Infinity Mirror
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:00 pm
I'm using Blender a lot to make 3D-models for 3D-printing. My latest project is an "infinity mirror", i.e. one mirror and one partially transmitting mirror paralell to each other with LEDs inside them that bounce light around, resulting in the appearance of a very long tunnel.
We built some of these at university a few years ago for the international year of light, with frames made from aluminium extrusion. Now I wanted to make some again, with a lightweight, compact and scalable printed frame. Also, 3D-printing is ideal to make custom logos to insert into the mirror
And while I have the model in blender already, why not set it up to get a good preview of what it will look like with some logo design or LED color...
I just finished bullding the first mirror. There are still some "teething troubles" with the mechanical design, but good enough to share some impressions and maybe get some tips how to set up the render
First off, here are some images of the real thing (with a family company logo):
If you notice that the sides look a little curved: Thats one of the mechanical issues, not camera distortion
In comparison, a quick render with LuxCore. Due to the many reflections, I set the specular path depth to 80 for this (maybe a bit less would have been sufficient in the end, I played around with mirror reflectivities which affect the tunnel depth). Unfortunately, my PC is quite old, so this was 30 minutes on a Phenom II X4 955. I'll have to copy it to my laptop and run it overnight, it is faster
I'll be working in the future on improved mechanical design and better materials for rendering. An important thing will be to get the translucency of the logo right. It is a hollow platic part, currently white PLA with LEDs inside for illumination.
We built some of these at university a few years ago for the international year of light, with frames made from aluminium extrusion. Now I wanted to make some again, with a lightweight, compact and scalable printed frame. Also, 3D-printing is ideal to make custom logos to insert into the mirror
And while I have the model in blender already, why not set it up to get a good preview of what it will look like with some logo design or LED color...
I just finished bullding the first mirror. There are still some "teething troubles" with the mechanical design, but good enough to share some impressions and maybe get some tips how to set up the render
First off, here are some images of the real thing (with a family company logo):
If you notice that the sides look a little curved: Thats one of the mechanical issues, not camera distortion
In comparison, a quick render with LuxCore. Due to the many reflections, I set the specular path depth to 80 for this (maybe a bit less would have been sufficient in the end, I played around with mirror reflectivities which affect the tunnel depth). Unfortunately, my PC is quite old, so this was 30 minutes on a Phenom II X4 955. I'll have to copy it to my laptop and run it overnight, it is faster
I'll be working in the future on improved mechanical design and better materials for rendering. An important thing will be to get the translucency of the logo right. It is a hollow platic part, currently white PLA with LEDs inside for illumination.