Available via license: CC BY 4.0
Content may be subject to copyright.
New Trends and Issues
Proceedings on Humanities
and Social Sciences
Volume 4, Issue 11, (2017) 185-193
ISSN : 2547-881
www.prosoc.eu
Selected Paper of 6th World Conference on Design and Arts (WCDA 2017), 29 June – 01 July 2017, University of Zagreb,
Zagreb – Croatia
Study of Laika’s Facial Expression Mechanism System for
Stop-Motion Animation Puppet Through Knock-Down Strategies on
Home-Scaled 3D Printer
Bharoto Yekti a
*
, Universitas Multimedia Nusantara, Boulevard Gading Serpong, Tangerang 15111, Indonesia.
Suggested Citation:
Yekti, B. (2017). Study of Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion animation puppet through
knock-down strategies on home-scaled 3D printer. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and
Social Sciences. [Online]. 4(11), 185-193. Available from: www.prosoc.eu
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Ayse Cakir Ilhan, Ankara University, Turkey.
©2017 SciencePark Research, Organization & Counseling. All rights reserved.
Abstract
The growth of 3D printing has been rapid over the decades. Laika is a United States-based animation production company,
and the pioneer of 3D printing technology in stop-motion animation. Laika uses this technology in their production pipeline
for making stop-motion puppets in most of their films, including their latest films, Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). Due to
limited access and information of details of Laika’s facial expression, communities and fans of animation have tried to
conduct experiments with their own 3D print, using footages of behind-the-screen processes from Laika studio. This paper
explores facial expressions for creating stop-motion puppet using an affordable home scale 3D printer. Using limited
technical information collected from documentation video from Laika as well as referring to articles written by stop-motion
enthusiasts, this fan-based research ignites creativity to overcome the barriers of technology and access through strategies in
producing affordable 3D print stop-motion animation.
Keywords: Stop-motion animation, 3D printing, facial expressions.
* ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Yekti Bharoto, Universitas Multimedia Nusantara, Boulevard Gading Serpong, Tangerang
15111, Indonesia.
E-mail address: bharoto.yekti@umn.ac.id / Tel.: +62 21 54220808
Yekti, B. (2017). Study of Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion animation puppet through knock-down strategies on
home-scaled 3D printer. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 4(11), 185-193. Available from:
www.prosoc.eu
186
1. Introduction
The motivation to conduct research in Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion
animation puppet was driven by two reasons. First, it was triggered by the fact that Laika is a company
that is known best for producing films utilising high-end 3D print machine for their puppet’s faces and
use them in all of their films. Second, the limitation in finding detailed information about the structure
of Laika’s expression system and curiosity about whether it is possible to reproduce a similar system
and implemented on any character using an affordable home-standard 3D printing machine. Thus, the
main objectives of the study are to collect detailed information about Laika’s facial expression
structure and to investigate the possibility of reproducing this system using a home-scale 3D printer.
2. Literature review
3D printing technology has rapidly developed over the decades. In this digital era, its ability to
translate a design or model that only virtually exists over real physical objects is able to change the
way how people manufacture objects.
2.1. 3D printing
According to Brand (2014), 3D printing is an additive manufacturing, which translates a computer
model into a physical object by dividing the computer model into separated physical layers that stack
on one another to build the final form. Brand (2014) mentions that according to the method, there are
four common types of 3D printing: photopolymer (transform liquid to solid), granular (transform
granular powder to solid), lamination (cutting of thin material and recombine into new form), and
fused deposition modelling (building up layers of melted plastic).
2.2. 3D printing in animation industry
According to the timeline of stop-motion animation history explained by Priebe (2011), it is likely
implied that Laika studio was the first stop-motion animation company that successfully used 3D
printing technology in their pipeline to produce Coraline (2009). It is mentioned that 3D printing
technology was utilised to print as many as 15,000 faces to make 250,000 facial expressions by the
replacement animation technique. The same technique was also practiced by Aardman studios when
creating Film Pirates! Band of misfits (2012), then followed by other Laika’s film such as Boxtrolls
(2014) and Kubo (2016). Besides its utilisation for facial expression, there were some Indie studios that
used 3D printing machine to print a whole character for replacement animations such as DBLG studios
with their film: Bears on Stairs (2014) and the Chinese Indie Studio, which produced Box Man (2014)
(Yekti, 2017).
