Johnny Kelly is an animation director who works for Nexus Productions an award winning independent animation studio. He was tasked by Dutch advertising agency KesselsKramer to do the production for the new opening titles for a Dutch television show, Het Klokhuis. To make the opening and closing titles Johnny and his team used stop motion using 3D printing.  You should check out the video below first to see the final result of months of painstaking work. We're very proud to have played a small part in this amazing video by 3D printing the apples used in it.

"Het Klokhuis" Opening titles from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Joris Peels: Why stop motion?

Johnny Kelly: Het Klokhuis is aimed at a younger audience and all about how things are made and how things work, and for this reason it seemed suitable to create a title sequence using something as handmade and process-driven as stop motion animation. I made sense that the first rebranded episode was all about how we made the animation. In addition to this, stop motion is interesting because it looks quite fresh on television, in contrast to a lot of the slick graphics we are used to seeing. As an older generation, when we watch stop motion it triggers happy memories because it reminds us of television when we were growing up, which featured a lot of this type of animation. For younger audiences it is interesting because its different to the other programs they see.

Joris Peels: Why use 3D printing?

Johnny Kelley: Christian at the advertising agency, Kesselskramer, had designed a beautiful logo graphic. We then had the problem of how to create a physical object that would have exactly this shape. We discussed many possibilities, I had used paper on projects before but it didn't seem right as it wouldn't have the same curvature. Plasticine would have been too messy, imprecise and not have the right shininess. We also talked about making foam models, but again, it would have been difficult to ensure all 8 or so apples would have had the exact same shape. My partner had done some 3D printing before (she's a product designer) and it seemed like the perfect way to physically recreate Christian's logo. We almost ruled it out when we got some prices from London-based 3D printers, it was working out far too expensive for our budget. Then I remembered having come across Shapeways- we tried uploading some models and it turned out to be affordable.

Joris Peels: Was it hard to prepare your files for 3D printing?

Johnny Kelly: No the workflow was very easy. The instant price calculation was particularly useful for us, as we were keeping an eye on the budget. We worked out that were able to bring costs down by using the thinnest thickness of material for some of the larger models.

Joris Peels: What were the advantages of using 3D printing?

Johnny Kelley: Because the models were coming from 3D computer program (3D Studio Max), we were able to also work out what size the set should be, what size to build the plinth etc. Using the same lens on our 3D camera as we would use on set (135mm) we were able to work out how far back the camera would need to be so that we wouldn't get any camera lens distortion on the apple, allowing the top and bottom lines of the core shape to be perfectly flat and level. Once we had the camera position we worked out what size everything else needed to be to fit into frame. This was helpful in cutting down preparation work, because we only had a short amount of time in the stop motion studio.

We were working at two scales and the other advantage was that we could plan this out. Because we needed so many models of the melting bubblegum apple (25 altogether), it made sense to make this sequence at a smaller, half size. This meant that we had to make the plinth at a smaller scale too, and we used the 3D software to work out exactly what size that needed to be, and where it needed to be. So we didn't need to change or move the camera or backdrop, just swap the plinth and apple, to the smaller version and we were ready to go.

Joris Peels: Would it not be cheaper to use regular animation?

Johnny Kelly: Well in the end, the final effect of the film has a look that I hadn't quite anticipated. It looks almost like it could be CG, but not quite. I really enjoy this effect, a blurring between computer graphics and tactile animation. If we had made this entirely in computer I don't think it would have turned out the way it did, it would have been impossible to create the little imperfections the give the final piece its charm. Its also interesting because there is so much CG animation right now which is trying to look like stop motion, and here we are coming from the other direction- where everything is so precise that it looks computer generated.

Joris Peels: What do you like most about the movie?

Johnny Kelly: Just as the Het Klokhuis features many experiments, so we decided to experiment when we were making title sequences. What is nice about this is that, even up to the last moment, we didn't know how we would animate certain sections, so we had to think on our feet. We couldn't anticipate the results, and they were always unexpected. For example, I had fully planned to film the final smoke explosion using live action, but the cost of getting a live action camera was out of our budget so we animated coloured merino wool, and I think this, in the end, is a much better result. My favourite part is probably the ending animation with the clockwork apple, I like the idea of scientists using a giant wooden hammer as part of their experimentation. If I was a scientist I would probably end up using the hammer on everything.

Joris Peels: What does Shapeways need to do to improve?

Johnny Kelley: Once we got the models back from Shapeways we did have to spend a huge amount of time sanding down the models to get rid of the faceted surface, and making the curvature perfectly smooth. I think however, that this may be more to do with the limitations of 3D printing, and the material we used (White Strong & Flexible), rather than Shapeways in particular.

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