Stop Motion Animation and

3D Printing: Does it Improve

the Process?
Lorena Mitchell for
Jerry Waite, Ed.D., University of Houston
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Stop Motion Animation and 3D Printing:
Does it Improve the Process?
Lorena Mitchell • For Professor Jerry Waite, Ed.D. • University of Houston

Abstract preferences. Laika, an Oregon based stop-motion

animation company, utilizes 3D print technology to opti-
This paper will examine one particular animation style, mize their workflow of the character creation process for
Stop Motion Animation, by describing the process by their feature-length films.
which it is done and how the process can be made more
efficient. There will also be a brief discussion on why the
need for efficiency is important, as compared to 2D and What is the issue?
3D animation. The purpose of this study is to determine While a major studio could afford to integrate the use
whether 3D printing can improve the overall character of a 3D printer into their character creation process, it is
creation process in Stop Motion Animation for indepen- unclear whether the same technique is feasible on an in-
dent creators and become viable for educational use. dividual basis or even in a classroom setting. Potentially,
makers could save money on the purchase of materials
and redirect time spent sculpting character pieces to
other parts of the filmmaking process. The use of a 3D
Introduction printer could allow for more consistency and could po-
Animation, whether it be 2D, 3D, or stop-motion, can tentially help makers produce more professional looking
be done through a variety of processes adapted to fit animations.
each style. Popular animation techniques for 2D and
3D animation include the use of hand drawings, digital There are 15 programs nationwide that teach students
drawings, digital modeling software, and even motion about stop-motion animation utilizing traditional tech-
capture software. niques. The problem with these programs is that that
they are so specialized that they limit their appeal to
Stop-motion animation requires a more arduous process the potential candidate pool of students interested in
for creating completed projects, because sets and this animation style to a select subgroup of individuals.
characters must be built physically rather than through Certain educational programs, mainly engineering and
software, but some companies are turning to 3D print- medical, are already taking advantage of 3D printing as
ing to speed up the process. Most arguments for which a teaching tool. Educators should be looking for ways
technology is best depends on the style of animation to broaden the interest of their programs to potential
being produced, the budget of whomever is producing students, and the introduction of the use of 3D printing
the project, and the content creator’s personal aesthetic for animation could certainly spark more interest.