2.3. Stop-motion animation
According to the scholar Jane Shadbolt (2013), stop-motion is an animation technique involving the
physical process of rearranging miniatures frame-by frame, which considers scale, perspective,
construction materials, sets and character performance. Purves (2010) points out how animators
manipulate physical things to be able to move in a real space, light, focus and depth become the main
attractions of stop-motion animation.
2.4. Replacements animation
According to Priebe (2007), replacement animation is one of the strategies of the stop-motion
animation method. Instead of building objects to be manipulated on each frame, it uses several
different versions of a puppet or an object to be used on each frame. It is derived from the logic
Yekti, B. (2017). Study of Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion animation puppet through knock-down strategies on
home-scaled 3D printer. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 4(11), 185-193. Available from:
www.prosoc.eu
187
behind hand-drawn animation, where the animator consistently makes a slightly different drawing
from the one before on each frame (2010). The earliest person who believed in using this replacement
technique for stop-motion puppet’s face was Howard S Moss, who did the animation for The Mo Toy
Comedy in 1917 (2010). Another recently made film also known to use this replacement faces
technique in their film was The Nightmare before Christmas and James and the Giant peach (Priebe,
2010).
2.5. 3D printing technology utilisation in Laika Studio
Priebe (2010) mentions Coraline as the first film in which rapid prototyping was utilised for stop-
motion animation. Coraline was produced by Laika Studio, a stop-motion animation production
company located in Portland, Oregon, USA. It is also mentioned that in making Coraline, Laika used
rapid prototyping technology for printing out 3D computer models for replacement animation and
props using resin materials. Priebe (2010) states that by using this technique, Laika was able to
combine the smoothness of computer graphics and the stylised stop-motion set. In his book, Priebe
(2010) mentions that each character in the Coraline film could have about 15,000 faces and up to
250,000 facial expressions. To make more different combinations in expression, Laika divided the face
part into two different parts: upper and lower.
3. Research Methodology
This research uses knockdown strategy, whereas the author studies the mechanism system of
existing facial expression, which involves 3D printing as a tool to produce it, by finding information of
the parts and its function, and then reproduces the system and applies it to a character using
affordable home-scale 3D printer. The author uses facial expression mechanism system used by Laika
as the case of study since Laika is known as the pioneer of the stop-motion animation company that
utilised 3D printing technology and succeeded in producing four full feature stop-motion animation
films.
Figure 1. Research method diagram
This research is conducted by generating information from two articles, and behind-the-scene video
as the main secondary source. All information from these secondary data combines with the
information gathered from the experiment as the primary source using existing 3D models of the facial
system and 3D model of character. The first article is Coraline puppet technology, written by Sven
based on his experience observing real puppets shown at the Coraline premiere screening in 2009.
The second article is Siggraph 2013 Re-Cap: Laika’s trickery, written by Lisa Marie Erickson. In the
second article, Erickson writes about her insight/opinion about the Laika puppet mechanism based on
information that she had gathered from ‘The seamless fusion of stop-motion and visual effects
technologies in Laika’s feature films’ seminar presented by Laika’s practitioners, who were responsible
for Laika’s puppet making. Behind-the-scene video was retrieved from YouTube titled: ParaNorman
Feaurette: Faces of Paranorman’ (2012). Similar to the article by Erickson, this video showed
information interviewing four important sources from Laika: Georgina Hayns, Creative supervisor from
Yekti, B. (2017). Study of Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion animation puppet through knock-down strategies on
home-scaled 3D printer. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 4(11), 185-193. Available from:
www.prosoc.eu
188
Puppet Fab, Morgan Hay and Kingman Gallagher as the Rapid Prototyping Leads dan Bryan Mcleans as
the Creative Supervisor.
