Animated Comedy SuperMansion is Made With 3D Printing

SuperMansion is a new comedy show made using 3D printed stop-motion animation. Oh, and it stars Bryan Cranston. You might have heard of him?

Web-streaming service Crackle is premiering a new animated show next week, wading into the overcrowded superhero genre with both fists flying.

SuperMansion is about a gang of bumbling ubermensch who bicker, squabble, and cause enormous property damage.

Byran Cranston — who you might have heard of from a little show called Breaking Bad — leads the voice cast, along with other comedy luminaries Seth Green, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jillian Bell.

SuperMansion is made by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, creators of the hit series Robot Chicken, Dinosaur Office, Bratz and Spy vs. Spy.

The thing that might be of greater interest to 3D printing fans, however, is that the show is produced using 3D printed puppets and stop-motion animation.

Check out the official trailer:

Bringing SuperMansion to life with 3D Printing

A stop-motion animation can be time-consuming to make, but highly rewarding to watch.

Animators compose each shot one frame at a time, and then assemble it in a sequence to animate it.

Aardman Animations (of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep fame) are the most successful practitioners of the art today.

It’s also fundamental to the some of the most popular animation movies and series in recent memory, including Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls.

The technique was developed early last century by filmmakers for special effects. most famously by Ray Harryhausen. And now it’s undergoing a renaissance thanks to new possibilities offered by 3D printing technologies.

EnvisionTEC is the world’s largest manufacturer of DLP technology-based high resolution 3D printers. They also happen to be one of the leading suppliers to stop-motion animation artists and studios, including Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

The results have been impressive, as Stoopid Buddy Stoodios Director of Digital Design Tommy Keiser explains to 3D Printing Industry:

“By 3D printing the majority of the parts we no longer have to mold and cast anything. We don’t even have to clean up complex parts, such as the hands or the heads, and we are also able to mass produce them, since the machine has a large build volume.”

The best part is that the greater speed of manufacturing does not result in loss of quality, nor quantity. If anything, it’s the exact opposite. More artists and painters are required to apply the finishing touches by hand to the 3D printed parts. Keiser said:

“For the type of production we do, we like our puppets to be hand painted in order to give them a more realistic feel. The result is that our artist team has grown significantly, as 3D printing has enabled our designer to create a lot more items for them to paint.”

With studios entering new areas of work (including commercials), that means the animation industry can only continue to grow.

The first three episodes of SuperMansion will be available to stream on Crackle on 8 October.

Learn More about 3D Printing and Stop-Motion Animation

If you’d like to learn more about how 3D printing is used in stop-motion animation, check out our special “How To” guide.

From digital 3D modeling all the way to full-color 3D printing, we take you through the steps required to create the perfect “faceset” — the set of facial expressions of an animated character.