Mimaki 3-D printed characters starred in the recent trailer for Emmerdale's 50th anniversary episodeWhen ITV’s Emmerdale reached its milestone 50th birthday, the soap opera’s producers marked the occasion with a series of stories that came to a head in a gripping special episode that aired on 16 October. Weaving the show’s past with the present, an all-action climax saw a deadly storm hit the village and, in the run-up, viewers were treated to a powerful trailer, that featured cast members recreated as full colour 3-D printed models, produced on a Mimaki 3DUJ-553 printer (pictured below).
ITV contacted Cheshire-based 3-D scanning and printing specialist
Europac3D to establish the possibility of 3-D scanning and colour printing for the project and, as the company’s operations manager Danielle Kenny recalls, things soon began to get interesting. “This started out as a very innocent inquiry but grew quickly into an enthralling project.
“We visited ITV at their offices in Leeds and scanned the cast members using the Artec Leo scanner. We had a full day on site with the team and scheduled the actors to attend specific time slots, during which they were scanned in costume, holding poses to match the requirements of the animated trailer.”
The Artec Leo scanner is a portable, handheld 3-D scanner, and is the first system to offer full onboard automatic processing. With its in-built HD screen, the 3-D replica can be viewed during the scanning process, to ensure that all areas of the object (or in this case, the actor) have been correctly captured.
Ms Kenny continued: “Once the scanning was complete, we processed the files back at Europac3D to prepare them for print, with every model edited to enable two different sized versions of each to be produced.”
Europac3D called upon UK and Ireland
Mimaki distributor,
Hybrid Services to create the final models, printing them on the high-end Mimaki 3DUJ-553 full colour 3-D printer.
Ms Kenny explained: “The Mimaki was the only solution available to us to complete the job. We needed full colour output that would stand up to close scrutiny on the nation’s TV screens, and with its ability to print up to 10 million colours, the Mimaki fit the bill perfectly.”
The Mimaki 3DUJ-553 has a build area of 500 x 500 x 300mm, which allowed the characters to be batch printed using Mimaki’s layout software to optimise the 3-D printing process. Mimaki’s range of full colour 3-D printers use UV curable ink in conjunction with water soluble support material to build the models, and once printed, the figures were placed in a water bath to allow the support material to dissolve, before final cleaning. Ms Kenny recalls: “The non-invasive removal of the support material ensured no time was lost through breakages and ITV’s deadline was hit with time to spare.”
Aired in the weeks prior to the landmark episode, the trailer is a 1min animated scene, depicting the explosive impact of a huge storm on the fictional village. Key characters are shown in emotive poses, suspended in time as the storm wheels around them, and as the camera pulls back, it becomes apparent that they are actually portrayed as decorations, set amidst a vast cake situated in the village pub.
Ms Kenny concluded: “The finished trailer is a really dramatic watch, and the 3-D printed models were really put to the test during the filming. The producers were delighted with the results of the scanning and 3-D printing — and it was a privilege to be able to contribute to a memorable bit of TV history.”