Research Computing Services Blog

Bringing life the 3D prints!

by Emilie Walsh

Recently I was lucky enough to do a 3D printing workshop for a new crowd: the animation students from the school of Film & TV at the VCA!

Today the #animation students @vca_mcm tried #tinkerCAD during our @ResPlat 3D modelling & #3Dprinting workshop! #resbaz @unimelb pic.twitter.com/CZy0xZKQLZ

You might be wondering how 3D printing is interesting for animators? Well, it is in a very creative way! 3D printing has been used in recent years in the field of stop motion film, and with amazing outcomes. Stop-Motion animation is a handmade old style animation, where puppets are shot frame by frame to create an animated movie. One of the best-known examples must be The Nightmare before Christmas, by Tim Burton (1993). But what else has the industry produced 20 years later using 21st century technology?

Some recent animated feature films use 3D printing to design puppet characters, rather than making them with traditional means of fabrication (e.g. clay or latex modelling). 3D printing allows design modification to be done easily and has the ability to print large varieties of it using animal replacement techniques.

Series of 3D printed head for replacement animation technic from ParaNorman movie, Laika studio

You can easily print hundreds of faces for one character to mimic the numerous facial expression of the human body. And by replacing the 3D printed element at each frame, you create the illusion of motion. This basic rule of stop motion animation is now coming to new life with 3D printing!

Check out the amazing things that are done with simple plastic filament 3D printers, such as one we have on campus at Melbourne University:

During our two-hour workshop, the future animators learned to use TinkerCAD, a free and accessible software for 3D modelling. They designed some simple models, including this cool snake:

Springy Snake in TinkerCAD

We found the model on Thingiverse, and modified it by creating a hole through it, so we could pass a wire into the model  allowing the snake to « take the pose » for a stop motion video.

Check the cool GIF we made with it!

via GIPHY

But the possibility of 3D printing for animation go far beyond this! Some large film companies, such as Laika Studio, now create entire films with 3D printing characters and props.

How will the next generation of animators respond to the technology? This is certainly a very promising field of research in animation. Gilles-Alexandre Deschaud is a PhD candidate in Paris 8 University in France, and has dedicated his practice led-research project to creating a short stop-motion animation film, entirely made of 3D prints:

Following our workshop, we printed a whole puppet, using a model on Thingiverse, that we put together:

3D printed puppet from “Springy Friend” on Thingiverse

Now let’s just wait and see how the animators can bring life to our little springy friend!

If you are curious about 3D modelling and 3D printing, or if you wonder how you could use it in your research, be in touch, or check our upcoming ResBaz conference