Guild Creates Futuristic 3D Printed City for Anki OVERDRIVE Robotic Car System

While we’ve done many stories in the past linking the use of 3D printing to futuristic robotics that various companies have been working on, one company which we have not covered in the past is design studio named Guild. They have been using various forms of modern technology, including 3D printing, to create all sorts of unique marketing campaigns for some of the world’s most popular companies. One such company that they recently teamed with is Anki, the maker of a very intuitive robotic car system.

The Anki OVERDRIVE system officially becomes available for purchase on September 20, 2015, and there are plenty of people waiting for this day to come. OVERDRIVE is a system of real robot battle racing, including many different cars to choose from, tracks to battle on, and even an iOS/Android app to play on. The various cars, which utilize special AI in order to fully control themselves on the track using different strategies, also are customizable with hundreds of virtual weapons, upgrades and special items to choose from.

Recently as part of a campaign, Guild was tasked with creating a dynamic tradeshow experience based on a futuristic city for the new Anki Drive Robotic Car system. In doing so, they turned to 3D printing for creating the structures within the exhibit. It was a challenge that Sam Ewen, Agency Partner at Guild, was certainly up for.

“Considering all of the variation present in any urban landscape, it was both an opportunity and a challenge to address how to creatively represent a hypothetical world of Anki Overdrive cars,” Ewen tells 3DPrint.com. “We figured that a combination of sculpture and 3D printing would give us the ability to create unique shapes and lines in our modern metropolis. This is the city that Anki Overdrive racing cars would feel native in.”

Using Rhino, the designers at Guild were able to create designs for buildings based on a combination of forms from a variety of architectural references. In all, they created 45 individual 3D printed “plates” which were combined to create 15 separate model buildings that all reside within their man-made metropolis.

“We also took some poetic license to create structures we wished we could live in,” Ewen tells us. “We ended up having to shelve a few of the more ‘out there’ forms, but most ended up in our build with a bit of modification for best 3D printing practices.”

As you can see in the photos, as well as the video shown below, the metropolis is very large in size, at least by typical 3D printing standards. All of the buildings were 3D printed on MakerBot 3D printers over a span of approximately 360 combined print hours. Each of the 45 pieces took approximately 8 hours to print out.

As for the size, here are some additional details:

• Booth size – 40′ x 10′
• Race car installation size – 14’W x 7’D x 4’H
• Approximately 98 linear feet of track
• 30 model buildings (approx. half of which were 3D printed)
• Shortest building – 6-1/2″H
• Tallest building – 30″H

“Here at Guild, we have been working on bringing rapid prototyping and 3D printing into our experiential work for many years now and have made all forms of digital 3D fabrication (CNC, Lasercutting, 3D Printing) a key offering in how we differentiate ourselves,” says Ewen. “Combined with our custom hardware and software discipline, we are seeing more opportunities to create faster and more complex shapes that pay off on our creative vision quicker and with more intricacy. “

This is just one more instance in which 3D printing aided in the creation of a unique advertising campaign. What do you think about this massive exhibit? Discuss in the 3D printed metropolis forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video of the city below.