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A grocery store has been doing a Dreamworks promotion with these little motion-cards of various dreamworks animated characters.
I got Monkey from Kung Fu Panda.
So anyway, I was looking at it thinking that surely I could use this for something, and finally I had the idea to turn it into a large LCD billboard.
Now I've convinced myself I want to create some city terrain with motion-card billboards everywhere:


My only problem is lack of motion-cards.
I am after cartoon/anime ones in particular. DBZ or anything mecha would be perfect.
I am hoping someone here on Dakka Dakka knows where to find these and can point me in the right direction.
This would be my first attempt at building terrain of any sort (bar the few half-finished bases I've done on my models) so I'm hoping y'all could also spare some advice on constructing buildings and/or general terrain building advice.

Also if anyone thinks this is a cool idea and yoinks it, or if you know of an actual example of this, please post pics

Peace

I very much like the idea - a sort of poor man's version of the electronic picture frame/tablet billboard you occasionally see on fancy display boards for the big gaming conventions. Definitely more interesting than a straight printout and a novel alternative to acetate/engraved acrylic "holo-ads."

My local Michaels has a small display of similar cards (long rectangles, more or less bookmark-sized) in the impulse aisle, but none of the images grabbed me. Lisa Frank-esque dolphins or the fish from Finding Nemo just didn't scream "awesome Infinity billboard" (Infinity being the one range I've bought into where such a piece would actually fit the fluff and aesthetic).

If you're willing to buy online, your magic search term will be "lenticular." I haven't trawled through Amazon and Ebay on your behalf, so I can't guarantee results... but if they're out there, that should help you find them.


As far as general building advice is concerned... Any particular game this terrain will be for? I ask because different rules impose very different limitations (or at least "best practices") on construction (e.g. a 40K corner ruin or CoD building behaves very differently in Infinity, which uses a comparatively 'unforgiving' TLoS focused on individual models).

If you're just starting out and want to test the waters, it may be best to keep things simple. Grab yourself a sheet of foamcore and some styrene (even thick cardstock or thin, non-corrugated cardboard, e.g. cereal packet material, in a pinch). Plenty of modern buildings, even some of those in your picture, are just boxes with a bit of simple, repeated surface decoration (which, thankfully, ends up looking intricate when you view the structure as a whole), if you aren't concerned with modeling an interior for play. Stacking those boxes in various ways or insetting other half-boxes into parts of them can yield plenty of variety without ever forcing you to make a non-square cut or join.

Start mitering your cuts or adding curves (still possible with foamcore - regular slits on the outside allow a sheet to flex inward, which can subsequently be cleaned up by skinning with a thin, flexible sheet or card or filling with putty/plaster) and things get even more elaborate. The main techniques and materials aren't terribly expensive or complicated. Making interesting and sturdy buildings for play is more a matter of effort (I would argue, at least) than skill, once you can envision the desired result. If you lack that vision or just work better with more structured guidance, there are a number of building templates available online in different styles (modern, clean sci-fi, grimdark sci-fi, etc.) and for different materials (some for foamcore, lots of papercraft plans that will work with stiff card).

Not the easiest thing in the world, but have you consider making your own?

Lenticular lens blanks are pretty cheap (less than a dollar for an 8 1/2 x 11). Get two flip book style images (or more depending on the lens), can be screen grabs or something like frames from an animated gif. Use software like Photoshop to offset and interlace the images (based on the specs of your lens). Print at on good quality paper (I use glossy photo stock). Align the lens and laminate (careful to not let it slip).

Should be able to find a more detailed tutorial out there. I ended up pestering a guy at a print shop to learn how.

Otherwise it is sort of hit and miss finding stuff that fits your needs, sizes and themes.

Ah, so it's a lens over an interlaced image, not split images printed onto the corresponding faces of the textured surface. Makes perfect sense, but wasn't my initial assumption. Good to know there's a DIY option, at least, even if it's not exactly quick and easy.

lenticular... lenticular I knew there had to be a proper name for these things,
Thanks Oadie
I'll be building these for 40k. Thematically the terrain will be done in a pseudo-industrial Edo Japan style. Think Japanese castle architecture but more metal exterior with industrial machinery and sci-fi components I also want to incorporate a lot of aesthetics from Shinto temples and shrines in a similar manner in which the Imperium incorporates Catholic architecture. It'll also be all run-down and gritty, probably with a few shanties here and there plus some rubbish bins and trash. Not to mention a whole bunch of signs and billboards. None of the terrain will be Imperially affiliated as it is being built to match the Space Wolf samurai-marines army (who will be non-chaos, non-wolf themed, renegades) I am still slowly conceptualising.
I know you mentioned testing the waters but to be honest I'm just wanting to jump right in.
Since you mentioned the electronic picture frames I think it would also be a cool idea to add in some backlights to these lenticular billboards in order to enhance the effect.
What would be a good method of giving even lighting to the back of these cards?

Also, thanks for the heads up about making my own. It doesn't really sound that hard, only my lack of fund/materials holds me back. It would be awesome if I were able to pull this off though.
I'd probably end up with little animations from the cutscenes of various 40k games as well as some anime and even attempt to create my own little animated propaganda posters.

For back lighting, you should be able to use electroluminescent tape or sheets.

It is pretty thin and flexible. You can cut it to size/shape and the light produced is even across the whole surface.

You will want to probably sand down the back side of the lenticular card in order to make the printing thinner so more light shines through. After that, place over the EL panel and light it up.

Pricing of EL materials isnt too bad. A 4x4 panel will run $10 or so with another few bucks for the battery pack.

You can use EL wire for doing neon/tube lights as well.