[HN Gopher] Black 3.0 - The blackest black acrylic paint
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       Black 3.0 - The blackest black acrylic paint
        
       Author : woliveirajr
       Score  : 195 points
       Date   : 2021-07-19 13:33 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (culturehustle.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (culturehustle.com)
        
       | kissgyorgy wrote:
       | This looks like quite confusing to the eye (brain).
        
       | isoprophlex wrote:
       | These ultrablack paints are all carbon nanotube based, right?
       | 
       | Sounds pretty carcinogenic to me. The website makes it out to be
       | "non toxic" though. I wonder if I'm too paranoid... anyone knows
       | what's the pigment made of, exactly?
        
         | whatshisface wrote:
         | Good point. Carbon nanotubes are carcinogenic.
         | 
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5799097/
        
           | NikolaeVarius wrote:
           | Well, dont eat paint chips.
        
             | pixl97 wrote:
             | More about the dust that is generated when the product is
             | used.
        
         | dekhn wrote:
         | No, that's vantablack, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack
         | for which a company has a patent. I believe black3.0 is much
         | more conventional paint (pigment based, rather than structural
         | color based) See https://www.ko-pro.black/190516black30/
        
           | masklinn wrote:
           | The company's patent is a thing, but as explained down the
           | page black 3.0 exists specifically because the company
           | granted Anish Kapoor an exclusive artistic use license to
           | Vantablack S-VIS, so no other visual artist can use S-VIS.
           | 
           | Also of note: there are variants of Vantablack with aligned
           | and unaligned nanotubes, as well as non-nanotubes-based
           | variants (the VBx series).
           | 
           | There is also a non-surrey nanotubes-based paint called
           | Singularity, created by Nanolab in partnership with Jason
           | Chase, and an other "very black" non-nanotubes paint called
           | Musou.
           | 
           | I don't know how Musou compares to 3.0, and last time I'd
           | checked Singularity was slightly more reflective than Vanta.
           | They do have the avantage (for artists) of being available
           | though, and Musou and 3.0 are pretty normal paints.
        
             | mike_d wrote:
             | To nit pick a bit on "so no other visual artist can use
             | S-VIS"
             | 
             | It is not that the company made a deal to exclude other
             | artists, but that they made an exception to allow one
             | artist.
             | 
             | You as an individual, and likely you as a corporation,
             | can't buy Vantablack. You have to provide technical
             | drawings and a detailed writeup of your product, submit it
             | for review to the company, they send it to the UK
             | government, etc. until eventually they tell you it will be
             | tens of thousands of dollars to paint something the size of
             | a Netgear router and that only their paint shop can apply
             | the coating.
        
               | smnrchrds wrote:
               | What is Vantablack used for? Besides Anish Kapoor's art,
               | is there any information on what else it has been
               | incorporated in? I imagine some of its uses are
               | classified, but are there some other ones that are known?
        
       | faebi wrote:
       | Why are the dashboards of cars not painted in this or similar
       | colors? I want to have minimum reflections but the temperature is
       | probably the problem.
        
         | nitrogen wrote:
         | Polarized sunglasses will significantly reduce the visibility
         | of dashboard reflections.
        
         | stan_rogers wrote:
         | No, it's because most of the "blackest" finishes are extremely
         | delicate, as they rely on a sort of micro-velvet structure to
         | trap light as well as absorbing light. There are _relatively_
         | sturdy solutions - fabrics, mostly - but they tend to be
         | absolute dust magnets, and look rather ratty in a short time
         | unless kept scrupulously clean. Between the high maintenance
         | and the immediate grunge regardless of maintenance, they don 't
         | sell well. (Photographers, on the other hand, love the stuff
         | despite the fact that there's an extra few minutes doing a
         | detailed tidying before every shot.)
        
       | airstrike wrote:
       | https://www.wired.com/story/vantablack-anish-kapoor-stuart-s...
        
