3D Printed Movie Props – Hard Reset

Late last year when we were approached about creating some 3d printed movie props for a film project called “Hard Reset” being made by Director Deepak Chetty, naturally we were stoked. The film as it was pitched to us was a near future-quasi dystopian feature involving androids shot in 3D. Well, that was enough for us… so we jumped at the opportunity met with the Production Designer and got busy. Everything was on story-boards or napkins at that time and still fairly loose conceptually…

First up we were to work from a foam mockup and some sketches and create a “Heads-Up Display” to be worn by one of the main characters..this would basically be a small device worn on one side of the head which, when integrated with some nice effects in post-production would serve as a sort of projector or interface…so using a variety of 3D modeling software we worked up a version 1.0 of the prop and supplied some renders of the part,(see images) at this point we were only really concerned with the exterior appearance of the prop..not functionality…

1st Generation “H.U.D.” Prop concepts and renders

After submitting the initial design for review it was decided that a more “organic, smooth design” was needed, more curves softer angles..more “apple-ish” so we went back to the drawing board and came up with a second generation part, additionally since the prop would need to contain a couple of LED’s and a switch we set about figuring out the internal wiring, battery location, and switch travel tolerances.

2nd Generation “H.U.D.” Prop concepts and development drawings

Next up was an armband/human interface device to be worn by the lead played by actor Holt Boggs..so once again we worked from a simple sketch provided by the production designer, and then Taylor got in the build lab and worked up a segmented model that would fit the actors arm when assembled..the armband can be seen on set in the last two images below

Over the course of the production we made many additional small props and accent pieces for specific scenes, some of which made the final cut and some which..well..didn’t (awww) but hey, that comes with the territory in the glamorous world of movie making..we learned a lot, got to be part of really cool team, and had a great time interacting with the production staff to help bring their creative vision into reality

Miscellaneous prop pieces, prototypes and tidbits for Hard Reset

Finally check out these production stills from the set, if you look really carefully some of props show up here and there! please note that ALL photo credit for these fantastic images goes to Rusk Photography, who everyone should go check out and then hire immediately for any and all photographic needs they may have!