Time is one of our biggest challenges, really.
There's times where we'll get a call from a prop master on a Thursday
and that something needs to be on camera on Tuesday,
because they just added something to the script.
To build something that's never existed before,
you have to mold it.
You have to cast it. You have to paint it.
You have to finish it, assemble it.
All these things.
3D designing and 3D printing with the Markforged machines
makes it so much easier and so much nicer.
My name is Frank Ippolito, and I build things.
I founded this company called Thingergy,
and we make props and costumes for the movie industry.
Oh, there's tons of Markforged parts out there!
I think just about every movie and TV show that we've worked on
since we've had these Markforged printers
has had some part come off of them
and go right into the movie.
We've worked on four or five different Star Wars shows.
We worked on three seasons of Umbrella Academy.
Stranger Things, Westworld,
Black Adam,
Bullet Train.
I'm a big believer in the right tool for the right job.
We got one Markforged printer a couple of years ago
because one of my employees was just raving about the parts on it.
And as soon as I got the first one, I ended up having to get more.
And so now we're up to five machines.
They just run around the clock and they're always filled up
and we just love the parts that come off of them.
So let's go check out the prints.
I'm going to show you how we 3D print a helmet like this on a Markforged.
Usually we'll start off, we'll get either an illustration
or some sort of design brief on what the client wants.
And then we'll 3D model it,
and then take that model into software like Fusion 360
and break it apart.
When we have parts that need to fasten together
we'll put these little heated threaded inserts.
And you just take a little heated tool
and you push them right into the plastic
and then you can screw things together.
You know what's really cool about the parts that come off of these printers
is they're already so smooth and so nice.
When we get a printed part,
most of the time we're going to end up painting it somehow.
We want to first sandblast them
to give a mechanical bond for the paint
and then we'll hit it with primer.
And then we'll paint it and mask it off and do all the finishing.
In the end, this is what the final piece looks like.
If I were to guess,
this was probably two or three days worth of printing
spread out through all of our machines.
And I think it works great.
With this helmet, it was really cool.
We got a chance to print some of the flexible parts in the TPU.
In the past, what we would do is make a mold of a printed part
and then cast it in rubber.
Being able to print that right off of the machine is so much easier.
As a company, we've worked with a lot of 3D printed parts,
whether it's off of the machines that we have
or from vendors when we need more parts.
And I'm kind of going in heavy on Markforged
because the machines are just reliable, the materials are great.
You know, there's a peace of mind in having a durable, accurate part
come right off of the printer and being able to finish it
and send it right onto the movie set.
Not to sound corny or anything, but one of the only prints that we'll
actually send out onto set comes off of the Markforged machines.
Like, we won't send any of our other stuff out as a general use prop
just because these things are more durable.
And that's not like, that's not me feeding you a line.
We just don't like sending other prints out.
I think a good prop is something that you don't think about.
Everything in film should serve the story, ultimately.
Everything that people build and bring to set
is going to inspire an actor to be in character,
whether it's a cool sci-fi backdrop,
or the prop or the costume that they have.
Every job is completely new.
Everything that we build is something we've never done before.
This is it. This is what people do.
They make monsters, and they build things,
and design and engineer stories.