Meet Atom.

Image courtesy of Objet Geometries

He’s a robot that stars alongside Hugh Jackman in the sci-fi flick Real Steel, a movie about robot boxing (think Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots). Atom shown here isn’t the same one co-starring in the film. No this is his final concept model, roughly 1/5^th his actual size and made of plastic, not steel. That’s because Atom, along with the 26 other robots used throughout the film, was first built using Objet’s 3D printing technology to save time and money during production.

To make the robots look as real as possible, especially in the all-important fight scenes, filmmakers commissioned Legacy Effects to build animatronic models with motion capture technology. But first, 3D printing helped quickly bring production designer Tom Meyer’s robot designs to life. This not only helped move the robots from concept to full-sized production quickly (yes, there are actual 8-foot tall robots used in the film), but it helped the studio get the film to theaters faster and cheaper.