The next step is to make a real 3D printed facial expression system. The 3D model of the system
was downloaded from www.stopmotionanimation.com. This model was shared by Demian on
February 2016 in a forum discussion titled ‘Paranorman Eyes’. The purpose of doing this experiment is
to get real experience in assembling and operating the facial expression system, so it can give more
understanding to the system and the function of each parts. All the secondary and primary
information about the system is then applied to a character. The author uses a 3D model of a
character bought online. It is a 3D model of a woman character that comes with a complete facial
controller, and ready to be animated digitally.
4. Laika’s Documentation Observation and Study
4.1. Coraline puppet technology (2009)
In the article titled Coraline puppet technology, Sven (2009) mentions that there are two types of
mechanical systems applied in the characters of the Coraline movie. The first system is a mechanical
system called Hollow resin skull, the second is snap-on faces. The hollow resin skull system is applied
on some characters such as The Father and Other Father. In this system, the main structure of the
head and the face were built from the resin material which is connected to small metal parts that have
a function to animate the facial skin part made from silicone material, such as eyebrows, mouth, etc.
(Sven, 2009). While snap-on faces system, which is applied to the main characters, Coraline and
Wybie, were designed to accommodate the replacement-animation method in the animation process.
This system utilised 3D printing technology to produce the small parts of the structure as well as the
faces itself. Sven (2009) points out that according to what he saw, in this snap-on faces system, the
face part is divided into two different parts, the forehead part and the rest of the face below the
corners of the eyes and bridge of the nose.
In this article, Sven (2009) also explained more details of the snap-on faces system. Sven (2009)
mentions that several 1/16” diameter neodynium magnets were attached to each part of the faces. He
also argues that the eye parts consist of the eyelids part that could rise and lower, and the eyeball part
which is attached to the skull using ball capture plates located on the back side of the eyeball. Other
important thing about the snap-on faces system explained by Sven (2009) is the neck connector. He
mentions that there is a squat cylinder connector part at the bottom of the head. From his
observations, he concludes that it can be used for holding the square telescoping rod as the neck
structure, which can prevent the puppet from rotating around accidently.
4.2. Siggraph 2013 Re-Cap : Laika’s trickery (2013)
In the second article titled Siggraph 2013 Re-Cap: Laika’s trickery, Erickson (2013) wrote some
information based on the 2013 Siggraph conference that she had attended. This information included
the technology that was utilised in the process of puppet making and animation process, and also
general information about facial expression animation in the Paranorman film. Erickson (2013)
explained that replacements animation is the main technique used to animate the mouth, eyebrows
and other parts. She also explained that most of these parts were produced using 3D printing
technology. The total amount of 3D printed faces are more than 40,000 pieces, and able to make half
a million combination of facial expressions. Erickson (2013) also mentions that each of the face parts
was painted manually by a painting artist.
In this article, Erickson (2013) also explains the technology behind the process of making stop-
motion puppet for Laika. The Zcorp 3D printer machine which uses powder material is utilised by Laika
for economical purposes, although it took many steps in the finishing process. Besides the 3D printer
itself, she mentions some software included in the making process, such as Autodesk Inventor for
Yekti, B. (2017). Study of Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion animation puppet through knock-down strategies on
home-scaled 3D printer. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 4(11), 185-193. Available from:
www.prosoc.eu
189
designing some mechanical parts of the puppet’s structure. She concluded that the 3D scanner was
also used to get information about the physical character sculpture objects, before processing into the
final 3D model using topogun and Zbrush software.
4.3. ParaNorman Feaurette: Faces of Paranorman (2012)
This video gives information based on the interview of practitioners involved in the process of
making facial expression animation for Paranorman films. The information collected from this video is
actually similar to the second article written by Erickson, since the interviewees were the same people
who were presenting the 2013 Siggraph: Laika’s Trickery conference. This video was able to provide
additional information about the process of making puppets for Paranorman films. It was mentioned
in this video that the total amount of puppets is 300, which involves 77 gallons of Super Glue, 8,000
Lbs of printing powder, 2 gallons of white resin, 66,400 magnets, 729 sheets of sandpaper, 25,000
purple gloves and 5000 X-acto blades.
