With this year’s Oscars only being a few days away, the golden statues are already waiting to be handed over during the 88th Academy Awards ceremony, that will take place on February 28. However, in 2016 the popular award got a retro-makeover using 3D printing technology.
The company in charge of producing the golden statuettes this year is New York-based Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry. “With the help of some 21st century technology, we’re able to honor the Oscar’s proud beginnings,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “The new statuette exemplifies impeccable craftsmanship and the enduring nature of art.”
The company took 3D scans of the 1929 statuette as well as the modern-era pedestal base and then 3D printed moulds for the statues to be casted in wax. The wax statuette were then coated in a ceramic shell and fired to leave an empty form to fill in liquid bronze. The Oscars finally got a permantent layer of 24-karat gold. The required time for producing 50 of these sought-after statuettes, each weighing around 8.5 pounds, is about three months.
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