The Funneling feature of Kaleider explores another curious mirroring
phenomenon. When two mirrors face each other, objects between the mirrors
are reflected recursively, with ever diminishing size, off into 'infinity'.
Items appear alternately as mirror-images and true-images as their reflections
'bounce' back and forth between the mirrors. The photo at right illustrates
this effect. (click to enlarge) =>
Funnels created by Kaleider do not exactly reproduce this mirroring effect, but rather were inspired by the actual phenomenon.
Several varieties of Funnels can be created:
Most Funnel types can also be 'split' to reflect half of the rendered Funnel onto the other half, creating a more symmetrical effect. The side to mirror can be selected by clicking with the mouse. The Kaleider screen images to the right illustrate the creation and rendered result of a Cone Funnel. The Masking feature has been enabled, in this case with the Mask Shape set to Mandala, using a grayish color as the Mask Background. (click to enlarge) => After a Funnel type has been selected, an outline of the Funnel shape will appear on the screen. The two outer rings define the 'shell' of the Funnel, which contains the portion of the image that will be reflected. (The width of the Funnel Shell is somewhat analogous to the distance between the two hypothetical mirrors.) The Funnel shape can be clicked and dragged with the mouse to the desired position on the screen. The mouse can also be used to adjust the overall Funnel dimensions and the shell thickness. |
 
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The Shifting Effects feature makes it easy to reposition the 'tile'
and underlying source image by clicking and dragging with the mouse. A default
Quality Level can be specified for Funnels with the
Quality Control screen (click
the 
button on Kaleid Tools).
Several more examples of rendered Funnels can be viewed among the Kaleider Sample Images.