Taking Scenic Design to New Heights

When we were asked to build set elements, props, and parts for the new Amazon Prime series Paper Girls, we jumped at the opportunity to bring a futuristic scenic design concept to life. We’re no strangers to custom fabrication for film and television, but the massive scale and aggressive timetable of this project took it to a whole new level.

The Challenge

The Production Designer of the series had a grand vision for taking the time-traveling, science fiction saga from graphic novel to the streaming screen. The project would include a variety of real-world and sci-fi props, ranging from site-specific block walls to period-specific tile countertops, to a custom fabricated, reclining, flesh and bone chair.

As cool as it was to bring those elements to life with 3D scanning, modeling, 3D printing, CNC carving, and vacuforming … the star of the show was a massive, 30-foot tall, futuristic robot that took just about every trick in the book. It was truly awesome!

The robot’s skull, chest, and shoulders were fully-realized from concept art, which required extensive engineering to include features like removable panels, gimbal mounting, and rigging. Multiple departments collaborated on the interior and exterior of the skull cockpit, which included custom metal fabrication, 3D printing, foam carving, hard coating, and numerous other capabilities.

A true team effort, we drew on our deep bench of creative and technical expertise to pull off the entire project in 10 short weeks, utilizing a wide variety of equipment across our digital fabrication pipeline, while paint and other finish details were meticulously performed by hand.