PRINTED MOVEMENT – From Digital Sculpture to 3D Printing  

The series of puppet performances Transport – Cargo, Departure, Connecting Flights, Frontline, Fasten Your Seatbelts! and Turning Point was created as part of an international collaboration between six European theatres from Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, initiated by author and director Tin Grabnar.

The performances are characterised by a hyperrealistic miniature representation of the world, confronting audiences with the realities of ecological crises, wars, the depletion of natural resources and the loss of cultural identity. One of the project’s key innovations is its central use of 3D modelling and printing, which enables the creation of complex hyperrealistic worlds on a reduced scale while also providing a means of animating them.

Aleksander Anželović, a sculptor and puppetry technologist, designed and created the figures, buildings, vehicles, flora and fauna. For the Transport project, he further developed his expertise in computer modelling of three-dimensional objects, enhancing it through the use of complex textures and combinations of materials to achieve an exceptionally high level of detail in the resulting miniatures. A digital skeleton embedded in the models – virtual bones and joints – enabled him, using motion reference points in a virtual space, to position the protagonist figures in various poses envisioned by the director.

The completed models were printed using a resin 3D printer, which operates by building up successive layers of photosensitive resin. This technology enables the precise transfer of digitally designed details and textures – buttons, facial expressions, fabrics and more – onto the printed objects.

Aleksander Anželović’s designs made possible the performance’s chosen animation technique, based on the principles of stop motion. Through the careful choreography of successive static images, a kinetic illusion of movement is created, which is ultimately assembled in the viewer’s imagination.

The exhibition presents replicas of the objects and figures created for the performances, as well as the working process itself, from its technological to its creative aspects.

Lutkovno gledališče Maribor – Transport Festival, in collaboration with the StopTrik Festival