Raise 3D: Zoe-Trope
_Concept Stage
The Breif had 3 requisites for concept:
- Glow in the Dark Filament
- Stop Motion
- Printed on a Raise 3D Printer
Using these restrictions, we thought about how to incorporate the current meta-modernist zeitgeist. This direction, a walk cycle for a glow in the dark dinosaur, is a post-ironic reference to a popular childhood toy.
- Glow in the Dark Filament
- Stop Motion
- Printed on a Raise 3D Printer
Using these restrictions, we thought about how to incorporate the current meta-modernist zeitgeist. This direction, a walk cycle for a glow in the dark dinosaur, is a post-ironic reference to a popular childhood toy.
_Previs Animation
Finding footage of a 70 million year old animal can be tricky, but I managed to get some good refernce. Zoe (short for Zoetrope) was a stock model we found online. Rigging her in Blender was the first step to bringing her back to life. After hours of weight painting and animating, we were ready to start the physical media process.
_Printing
The biggest challenge in this project was the laborious printing process. We used Overture Glow in the Dark Filament because our research showed that it glowed the brightest of all consumer grade 3D printing filament.
The schedule only allowed 1 week to print all 16 models. If given more time, I would have used a higher infill so Zoe wouldn’t be so fragile.
The schedule only allowed 1 week to print all 16 models. If given more time, I would have used a higher infill so Zoe wouldn’t be so fragile.
_Setbacks & Cleanup
The printing process was a balancing act between staying on schedule and perfecting our prints. We encountered so many setbacks during the printing process. Prints would turn into spagetti. The fragile arms would fall off when removing support. Ankles would snap if not handled carefully.
Printing a walkcycle using FDM requires a lot of support material. During the cleanup process, we sanded and snipped off support material while maintaining the texture inherent to 3D print.
Many broken and failed parts were glued back together to create the finished models.
Printing a walkcycle using FDM requires a lot of support material. During the cleanup process, we sanded and snipped off support material while maintaining the texture inherent to 3D print.
Many broken and failed parts were glued back together to create the finished models.
_Stop Motion Animation
During the stop motion photography, we lit Zoe using a UV flashlight to supercharge her glow in the dark plastic. A stencil cut out of cardstock helped us place the Zoe in the same spot every frame.
_3D Integration
The tiled landscape was created in Blender using geometry nodes. Once rendered, the assets were all composited in Nuke, then brought back to After Effects for the Logo Animation.