Team Second | Abbie Rastatter

Team Second | Abbie Rastatter

With this image our group combined two things we were interested in working with: ferrofluid and glow sticks. We were inspired by the team first assignment that mixed ferrofluid and watercolor. The result was the characteristic spikes of ferrofluid that appear when the liquid becomes magnetized, surrounded by glowing liquid. Several sequences of images that we made just happened to lend themselves nicely to a gif, so I made one. This sequence of images was made with Garrett, Brandon, Summer, and Zach.

We used a petri dish suspended on a few rolls of tape to hold. We filled the petri dish 1/3 full with ferrofluid and placed a magnet underneath the petri dish, in the space created by the rolls of tape. We proceeded to pour glow stick fluid (a mixture of Dibutyl phthalate, hydrogen peroxide, phthalic ester, and Phenyl oxalate ester) until the petri dish was basically full. We excited the ferrofluid with a plain magnet from McGuckin’s, which induced our flow. We kept turning the magnet over, as opposed to just spinning it around. We worked in a darkened room.

This was a particularly difficult shoot, especially in terms of focus, because we were working in the dark; it’s extremely difficult to focus things in the dark. The sequence of images used to make this gif were taken on a Nikon DSLR using manual focus – probably the reason it appears blurry. The camera was on a tripod about two and a half feet away from the flow, and was zoomed in. I edited nine sequential images into a gif using Photoshop; the first frame had a 0.2sec frame rate, the remaining eight frames had a 0.1sec frame rate.

I decided to make a gif because the point of ferrofluid is that it moves, and I wanted to showcase the motion of the flow. The result can be a bit…unsettling. The final product feels very alien to me, kind of creepy, kind of horror movie-ish, but the sense of motion is definitely there.

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22 Comments. Leave new

  • Geya Kairamkonda
    Apr 19, 2018 15:59

    love it as a GIF, looks like an organism coming alive.

    Reply
  • Michael Guenther
    Apr 16, 2018 19:42

    Interesting GIF, the alternating images gives it a sense of liveliness

    Reply
  • Brandon Toves
    Apr 2, 2018 11:44

    Great GIF. I love how you captured the different phases as the magnet changed depths.

    Reply
  • Philip Nystrom
    Apr 2, 2018 11:34

    Really cool image, the glow is very interesting. Overall very nice image.

    Reply
  • Dan Petrykowski
    Apr 2, 2018 11:31

    Creepy. Good decision to go with the GIF. I might try this for future work.

    Reply
  • Lucas Sorensen
    Apr 2, 2018 11:31

    Your choice of using a GIF is very interesting, it makes it seem like the ferrofluid is alive, almost like a beating heart.

    Reply
  • Robert Gray
    Apr 2, 2018 11:31

    Well, you took something that looks alien and organic, and now it’s moving. The colors are great, and the effect works really well as a GIF. Nice image(s), though I’m a little scared.

    Reply
  • Michael Sandoval
    Apr 2, 2018 11:31

    The GIF really explains some more about the fluid flow of the ferrofluid. The lighting from the liquid is also interesting.

    Reply
  • Jordan Nahabetian
    Apr 2, 2018 11:31

    It’s so alive. The petri dish moves around frame-to-frame which is a little distracting but the overall aesthetic of the images is breathtaking.

    Reply
  • Philip Nystrom
    Apr 2, 2018 11:30

    Very cool fluid physics, making a GIF really helps the physics. The colors and jagged edges add a nice effect.

    Reply
  • Kim Youngwoong
    Apr 2, 2018 11:30

    Your gif file looks like a breathing lung of alien. Nice job!

    Reply
  • Summer Thompson
    Apr 2, 2018 11:30

    ITS ALIVE! very creature of the deep

    Reply
  • Absolutely fascinating, nice frame, and color is beautiful.

    Reply
  • Garrett Wolcott
    Apr 2, 2018 11:29

    Cool Gif! These images are neat

    Reply
  • Eric Robinson
    Apr 2, 2018 11:29

    Creepy. Looks like its breathing. I like it

    Reply
  • Madison Emmett
    Apr 2, 2018 11:29

    This is really cool to watch and kind of creepy at the same time. The flow is really nice and the colors are wonderful. Really well done.

    Reply
  • Seunghwa Park
    Apr 2, 2018 11:29

    I really like how you have posted gif file. Really cool idea and love the image

    Reply
  • Lara Buri
    Apr 2, 2018 11:29

    This is super cool…it looks alive, like a cell or something. Nice colors and I like the glowing of the glow stick fluid.

    Reply
  • Gabriel Elbert
    Apr 2, 2018 11:29

    Almost looks as it’s alive. Really cool, and creative that you made it as a GIF.

    Reply
  • Julian Quick
    Apr 2, 2018 11:29

    It looks… ALIVE

    Reply
  • Wesley Caruso
    Apr 2, 2018 11:29

    This looks really awesome as a GIF. Great job with color and framing of the image.

    Reply
  • Alexandra Wilson
    Apr 2, 2018 11:27

    I love it as a GIF! absolutely odd and gorgeous. What a fun, beautiful idea!

    Reply

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