Who doesn't love innovation -- especially when it occurs within the filmmaking community? The team at DBLG has added a new angle to stop motion filmmaking with their short animated film Bears on Stairs. Using 50 individual 3D printed sculptures of a polygonal bear, DBLG was able to create a 2-second endless clip of the bear walking up a flight of stairs -- an interesting approach to stop motion animation! Continue on to check out the short, as well as a few behind the scenes images.
Check out Bears on Stairs below:
Staging each sculpture, as well as photographing from multiple angles was a process that took a total of 4 weeks to complete. Here are a few behind the scenes photos.
Maybe it'd be more accurate to describe Bears on Stairs as a GIF rather than a short film, but regardless of the labeling, DBLG has tapped into a potentially promising vein in animated/stop motion filmmaking, though using 3D printing to make films is nothing new.
One of the studios that has led the charge for stop motion in recent years has been Portland-based Laika Studios, which developed their own innovative way of creating character models by converting pencil drawings into computer generated 3D models, which they later turn into maquettes. In fact, Laika now use 3D color printing, first used on ParaNorman, which prints out each model in full, pre-designed color.
The exciting thing about Bears on Stairs is the sheer fact that the entire piece was composed of 3D printed materials -- granted there was only one single sculpture and not a complex landscape like ParaNorman, but I think that indie stop motion filmmakers may find a potentially simpler, less expensive, less time-consuming alternative to making stop motion films -- but I'll leave the details on how that's going to happen to those more creative than I.
And as an added bonus, DBLG is giving fans of the video a chance to win one of the 3D printed bears that was used to make Bears on Stairs. All you have to do is like their Facebook page and "show [them] your own take of Bears on Stairs." Send your entries to hello@dblg.co.uk by Friday, May 2nd.
Links:
[via Colossal]
