Computer Graphics World

■ ■ ■ ■ 3D Printing•Animation Scared N ot long ago, CG animated short fi lms were as rare as a vin- tage comic book. Today, though, they are a favorite medium for students, novices, and professional animators. At most animation schools, students complete a short for their fi nal SILLY character comes to life in the real world From Art to Part: A CG BY KAREN MOLTENBREY project and grade. At the other end of the spectrum, studios, such as Pixar, DreamWorks, and Blue Sky, often test a technique or tech- nology in the production environment of an animated short before jumping headfi rst into a feature-length fi lm. So, if you want to create a CG animated short today using intel- lectual property, how do you distinguish it from all the others out there on the Internet, at various fi lm festivals, and elsewhere? Th at was the question haunting animator/producer/artist William "Pro- ton" Vaughan not long ago. Th e former DAVE School instructor and NewTek LightWave evangelist had spent years creating CG characters and other content for just about every type of medium—books, television, fi lms, games, toys. A self-professed zombie fan, Vaughan had an idea for a unique character: a friendly zombie named Tofu, who has a taste for vegeta- bles and grains rather than human fl esh. "I've always been a massive fan of zombies," says Vaughan. "When I was a kid, I'd watch anything that even mentioned the word 'zombie' in the title or description." It was Vaughan's dream to bring the character to life. But aside from hard work and a great idea, sometimes it takes a bit of luck to turn a dream into a reality. Sometimes it takes tenacity. And some- times, the stars need to align perfectly. In the case of Tofu, it was all of these factors. The Stars Align Th e fi rst star occurred while Vaughan began to fl esh out his Tofu concept with a backstory and some digital models of the would-be cast, and stumbled upon what is now a popular trend: 3D printing. Once the domain of industrial design and manufacturing, rapid pro- totyping is used to generate physical parts or objects from CAD fi les. More recently, lower-cost 3D printers have emerged from this tech- nology, enabling users like Vaughan to turn CG imagery into "real" objects. One of the early service providers off ering this technology 52 October/November 2011 was 3D Art to Part, which printed some of Vaughan's 3D models. "I have a massive toy collection—I don't know of a single animator who doesn't," says Vaughan. "So I thought I would get some of my digital models printed. Once you do it, it becomes a bit of an addic- tion. After I did my fi rst one, I immediately did three more. Th en I did some as gifts. And then I did some more. I just loved the idea of being able to hold my models in my hand." Soon after, Vaughan began to make custom awards for the New- Tek development teams using 3D printing. "I was totally hooked. I knew I just had to make a toy," he adds. "Th at's what I was doing basically. 3D printing is just one step down from making a toy." Well, at least in theory. Finding even basic information about the toy manufacturing pro- cess proved diffi cult. "Th ere are diff erences between prototype and production. You can 3D print almost anything, but most of the time you cannot manufacture it," explains Vaughan. "I now have a whole new appreciation for the toys in my collection. Creating a toy is a long and expensive process. You have to really want to do this. Once the toy is designed and built in 3D, you are 1 percent there." Vaughan's plan of attack was to create a toy based on a character he had created, Tofu, and release the toy prior to releasing an animation starring the vegan zombie and some of his off -kilter friends. "My plan for Tofu was to build a property, a brand, and not just a toy and animation," says Vaughan. "I wondered, how do I get at- tention for this property, which I think has legs, when everyone has an animated short? So I decided to make the toy fi rst, and then from the toy, discuss a comic book and animation, and even a TV show. I thought, how cool would it be to walk into a pitch meeting and set a physical toy down in front of everyone? It would carry more weight to show the physical property along with a script for the fi rst episode." Th e second star emerged thanks to the cute and colorful Care Bears. About the same time Vaughan was navigating the toy creation process, he was working on a Care Bear commercial and having a rough go of it with the client. To maintain focus on the project, he temporarily turned the characters into scary bears while he worked out the technical details. Th e third star appeared when he went to a

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