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Fun with fluorescent light diffuser ceiling panels

 
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drcrash
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Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Posts: 705
Location: Austin, Texas

PostPosted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 10:04 am    Post subject: Fun with fluorescent light diffuser ceiling panels Reply with quote

I've been playing around with pieces of fluorescent light diffuser panels for suspended ceilings.

My favorite is clear "cracked ice" acrylic. It's a beautiful texture that can look icy or reptilian or just funky depending on the lighting and what's behind it.

Here's a pull of that, on the plaster buck it was pulled over:


(Sorry about the boogers. I put clay around the nostrils to reduce undercuts.)

Here's the same one with somewhat different lighting. (The green cast is from a fluorescent light, uncorrected. I kinda like the reptilian effect.)



Here's another one over a black craft foam liner formed over the same buck:



I think it's a cool effect---hard to do justice to in photos, without better lighting---although it does have a tendency to make my lovely wife look like her brother in drag:



(Not that there's anything wrong with that; it's just not what I was aiming for. Smile )

I've also used "white mist" (fine-textured) styrene.

For anybody who's not familiar with the concave diffuser trick, you can display these things inside forward, light them from above and behind, and they look convex where they're actually concave. Better, when you move around, they seem to turn to face you, which can be cool or creepy.





I'm thinking that might be pretty neat for a stormtrooper face, or even a full-body concave stormtrooper, since it's white overall. You can paint the black parts, and the effect will still work---you'd have a stormtrooper that seemed to be keeping a watchful eye on you.
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jegner
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Joined: 30 May 2003
Posts: 2144
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 9:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very cool! Thanks for sharing! I often wondered what that textured panes would look like vac-formed.

Neat stuff!

Jim
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Stomper
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Joined: 01 Oct 2005
Posts: 473
Location: Woodburn, Oregon USA

PostPosted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 2:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is too cool! I'll have to give stuff like that a shot once I get a vac-form rig up and running! I think that makes for some nice looking & clever artwork drcrash!

ps.

I WAS wondering what the HECK the green stuff was at first... until I read your explaination! Laughing
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cod
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Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 322
Location: San Francisco

PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

neat and informative.

Are you having any issue with flammable fumes from acrylic ? Was contemplating messing with an acrylic panel the other night, but my oven is sealed fairly well and didnt want to collect gas. Shocked
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