News Feeding our curiosity through new subjects

Time-lapse has been around for the best part of 150 years, in which time its uses have varied greatly.

Originally favoured by scientists to study the movement of animals and now utilised across a number of different professions for any number of reasons, this particular field of photography has never-ending benefits.

One of the major attractions of time-lapse is its ability to bring to light movements and techniques that are simply not possible to see with the human eye.

That is not to say that we cannot see things progress in real time, but that we do need help with the intricate details of everyday life. And one thing that is likely to become more and more a part of that is 3D printing.

Readily available consumer models mean it is practical to print plastic products at home, with accuracy of around 0.1mm. The possibility of this process – with both the positive and potentially negative outcomes of using it – has been well documented in the past. But what has taken a little longer is the use of time-lapse to reveal the complex printing process.

Ignore your imagination for just a little bit, because these are not desktop inkjet printers and your 3D model will not instantly slide out of the front paper tray. Instead, special files tell the printer what to produce – and off it goes.

And instead of ink being dropped onto a piece of paper as it passes through the machine, the 3D printer builds layers of melted plastic upon a movable base and/ or with a movable printing arm.

But these processes can take a considerable amount of time, which makes it impractical to watch the model being created as it takes shape. Hobbyists and professionals are now finding a new way to utilise time-lapse – and it creates a pretty impressive video of 3D printing taking place.

Film fans look no further than this time-lapse, as a replica Yoda bust is created in front of your eyes in stunning detail:

Practical items still need some work to make them, well, practical. Not only is this utility knife bulky, it is apparently, according to the creator, pretty useless:

Having said that, this phone case is a little better (thought its protection capabilities are questionable):

And a final short video to boggle your mind. Even as a time-lapse sequence, it is difficult to comprehend this “math [sic] art”: