3D CMYK Munch

Saw a thing on TV today about how color separations for print works and got this idea: How would it look if I split the CMYK colors out each their 3D plane and then blend them back again as a picture? Here you can see a painting by Edvard Munch using this effect.

Click and drag to see the color separations. Click here for the source. Click here for a larger version.

The hardest part here was actually figuring out how to split out the C, M, Y and K channels as each their separate, transparent PNG. In the end it was quite simple.

1. Open the picture in Photoshop and convert to CMYK
2. Grab a screenshot of each channel and re-open them in Photoshop
3. Copy the contents into the Alpha channel to use brightness as alpha
4. Tint each channel to the proper color, crop and export as PNG
5. Make a standard Away3D scene with a HoverCamera and 5 planes (One plane for each of the CMYK PNGs + one white plane that the back that’ll serve as the paper)
6. Set the materials for each plane and set their blendmode to multiply

Fun eve project instead of watching telly :D

PS: you can find the original image as well as a lot more of Munch’s works at munch.museum.no. Well worth a visit if you’re ever in Oslo and interested in art.

UPDATED: just posted a new version with a more suitable image