       | a9h74j wrote:
       | I understand the purposes, but from another angle:
       | 
       |  _Bikeshedding has reached a new extreme. We are debating what
       | color of black to use._
        
         | a9h74j wrote:
         | Update: Did not read and made a low-effort attempt at
         | flippancy. Regret. ... Agree 100% about important design
         | choices in shades and finishes.
        
         | femto113 wrote:
         | At this point the different blacks are less about color and
         | more about finish/reflectivity. Even if you decide to paint
         | your bikeshed a lovely Celeste green you'd still have to choose
         | whether you want eggshell or semigloss.
        
         | Igelau wrote:
         | This isn't bikeshedding at all. In art and design, black has
         | never been just one color. It's always been a choice of which
         | ones to use. Here are some examples from printing:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_black
        
           | aksss wrote:
           | Yes, I painted my home theater "black", and ended up down a
           | rabbit hole of "well, which black??". Ended up painting the
           | ceiling and trim a slightly different black than the walls.
           | Probably only I am consciously aware of the difference.
        
         | jasonwatkinspdx wrote:
         | So I think you're missing that first, this was motivated as a
         | troll, and second, in art variations of black _absolutely_ do
         | matter and are not simple bike shedding.
         | 
         | The troll happened because an artist named Anish Kapoor was
         | able to negotiate exclusive access to a patented black
         | paint/coating based on carbon nanotubes named Vantablack. He's
         | the only artist allowed to use it globally. That didn't sit
         | well with some people who decided to troll back.
         | 
         | I haven't done any art since I was in my late teens, but at the
         | time a couple of my works were focused on very dark subjects. I
         | found ordinary acrylic paint just wasn't black enough for what
         | I wanted. Eventually I found that spraying liquid India ink
         | with an airbrush repeatedly got the effect I was looking for.
        
       | cbsmith wrote:
       | Black 3.0 has been around for quite a while, the newest thing is
       | Black Mirror:
       | https://www.culturehustleusa.com/collections/black/products/...
        
         | alfalfasprout wrote:
         | The finish looks quite bad though in that shiny paint. Though
         | maybe it can be hand sanded and polished to a piano black
         | finish.
        
           | cbsmith wrote:
           | I think it's really hard to judge from a photograph, but
           | Semple is, if nothing else, a fantastic promoter, so your
           | skepticism is warranted.
        
       | amifty wrote:
       | Blackest black explains!!!!
        
       | meetups323 wrote:
       | A neat material. I had a decorative mirror that unfortunately
       | shattered, I was able to paint the backing with this and mount
       | the shards atop. Creates a cool contrast, with the mirror
       | reflecting nearly 100% of visible light and the the backing
       | nearly 0%.
       | 
       | I also took some shards of the mirror and coated them with the
       | black, then mounted them throughout the house. It makes it look
       | as if some of my universe's texture shards didn't fully load or
       | the backface culling algorithm is buggy. :)
       | 
       | It an interesting material to look at, the uniformity gives your
       | eye nothing to hold on to, making it hard to focus. I recommend
       | trying it out it for anyone interested, the small bottle is
       | pretty cheap and covers just over a square meter. (I needed a few
       | coats, if you preprocess the surface according to the
       | instructions you'd probably lose less to absorption and get more
       | coverage)
        
         | Navarr wrote:
         | I would love to see a picture of this
        
           | lisper wrote:
           | A photo could not possibly capture the effect. Turn your
           | monitor off and you will see what a digital photo of this
           | black would look like.
        
             | jjeaff wrote:
             | Sure it would. And capturing the contrast between the
             | regular wall and the black would give you much better
             | results that turning your monitor off too.
             | 
             | There are lots of cool photos out there of super black
             | material.
        
             | lapetitejort wrote:
             | I turned my monitor off and saw the most disgusting
             | creature staring back at me. No idea why you'd want to
             | paint that around your house.
        
           | zmix wrote:
           | Yes, photos, please :-)!
        