Stop Motion Animation and 3D Printing: Does it Improve the Process? 3

Terminology The newest technique for stop-motion puppet creation
is 3D printing, as seen in films such as Coraline and Para-
There are a few terms that will be repeated throughout
Norman. A model of the character with varying facial
this essay. These terms are clearly defined below.
expressions is created on a computer, and then these
• Armatures for stop-motion animation are defined different versions are printed out to use on the puppet’s
as “a skeleton type frame used to give support or body (See Figure 1). Laika collaborated with Stratasys, a
rigidity to clay or other malleable material [that] 3D printer manufacturer, and used their 660Pro printers
will normally have ball and socket or hinged joints to produce nearly 12,000 faces for all of their puppets
or readily bendable joints in the case of a wire in Coraline (Sciretta, 2012). They also used a color 3D
armature to mimic the joints (elbows, knees, neck printer to create over 30,0000 faces for ParaNorman
etc.) of human or animal figures” (Stop Motion and eliminate painting from the production time after
Central Clay Animation - The Basics, n.d.). previously using Maya, a 3D modeling software, and a
non-color printer for previous projects (Laika Studios,
• Puppets in stop-motion animation are “characters
2015). Their most recent film, Kubo and the Two Strings,
with human-like qualities that directors can pose
also featured the first fully 3D printed armature for their
freely and more easily to show different move-
Moon Beast character, seen in Figure 2 (Armstrong,
ments” (Chandler, 2013).
2016).
• Stop-Motion Animation “(also called stop frame
animation) is animation that is captured one frame An important distinction to look
at time, with physical objects that are moved at when considering the use of 3D
between frames” (Introduction to Stop Motion printing for stop-motion animation
Animation, 2017). is to look at how much this equip-
ment costs. Stoopid Buddy Studios, Figure 1: These
creators of Robot Chicken, had used are a few of the
Literature Review jaw pieces used
EnvisionTEC’s 3D printers before,
Stop motion animation has been around nearly as long for Norman’s
but had never owned one in-house
as traditional filmmaking, dating back to 1897, when the character in Laika’s
(Crouse, 2015). The price for the
first stop motion film, The Humpty Dumpty Circus, was ParaNorman
type of 3D printer used by Stoopid (Heater, 2012).
produced (Matthews, 2015). French artist and cartoonist
Buddy Studios
Emile Cohl originally introduced stop motion animation
costs between
to America. Cohl used a combination of his own draw-
$100,000 and $250,000 (EnvisionTEC,
ings, handmade puppets, and other inanimate objects
2016). The printer was specifically de-
to create his works, with his most notable film being
signed for printing materials at a high
Fantasmagorie (Mendoza, 2011). Lotte Reineger created
volume, which would be a benefit to
the first full-length animation film The Adventures of
an animation studio looking to save
Prince Achmed in 1926 (predating Disney by almost 10
on time. Similarly, the printers that
years), using a paper cutout technique. Figure 2: These
Laika uses are also costly, with the
are some
There are several other techniques used to create pup- Stratasys 660Pro retailing at $100,000
examples of
pets for stop-motion animation. A common puppetry 3D printed minimum, and full-color J750 model
material to use is clay (seen in the Wallace and Gromit characters from retailing at about $300,000 (Aniwaa
and Gumby series), which is every easy to manipulate. Laika’s Kubo Pte. Ltd., 2016).
One of the major issues with working with this material, and the Two
however, is that it cannot be handled for long periods Strings. The
of time. In addition, it deteriorates under the lighting on Moon Beast Method
the film set. In these cases, Claymation animators use a (suspended) The purpose of this research is to de-
material called plasticine instead (Aardman Animation, has the first termine whether or not the use of 3D
fully 3d printed printing could improve the character
2015). Tim Burton’s puppets commonly featured clock-
armature creation process for independent art-
work functions that would change the character’s facial
(Logan, 2016).
features (Chandler, 2013). ists and add value to an educational

Stop Motion Animation and 3D Printing: Does it Improve the Process? 4

program using a method similar to the process that 3. Use polygon primitive planes in Maya to begin
Laika uses. To conduct this research, one full character sculpting half of the face, following the sketches,
was built with faces created in the traditional method us- starting at the eyes and mouth, and excluding
ing clay and an alternate method in which the faces were the nose (Figure A2-3).
created in 3D software. The same armature was used for
4. Duplicate and mirror the completed facial halves
the character, as a constant. The files for the faces were
and sculpt a nose, rotating between the front
sent to 3D printing companies, and then a cost analysis
profile view to check the volume of the face
was conducted to determine which method (clay versus
(Figure A2-4).
3D) is more effective. The methodology used in this
research is as follows:

• Purchase all necessary materials to sculpt charac-

ter faces and build an armature from scratch;

• Sculpt the clay faces and build the armature; Fig A2-2:
Fig A2-3: Eyes Fig A2-4:
Front and
• Utilize Maya software to sculpt faces and create and mouth as Checking
profile
3D printer-friendly files; starting points the nose
views on
against
• Send 3D files off to print companies and get the x and
the profile
quotes for prices to print; y planes in
view to
Maya
• Calculate material costs using both methods; make sure
that it
projects
Procedure to Create Sculpted Fig A2-5: Purple dots correctly
indicate vertices that
Faces using 3D Printing can be manipulated
from the
face
First, a series of sketches of the character is required be-
fore any sculpting can begin. These should include front 5. Use the extrude tool to shape the back of the
and side-profile views of the charac- head until the face is solid.
ter’s face and a full body sketch of the
6. Duplicate the finished face several times and
complete character (Figure A2-1). The
switch to Vertex mode to manipulate the facial
sketches of the face should also be to
Fig A2-1: Initial features (Figure A2-5).
the scale of the character in real life.
Character
When sculpting faces by hand, the The armature was built by following the basic shapes
Reference
clay should be sectioned into pieces from the reference sketch. One piece was used for the
that are equal in size to the faces drawn in the original head neck and torso. Two more long pieces were used
sketch. for the limbs, and smaller sections of wire were used to
secure the pieces together. The aluminum foil was used
Wellesley College has a detailed tutorial for sculpting
to build volume in the torso and limbs. After covering
faces in Maya, which can be accessed online and is
the wire to a desired volume, the fabric was measured,
titled Maya 2014 ­Polygonal Modeling a Female Head.
cut, and glued over the armature.
The steps listed below are a condensed version of that
Wellesley College tutorial.
Results
1. Take the sketches of the front and profile views
Using the methodology previously described, four faces
into Photoshop and line up facial features to
were sculpted by hand using air clay and four faces
prep for use in Maya.
were digitally sculpted in Maya. To keep the process as
2. Insert the images of the side and profile views consistent as possible, both sets of faces had the same
into Maya, placing one on the X plane and the facial expressions: neutral, happy, sad, and mad. The
other on the Y plane in Maya’s perspective view same armature (Figure 5) was used as a constant in the
(Figure A2-2). experiment.

