[Film School Rejects]

LAIKA is the studio behind 2009′s critical and commercial hit, Coraline, a film that utilized creepy but beautiful stop-motion puppetry to tell Neil Gaiman’s dark childhood fable. Their follow-up feature is an original work called ParaNorman. …

Keep reading for a peek behind the scenes of LAIKA Studios’ upcoming production, ParaNorman, and their secret, high-tech weapon… Rapid Prototype 3D printers. …

Thanks to the speed and ease of use afforded by the 3D printers each of the lead puppets has an incredibly wide variety of upper and lower halves of their face. They’re held in place with magnets so they can be easily swapped out to change expressions on the fly. …

There are two types of these printers in use here. The one originally used on Coraline is a plastic printer (from Objet) that takes the 3D software image and slices it like a cat-scan. That data is then converted into spray directions for two material types, model and support. As the hose nozzles move back and forth across the printer bed the model is squirted down with support material around it, UV lights then cure that layer, the tray then drops a distance 4 times thinner than human hair, and the process repeats for the next layer. Once complete, usually 1.5 hours later, the support material is rinsed away with water leaving the hard object behind. We were given small, working wrenches made in this fashion.

The newer color model sprays colored resin (essentially a glue/binder) alongside a white powder before being cured via UV and then repeated. The end result differs from the other model in that instead of a cookie sheet effect you’re left with a drawer of what looks like flour. Digging your hands into the soft powder reveals the hidden, complete objects within. Neither model is cheap with prices starting at $50k, but just like the razors and razor blades the real cost here is in the materials. Resin cartridges range from $90 -$900 depending on the material being used. …

– It took 60 puppet makers to create 178 individual puppets for ParaNorman.  Thanks to the face replacement technology created by the 3D Color Printer, Norman has about 8,000 faces with a range of individual pieces of brows and mouths allowing him to have approximately 1.5 million possible facial expressions. …

See the full story here: http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/paranorman-set-visit-laika-animation-images-rhunt.php