           | sinalc0 wrote:
           | Second this
        
       | MikeDelta wrote:
       | Man, wish the Rolling Stones had this back in the day when they
       | wanted to paint that door.
        
         | crb3 wrote:
         | They could have used matte black tempera (Sanford's IIRC). Back
         | in the day, I played around with (analog) photocopier rendition
         | of pen-and-ink drawings and found that large black inked areas
         | developed faded centers. Coating the ink there with said
         | tempera fixed the dropouts.
        
       | thanatos519 wrote:
       | I have used culturehustle's matte paint on most of the stuff in
       | front of me - monitor bezels, speakers, desk - and it makes sure
       | that the lit things appear to be floating in space at night.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Some past related threads, including about this blackest black
       | and the other blackest blacks:
       | 
       |  _Guy Creates Darkest Room with the Blackest Black Paint_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25758913 - Jan 2021 (1
       | comment)
       | 
       |  _Another Artist Made His Own Superblack-and Now It's Even
       | Blacker_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25402799 - Dec
       | 2020 (2 comments)
       | 
       |  _MIT creates blackest black that is darker than Vantablack_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21118636 - Sept 2019 (17
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Black Blacker Than Vantablack_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21093784 - Sept 2019 (94
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _New carbon nanotube-metal hierarchical material is 10x darker
       | than Vantablack_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20973667
       | - Sept 2019 (68 comments)
       | 
       |  _BMW unveils "blackest black" car sprayed with Vantablack_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20820000 - Aug 2019 (28
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Vantablack, one of the darkest substances known_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19106541 - Feb 2019 (4
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _BLACK 3.0 BETA blackest black acrylic paint_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19044406 - Jan 2019 (2
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _One Artist Has a Monopoly on the World's Blackest Black
       | Pigment_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16873089 - April
       | 2018 (1 comment)
       | 
       |  _The World's "Blackest Black" Makes Its Debut-On a Building_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16342651 - Feb 2018 (1
       | comment)
       | 
       |  _Anish Kapoor is given exclusive rights to Vantablack, the
       | purest black paint_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11209692 - March 2016 (4
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _New Super-Black, Light-Absorbing Material Looks Like a Hole in
       | Reality_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8058840 - July
       | 2014 (7 comments)
       | 
       |  _Scientists have developed a material so dark that it can 't be
       | seen_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8030459 - July 2014
       | (42 comments)
       | 
       |  _Scientists develop material so dark you can 't see it_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8027446 - July 2014 (7
       | comments)
        
       | inlikealamb wrote:
       | There's a lot of backstory to this... it's a dig against
       | Vantablack, which Anish Kapoor (famous sculptor) managed to buy
       | exclusive rights for using in art:
       | 
       | https://www.wired.com/story/vantablack-anish-kapoor-stuart-s...
        
         | fennecfoxen wrote:
         | For those who haven't heard of him before, Kapoor did the Bean
         | in Chicago.
        
           | IncRnd wrote:
           | Apparently he has done tons of work. His website is a
           | straight list of image links left to right and up & down.
           | 
           | https://anishkapoor.com/
        
           | tmmx wrote:
           | Anish Kapoor is not happy that people are calling it the
           | bean. Cloudgate is the official name.
        
             | bbarnett wrote:
             | The Amish grow lots of beans, and I doubt they like
             | nanotubes.
        
             | _jal wrote:
             | ...Another good reason to call it the bean.
        
             | blamazon wrote:
             | Ah, so you mean the official name is "the bean"?
        
           | ThePadawan wrote:
           | Just bear with me here.
           | 
           | Wouldn't it be funny if people only knew him as the guy
           | famously slammed for getting a monopoly on Vantablack? If at
           | all.
        
             | kwhitefoot wrote:
             | Apart from a wonky bit of space frame crap the black colour
             | foolishness is in fact all I know about him.
        
