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# Students Invent Way to Light-Paint in 3D
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/students-invent-way-to-light-paint-in-3d/
- Published: 2016-07-15T22:14:44.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:47:31.000Z
- Description: Two-dimensional light painting is so passé.
- Author: Carey Dunne
- Tags: News, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:17 (2016, 2017, part 1)

![5scRHV7 - Imgur](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/06/5scrhv7-imgur.gif)

FilmSpektakel, clip from “The Invention of #HoloPainting” (2016) (all GIFs by the author for Hyperallergic)

Two-dimensional [light painting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light%5Fpainting?ref=hyperallergic.com) is so passé. A new technique invented by Vienna-based film production company [Film Spektakel](http://filmspektakel.at/en/?page%5Fid=50&ref=hyperallergic.com) combines traditional light painting, stop motion, and hyperlapse to create 3D-animated light paintings. Dubbed “holopainting,” after the resemblance of the results to holograms, it’s not to be confused with the [holopaintings](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Holopainting?ref=hyperallergic.com) in the *Star* *Wars* universe, though we suppose you could create your own holographic Princess Leia with the technique.

Created by Thomas Pöcksteiner, Peter Jablonowski, and Markus Fic, holopainting was part of a graduation project at the University of Applied Science St. Pölten. Here’s how it works: The designers built a massive 3D scanner using 24 Raspberry Pi computers with webcams arranged on tripods in a circle around a room. A man stood in the middle of the circle, playing with a ball, while the cameras photographed him from 24 different perspectives. In order to record his motion, the cameras were programmed to shoot at a delay of 83 milliseconds. Then, to prepare the pictures for being painted with light, the trio spent several days cutting the figure out of each photograph and placing it against a black background. Using [the pixelstick](http://www.thepixelstick.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), a computerized light-painting stick equipped with 200 LEDs, they “painted” each photograph.

When they projected these light-painted photographs from the exact positions of the original cameras, what resulted was a glowing 3D animation of the original subject. Once this animation stood shimmering in the middle of the room, they did a hyperlapse around the “world’s first holopainting,” as they called it.

The technique is impressive, but it lacks the spontaneous elegance and versatility of low-tech 2D light paintings by the likes of [Picasso](http://time.com/3746330/behind-the-picture-picasso-draws-with-light/?ref=hyperallergic.com). To try this at home, you’ll just need a Pixelstick, 24 Raspberry Pis with webcams, a 48-Port-Switch, 375 meters of LAN cable, a Canon 6D, and a Sachtler Ace Mand, plus plenty of programming knowledge. Easy!