Laika Studios
On an episode of TCT's Innovators on Innovators podcast in August 2023, Jason Lopes [JL] of Gentle Giant Studios (and formerly of Legacy Effects) sat down with Brian McLean [BM] of LAIKA Studios to discuss the evolution of 3D printing applications in the entertainment space.
BM: It was after Kubo [and the Two Strings] that we were at AMUG, and we were giving a presentation about how we were able to write our own software using this AMF tool with three colors. And Rob Ducey sat down and happened to be at a table with somebody from Cuttlefish, and Cuttlefish had been doing the same thing with a Connex3, but they had been turning it into a four-color printer by dyeing the support material.
JL: Bingo.
BM: Yeah, and so they, essentially, were years ahead of what Stratasys was focusing on. And they were doing a real scientific deep dive into color and how when you're dealing with three-dimensional objects that are printed in color and you have color not just on the exterior surface, but a certain depth into it, the color is affected by the shape, the size, whether it's a cube or a sphere, they're going to have slightly different dithering patterns to create and dither the colors.
So, Cuttlefish were amazing. We ended up working with them and, again, Stratasys gave us the ability to give us one of these voxel dongles. And then Cuttlefish would do all of our slicing for us. And now that's something you can get. Back on Missing Link, we were the only place in the world that had the capabilities of that because we were getting software from Cuttlefish and hardware, the J750, from Stratasys. But you can now buy a cuttlefish add on.
JL: I believe you can. And, once again, just showing how entertainment opens the doors to give people accessibility to things that were tried on before they were released. It's really awesome.
BM: Maybe it's entertainment. Because we we have a connection with Nike, at LAIKA we are owned by the Knight family, which are founders of Nike. And I remember Stratasys would say we'll give you guys access, we'll give you these voxel dongles, you guys can do this, but don't tell Nike. And maybe it was just the fear of Nike being such a machine and having a different use of 3D printing that they felt like we were the playground. They didn't care if we were messing around in the sandbox, but 'we don't want other clients to know because we're not ready to support this.'
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JL: Correct. And I think that nails it.
Entertainment and with a person like you, with a person like me, once we get access, we approach it on our own, we go under the hood. Just open the door for me, and I'll take care of it and I'll try to figure it out. If it works, great. If it doesn't work, great. Build that Bible of understanding. That's how I was able to get in and print on fabric in 2010. And actually use it in a direct TV commercial, where people had piston robot arms. And we just green screened, erased out, the green sock that it was printed on, 3D pistons, and really taking things to the next level.
When we got that first 3D printer inhouse, my focus wasn't even on the 3D printer. My focus was 'how can I now develop this pipeline that feeds it differently to make it more efficient for artists? How can I get people understanding how to take scan data, and now retopologize it in a way that we can build this digital asset library to go out to the printer or any technology if needed, and never look back.' And then, as you mentioned, the Connex3, I refer to it as if you wanted to go back in time and get the Andre Agassi colors or Buzz Lightyear colors, the Connex3 was perfect for you if you were using it at default, because that was the whole 80s vibe of colors with that limited palette. But then I saw what you were up to. And I was just like, 'wait a second. Something's going on here because you can't do that at default.'
BM: Well, it's funny because Angela Novak was recommended by Nike because she was trying to apply to Nike and they couldn't hire her. And she had worked with you. And you recommended her and she came in and I remember Angela came in she said, 'oh yeah, they're doing color at Legacy [Effects], it's similar.'
And then we started showing her what we were doing, and she's like, 'oh, no, this isn't the same. Jason would really love this.' It's like, 'no, you can't tell Jason, we will get in trouble. Like, please don't tell him.' I really wanted her to because I wanted you to know but I was like, 'no, we can't.'
JL: Angela, she came on board, she was in the traditional model shop and she wanted to learn new skills. And it was great because having her and being able to really push the limits in the PolyJet world, I always called it pushing minimums. How can we go thinner? Because in PolyJet, you can print it, the hard part's cleaning it, and keeping it from warping. And she was my Clyde, I was Bonnie, and we would push it, and she would find a way to clean it and make sure it held its integrity.
If you see the movie Night at the Museum, I think it's Night at the Museum 3, there's these gold Pharaoh pieces of these crowns that the Queen's wearing, whatever her character is, that is probably 300 PolyJet pieces at pushing below minimums of what they say you can print, and gold-plated. It is absolutely phenomenal work but that's enabled by a tag team duo with me and Angela and really understanding it.
I use this analogy all the time and it's funny you come full circle. When people ask me all the time, 'oh, what do I need to do to become successful in 3D printing?' I say you need to own your equipment, you need to learn that equipment like the back of your hand and time bend with it, you become a wizard or sorcerer with the equipment, because then you go back to your teams and say, 'this is what I can do,' pop it right on the thing and let their brains meld on that for a little bit. And they will now be inspired to try things to feed you. And you can create this synergy and do what even the OEMs say is nearly impossible.
