Background Selection

Enhance Depth and Minimize Ghosting with the Proper Background Selection

When possible, use textures or patterns in backgrounds to minimize ghosting.
Avoid plain white backgrounds; they are the most likely to let ghosting show and add no depth to a 3D image.
A solid color background won’t minimize ghosting much, without a texture or pattern in it.

Caution:

White backgrounds and light flat tints of color as backgrounds are the worst possible background to use in most cases. They do nothing to hide latent images and ghosting.

An extremely dark or black background can sometimes be a problem, too. If your flipping elements are very light on a dark background, it can make the light-flipping elements look transparent or even dirty.

Backgrounds with medium tones and coarse detail or texture work well.

Special Builders Tip:

If the image you are building is subject to ghosting, we can create or suggest several backgrounds that will subdue ghosting. Giving you the finest lenticular image is always our goal.

The foundation of a good 3D image is a background that the elements can play off of. We see the illusion of 3D when elements in a scene move from side to side in relation to each other. The background offers a reference point for the eye to see how much an element is moving. A background works best to show 3D when it has coarse detail, such as a texture or a pattern or a photograph with coarse detail (see below).

Backgrounds with coarse detail also help to hide ghosting in images with motion, morphing and flip images. When an image flips, changes shape, morphs, or has a lot of motion, it needs a background that is able to hide some of the ghosting (latent image.) The absolute worst case is when you have black type that flips on a white background. Typically, the strong black type overpowers the weak white background, so the strong black type appears to never turn completely off.

Some successful background examples:

Photographic

Logo / Type Pattern

Texture

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