Final Shadow Play Lightbox

 

Final Shadow Play Lightbox

In this week's post, I will step by step show how I combine all the lightbox elements. 

At the beginning of this project, I decided to use an illustration board to create all the elements. The reason for using this stiff cardboard paper is that I want all the pieces can stand still. For all the elements, I cut them with a little bit extra so they can stick on a surface. Using the laser cutting machine to cut out all the details. After many tries, we created the pieces below F(1-2) with burn marks on them. 

F(1)

F(2)

Due to the burn marks created by the laser cutting machine, I got some white spray paint F(3) to fix them.  I took all the pieces out and sprayed them outside, and let them F(4) F(5) dry completely.

F(3)

F(4)

F(5)

While waiting for the white paint to dry, I started to work on the lightbox. I drew them out according to the size of all the elements in the lightbox and cut them out. F(7-11)

F(6)

F(7)

F(8)

F(9)

I broke a couple of the pieces when I was trying to fold them, but I managed to cover them with other pieces.

F(10)

F(11)

Once I got all the pieces I needed for the box, I started to glue them together using superglue (F12). I got this Gorilla glue with the pointy tip on it because it will be easier to manage. The cardboard was very difficult to glue with Gorilla glue because I had to hold it for a while to dry. Therefore I switched to hot glue F(13-4).

F(12)

F(13)

F(14)

Once I got the box pieces together, I started to glue the elements as well using hot glue F(15-19)

F(15)

F(16)

F(17)

F(18)

F(19)

The next step was experiencing the LED lights. I got this Christmas light F(20) for this project, but I then realized that this light is too dark F(21) for the lightbox. This light is dark, and I had a hard time trying to put the battery in the box without showing it. The battery case is just too big, and it is hard to hide from the scene. Therefore, I got another LED light F(22) which is rechargeable and brighter. The great thing about this rechargeable LED light is that it is super easy to install, and you can pull it out to recharge and stick it back once it is done charging F(23). In the end, I put a piece of parchment paper to hide the LED light at the back and cut the top open to access the LED light so I could quickly turn it on and off F(24).

F(20)

F(21)

F(22)

F(23)

F(24)

Once I put everything together, I realized that only four layers were too dull, and it could be more interesting to have more layers. Therefore I hand-cut a couple of layers F(25) to the scene.

F(25)

I hope you enjoy my process. Thank you for watching. Here is the final result F(26-7).

F(26)

F(27)