         | SamBam wrote:
         | I misread this (ambiguous) line at first
         | 
         | > In 2017, Semple also released a cherry-scented version of the
         | Vantablack pigment exclusively licensed to Kapoor.
         | 
         | and thought that Semple had mixed cherry-scent with Vantablack
         | and licensed it to Kapoor exclusively. It would have been an
         | interesting move, particularly from a legal perspective,
         | although I would have expected a different scent than cherry...
        
         | jchw wrote:
         | Indeed, and it looks like 3.0 still maintains this feud:
         | 
         | > *Note: By adding this product to your cart you confirm that
         | you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish
         | Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish
         | Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. To the best of your
         | knowledge, information and belief this material will not make
         | it's way into the hands of Anish Kapoor.
        
           | katabatic wrote:
           | Dragging Anish Kapoor never, ever gets old.
        
             | adrusi wrote:
             | That's, I think, a deliberate facet of Kapoor's art.
        
       | dan_pixelflow wrote:
       | There's a Tom Scott video about another one of Stuart's products,
       | and an explanation for the Anish Kapoor message:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NzVmtbPOrM
        
         | domenici2000 wrote:
         | Thanks, came back for this hehe
        
         | Tsiklon wrote:
         | The Stuart Semple vs. Anish Kapoor "beef" is one of my
         | favorites to read about, utterly harmless and unbelievably
         | petty, it entertains me to no end.
        
       | tenaciousDaniel wrote:
       | I really want a mechanical keyboard coated with this.
        
         | ksec wrote:
         | Are there any piratical purpose in doing it?
        
           | tenaciousDaniel wrote:
           | Not at all, would just look cool (in theory). Unfortunately
           | the replies prove that it's impossible, at least right now.
        
           | stevenpetryk wrote:
           | You can paint your black flag even blacker. Think of the
           | plundering!
        
           | Pet_Ant wrote:
           | I mean if you wanted black box for photographing things and
           | wanted to minimise bounce lighting. This paint guarantees
           | that only direct light would illuminate the subject.
        
           | robbedpeter wrote:
           | It'll make yer skull 'n crossbones really pop, matey!
        
         | sneak wrote:
         | As others have pointed out, this will only work until you touch
         | it. I use the Das Keyboard ultimate, which is matte black and,
         | while partially reflective (and moreso on the keycaps where
         | finger oil accumulates) it's still pretty great-looking.
        
         | EliasWatson wrote:
         | TaeKeyboards has a video where he does that:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKpsohmQMwE
         | 
         | It looks pretty good, but you can't put a clearcoat on it, so
         | it's not durable enough to actually use as a keyboard. Still a
         | fun item to have on your shelf though.
        
           | 1-more wrote:
           | Wait can you not clearcoat it because it ruins the effect? Or
           | is it somehow too weak to accept a clear coat?
        
             | h327 wrote:
             | The clear coat would ruin the effect by reflecting light,
             | making the paint look less black
        
         | robbedpeter wrote:
         | A low gloss tough coating will add to the reflectivity, but a
         | high gloss highly transparent coating might look really cool
         | still.
        
         | Eric_WVGG wrote:
         | Unfortunately surfaces coated with this (or Vantablack) cannot
         | be touched, the coatings that creates the effect are too
         | delicate.
         | 
         | It's basically good for art projects and scientific
         | applications.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | eropple wrote:
           | Semple also sells an acrylic black paint which, while not
           | _this_ black, is pretty dang black and can be touched.
        
             | atVelocet wrote:
             | And what's the name of it and where can I get it?
        
               | yifanl wrote:
               | https://culturehustle.com/collections/black/products/rave
               | n-c...
               | 
               | It mentions it's fabric-safe, so presumably durable
               | enough for keyboards.
        
         | chromaton wrote:
         | From the website:
         | 
         | >Q. Can I paint my car / bike etc...
         | 
         | >A. NO - 3.0 is quite fragile and will just scratch off, it
         | won't weather well.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | aquir wrote:
           | I wanted to paint my laptop with it but seeing this answer on
           | their website made me sad :-(
        
             | prox wrote:
             | Just paint it every week ;)
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | Painting your car white is the least you can do for the
           | planet.
           | 
           | https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-
           | change/news/painting-r...
        
