Sainsbury's/ YouTube
Sainsbury's Christmas advert
Dave, the main character of the Sainsbury's Christmas ad, peers into his child's room
3D Print Bureau, the additive manufacturing material specialists, have played a major role in the production of this year’s Sainsbury’s Christmas TV advert, which aired for the first time last night.
The Stoke-on-Trent based company have been working with puppet makers, Mackinnon and Saunders and London-based animation production company, Passion Pictures, to create the TV commercial. Meanwhile, Sam Fell, who’s work on Paranorman featured on the front cover of TCT Magazine back in June 2012, directed the advert.
Over the last three months, the team have 3D-printed hundreds of face masks used to animate each of the 27 characters’ features. By switching each model's different expressions, the motion shots were created by a replacement technique, rather than more traditional hand movement stat stop motion is well known for.
The 3D printer used in the production process was the Stratasys J750, because of its capabilities with a range of colours and materials. While, 3D printing has been used many times in the stop animation industry, this project taking inspiration from such successes as Coraline and Paranorman, the use of the Stratasys J750 makes the Sainsbury’s advert the first to be produced in this way. The detail of the full colour achieved in the characters setting it apart from previous instances of 3D printing in animation.
“It wouldn’t have been possible to create what is essentially a mini-film within the timescale allocated without the magic of a 3D printer,” Dave Bennett, 3D Print Bureau Manager said. “Traditional techniques would have taken 12 months or more to achieve and have a less detailed result. It’s been fantastic to see each of the characters come to life on the screen as a moving singing person, after starting life on our inspection table as hundreds of inanimate individual models. We couldn’t have imagined a better way to illustrate how the J750 can be used.”
Sainsbury's/ YouTube
Sainsbury's Christmas advert 3
Dave at work in the Sainsbury's Christmas advert
The full three-and-a-half-minute advert was aired last night during the first I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here commercial break on ITV1. It is now available to view in its entirety on Sainsbury’s official YouTube page.
3D Print Bureau has seen its second location open this year in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. It is here that the historical surroundings of the Ceramics industry mix with new the technologies of 3D Printing. While 3D Print Bureau have established themselves as a cutting edge 3D printing service, this is their first involvement in a project of this kind.
Speaking exclusively to TCT Magazine, 3D Print Bureau Managing Director, Gary Miller said the advert exemplified the progression 3D printing has made in recent years.
"Personally I think this project shows how much additive manufacturing has progressed, watching the advert on screen you wouldn’t know these parts had been 3D-Printed and that’s credit to the technology and our company's experience in producing printed models," said Miller.
Sainsbury's Christmas advert, which has been well-received by the general public, tells the story of Dave, a hard-working and devoted Dad, who realises that the greatest gift he can give people this Christmas is his time.
