Fig. 4.

Designing simple shapes using only their 2D geometry. (Left) The theoretically or numerically obtained planar director fields are imprinted onto the LCE sheet. (Center) We measure the experimentally obtained director field using crossed polarizers to verify that it coincides with the desired field. (Right) When brought to the target temperature $180^{○}C$, the initially flat LCE sheet takes the desired 3D shape. The procedure is shown for the following geometries: constant positive Gaussian curvature (A), constant negative Gaussian curvature (B), and leaf-shaped surface, with strong negative Gaussian curvature around the sides (C). (Scale bars: 5 mm.)