How does prismatic paint work?

Asked by syz (6759

) | asked January 3rd, 2008 | 1 response | “Great Question” (1

I’ve seen cars painted with garish (but undeniably fascinating) paint jobs that change colors depending on the viewing angle – purple to pink being the most common in this area. How does it work? I’ve only seen two color combinations. Are the colors unlimited or based on some sort of refraction coefficient?