       | Sebastian_09 wrote:
       | seems it absorbs a bit less light than vantablack but the
       | comeback at Kapoor is quite fun
       | https://www.dezeen.com/2019/02/05/black-3-0-stuart-semple-an...
        
         | dang wrote:
         | This is in the feature list of the OP too:                 *
         | Not available to Kapoor
        
       | kingofpandora wrote:
       | > "That," he said, "that... is really bad for the eyes."
       | 
       | > It was a ship of classic, simple design, like a flattened
       | salmon, twenty yards long, very clean, very sleek. There was just
       | one remarkable thing about it.
       | 
       | > "It's so... black!" said Ford Prefect. "You can hardly make out
       | its shape... light just seems to fall into it!"
       | 
       | > The blackness of it was so extreme that it was almost
       | impossible to tell how close you were standing to it.
       | 
       | > "Your eyes just slide off it..." said Ford in wonder
        
         | 8ig8 wrote:
         | Nigel Tufnel: "It's like, how much more black could this be?
         | And the answer is none -- none more black."
         | 
         | This Is Spinal Tap
         | (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds7FRivVMgA)
        
         | perl4ever wrote:
         | https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fuligin
         | 
         | "the hue fuligin, which is darker than black, admirably erases
         | all folds, bunchings and gatherings so far as the eye is
         | concerned, showing only a featureless dark.
        
         | drewzero1 wrote:
         | > "Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow."
        
           | aaroninsf wrote:
           | This line always perplexed me as a kid.
           | 
           | I got (still get) stuck on the overlap between moving, and
           | steering. Moving like a fish seems to include sinuous paths,
           | schooling with sudden acceleration and darts to the side,
           | etc... nimbleness and speed.
           | 
           | I understood it was a proxy for "accelerates like/is as fast
           | as" but found that unsatisfying.
           | 
           | Also, cow works to evoke large, stubborn perhaps,
           | unresponsive... but was an odd choice in as much as few try
           | to steer cows. Shepherd, maybe. A water buffalo or ox or even
           | mule felt like a missed opportunity, since they are
           | prototypically steered and there is a sense of their
           | owners/drivers laboring against their desire to not labor...
           | 
           | Total Nicolson Baker rabbit hole, just a specific reading
           | experience that has always stood out from that series. I have
           | uttered that line countless times over the years in various
           | contexts, including while dancing late at night on the playa.
        
             | JackFr wrote:
             | Yikes. It means young (neutered) male cattle prefer a cow.
        
               | lurquer wrote:
               | Indeed.
               | 
               | Face-palm.
               | 
               | Reminds me of another 'joke' I never got which, for all I
               | know, might have been obvious to everyone else:
               | 
               | "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other
               | side."
               | 
               | I never knew that "the other side" was referring to
               | death... like, at a seance when you contact the "other
               | side".
               | 
               | Apparently the joke was a big hit in the days of the
               | Spiritist movement (back with Houdini, Doyle, and all the
               | others promoting or debunking seances.)
               | 
               | I thought it was some intentionally stupid joke about
               | crossing a road. Doh.
        
               | JackFr wrote:
               | TIL...
        
               | gweinberg wrote:
               | I think the "intentionally stupid" interpretation is
               | correct. I think the original answer was "to get from the
               | left to the right", which later got shortened.
        
               | Hallucinaut wrote:
               | I had two jokes in a jokebook at my grandparents place
               | that stumped me as a kid.
               | 
               | Waiter: How did you find your steak sir? Man: I looked
               | under a mushroom and there it was
               | 
               | I could only put it down to a terrible, Christmas cracker
               | level pun on "much room".
               | 
               | The second was something like "What has three feet but no
               | legs? A yard stick" with a picture of a ruler with three
               | feet on it. I found that utterly perplexing... the joys
               | of living in a metric country with predominantly imported
               | imperial system based media!
               | 
               | Both took me probably over a decade to understand.
        
