Making Lemonade
In 2006, my Father had the deep brain stimulation surgery to treat his Parkinson's. It was very difficult seeing the toll this horrible disease took on my hero.
Hoping to add some light to the situation and “make lemonade when life gives you lemons”, I decided to make an animated 3D lenticular print for him and his doctors.
I got a copy of his MRI and downloaded the software needed to work with the files. The neat thing about the MRI software was that it allowed multiple color combinations of the scans.
Some of the color combinations.
With Adobe After Effects I time compressed the original 300+ frames in the MRI down to about 50 and then hand selected the 18 you see here. I interlaced the files with SuperFlip and then printed on a poly film at 720 DPI with my Epson 9600. I finished by mounting to a 40 LPI Microlens lens.
The resulting lenticulars were fabulous. My father loved them as did everyone. His doctors displayed them in their offices.
Recently going through my archives, I found one of the prints. I thought back about this difficult time and remembered the small ray of sunshine the lenticulars brought.
While the surgery was a success, Parkinson’s took it’s inevitable toll. Together, as a family, we made it through. My mother used to say: “Through our love and togetherness, we divide our sorrows and multiply our joys.” She sure was right about that.
Stay close to the ones you love. And remember to make a little lemonade.
Video of the lenticular print.