Shadowy tunnel(ish)

After tinkering with *f l a t* images I realize I am actually barking up the wrong tree, or at least, the wrong side of the tree. My aim is to create a hand-held animated shadow puppet theatre, and this needs to have depth as well as interaction. So, here is my next iteration in the shadow book process, this time with depth (still working on the interaction: next step is to experiment with form and animation!).

To get a better sense of depth, I made a tunnel book and embedded tiny LEDs in a copper tape circuit inside; the illustration detail is reveled as shadows when the circuit is closed. You can just see Dave’s hand in top right corner, this is where the switch is to light the lovely beast.

light – no light – light – no light – light – no light – light – no light – light – no light – light – no light

Snapshot of the circuit -lots of fine soldering (those surface mount LEDs are somewhat fiddly!). I want to explore ways of forming the copper tape, as this can be really beautiful as well as the shadow.

Close-up and top-view of the layers

Illustrations are based on some drawings from my sketchbook.