What do you get when you combine a cat and a robot?
The intersection of art and technology is a fun one — you get all sorts of cool stuff like virtual reality and holograms! But it can also lead to some results that are simultaneously low-tech and high-tech. These laser-cut pieces of paper that can be combined to create multiple images based on their orientation with each other were made by Japanese Twitter user Yuseuke Ochiai (@taro_x) and they are some of the coolest things we’ve seen all day!
▼ Based on the thousands of retweets he’s getting, we’re not alone.
Aside from the visual pun of combining an image of a cat and a robot to get Doraemon, Yusuke has also created sheets that can produce multiple images just by moving them a few millimeters in relation to each other.
▼ Also, Yusuke really likes Doraemon, doesn’t he?
▼ Here’s one with two of Sanrio’s most popular characters, Gudetama and Hello Kitty!
You probably get the basic idea just from watching these animations, but the way it works is that the blocks remaining after the paper is cut can be aligned so that they form solid lines. It’s kind of like the inverse of a monitor, we suppose — where multiple pixels light up to form images on your screen, Yusuke’s images block out light to form images. You can check out the video below where Yusuke describes the process in a bit more detail if you’d like a closer look.
While the concept is pretty simple, the effect is amazing — and we doubt it’s the exact opposite of simple to get this to work well. And you need the right equipment to pull this, so we doubt we’ll see too many copycats. On the other hand, Yusuke is apparently offering a service where he’ll take your photos and turn them into cut outs that look surprising cool. You can check it out here, though the page appears to be Japanese only at this time.
▼ A sample image made using Kirie
We can’t wait to see what images Yusuke combines next! Maybe we could get one that transitions from Mr. Sato into Trump…
Sources: Togech, YouTube/Yusuke Ochiai, Twitter/@taro_x
Featured image: Twitter/@taro_x