Touchable Bokeh – 3D Printed Wet Plates [video]

I'm not sure if that's exactly the same, but certainly looks like a "lithophane" for which you'll be able to find much more information. Also the way this was printed also certainly looks like it was made by one of the tools already available to produce these (these became a thing since some years now in 3d-printing).

Essentially, the brightness of the picture is mapped to thickness. Bright spots in the image correspond to thin areas in the plate.

The effect is that when back light hits the plate, more light will be able to pass through thin areas, restoring the original image.

The plate is also "3d" in nature because of this, so it looks like a bumpmap texture without light and I can share with the author that's it's extremely cool to see/touch also without lighting.

The plate is commonly printed vertically (as it results in higher cross-section resolution in the FDM printing process), and using an arch layout is common as well as it makes it self-standing.

Photographer creates video narrative to low key advertise that he sells lithopanes of his work.

Lithopanes are a technique someone developed years ago for printing a photograph on an FDM 3D Printer. They work by varying the thickness of the print to control the amount of light that passes through. The result is a monochrome image you can see when held up to light and feel with your fingers.

In the video the gentleman, who seems to be a photographer specializing in very early photographic techniques, shares a story of how he got a 3d printer during the pandemic and created some lithopanes of his work. He low key mentions you can buy them.

If you're interested in lithopanes this video is at best a definition of the technique and demonstration of results.

Essentially, a 3D printed inverted luminance map, curved a bit to be able to stand on a flat surface. Looks nice with a source of light behind and when made from a photo with lots of contrast.

Tons, this technique has been around for quite sometime and the process is pretty mature.

I use FreeCAD and the lithophane addon.