               | Crespyl wrote:
               | Hah, somehow I never once made that connection. "Flies
               | like a banana" has been an old favorite, but out of
               | context I just never picked up on this version despite
               | many re-reads.
        
               | cardiffspaceman wrote:
               | Time flies like an arrow / Fruit flies like a banana.
        
       | donio wrote:
       | A recent kickstarter, no idea how they compare:
       | https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/311352786/horizon-black
        
       | parsecs wrote:
       | I own a bottle of this stuff, and it's not really as amazingly
       | black as it looks on camera. Sure, it's pretty damn black. But
       | it's easy to see the imperfections and stuff up close. There was
       | a video that compared it to black felt, which is pretty similar.
       | 
       | And no, this is not Vantablack. It's just some special acrylic
       | that can hold a lot of black pigment, and a lot of black pigment.
       | Vantablack needs to be "grown" with high temperatures so its
       | usually seen on aluminum foil and such.
       | 
       | Overall, this is pretty cool. I could definitely believe that
       | it's the blackest acrylic paint in the world. However it doesn't
       | create a "black hole" or anything.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | sangnoir wrote:
         | > And no, this is not Vantablack.
         | 
         | you may have missed the bit where they mention that this paint
         | is available to everyone _who is not Kapoor_ - Anish Kapoor
         | signed a contract that grants him exclusive rights to use
         | Vantablack for art projects.
        
           | stavros wrote:
           | I think OP means "this is nowhere close to Vantablack", not
           | "do not think this is actually Vantablack".
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | _> Note: By adding this product to your cart you confirm that you
       | are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish
       | Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish
       | Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. To the best of your
       | knowledge, information and belief this material will not make it
       | 's way into the hands of Anish Kapoor._
       | 
       | I love drama...
        
         | wodenokoto wrote:
         | For people not in on the drama: Anish Kapoor somehow has
         | exclusive rights to Vanta Black, the blackest black paint, so
         | in return, the pinkest pink and now the blackest acrylic paint
         | are banning Anish Kapoor, who for some reason was petty enough
         | to break the ban. I mean, if you want other people to respect
         | your exclusive rights to vanta black, you should at least
         | respect other color exclusivity clauses.
         | 
         | https://www.dezeen.com/2016/12/30/anish-kapoor-uses-stuart-s...
        
         | garrickvanburen wrote:
         | A very fun, very NSFW podcast that goes deep into the drama
         | 
         | http://citationpod.com/episode/the-blackest-black/
        
       | marcodiego wrote:
       | So dark it makes difficult to note relief. Maybe it is a good
       | choice to paint telescope tubes' interior.
        
         | samatman wrote:
         | That's the whole idea.
         | 
         | It wouldn't be much of an absorber of all visible radiation
         | which hits it, if it bounced enough back to make out textural
         | details.
        
         | sjackso wrote:
         | If you're interested, here's a thread of telescope nerds
         | discussing that exact usage:
         | https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/692954-how-black-is-the-b...
        
           | notJim wrote:
           | Well... the price was reasonable, something around $26 for
           | 150 ml bottle including shipping to Pennsylvania (USA), and
           | I am not Anish Kapoor so I decided to give the paint a try.
           | 
           | Since many of us are amused by the Anish Kapoor situation, I
           | wanted to highlight this wry comment from your link.
        
       | davidkunz wrote:
       | Can't wait to mix it with the whitest white to get the grayest
       | gray.
        
