about right when I print it. I'll need to take a look at the pitch of my lenticular lenses, and play with the document's bleed.

[MarkWalsh]

I've been reading this thread, and I may be wrong, but I don't see how a mask is going to work. I haven't made lenticular images before, but isn't a lenticular image 2 interlaced complete photos? Masking out strips of one image will leave you with only half of each image (each slice will not line up with the next slice from the same image.)

For a lenticular image, you need to slice each image and move each slice to be interlaced with the slices from the second image. (you will end up with an image 2x the width of the originals.)

[_Jesse_K-S_]

Mark, this is what I originally thought, which is why I had trouble imagining an action that could do this. After reviewing completed lenticular images, I can confirm that Mike's thinking was accurate, however, and the mask is easy to incorporate into an action. This does remove half the horizontal lines from each image, but the composite and finished product still look acceptable.

[Rags Gardner]

Jesse,

I finally found the time to experiment with this. I have created a JavaScript that builds a layer mask based on the lens orientation, lens pitch, and printer resolution. It is menu driven and provides statistics on the number of slices, slice width, and such. It takes about a minute to prepare an 8x10 image on my system.

It currently only supports images composed of two layers. I might enhance this to support more layers in the future. I have sent some inquiries to some manufactures about ordering the lens materials. Can you recommend a source for ordering small quantities of the necessary materials?

If you would like to play with this script, please let me know.

Cheers, Rags :-)

[_Jesse_K-S_]

Rags--

Wow, I hope you didn't go to all that work expecting I would put it to good use. I'm still playing around with our lenses and testing out files & techniques myself, so I'm not yet ready to request your script. A minute of processing per file is also quite a long time compared to other software. Can it be sped up (please don't go to any trouble for me here)?

Regarding a source for lenses, I would contact Tom at http://flipsigns.org/email.htm. He's a member of a trade organization that deals with lenticular lens & camera manufacturers, and software writers. Maybe you should mention your script to him as well. He seemed quite friendly.

--Jesse

[Rags Gardner]

Jesse,

I did this more for my own curiosity and interest than anything else. It now works with three or more layers at less than 3 seconds each. That was for an 8x10 image on my P4 system.

Thanks for the source. Ill have to wait for some material for the acid test.

Cheers, Rags :-)

[_vincentM_]

Hi Jesse and Rags, and obviously the others.
I'm really interested in your script because I'm a passionated beginner in lenticular system and don't have enough money to buy Henry Clement's script which enable to parametrate exactly pictures for both animation, 3d motion and flip effect. I would like to make renderings from my 3d software and generate a lenticular picture by using photoshop.Could someone help me by sending me one of his script? It would be so nice!
Thank you very much.
Vincent

[Rags Gardner]

Vincent M,
I would be happy to send you my version of the script if you contact me offline: rags at rags-int-inc dot com. I think it is ready but I would like some Beta testing before I post it publicly.

Cheers, Rags :-)

[_Jay_Gresham_]

Hi guys, sorry for jumping in late. I believe it is much better creating your own, but there is a FREE professional pc version of SuperFlip Lenticular Interlace Software available. Go to this link and complete the request form, provide a valid email address and the SuperFlip Zip will be emailed to you. I know a form, sorry, but it is FREE!

http://vuethru.com/lentlensblanks_superflip.html

Jay

[_plumeragent_]

For some reason it's asking for a Yahoo password. Is this for real? What's wrong with my regular e-mail address? I don't use Yahoo due to the spam.

[_Aidas_Siauciunas_]

For lenticular images and materials you should check www.3dfun.co.uk . they even have lenticular construction kits.

[_Harvey_Jewett_]

There is a lot of info online about this. Just do a search. There is some very affordable shareware available at http://www.lenticularshareware.com/ or http://www.conceptjewel.com/lic/download.html or you can check out all the commercial apps here http://www.lenticular-software.com/ as well as a bunch of useful info.