Top 5 Videos: Using 3D Printing to Make Movies

It’s finally Sunday! And in order to start your upcoming week off on the right foot, here we are again presenting the top 5 3D printing videos from the week. Start off with a video from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers which shows how 3D printing and CAD software are key tools for LAIKA Studios to make its movies. Next, check out the 3D printed Superstrata bike, made using carbon fiber and which can be customized according to the desires of the user. Then, head over to the ORNL to see XEROX’s ElemX 3D printer being installed and learn how it is expected to help advance metal AM in the US. Contniue with a look at how 3D printing can help transofmr Manchester as it, and the rest of the UK faces a deficit of talent in areas like engineering and manufacturing. Finally, finish off with a look at the new DIORAMA 3D printed collection that is currently gracing the halls of the Dior Gallery in Paris, France. Happy watching and happy Sunday!

Top 1: How 3D Printing is Being Used for Movies

Both additive manufacturing and computer-aided design are becoming key tools in film and television as a way for creators to help realize their visions. In this video from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), they show how LAIKA Studios, the masterminds behind Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link, are using a Stratasys 3D printers and Autodesk CAD software to make stop-motion movies. In case you do not know, stop motion is a way to shoot films in tiny increments, a rate of 24 individual frames of action for each second of film. One of the biggest leaps forward in stop-motion has been thanks to 3D printing for facial animation. Notably, LAIKA uses AM to create detailed features and a more realistic appearance for its characters, including with the J55 3D printer which allows them to also use color. Check out how else the studio is using 3D printing and how these tools can ease the process.

Top 2: A Bike 3D Printed Out of Carbon Fiber

You’ve probably heard of Arevo and its Superstrata bike, the first bike with a fully 3D printed carbon fiber frame. In the video below, Sonny Vu, the company’s founder, explains the key points of the process developed and the customization possibilities offered with the bake. The user can indeed choose the frame of his or her bike according to his morphology and his desires. Watch the video to learn more about it: