A lot of people are worried that CGI will replace stop motion animation because it’s less time-consuming and ultimately less expensive. If this little guy is any indication, however, then stop motion will never go away, because there will always be someone willing to put in a ridiculous amount of effort to make it happen.
How much of a ridiculous effort, you ask? Maybe something like printing, meticulously placing, and taking still images of dozens of little models when you could have just animated the original 3D model, like the people for this “Bears on Stairs” video did. The end result is clunkier and less streamlined than regular CGI would have been, but there’s also something oddly real and compelling about it — sort of like the opposite of the Uncanny Valley, but for 3D-printed bears.
Of course, while design firm DBLG and animation studio Blue Zoo have a pretty impressive animation on their hands with this short video, they’re not the first team to ever utilize 3D printing in stop motion. Laika, the studio behind ParaNormon and the upcoming Boxtrolls, has been using color 3D printers to create the models for their films since 2009’s Coraline. If I didn’t have an appreciation for just how much work must go into creating a stop motion feature-length film, I sure do have one now after seeing what went into two seconds of a looping bear on a staircase. Jeez, guys. Most people just take up knitting.
(via Cartoon Brew)
- Barilla is making 3D printed pasta
- 3D printed pizza also exists, too
- LEGO meets The Simpsons in this stop motion mash-up
