The 3D industry was given a new toy to play with with the advent of 3D printers, where anything you made in a 3D program, uncluding models with complex parts, could be 'printed' using layers of hard plastic moulds in a 3D printer device. This has been a toll that's been used quite effectively for the stop motion film Paranorman where particular facial expressions and other things were modelled in 3-D and then physically printed. Quite remarkable! Perhaps even unnecessary considering you could've animated it in 3D, but if the extra effort is fun, then why not? What's clear is that the 3D printing also offers other benefits that traditional methods didn't! Stop motion will never be the same!
Variety has a great article on this process used in the film:
3D printers boost look of Laika's 'ParaNorman'
Rapid prototyping makes studio's stop-motion more expressive
