Additive Appearance, a Prague-based software developer, has signed an agreement with stop-motion studio LAIKA to make its PrismSlicer renderer available to the studio’s artists as part of its 3D printing toolset. The software previews how color and translucency will appear in a PolyJet print before production, aiming to bring digital designs and physical parts closer together.
The arrangement addresses a persistent issue in full-color 3D printing: screen colors and translucency do not always match the printed result. Each mismatch can require another print. LAIKA produces hundreds of thousands of detailed faces for each film, so fewer reprints could affect both production time and quality assurance.
Previewing appearance before printing
PrismSlicer produces an initial preview of a model’s color, translucency, and surface appearance before printing. It can also simulate how a part will look under LAIKA’s custom studio lighting environments. The goal is to reduce print iterations by giving artists faster feedback on digital designs.
Robert Ducey, Technical Supervisor at LAIKA, said PrismSlicer has the potential to provide predictive previews in the studio’s custom lighting and called reliable, fast renders a possible way to shorten development time.
Trial and production criteria
A seven-month trial assessed the software against production criteria. During that period, PrismSlicer gained a command-line interface to support automation, and its simulation backend received features intended to make renders more realistic. Both teams expect the collaboration to continue into further work on full-color 3D printing, including new ways to connect digital and physical workflows in creative production.
Research roots and earlier color-matching efforts
Additive Appearance is a spin-off of Charles University in Prague. Its team includes engineers and researchers, and the LAIKA partnership builds on joint development and material research with the university’s Computer Graphics Group. That work has focused on optically measuring PolyJet materials and matching photographs to renderings.
LAIKA has previously addressed appearance fidelity in PolyJet printing. For Missing Link, it combined Stratasys J750 printers with the Cuttlefish 3D printer driver from Fraunhofer IGD to produce more than 106,000 facial expressions. Brian McLean, then LAIKA’s Director of Rapid Prototype, attributed the choice to the software’s color consistency and geometric accuracy. Cuttlefish is a voxel-based driver that handles multiple materials and accounts for light dispersion, hue, and surface texture. PrismSlicer, by contrast, renders how a specific model is expected to look after printing.
Stratasys took a different route in 2019 when its J735 and J750 PolyJet printers received Pantone validation. The Pantone Matching System was integrated into the workflow so designers could choose colors from a shared reference palette. That approach standardizes color selection; PrismSlicer simulates the appearance of a particular printed model.
What the LAIKA agreement adds
LAIKA received a Scientific and Technology Oscar in 2016 for its work in 3D printing. Its newest feature, Wildwood, opens on October 23. The studio said it selected PrismSlicer with future productions in mind. Tobias Rittig, CTO at Additive Appearance, said LAIKA’s trust supports the company’s mission to make full-color 3D printing as predictable and expressive as 2D imaging.
For LAIKA, the addition places a simulation step ahead of face production, where appearance software has already played a role. The agreement is not a guarantee that every print will match its digital preview; it is intended to reduce iteration and improve predictability in a workflow that depends on repeated, detailed color output.