Thanks to interchangeable 3D-printed facial components, Norman is capable of 1.5 million expressions. For the 27 characters with 3D-printed faces, the rapid-prototyping department output 31,000 parts, which they stored and catalogued in a face library. One 27-second shot required 250 different faces for a single character. Each face is marked by tiny fissures where the components fit together, so a “seam team” removes the fine lines in post-production.
The 3D printers build up each character’s face by depositing hundreds of layers of fine white plaster-vinyl powder, which is then sprayed with ink. (Laika named its four 3D Systems ZPrinter 650 machines Trillian, Tron, Samus and Lapidus.)
Credit: Chris Mueller