A Wider Net

Big3D - the big, er, 3D people famous for 3D motion lenticular billboards and soon-to-be-famous for delivering printed video clips have launched their 3D motion cups.

Big3D has been able to produce high resolution (9600dpi) lenticular 3D and animated posters and cards for years now, but they have managed to get the material thin enough to wrap around a drinking cup. They also, of course, have managed to handle the hairy math of creating a 3D illusion printed on 2D paper laminated in lenticular lens sheet and wrapped around an almost-cylinder. Part of me thinks it should not work - it’s just too many transforms from 3D to flat to cylinder. It’s as if they’ve created a perpetual motion machine or a time machine.

Unlike the perpetual motion machine and time machine, these things are real, they’re real cheap, and they’re real recyclable. Yes, these cups may appear to be wrapped in plastic, and they sort of are wrapped in plastic, but these are recyclable - unlike other lenticular cups. They even have a green statement on the page. Bravo.

I forgot to ask them if anyone has played the practical joke of creating a 3D virtual “mug handle” sticking out of the side of the cup.

EDIT - I stand corrected - the cups are made from polypropylene lens material with the printing directly on them - there is no paper, and the whole thing is recyclable. Slick.