For the feature film, “The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists,” Aardman, a leader in model animation, chose the envisionTEC Perfactory for 3D printing of heads and mouths used in the stop-motion filming process. Aardman’s past film credits include “Chicken Run” and Wallace and Gromit’s “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”
See how characters come to life in this short video.
To meet the demand for nearly 20,000 interchangeable mouths, Aardman operated four Perfactory systems. The work started in 2009.; the film was released March 2012.
According to the company, Aardman selected its Perfactory machines for accuracy, resolution and surface finish. It states that the mouths, manufactured in the company’s E-Shell material, were accurate to 30 microns (0.001 inch).
“The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 3D,” stars Hugh Grant in his first animated role as the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain – a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas.