With the help of Bruce Shapiro’s open source EggBot kit, available at Evil Mad Scientist, Jiří Zemánek of AA4CC (Advanced Algorithms for Control and Communications) used permanent markers and an electro kistka with bee wax to draw beautiful patterns on rotating egg shells before dying them.
With no computer graphics tricks used in the video, how does it animate?
Various patterns are generated in Matlab using mathematical equations similar to ones describing Spirograph (or harmonograph) and Phyllotaxis. The patterns are calculated in such a way that when rotated under a stroboscopic light of suitable frequency or when recorded by a camera, they start to animate. It is kind of zoetrope— early device for animation.
We love zoetropes. Check out a few animated patterns from the project:
Watch this next: Pixar’s Zoetrope and how animation works.
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