Highlights include studio’s use of 3d printing to help create life-like, full-color, animated characters

“Animating Life: The Art, Science and Wonder of LAIKA” runs October 14, 2017 – May 20, 2018

 Minneapolis & Rehovot, Israel; October 12, 2017 – Stratasys (Nasdaq:SSYS), a global leader in applied additive technology solutions, today announced the company will be a sponsor of the Portland Art Museum’s “Animating Life: The Art, Science and Magic of LAIKA” – running October 14, 2017 through May 20, 2018.  The exhibit highlights such topics as LAIKA’s use of 3D printing to rapidly create unforgettable, colorful, and life-like puppet faces for the studio’s award-winning films. As a sponsor of the major retrospective exhibit, Stratasys executives will participate in a Press Preview on Thursday, October 12^th – as well as a Facebook Live tour of the exhibit on Friday, October 13^th at 9am Pacific, being hosted at www.facebook.com/LAIKAstudios.  

Exploring behind-the-scenes photography, video clips and physical artwork from LAIKA films, visitors will be immersed in the studio’s creative process – exploring the production design, sets, props, puppets, costumes, and world-building that have become the studio’s hallmarks. LAIKA’s Oscar® nominated films are widely known to be triumphs of imagination, ingenuity and craftsmanship redefining the limits of modern animation.

This retrospective will highlight the unique ability of 3D printing to spark unprecedented creativity and innovation in LAIKA’s award-winning films. LAIKA, which has leveraged Stratasys 3D printed technology in motion pictures including Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, and Kubo and the Two Strings – all of which have received Oscar® nominations and numerous other awards – will peel back the curtain on innovations behind its stop-motion filmmaking. Highlights include 3D printing’s role in revolutionizing animation of LAIKA’s puppets – a critical piece of the studio’s imaginative, vibrant story-telling. The technology gives LAIKA the unmatched design freedom and near-continuous production schedule for creation of full-color, 3D printed models with realism, performance and function.

“Bringing inanimate objects to life is one of the oldest forms of movie magic.” said Brian McLean, LAIKA’s Director of Rapid Prototyping – who won a Scientific and Engineering Oscar in 2016 for pioneering Rapid Prototyping in character animation. “By harnessing the power of 3D printers, we are able to create emotions and subtle facial performances never before seen in stop-motion animation.  It is this technology – combined with the amazing talents of so many different creative disciplines within LAIKA – that allow us to tell really complex and enduring stories.”

A collaborative partner with Stratasys for more than a decade, LAIKA is continuously evolving the studio’s use of 3D printing to advance design and performance of stop-motion models. Stratasys technology helps filmmakers bring unique ideas to life, driving prototypes and characters to be created, modified, and re-created with unprecedented speed and detail. The studio currently leverages nine Stratasys PolyJet-based 3D printing solutions for practically non-stop, continuous production – including the Stratasys Connex3 and Stratasys J750 full-color, multi-material 3D printers.

These PolyJet-based 3D printing solutions are ideal for the demanding requirements of animators, with the versatile Stratasys J750 full-color, multi-material 3D printer allowing users to 3D print parts in more than 360,000 colors, textures, gradients and transparencies. These highly intricate creations are produced in a single print – with minimal-to-no finishing steps, such as painting, sanding or assembly. 3D printing ensures LAIKA can develop characters with 24×7 operations across an incredible array of characteristics for life-like function and look – both quickly and cost-effectively.

“For more than a decade, the visionaries at LAIKA have revolutionized the way animated films are made – tapping into the newest technology innovations and creating the most memorable theater experiences. The studio capitalizes on 3D printing for unprecedented design freedom, streamlined development processes, and creation of the most unique, custom characters,” said Rich Garrity, President of Americas, at Stratasys.  “LAIKA’s advanced use of our 3D printing technology is not only breaking new barriers in film-making, but expanding what’s now possible across 3D printing in general to encourage use across a diverse range of businesses. We consider LAIKA a valued and collaborative partner, opening new doors for what our customers can achieve.”