Stop Motion Animation and 3D Printing: Does it Improve the Process? 5

Important Factors There was a
$7.22 price dif-
One of the biggest issues that came
ference in the
with sculpting the faces by hand was
armature using
keeping the overall features (such as
the 3D method
eye, face, and nose shapes) consis-
versus the tra-
tent throughout each piece. The clay
ditional method
faces, seen in Figure 3, were mea- Figure 6: This table is a cost comparison
sured initially using a ruler. However, between the prices for a character using because of the
clay faces versus those created in Maya. additional cost
the amount of clay used per face var-
of clay needed
Figure 5: This is ied depending on whether mistakes
to mount the faces to the armature. The final fully as-
the final armature had to be corrected and because
sembled character using the 3D printed faces also cost
created for the of the changing facial expressions.
less overall than it would using the clay sculpted faces,
character. The faces sculpted in Maya (Figure
once the difference for the total material and time differ-
4) were more consistent because the
ence costs were calculated.
neutral facial expression could be copied several times,
and then manipulated as needed into the other expres-
sions without impacting the overall features. Conclusions
In conclusion, 3D printing can be a feasible alterna-
Additionally, a student version of Maya was used to
tive to creating character faces in the traditional way.
conduct this research. Because the software is free
Surprisingly, the overall costs were relatively similar for
to students, the cost of the
both methods. The cost of the clay was relatively equal
software was not calculated
to the cost of the 3D printed face. The slight differences
into the overall results. Online
in overall cost arose from the need to purchase fewer
3D printing companies require
materials when using the 3D printed face method.
the use of specific file types in
order for their software to be Using Maya to sculpt faces was also less time consuming
Figure 3: These are the able to calculate a quote for than sculpting faces by hand. The air clay requires one
four hand sculpted faces the order. The best file type to three days to fully harden, depending on the size of
prior to painting. to use is .STL. As of the 2016 the piece and its density. The faces made in Maya re-
version, Maya does not quired only a few minutes of adjustments between one
support the ability to facial expression and the next.
export to this file type,
so MakeXYZ’s online file
Figure 4: These are the four
converter was used to
Recommendations
faces created using Maya
create the correct files. If this research were to be continued, it is recommended
software.
that this process first be repeated with more face pieces
and with a short film as the end product, rather than
Calculations just a completed character. This way, more information
can be obtained about turnaround times influencing the
Figure 6 details the differences in cost using traditional
speed of the full film-making process.
methods versus using 3D printing. After the manipula-
tions were made to the faces created in Maya, the files Because of time constraints and limited knowledge, the
were sent to 25 online 3D printing companies that use faces sculpted in Maya were only done in single color.
an instant quote service, as listed in Appendix 2. These Future researchers could recreate the process using full
quotes were then averaged to find out printing costs. color prints; it would be interesting to see how the cost
Quotes that would skew the average were removed from of these pieces would affect the final character cost. It
the calculations, resulting in an average quoted price of is also worth exploring the color accuracy of the printed
$13.94 for the four faces. Conversely, it cost $12.29 to sculptures as compared to the desired colors specified
create the faces using clay. in the original file.

