Nyctous Tunnel Book Acrylic Cut

From all of the learnings I have gathered after my test cutting scenes into acrylic panes for assembly into a nyctous aesthetic tunnel book, I have now revised, designed, and fabricated my final tunnel book panes.

Test acrylic panes, from which much learning was had

From the considerations I didn’t mention in the last post, I decided not to change the size of the panes. I was expecting the 5.5 inch by 8.5 inch size to feel small on the test cut, but I found I didn’t mind the overall, felt it fit the amount of detail I was trying to fit into each pane, and would have to reconceptualize the content quantity of each scene at a larger size.

However, when placing LEDs onto the test cut silhouettes, I found that the lamppost was far too hide the methods for illumination and would need to be drastically thickened. The window cutouts on the building would also be a prime target for illumination, but were unsuitable for such when unable to hide the necessary LEDs, leading me to the conclusion of a partially-windowed building. I also felt that the ensemble was lacking in content and affirmed the original intention to include four panes instead of three.

Silhouette scene content ideation sketches

In search of imagery to put onto the fourth pane and refine the current selection, I performed the above ideation sketches. I took inspiration from my original photographs, current scenes, and some ideas from my peers in class. I also remembered that abstract shapes were part of my original impetus for pursuing acrylic etched silhouettes, and thus dedicated six of the thumbnail sketches on the bottom to abstract shapes.

These inspiration from these sketches should be readily apparent in the final designs in CorelDraw below. The three contexts for abstract shapes that I mentioned in my original plan—nighttime fog, blurry camera focus, and a dreamy mindset—also all get less realistic with depth, so it felt appropriate to increase the abstractness with each successive pane. And the locations for LEDs were very intentionally thought through as the streetlamp, stop light, tree illuminated by the streetlamp, building windows, and however I want with the abstract shapes (likely blue for variety).

Final cut layout in CorelDraw

Another significant change I made to the designs was drawing them completely within CorelDraw instead of using externally created and collaged images. This enabled vector drawing precision without pixelated borders and a more straightforward workflow. After looking at some documentation and experimenting briefly, I also found CorelDraw to have an excellent and intuitive suite of tools for outlining these silhouettes. I spent not insignificant time refining the small details and shape of every curve in these scenes, and I would happily return to CorelDraw for future projects.

Final etched and cut panes arranged in the laser cutter bed

All things considered, I am quite happy with the result of the laser cut panes. Some regions still have inconsistent shading, such as the sections above the ground in the top two panes, but it is solidly filled and undeniably a frosted silhouette in acrylic. I also significantly overcompensated the tolerances on the notches and spent a lot of post-processing time filing them back out to size, but that is my only other complaint with the outcome of the panes.

Even the precision on the edges of the grass came out significantly better in the final, likely due to a combination of the vector shapes and an increased dots per inch setting on the laser cutter from 500 dpi to 600 dpi.

Comparison between test cut grass (bottom) and final cut grass (top)

The next step for this project is to integrate all of the dynamic LED lighting. While I am behind and worried about completing this project in the remaining time, I am excited by this success and eager to continue.

Arrangement of the final panes in sequence on the support rails