Printing Lenticular on a Substrate and Attaching to Lens

As an alternative to printing directly on the lens interlaced images can be printing on a substrate and later adhered to a lens. The substrate must be a flat surface so that the lens is attached at a uniform distance, ensuring clean viewing. Printing on a substrate does have advantages, mainly, the ability to align an image to ensure a clean result. Even if a printer is not capable of holding a sheet securely for an aligned print trimming edges and centering to the lens can be done as a secondary process. Also, with some patience and precision it is possible to create a lenticular print with a known “jump” point. The point at which the lens focuses from the first image to the last image in a sequence. For media displays that require a viewer to walk past this means you can guarantee the start of an animation corresponds to the beginning of the viewing path. 


This redbull marketing video has a great sample of how to register an image to the lens (at 2:18 in the video)


There are plenty of places to buy raw lenticular sheets, which allows for the creation of 3D and animated lenticular by hobbyists. To get super high quality printing directly on the lens a high end printer is typically required.


For more about lenticular see 3dEngr's 10 things lenticular.