Stratasys Employs D Printing to Make Giant Comic-Con Creature

MINNEAPOLIS and REHOVOT, ISRAEL - Stratasys has collaborated with the Stan Winston School of Character Arts, Legacy Effects, Cond Nast Entertainment and WIRED to create a 14-foot tall giant creature that was showcased at the Comic-Con International 2014 conference. The conference last week in San Diego, California.

The giant creature was designed by artists at the Stan Winston School. Engineers and technicians at Legacy Effects - the studio that brought to life Iron Man, Avatar, Pacific Rim and RoboCop characters - worked closely with Stratasys to build dozens of 3D-printed parts to create the character.

Everything about the giant creature project was ambitious, including size, weight, delivery schedule and performance requirements, said Matt Winston, co-founder of the Stan Winston School. Without the close involvement of our partners at Stratasys, whose 3D printing technologies are, in our view, revolutionizing not only the manufacturing industry but the entertainment industry as well, none of it would have been possible.

More than one third of the giant creature was 3D printed, including the chest armor, shoulders, arms and fingers. A variety of Stratasys 3D printers were employed in the build process, including the Fortus 900mc, which uses FDM 3D printing technology to build durable parts as large as 36 x 24 x 36 inches

The parts were created using ABS-M30 thermoplastic material, which has excellent mechanical properties suitable for functional prototypes, jigs and fixtures and production parts.

In addition to 3D printed parts, the creature integrates a variety of video and sensor technologies that offered attendees at the event, as well as fans online, a unique interactive experience with the character

The main advantage to 3D printing was going directly from a concept design to an end use, physical part, helping avoid any interpretation by hand or casting in a different material, said Jason Lopes, lead systems engineer at Legacy Effects. There is a reason why Legacy Effects has always been a Stratasys house, and this giant creature build shows why.

During last year's Comic-Con International, the Stan Winston School and Legacy Effects also collaborated with Stratasys, WIRED and YouTube to introduce an interactive robot suit, which incorporated several 3D printed parts primarily for the robot's facial structure.

3D printing is opening up an entirely new world of possibilities in nearly every industry, including entertainment, said Gilad Gans, President, Stratasys North America. The giant creature represents the perfect marriage of technology and art coming together in an innovative way.

LINK:	http://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/Web-Exclusives/2014/Stratasys-Employs-...
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