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Noomi Rapace in Ridley Scott's Alien prequel Prometheus, wearing a helmet printed by an Objet 30.
Our sister site and magazine TCT has covered in great depth, and in fact dedicated the front cover of the magazine to the use of 3D printing in the movie ParaNorman. It turns out the use of 3D printing in the talkies is now even more widespread.
You don’t get more widespread than a Ridley Scott film; his films have amassed over 30 Oscar nominations between them, including Best Picture and Best Director for Gladiator. So the news that model-making company FBFX Ltd used an Objet30 3D Printer to help design Noomi Rapace’s helmet in Scott’s sci-fi epic, Prometheus, will be a big boost to the 3D printing industry.
"The film industry is rapidly moving towards digital - more and more 3D files are coming in, so we've had to align our in-house resources to meet this demand.” Said FBFX’s managing director Grant Pearmain “We can now take 3D data and quickly 3D print a model for our customers to hold in their hands and make design changes if necessary. Having this capability puts us on the frontline, and in this business, having the most cutting-edge technology in-house can be the difference between being called upon for a multi-million pound movie or not."
After 20 years of traditional model making FBFX Ltd invested in the Stratasys machine in a move to keep up with/surpass their competitors.
"The film industry is rapidly moving towards digital - more and more 3D files are coming in, so we've had to align our in-house resources to meet this demand. We can now take 3D data and quickly 3D print a model for our customers to hold in their hands and make design changes if necessary. Having this capability puts us on the frontline, and in this business, having the most cutting-edge technology in-house can be the difference between being called upon for a multi-million pound movie or not."
When designing the helmet for lead actress Noomi Rapace’s character Elizabeth Shaw, complex geometries were required to ensure the fit and lock of the helmet onto the space suit. A traditional model-maker could typically take weeks to produce such precision, however, armed with a digital toolkit, FBFX was able to quickly create a 3D CAD file of the helmet and 3D print a model in just a number of hours using its Stratasys 3D Printer.
"When it comes to creating accurate models, 3D printing is revolutionary in the industry when you think of the traditional methods we used to use," says Pearmain. "As you can imagine for the Prometheus helmet, the cast were not always in the same place at the same time, so to be able to rapidly recreate a 3D model, in such a supremely accurate fashion, was integral in the design verification phase."
Pearmain continues, "Once we had the 3D CAD file, our Objet30 3D Printer was crucial in finalising the space helmet design, specifically to create the patterns for the collar and helmet locking rings. This type of job would have previously been outsourced, costing us time and money we did not have. However, having the 3D printer in-house allowed us to perfect the design and provide a more comfortable experience for Noomi without worrying about missing deadlines."
You can take the technology out of science fiction, but you can't take the science fiction out of the technology...
