Isaac Cruz
Wed, July 30, 2025 at 1:39 AM UTC
3 min read
Albuquerque-based company using 3D printing to help out Hollywood
A New Mexico startup saved the day for a film production company earlier this year. New Mexico Frontiers found out how Roadrunner 3D stumbled on a golden opportunity to help the film industry.
Hollywood is finding a call for more practical special effects from movie fans. The splatter-fest "Terrifier" series has raked in millions of dollars at the box office, with its third installment becoming the highest-grossing unrated feature in history. Part of the appeal is the very graphic and realistic special effects used in the film. As any special effects expert and producer can tell you, those props aren't cheap.
Zaq Pacheco, production manager and 3D design engineer for Roadrunner 3D found themselves in a unique position recently, working with the film industry. "This particular film was directed by a gentleman named Kim Addison. He came through with a request and they needed a 3D printed head, because their main character was actually decapitated. So he needed to get his head molded, and spent hours in the chair getting the plaster mold and ended up having a failure," Pacheco said.
Pacheco, who had been working within the movie business himself, saw a way for his 3D firm to help get a fast and inexpensive solution to producers, using multi jet fusion, the industrial term for 3D printing. This proved to be just one of several applications the New Mexico startup found it could do well for Hollywood. With prop making, things like weapons and other masks following quickly. "It was a really cool, you know, process that just kind of came out of nowhere. But it also opened up our eyes to all the different potentials with the film industry," Pacheco said.
Founded in late 2019, Roadrunner 3D is a subsidiary of Westwind, a technology company based in Albuquerque. Just months after going into business, they found a dire need from the medical industry as COVID hit communities worldwide. Pacheco says they were printing out COVID masks, sometimes in the tens of thousands per week. As the pandemic subsided their client list began to grow, including everything from independent artists and model-makers to the Air Force and Los Alamos National Labs.
As Pacheco says, using 3D printing can save time, money and has a potentially greener footprint from more legacy forms of production. This is due to the fact modeling is done on the computer and can be tweaked, making prototyping better for startup companies. According to the printing experts at Roadrunner, they can recycle up to 80% of leftover materials per printing job, reducing waste and costs. While there are still certain limitations to the technology, Pacheco says companies like theirs are making leaps and bounds in production. Icon, an Austin-based company, has been printing 3D houses. Roadrunner themselves hope to implement metal 3D printing in the near future. "There's so many different areas that can be utilized. And a lot, especially when you're getting into the multi jet fusion in the forms that you're able to create are really just limited by your imagination, Pacheco said.
Roadrunner 3D also supplies materials for home printers as well. There's no word yet on when the film they worked on will hit theaters.
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