I just came across a little video on shadow clouds; they give me one one reason why I want a 3D printer – to make cool stuff! The videos are not that exciting and a bit slow, but the idea is very cool. It starts out with simple shapes but then shows some cooler complex ones. Check it out. Either way it is worth showing your students. I remind them daily that 3% of 3d graphics generated are for Hollywood and Game design. So what else is it used for? -- Cornell
From Drzach & Suchy’s website: http://drzachsuchy.ch/
A shadow cloud is a three-dimensional object, consisting of multiple shadow-casting elements semi-randomly arranged in three dimensions in such a way, that depending on the direction of illumination the overall shadow of the cloud displays various images encoded in it. A shadow cloud can be viewed as a generalization of shadow casting panels, but of course the basic idea of multiple shadows from one three-dimensional structure is already present in well-known GEB-triples. However, in contrast to GEB-triplets, a shadow cloud can encode up to four arbitrary images and display them under appropriate illumination without any distortions.
The idea of shadow clouds can be summarized as follows: the shadow cast by flat, thin elements depends on their relation to the direction of illumination: elements perpendicular to illumination cast clear shadows, while the shadows of elements parallel to illumination are practically invisible. Moreover, the elements perpendicular to the illumination can be arbitrary shifted along the illumination without changing the overall shadow cast by all the elements. This allows for a random, cloud-like placement of elements in space.
