Jason in his Legacy studio
If you weren't at the Jason Lopes keynote at AMUG 2016 you missed quite the talk. Never fear TCT is on hand to relay the highlights of a 90 minute rundown of the best 3D prints from Jason and his team 's some 4,679 builds since the last AMUG.
From Hollywood blockbusters to pistachio adverts, Legacy Effects have been using 3D printing in a huge array of creative pursuits in the last 365 days and in his usual convivial style Jason enthralled the packed out conference room with tales of the unexpected.
Starting off with an admission that after AMUG 2015 he was in somewhat of a 3D printing "funk", inspiration came as three visitors that he presumed were trying to flog a machine turned out to, unexpectedly, be visionaries of 10, 12 and 14 years of age. Jason said that these three young entrepreneurs gave him his 3D printing mojo back and judging by the applications he went on to display throughout the talk they did a damn fine job.
Jason started off by a showcasing Legacy's masks that use 3D scanning, 3D printing and a host of traditional model making craftsmanship that have been in massive demand throughout Hollywood for stunt doubles and puppetry for smash blockbusters like Twilight and Terminator.
The silicone masks are so lifelike that they almost seem to be a step towards those seen in the Mission Impossible movies, they immediately turn the wearer into Arnold or Kristen Stewart. Such has been the growing demand for the masks that the world of commercials have turned to Legacy with some seriously strange and demanding requests.
One such commercial was for the ultimate in advertisement slots; the Superbowl. Premium snack brand Wonderful Pistachios had this idea to turn late night talk show host Stephen Colbert into a Pistachio, they may have had the idea but no idea how to achieve it. In stepped Legacy, Jason flew to New York armed with a handheld Artec scanner and 40 minutes of Stephen Colbert's precious time to collect enough scan data in order to get crackin' on both a life mask and a pistachio version on Stephen's head.
Jason mentioned several different types of 3D technology be it Materialise Magics software, Stratasys Polyjet printing, Arterc handheld scanning, Geomagic scan data capture, desktop FDM and of course Carbon's CLIP Technology for which he has become quite the advocate.
The result of the Colbert Pistachio project was the above, a pretty funny 15 second spot that aired to millions of viewers across the States. Other life masks were created for Jason Statham in LG's latest advert and Harvey Keitel for the Adam Sandler movie Ridiculous 6, the latter of which included Jason Lopes' nose which Mr Keitel took quite a liking to during the scanning process.
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Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.
Jason finished with Legacy's most demanding clone project to date, a full sized remake of one of the world's most recognisable and probably most vain sporting superstars, Cristiano Ronaldo. The task was to create a life-size replica of CR7 for a Japanese exercise belt company. The brief required the replica to have cross sections of Cristiano's muscles that 'lived and breathed'.
Jason had 40 minutes of Cristiano's time and it had to be done in Madrid within days, seeing as this wasn't just a head scan and time was of the essence Jason enlisted the help of what some might think of as a competitor in British-based FBFX - of Starlord helmet fame. The two teams convened in Madrid with FBFX's full rig to scan the Real Madrid hero and the data captured by FBFX left Jason in awe.
Back at the Legacy Effects studio the team of incredibly talented model makers spent weeks getting every inch of Cristiano just right, from the eyes made with the help of Carbon's technology to the hairs on his head, each one painstakingly punched. 3D Technologies helped get this incredibly ambitious project started.
Jason and Legacy Effects continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with 3D Technologies and how they are enabling traditional techniques to be even better and faster.