Speech Sounds
Finalized December 21, 2024
Makerspace at Ringling College of Art and Design
Makerspace logo
Ringling College has an area called Makerspace, which specializes in 3D printing, woodwork, and other professional crafts. I've been taking a woodshop class and have grown very fond of the space and its craftsmanship. This Brief required me to make a short looping stop motion animation using models that I would 3D print at Makerspace. This would be an animated ad to play on their website. I'd have to start with making an animation in Cinema 4D, get it approved, then pick out which frames to 3D print into an animation.
Brief
This would test my creativity, intuition, and problem-solving all in a very short turn-around time. By the time I would get an approved C4D animation, I would have under 2 weeks to learn how to 3D print objects, print said objects, then animate them.
Challenge
Pitched Ideas
I thought this might be good opportunity to add some animated type loops to my portfolio. The train ended up catching my art director's eye. I revised my train for approval as quickly and diligently as possible.
Approved Train Animation
Time to learn 3D printing
Tuesday, December 2
10 days until final delivery.
3D Printing
To 3D print the models, I learned how to use Prusa Slicer. This software let me bring in objects, configure them, add supports, and calculate out a g-code for the printer to use. I found that printing them on their sides was fastest. This took about 3 hours, as opposed to upright, which required more supports and
3D Printers
Makerspace has 6 working 3D printers, which was the saving grace of this project. With how long each print took, and how often something went wrong and needed to be re-printed, I was able to generate 3-4 trains a day, as opposed to merely 1 or 2. With several prints failing, it took from December 2 to 7 to get all the necessary trains.
Process
The original looping animation of 31 frames was reduced to 10 frames at 6 fps.
Problem-Solving
3D printing has many aspects that need to be taken into account. Prints are more likely to fail if they don't have added supports, but even then the supports can mess up the texture, get in the way of smaller details, and take time to remove. I could also only print one color, which meant I would have to paint my models once they were printed, had the supports removed, and cleaned up.
Here I'm regluing wheels that came off when I removed the supports.
Painting
I started with a shiny silver spray paint coating to make the plastic pop, then painted red and black over it. I finalized the models with small touches of metallic paint to create the illusion of chrome.
Failed Prints
With such a short time frame, not everybody made it. Rest In Piece the caboose, whose walls were too thin to withstand the forced of gravity and erosion.
I had a whole island of misfit toys by the end of the week.
Tuesday, December 9
3 days until final delivery.
Animation
Zoetrope
Harkening back to the roots of stop motion, the thought of a zoetrope-style approach to this animation excited me. I embraced the grit of the project's tactile process so far.
C4D test. 6 frames per second was just enough to keep the quality of the bouncy animation alive with minimal frames.
Setting up for the spins.
In an early draft, I had a paint stamp of the Makerspace logo on a wooden background, but I found better ways to embrace the lofi.
Final
Recap
I see why this is not a very common technique for modern stop motion. Under fast time constraints, it is not very feasible, and whatever mishaps occur along the way barely have time to be dealt with. That being said, I am very fond of the final product. I feel very accomplished. In under 2 weeks, I learned how to 3D print, proceeded to print and paint 9 usable models, and made a looping animation with them. I will definitely be 3D printing in the future, and may try my hand at stop motion with it again.