As a model making technician within the Design Development Centre at Huddersfield University, UK, Fin Crowther was excited to have the opportunity to embrace 3D printing as part of his education. Fin first came across 3D printing for animation in the form of the video ‘Bears On Stairs,’ which features stop frame animation using a printed model of a bear, whilst working on his degree in Newcastle. Given the opportunity, he has created his own rather cool stopframe animation, ‘Quadroped Run Cycle,’ with all it’s componant parts printed on a Stratasys Fortus 360mc.
BEARS ON STAIRS from DBLG on Vimeo.
First Fin used Autodesk Maya to produce the modelling for his intricate yet bold short, which wouldn’t be out of place on Vine but for its carefully timed use of a loop. The animation run loops in a ten frame cycle, therefore there are ten different 3D prints used for this twenty-four frame per minute video. The model for the 3D prints that would represent each frame were produced – with a support and base that would later be laser cut – in Maya. The production of the model with its base can be understood more clearly in the test run below, with the computer aided design model mesh carefully sealed to ensure an accurate, water tight print.
3D Print Quadruped Run-cycle Test from Fin Crowther on Vimeo.
Fin says on his blog that this production process took about twenty-four hours over the course of a week, meaning that he was able to produce the project in his spare time. Then, the three dimensional forms, each about six centimetres by three centimetres, were printed using a Stratasys Fortus 360mc 3D Printer, which produced the ten prints in around ten hours. A base for each print was then crafted by a laser cutter and each print photographed in the same position as that whinch was used for the previous frame. Photography took about an hour. The digital photographs were then inputted into Adobe After Effects for processing and looping.
Fin enthuses: “It has been a valuable experience using 3D printing and I hope to experiment and work with it more on upcoming projects.”
