DESIGN NAME: Dan Sultan Magnetic
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Music Video
INSPIRATION: Combining 3D printing and stop-motion animation made it possible to produce an innovative and compelling clip without the musician having to commit to 3 months of filming. I was inspired by the Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer but wanted to take it to take it beyond the traditional pixelation technique and use new media technologies including 3D printing, projection mapping and 3D animation. I came up with some visual concepts that would match key points in the song relating to the lyrics.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The music video Magnetic is a hybrid of new media technologies; 3D printing, projection mapping, stop motion and some 3D animation. It is a performance clip with a 3D representation of the musician Dan Sultan as a sculptural bust. Through out the video the bust transforms and becomes a "living work of art". Two months in the making, over 60 individual 3D printed pieces and over 2700 photos.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: As this project is a video it does not require operation. Interaction is achieved by watching the video
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: Video duration 3 minuites 45 seconds
3 months to complete the project
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Movie, Video and Animation Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: The first step in the process of making Magnetic was to create a 3D scan of Dan’s head and face. This was done by taking a series of photos of Dan at various angles which were then stitched together to create a 3D model. We made a 30cm high bust of Dan with a movable head and replaceable mouth and eye pieces so we could animate the full range of facial expressions and movement. There were 11 phonemes; a unit of sound in speech, or mouth shapes that were also printed so when put together formed the words for lip syncing.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: 1080p HD 16:9 aspect ratio
Shot on Canon 5D MkII
Dragonframe stop-motion software
After Effects
Premiere Pro
Maya
Agisoft PhotoScan For the 3D face/headscan
Millumin and VDMX for the projection mapping
Mocha Pro
TAGS: 3D printing, Stop motion, animation, 3D animation, projection mapping, music video
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: There was a considerable amount of research that went into this project for its successful outcome. As there was a lot of 3D printing to be done we needed to work out the best settings for the printers to produce the best quality prints in the quickest time possible. The combination of settings of wall thickness, nozzle size, infill and print speed need to be just right to get the best result. The other areas that needed to be considered were how to physically attach the different mouth pieces or phonemes so that they could be easily swapped out for animating. I used small magnets for this.
CHALLENGE: The main challenge was how to print all the 3D elements in the short amount of time that was required for the production. We ended up using five 3D printers simultaneously to reduce the print time. Also we need to research the best method for attaching and swapping out the head of the printed bust. For this we used a ball and socket joint. We tested a number of different methods and this worked the best. 3D animation was used when 3D printing large complex objects was too difficult and expensive.
ADDED DATE: 2017-01-12 06:26:52
TEAM MEMBERS (4) : Jonathan Chong: Director, stop-motion animator, Shawn Miller: 3D animator, Christopher Langton: 3D printer and Sean Healy: Projection mapping
IMAGE CREDITS: Image #No 1: Jonathan Chong
Image #No 2: Jonathan Chong
Image #No 3: Jonathan Chong
Image #No 4: Jonathan Chong
Image #No 5: Jonathan Chong
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