Okay, this headline really needs some explaining. A great retro-future 80s cyberpunk short film “Attack of the Cyber Octopuses” just went into production – with a lot of help of 3D printing. 

Filmmaker Nicola Piovesan wanted to make 80s inspired movie. Something weird, but not trashy. Something cool and evil but also original. So he came up with the script for “Attack of the Cyber Octopuses” — a movie designed completely by himself. Piovesan states on his blog:

I wanted to make a short film with viral potential, a tribute to the 80s scifi masterpieces, like Blade Runner or Escape from New York, using the same methods they were using back in time… practical effects, model miniatures and lot of handcrafted things. All without using CGI (except for compositing and for creating vintage graphics, like the one for the cyberspace).

The main villains in the movie are – of course – evil cyber octopuses.

As Piovesan has many years of experience with 3D computer graphics and animation, he decided to play his hand to 3D printing. Using a low-budget printer – a Wanhao Duplicator I3 v2.1 – with a maximum printing size of 20 x 20 x 18 cm, he had to design the model in different parts which could then be assembled.

Piovesan used 3D Studio Max and the result is impressive:

In this Movie, Nearly Everything is 3D Printed

Piovesan has created blog posts which detail how he made his Cyber Octopus. For the head, he printed three main parts. This took around 20 hours of printing using PLA filament at a 0.20mm layer height.

He also designed an ”8 points star” to hold its tentacles. After printing, his finishing touch was sanding down the pieces and he used a primer coat spray to prepare them for painting.

Using a vinyl paint, he gave the pieces a coating of matte black. He then added a  dry brush paint of gold to make it look “more cyber”.

Next, Piovesan moved onto the tentacles. He designed 168 pieces which fit together using an elastic wire. Each tentacle took around 8 hours of printing. These were also painted black and gold too.

However, the trickiest part was to wire the eyes and the light in the rear to light up in the dark. To do this, Piovesan used a 9V battery, two big red LEDs and a smaller white LED. He also wired a switch in the bottom of the octopus.

It’s not the only part that’s 3D printed in this upcoming movie. It’s a great example on how 3D printing helps filmmakers to achieve a great movie without handing a ton of money to a CGI specialist company.

Interested in more yummy Cyber Octopus? Head over to Piovesan’s blog post to find out more.