Redefining Industry Standards:

Overview:

After working at LAIKA hand-painting puppet faces for the animated stop-motion feature Coraline, it became clear that the painstaking process of completing each puppet by hand was an impediment to production, and LAIKA needed to move from character prototyping to animation-ready puppets at a much faster pace.

The ability to achieve this was not only a technical feat but involved a significant change-management process inside the painting department, which at first feared their work could be replaced by software / color printing. However, once accomplished, the speed of 3D color printing freed the artists to explore more variations in the same amount of time and streamlined prototype approvals.  

This innovation didn’t happen overnight—it progressed across three films and three 3D machines, requiring deep exploration of each printer’s capabilities specific to animation, and the creation of proprietary, full-color indexing systems and new interdepartmental workflows. My leadership in this process began on ParaNorman with the z650 and continued with the Connex3 on The Boxtrolls, and finally, with the advent of full-color printing on the J750 on The Missing Link. 

There were two key obstacles that defined the challenge of modifying LAIKA’s machines to match the needs of animated feature film productions. Despite functional limitations in this regard, all 3D printers were of latest generation and new. 

The first step was direct work with the z650 service provider to establish a plan for increasing both the gamut of colors available and their brightness. I invested significant time in testing the outputs from each z650 at LAIKA and understanding the journey of multiple colorways and how the machines were translating them across soft-proofing software to various printing technologies and stage-lighting scenarios. Then, I began using concept art in collaboration with the 3D vendor to redefine the ink matrix and technical specifications of the machines and ensure consistent results. 

Tangential to this effort were additional improvements to the fine-art applications (texture painting) LAIKA’s painters where able to bring to the work of creating life-like, expressive puppet faces. I spearheaded this work by using Maya software to unwrap each character’s texture map, and then paint them in 3D software Mari and Photoshop. As a result of greater contrast and color possibilities, advanced texture applications were brought to the digital modeling / visual effects process and were clearly apparent in the final result from the 3D printer. Colors were made sharper, more textural and spanned a broader gamut of effects, including but not limited to cross-hatching, color illusions, back painting and other elements that influenced viewer perception by manipulating the machine’s coding against its intended / expected functions. In identifying that the 3D printer could build up to 16 layers to create its surface appearance, it became possible to reorganize the printer’s mixing process, changing the end output and achieving greater control over it. 

Finally, I led all quality assurance (color, pixel resolution, printer consistency) on the new process across all characters during the production of ParaNorman: from the maquette stage to digital duplication to building puppet bodies to printed faces to set lighting on the animation stage and cohesion of visual effects with the articulation / animation of the main puppets. A variety of materials were tested in the 3D printers and analyzed for factors such as how different colors were absorbed, how the line weight and stroke of digital brush applications changed the printer’s interpretation of the appearance of a line (sharp, smooth, blurred), the occurrence of inconsistencies, layering, etc. This process was repeated until a translucent, skin-like quality was achieved for the puppets, followed by documenting best practices, completing training for a team of 30 ,and establishing follow-up observations to address anomalies.

In the end, an entirely new color library was created for the z650, evidencing little connection to the machine’s initial abilities. I defined and classified this unique catalogue for use by LAIKA’s painters, designers and texture artists in perpetuity. This system supported three subsequent blockbuster animation films for LAIKA.  

The improved capabilities of the z650 were further evolved during production on LAIKA’s subsequent feature film, The Boxtrolls. Although we had gained speed, we wanted to find a way to help the visual effects team extract plates from a scene to add to them, which is more difficult with stop-motion animation / puppets than other types of production. This was achieved by upgrading the machines with the ability to highlight portions of a puppet, giving the team the ability to extract those pieces mid-scene. 

Technically, this was achieved by rebuilding the z650 to hold multiple materials, including a material cartridge with a UV-sensitive chemical binder. By splitting the color profile to support the binder, a secondary pattern was created that was invisible on the stage (but visible under UV light). The machine’s existing software and technology were reformatted, and I supported the post-processing efforts for the visual effects team to save time in animation and refinement. 

Additionally, continued work with the machine vendor resulted in the development of custom palettes and a wider spectrum of colors for all industry printers—the innovation extended beyond LAIKA to what the 3D printing company was able to offer its customers, including more than 100 character color designs that I created.