Introduction
Do you know Chinese dramas are famous for using 3D props in their movie and drama sets? The 3D printing for props and costumes can be personalized and fit the character’s attire well.
3D printing techniques let you explore a new and cost-effective ways to add to the VFX effects for a movie setup.
Are you into 3D printing and VFX? This blog will educate and inform you a lot about it. For starters, we will be focusing on the advantages of these 3D props and costumes.
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Otherwise, read the post below and finalize your filmmaking career decisions with updated knowledge.
What are the advantages of 3D printing in film and drama sets?
1. Shorter production cycle
3D printing has shorter production cycles in general. Are you waiting to produce film props quickly for an immediate shoot? This could be done in hours with the help of 3D printing machines.
Your design requires the most effort while executing the prop assembly and manufacturing takes half the time!
2. Easy to repair and readjust
3D printing props are cheaper to product and manufacture. Thus, these are easily replaceable, repairable, and adjustable in certain cases when adding two or more items and infusing them to create a new object.
3. Cost-effective way to manufacture multiple iterations
You can easily print more than a single film prop or costume prototype. Experiment with it without increasing much of the cost. It helps you perfect the character appearance and role in the film set or series.
4. Get ahead of craftsman’s limitations
Not every craftsman is a pro in crafting intricate and complicated costumes and props. You can then first design the prototype using CAD software. Then finalize it before sending the design to the printer for further manufacturing.
It reduces your dependency on the craftsman for high-end, high-res, or highly complicated props.
5. Customize designs purposefully
It is easy to tweak and customize designs for the 3D props and costumes. The printer will simply print out the design you command it to. It does not require any perfect or rigid mould or setup.
You can experiment with the small batches if this is the first time you have used a 3D printer. Then continue to fix the design as per the crew’s requirement for the film set.
You can also add more devices to the printer to make the design of the final prop more intricate. It depends on the budget of the production house as well.
What do we know about film and TV 3D props and costumes?
Visual and practic3al effects specialist have the job to make the scene or sequence pop. They need visuals and objects in the scene to layer it on either ground.
From costume designing to adding virtual objects and physical props, a lot goes into thinking for these teams.
Up until recently, these prosthetics were added onto the scene with plaster, clay, wood, foam, wires, etc. However, this was usually a time-consuming process. It took time to gather the goods and then decide what to make out of these.
That’s when the industry started to shift to 3D printing for props and costumes. It is easier, cost-effective, and tailormade for designs to come to life.
The technicians make multiple printouts of a protype design. They have the creative freedom to test it in various stages. This printing cuts half the time compared to other costume and makeup additions with wood, fabric, clay, wire, paint, etc.
The 3D products are often more durable, easily procured, and easy to replicate. Instead of hand-crafting the props required on the scene, a 3D printer helps you print it out in seconds or minutes.
What are the top applications of 3D props and costumes?
1. In movies
Shows like Game of Thrones have used 3D printers for masks, armoury, jewellery, etc. We have seen Jurassic World printing miniatures of dinosaurs and other prototypes.
Archaeologists’ characters were given skeletons and mummies through 3D printing in the mystery movies to make the scenes realistic.
Do you remember the Black Panther movie? Did you love the crowns and other jewellery people wore in it? Those designs were quite intricate and not easy to replicate. However, the designs were easily made through 3D printing technology for that kind of precision and intricacy.
Next, we can talk about the Iron Man movie. We love the Iron Man outfit. It has so many powers. This suit was 3D printed. The visual artists had to scan Robert’s entire body to make a design for the design software or tool first.
After that, the MCU increasingly used 3D printing technology to print out powerful suits for superheroes like Thor and Captain America.
2. Stop motion miniatures
Visual artists and specialists depend on the film and TV props to set stop motion sequences. They have to place the object meticulously for each frame and picture to produce it like a reel later.
With 3D printing, such filmmakers have the power to create various emoticons. They can print different expressions of the same miniature object, multiple times, at a lower cost.
This will smoothen the motion in each frame when filmmakers have a character with different emotions.
For a movie named Caroline, Laika Studio allegedly printed more than 20,000 heads with different expressions. The number increased to 40,000 for a film named ParaNorman.
The count of 3D printed heads reached an astounding number of 56,000 and more for The Boxtrolls movie.
3. Set design
Earlier, production designers used 3D printers to add small objects onto the set or scene. Now, the size of the 3D printers is also increasing. This has enabled them to create the entire set design in parts.
For instance, in the First Man biopic, the production designer could replicate Apollo 11 on the set using the 3D printer overnight!
Other product designers on the set love to create miniature versions of the real-life set with such printers.
At times, they print smaller parts in multiple batches. Then, the entire production set design team puts these pieces together to create a proper set before filming the scene or sequence there.
Conclusion
In the post above, we gave you multiple advantages of 3D printing for props and costumes in film and TV sets. We also delved deeper into its basics and applications to understand the practicality better if you’re new here.
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