Greg Barth’s ‘Hello Play’ Commercial Takes 3D Printing and Stop Motion to the Next Level

Over the past year, we have seen many designers and artists come up with new methods of creating stop motion videos using 3D printing technology. 3D printing is such a great tool in this process, due to its ability to print an object, easily allow the designer to make a small change and then print another. This can be done over and over again, until the producer of the video has enough prints to aid in the production of their stop motion film.

For one video artist and director from Switzerland, based in London, named Greg Barth, 3D printing has allowed him to come up with a TV commercial unlike anything we have seen before, all using this technology in conjunction with stop motion photography.

“The whole project was based on the possibilities and capabilities of 3d printing,” Barth tells 3DPrint.com. “I wanted to experiment with 3d printed animation as well as 3d particle and physics simulations, combining them to physically deform electronic music instruments according to the sounds they produce.”

This is exactly what Barth did, in creating a video commercial for Hello Play!, an online electronic music platform which allows its users to find exclusive playlists, dates for raves, tour dates and parties. The video, which can be seen below, features several musical instruments which are portrayed using stop motion filming in order to physically show the sound emanating from them, causing them to react.

“The Speaker Bass, Mpc pad and Drum kick being the main actors of the track, I thought it would be great to have them react visually to the music,” Barth tells us.

Barth, who loves experimenting with in-camera techniques and using surreal visuals and contemporary aesthetics to make his projects, had to 3D print dozens of objects that were only slightly modified, in order to create an animated-like effect. The kick drum displays the emanating sound waves of the drum as it is hit with the kick. The different 3D printed sound wave models were created after conducting 3D simulation research. They, like the other stop motion props in this video, were printed on eos 3D printers.

The MPC 500 pad was 3D printed and painted with its individual buttons being fabricated with extra length to them. This allowed for the stop motion animation to display the buttons and knobs as rising sky scraper-like objects popping from the pad.

Probably the coolest of the stop motion effects in this video are those of the Speaker Bass, which virtually crumbles and dances with the sound. Again, it was 3D printed in many different variations, each showing a different movement of the object.

This technique reminds me a bit of the flip books that we are all familiar with creating back in grade school. You know, the ones which you drew a slightly different picture on each page and then proceeded to flip through the pages quickly to reveal an animation. However, Barth’s method is far more advanced and takes far more skill and money than those grade school animations ever came close to.

What do you think of Barth’s technique? Will we begin to see 3D printing used more in creations like this in the future? Discuss in the 3D Printed Hello Play commercial forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the “making of” video below, as well as some additional photos below.