3D printed nail art comes to life through stop motion animation

japanese manicure artist hatsuki furutani and film production team +ring collaborated to make a stop motion animation that shows fingernails ‘transforming‘ into whimsical scenes and stories. an intensive and lengthy planning involved rendering a film using computerized software first, outlining the ways in which part of the nails would move and evolve. the team printed three-dimensional artificial nails by importing the animated data into a ‘projet 660 pro’ full color 3D printer.

a total of 521 nails were produced by the printer, the thinnest parts measuring only 0.56mm. the nails were then attached and replaced to an actual human hand, filmed individually frame by frame and created without the use of any computer graphics post-production. the continual movement of the nails sees origami birds, fish and flowers interacting with the colorful, printed parts, creating a story that shows the transformation of the body in an unusual and unexpected way.

more than 500 3D printed nails were used in the making of ‘transforming’

fish and birds interact for the 3D printed nail animation

carefully placing the origami bird on the nail