Stop Motion Animation and 3D Printing: Does it Improve the Process? 6

Educators should also consider reaching out to printer Matthews, V. (2015). Making Stop Motion Anima-
manufacturers for partnerships. Stratasys has a page tion Movies. Retrieved from Digital Media
specifically targeting educational use, offering lesson Academy: http://news.digitalmediaacademy.org/tag/
plans and connecting schools with local retailers (Strata- the-origin-of-stop-motion-animation
sys, n.d.). Most of their printers are used in engineering
and medical programs. However, because of Stratasys’s Mendoza, J. (2011, November 23). A Short History of
partnership with Laika, it’s proven that these manufactur- Stop Motion Animation. Retrieved from Lomography:
ers are willing to branch outside of the STEM field and http://www.lomography.com/magazine/127612-a-
into areas of artistic use. short-history-of-stop-motion-animation

References Sciretta, P. (2012, May 14). How Laika Used 3D Color

Printers To Create The Stop-Motion Animated Movie
Aardman Animation. (2015). Aardman: A Little bit of ‘Paranorman’ and 50 Other Things We Learned On
History. Retrieved from Aadrman Animation website: The Set. Retrieved from Slash Film: http://www.
http://www.aardman.com/the-studio/history/ slashfilm.com/laika-3d-color-printers-create-stopmo-
tion-animated-movie-paranorman-50-learned-set/
Aniwaa Pte. Ltd. (2016). 3D printers comparison chart.
Retrieved from Aniwaa: http://www.aniwaa.com/ Sher, D. (2015, August 10). Exclusive: The Makers of
comparison/3d-printers/#multicolor Robot Chicken Using EnvisionTEC 3D Printing for
Armstrong, K. (2016, August 9). LAIKA plus Stratasys Star-Studded Stop-Animation Series. Retrieved
equals stop-motion genius. Retrieved from 3D Print- from 3D Printing Industry: http://3dprintingindustry.
ing Industries: https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/ com/2015/08/10/exclusive-envisiontecs-3d-
laika-plus-stratasys-equals-stop-motion-genius-91654/ printer-powers-new-stop-animation-series-super-
mansion/?utm_source=August+Update+2015&utm_
Chandler, R. (2013, January 1). Stop Motion Animation.
campaign=August+Constant+Contact+Updates&u
Retrieved from Stop Motion Animation: http://ryan-
tm_medium=email
chandler1995.blogspot.com/
Sito, T. (2006). The Late, Great, 2D Animation Renais-
Crouse, M. (2015, August 20). 3D Printing Helps Anima-
sance — Part 2. Retrieved from Animation Wolrd
tion Studio Bring Action Figures to Life. Retrieved
Network: http://www.awn.com/animationworld/
from Product Design & Developement: http://www.
late-great-2d-animation-renaissance-part-2
pddnet.com/news/2015/08/3d-printing-helps-anima-
tion-studio-bring-action-figures-life Stop Motion Central Clay Animation - The Basics. (n.d.).
EnvisionTEC. (2016). Perfactory 4 DSP XL. Retrieved from Stop Motion Central: http://www.
Retrieved from EnvisionTEC: http://envi- stopmotioncentral.com/clayanimation-thebasics.html
siontec.com/3d-printers/perfactory-family/
Stratasys. (n.d.). 3D Printing for Higher Education.
p4-digital-shell-printer-xl/
Retrieved from Stratasys: http://www.stratasys.com/
Fallman, D., & Moussette, C. (2011). Sketching With industries/education/higher-education
Stop Motion Animation. Interactions Magazine,
57–67. Wellesey College. (2014). Maya 2014 - Polygonal Model-
ing a Female Head. Retrieved from https://www.
Fine, B., & Fine, R. (Directors). (2015). Elders React to 3D wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/
Printers [Motion Picture].
Wong, K., & Johnson, N. S. (2009, February).
Introduction to Stop Motion Animation. (2017). Re-
Almost REAL: 3D Printing Hooks Users with Pro-
trieved from DragonFrame: http://www.dragonframe.
totypes that Bring Designs to Life. Retrieved from
com/introduction-stop-motion-animation/
CADalyst: http://www.cadalyst.com/hardware/
Laika Studios. (2015). Coraline: A Handmade Fairytale. almost-real-3d-printing-hooks-users-with-prototypes-
Retrieved from Laika: http://www.laika.com/details. bring-designs-life-cadalyst-labs-report
php?id=279&company=studio

Stop Motion Animation and 3D Printing: Does it Improve the Process? 7

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