Meso-Facets for Goniochromatic 3D Printing

Abstract

Goniochromatic materials and objects appear to have different colors depending on viewing direction. This occurs in nature, such as in wood or minerals, and in human-made objects such as metal and effect pigments. In this paper, we propose algorithms to control multi-material 3D printers to produce goniochromatic effects on arbitrary surfaces by procedurally augmenting the input surface with meso-facets, which allow distinct colors to be assigned to different viewing directions of the input surface while introducing minimal changes to that surface. Previous works apply only to 2D or 2.5D surfaces, require multiple fabrication technologies, or make considerable changes to the input surface and require special post-processing, whereas our approach requires a single fabrication technology and no special post-processing. Our framework is general, allowing different generating functions for both the shape and color of the facets. Working with implicit representations allows us to generate geometric features at the limit of device resolution without tessellation. We evaluate our approach for performance, showing negligible overhead compared to baseline color 3D print processing, and for goniochromatic quality.

Printing with tonalli: Reproducing Featherwork from Precolonial Mexico Using Structural Colorants

“…Advanced printing technologies, such as multi-color 3D printing for reproducing goniocromatic effects in the mesoscopic regime [70], and, as shown in this work, 2D printing with specialized inks, are approaches to reproducing the color-shifting appearance of natural structures. The lustrous appearance of feathers, resulting from the interaction of light with microscopic surface structures, shares conceptual and perceptual similarities with the coloration achieved through light interference in multilayer reflectors, such as pearlescent pigments.…”