       | runawaybottle wrote:
       | Here is the BMW Vantablack:
       | 
       | https://www.bmwusa.com/concept-vehicles/vantablack-x6.html
       | 
       | I believe it is illegal since no one can see it at night.
       | 
       | Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/17VlV62q5r0?feature=share
        
         | fabbari wrote:
         | I may be stupid and missing the point - but this part from the
         | BMW page made me laugh: "This nanostructure paint finish, among
         | the blackest ever made by man, tricks the viewer's perception
         | of the car as a three-dimensional shape." -- oh, the magic. You
         | paint a 3D object with this paint and it looks 3D.
         | 
         | I am guessing they meant 'two-dimensional'.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | frosted-flakes wrote:
           | I don't see anything wrong with the sentence. The black paint
           | tricks the viewer's normal perception of the car as a three-
           | dimensional shape, to make it seem like it's two-dimensional.
           | Are you understanding it differently?
        
             | mdorazio wrote:
             | Yes. The idea is that without being able to differentiate
             | features, a 3d object painted with it looks basically like
             | a silhouette, so your brain interprets it as a 2d object.
        
           | cirrus3 wrote:
           | The sentence is fine and means what you think it should. You
           | are reading it wrong.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | csw-001 wrote:
         | Hey, Finally a way to make the lines of a BMW attractive... ;-)
        
         | HankOcean wrote:
         | No matte black on the ride cuz it's stale
        
         | throwawayboise wrote:
         | Never heard of a car color being illegal. As long as it has the
         | mandated lighting and reflectors, how could it not be visible
         | at night?
        
       | folago wrote:
       | Fulgin color straight from "the book of the new Sun" saga.
        
         | emptysongglass wrote:
         | If only. The day real fuligin is available for purchase is the
         | day I discard all other clothing and prance around in an
         | oversized fuligin cape twenty four hours a day for the rest of
         | my life.
        
           | KozmoNau7 wrote:
           | It would be horrendously hot, so maybe only use it as a
           | winter coat.
        
       | fleddr wrote:
       | Nice, a niche topic I am in on. I've experimented with a few of
       | these materials for photography.
       | 
       | One thing that is good to know is that the extreme darkness you
       | typically see in demonstration videos where any sense of depth
       | disappears, is not true to life.
       | 
       | Even indoors, with plain daylight shining inwards, and judging
       | the object with your own eyes, will not give the effect. You'll
       | perceive it as gray and extremely matte.
       | 
       | The difference can be explained by Youtubers picking favorable
       | light conditions, but also because the camera capturing said
       | video tends to have a smaller dynamic range compared to your own
       | eyes. I believe it has been experimentally established that human
       | beings can detect even a single photon:
       | 
       | https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-human-e...
       | 
       | So don't expect full magic. Fun can still be had though, like
       | half-magic. I have a background painted with a very dark paint
       | (more on the brand in a minute) with inside of it a figure
       | painted with the same paint. With artificial lighting in my
       | office, you can't see the figure at all. When picking up the
       | figure, even directly looking at it won't give away any sense of
       | depth.
       | 
       | Anyway, the paint I use is Musou Black, which is claimed to be
       | darker than Black 2.0 or 3.0:
       | 
       | https://www.ko-pro.black/product/musou-black-paint/
       | 
       | Their darkness is compared by their maximum light absorption
       | rate, supposedly Musou has the highest: 99.4%. Do know that
       | actual absorption depends on your method of painting. Ideally,
       | you thinly spray paint several individual layers for maximum
       | effect.
       | 
       | This same company (I promise I don't work for them) has a
       | material I find far more intriguing. It's called Fineshut Pro.
       | 
       | Whereas the paints you can see as organic, meaning the way you
       | apply it matters, the sheet is "pre-engineered". In the real
       | world, the difference is huge. In particular the sheet also has
       | the full darkness effect in unfavorable light conditions (direct
       | daylight). However, only when light hits at a particular angle.
        
       | sprior wrote:
       | When I got my Black 3.0 bottles via the Kickstarter I turned two
       | wooden eggs and painted one with their gold and one with Black
       | 3.0. Here's a picture of the two taken in a very well lit
       | workshop:
       | https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159690521351509&set=a...
       | 
       | It looks like the black egg was Photoshopped out of the picture,
       | but I promise it looked the same in person and that table used as
       | a background is painted 20% gray.
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-19 23:01 UTC)