Figure 2. Information about Laika’s puppet faces making process from video: ParaNorman Feaurette:
Faces of Paranorman (2012)
Source: http://popcornposts.blogspot.co.id/2013/08/siggraph-2013-re-cap-part-1-laika-s.html
4.4. Experimenting using existing 3D model by Demian (2017)
After having a good understanding about the parts involved in facial expression and its function, the
next step is doing experiments to get the real experience about how each part is supposed to work.
This experiment also measures the capabilities of the home-scale 3D printer to produce the same
mechanism used by Laika. In this experiment, the author uses 3D existing 3D model, downloaded from
www.stopmotionanimation.com and created by Demian. This experiment using fused deposition
model 3D printing machine called minibot manufactured by Creality 3D. The material has been used in
this experiment is polylactic acid filament.
Adjustment of the original 3D model scaling was made due to the capabilities of the printer. It
needs to be scaled up because some parts have a dimension that does not fulfill the minimum
requirements to be printed with minibot 3D printer.
Yekti, B. (2017). Study of Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion animation puppet through knock-down strategies on
home-scaled 3D printer. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 4(11), 185-193. Available from:
www.prosoc.eu
190
Figure 3. Original eye mechanism 3D model by Demian
Figure 4. Head structure printed with creativity 3D minibot 3D printer
The printed parts were really helpful to mapping the category of the parts. From these 3D printed
objects, combined with information gathered from articles and behind the scenes video, the author
made a categorisation of the parts structure and information about how it works. Overall, the head
structure can be categorised into four main structures: skull, eyes, ears and neck connector. Other
additional information about the size of the magnets helped the author to understand the right
location for the magnets in the overall structure. From these experiments, the author also concludes
that most of the parts it belongs to the eye structure, which consists of six different parts on each side.
Yekti, B. (2017). Study of Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion animation puppet through knock-down strategies on
home-scaled 3D printer. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 4(11), 185-193. Available from:
www.prosoc.eu
191
Table 1. Laika’s puppet face mechanism system and parts information categorisation
Information
Article: Coraline
puppet technology
(2009)
Siggraph 2013 Re-
cap: Laika’s trickery
(2013)
Paranorman
Feaurette: Faces of
Paranorman (2013)
Experimenting on
existing 3D model
by Demian (2017)
Source/Author
Sven
Erickson
Hayns, Hay,
Gallagher and
McLeans
Demian
Movie title
Coraline
Paranorman
Paranorman
-
Material used
Plastic
Powder
Powder
-
Eyes structure
Squashed spherical
shaped, separated
eyelids part
separated eyelids
part
-
Three eyelids parts,
a half-sphere
shaped part eye ball
Ears
Attached
Separated, no
movement
mechanism
-
Separated, no
movement
mechanism
Neck connector
Squad cylinder
shaped
-
-
Squad cylinder
shaped
Face attaching
system
1/16” Neodimium
Eight cylindrical
magnets
Eight cylindrical
magnets
Four cylindrical
magnets
4.5. Implementing system to 3D model character
The next step is implementing the system into a character. In this step, the author uses the existing
3D model character bought online, which has the face controller feature. Some adjustments were
applied both in the head structure model as well as the 3D character model, such as rescaling the
model, adjusting the proportion of the eyes structure, separating and modifying face polygon of the
face, etc.
Figure 5. Existing 3D model character
Figure 6. Adjusting 3D model of the character and head structure
Yekti, B. (2017). Study of Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion animation puppet through knock-down strategies on
home-scaled 3D printer. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 4(11), 185-193. Available from:
www.prosoc.eu
192
4.6. Animation test
The animation tests were conducted by doing 4-second animations of a character head moving
along following flying objects around her. The animation of the facial feature of the character was
done on a digital platform. There are 48 faces printed using minibot 3D printer. The purpose of the
animation test is to validate the process of implementing the Laika’s facial production system using
home-scale 3D printer.
Figure 7. Complete set of puppet’s head mechanism
5. Analysis
After all the head structure, and all the faces part were printed and have a finishing touch before it
was assembled into the final prototype, these objects are handed to the animator to be processed
according to the animatic storyboard. The result gives a measurement to the process of implementing
Laika’s facial system to a character using a home-scale 3D printer. The indicator of the analysis is
based on three aspects:
Eye movement animation.
Since most parts in Laika’s facial system belong to the eye structure, it is considered to the main
indicator of this experiment analysis. The implementation is considered as a success if the animator
is able to make the eye movement animation similar to the animatic storyboard.
Face attachment process.
The implementation is also considered a success if the animator can easily change the face into
another on each frame.
Overall animation result.
It also considered as a successful production if the movement in the animation looks fluid and
shows minimal error, especially the faces position.
The overall result shows that the learning process and implementation of the system were
successfully executed. The animator was able to produce animation with the eye movement that
followed its animatic storyboard. The face part changing process was also considered a success since
the author encounters no issues in the animating process. Overall, the animation looks similar to the
animatic storyboard; there are no significant errors while positioning the faces on each frame.
6. Conclusion
The author concludes that it is possible to reproduce Laika’s facial expression system to any
characters using the home-scale 3D printer with some adjustment. During the research, the author
learned about how each part was designed to produce the world class stop-motion animation like
Laika’s film. From this research, the author also realised that in stop-motion animation film which
utilised 3D printing technology for their facial expression animation production, the face replacement
system cannot be separated from the digital animation process.
Yekti, B. (2017). Study of Laika’s facial expression mechanism system for stop-motion animation puppet through knock-down strategies on
home-scaled 3D printer. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 4(11), 185-193. Available from:
www.prosoc.eu
193
The process of gathering information made the author learn that there is an alternative for creating a
facial expression system besides the snap-on faces system or 3D replacement animation system.
References
Demian. (2017). NormanEYES2. Retrieved from http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/forum/topics/pranor
man - eyes?id=6519681%3ATopic%3A87465&page=3#comments
eOnefilms. (2012). ParaNorman Feaurette: faces of paranorman. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=vu62AzWPTDs
Erickson, L. (2013). Laika’s trickery. The Popcorn Post. Retrieved from http://popcornposts.blogspot.co.id/
2013/08/siggraph-2013-re-cap-part-1-laika-s.html
Hausman, K. & Horne, R. (2014). 3D printing for dummies (1st ed., pp. 24–34). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Hedtke, C. (2016, January 11). Anomalisa, stop-motion animation and how 3d printers are changing filmmaking.
Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved from http://filmmakermagazine.com/96841-anomalisa-stop-motion-
animation-and-how-3d-printers-are-changing-filmmaking/#.VrvtQViLTIV
Horne, R. (2017). 3D printing for dummies (1st ed.). Newark, NJ: Wiley.
Priebe, K. A. (2007). The art of stop-motion animation (1st ed., p. 12). Boston, MA: Thomson Course Technology.
Priebe, K. A. (2011). The advanced art of stop-motion animation. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Purves, B. (2010). Stopmotion (1st ed., p. 26). Singapore: AVA.
Reilly, D. O. (n.d.). A brief history of stop-motion animation! Retrieved from http://www.stopmotioncentral.com/
articles-5.html
Shadbolt, J. (2013). Parallel synchronized randomness: stop-motion animation in live action feature films.
Animation Studies Online Journal, 8. Retrieved January 8, 2017 from http://journal.animationstudies.org/
category/volume-8/jane-shadbolt-parallel-synchronised-randomness/
Sven. (2009). The scarlet letters: coraline puppet technology. Retrieved from http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/
blog/archives/movies/stopmo/
Yekti, B. (2017). Visual tactility of 3d printing utilization in stop motion animation. Advanced Science Letters,
23(4), 130–132.