From cartoon to facial animation in the contemporary stop-motion

From cartoon to facial animation in the contemporary stop-motion. Leonardo Rocha Dutra Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brasil Maurício Silva Gino Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brasil Abstract Today facial animation reaches a broad spectrum: from visual to physical, in visual effects (VFX), games, animatronics, robotics, machine vision and forensic science. Whatever the field of study and application, the main concern about the face remains the emotional response of moviegoers, video game players or people in the presence of automats, animatronics and androids. In isolation, each field has given its steps, but the longest and most successful experience in achieving simpathy is undoubtedly the synthetic language of cartoon animation also present in puppet animation. Although cartoon animation is also synonymous with two-dimensional animation as a technique, since Fleischer and Disney it is aesthetically perspectivist, anticipating in decades the visual paradigm of computer graphics and always having parallels in the stop-motion of puppets. This common language of the three techniques offers contributions towards the emotional response problems faced by robotics and entertainment with animatronics. Even more so when facial animation in stop-motion uses internal mechanisms, converging art, entertainment and science. To this interface are added the knowledge about Human Facial Gestures studied in face recognition (machine vision) and in forensic science in its analysis of testimonies. The design of internal mechanisms for facial animation in stop-motion takes advantage of animatronics and robotics studies, can have its operation simulated in computer graphics, and apply the possibilities that comes from cartoon animation, and pay back to all the fields involved. Keywords: Cartoon animation, Stop-motion, facial animation. 1. Search of the three-dimensionality of the animated cartoon. In an ontological sense, the temporal dynamism and the formal plasticity of the animated drawing allows it to present a perspectivist representation of forms and / or to explore the twodimensionality of its image condition. Being simultaneously in the same visual composition or in succession of different compositional states. This is its main attribute in terms of creative freedom and the possibility of aesthetic autonomy in relation to other animation techniques and to the cinema as a whole. But these possibilities are little known because the common sense associates animated drawing with animated cartoon - an aesthetic modality of the animated drawing that operates by perspective systems (PANOFSKY, 1999), presentificating anthropomorphic beings referenced in the real, although stylized. Close to or distanced from the human, but still presenting usually analogous creatures in their relations of constancy of scale and proportions, in the relation whole-parts and consistency and in location and spatial orientation. FIGURE 1 – Demonstration of volumetric coherence of animated cartoon in Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera, 1957. Digital composition and black-and-white conversion by the author. Walt Disney and others developed a model of fruition based on figurative narrative that led the viewer to perspectively decode the spatiality represented in the images in analogy to the live action cinema with actors. At the beginning of the development of the language and even in many nowadays works, the volumes of beings are represented without light and shadow, therefore, without direct representation of volumes. But the monochromatism of these forms is compensated by the way in which the silhouettes that limit them move in coherence with what should be the limits of volumes in the space in positional alteration, be it of articulated members or in a ciliary behavior - the stylized Rubber hose limbs. The bodies are constructed by composition of representations of geometric solids. And even if they are not explicit in the final result, they constitute the method that gives them a certain virtual objectivity. The animation has the potential to reinforce these conventions or to operate by visual ambiguity of the same, partially or totally, but we restrict ourselves in this study to the mimesis of the object by the visuality, taking the latter as a becoming of the first in this formal determination in the relation between cartoon animation and a certain portion of stop-motion production. This selection lies in the same cultural context as the animated cartoon: the industrial stopmotion feature film produced in the West. Other stop-motion cinematographies - such as Czech - dispenses facial movement, using substitutions of a few masks that represent the state of mind of a certain moment, not even using lip sync or even speech. They are narrative forms equally pertinent and efficient in the ability to entertain, but we focus here on western animation with lip synchronization as a way to broaden the understanding of a wider spectrum of possibilities of expression without a corresponding gradation of aesthetic judgment. Once in the West, since the conception of characters of Pinocchio, launched by Walt Disney Studios in 1940, they used sculptures for conception and volumetrical reference for the animators, denominated animation maquettes. To do this, its Character Model Department was established in 1938, headed by Joe Grant. He took care of the formal consistency of the character to be animated by more than 30 different animators who before that feature used representations in different views and poses of the characters: the model sheet. In the early 1980s the method was restored by Rubén Procopio, son of the also sculptor Adolfo Procopio, responsible for sculptures of the Disney theme parks built in the 1960s. With his work in maquettes and other functions, Rubén participated in a decisive way in the resumption of the feature film cartoon animation begun in The Little Mermaid (1989) - the so called Disney Renaissance. He is also associated with the Walt Disney Classics Collection, which converted the methodological instrument of the maquette into a high value collectible item. Of the more recent films, porcelain copies are made directly from the original matrices already designed for both ends. Copies of the rare and fragile originals of the old films are obtained by three-dimensional scanning and reproduced by 3D printing - like the maquette of the title character of the second feature film of Disney. Carlo Collodi's wooden boy model was printed in 3,500 copies and sold for $ 75,000 each. The maquette made by Rubén Procopio for the villain Ursula of The Little Mermaid is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. FIGURE 2 – Replica in digital manufacture of the original maquette of Pinocchio, originally realized in 1938. Digital composition and conversion in black and white by the author. Source: http://www.thecollectionshop.com/xq/ASP/Walt-DisneyArchives-PinocchioMaquette/S.4051364/A.1470/qx/Limited_Edition_Art_Detail_Page. htm Despite the volumetric consistency pursued since the beginnings of cartoon animation, one of the concepts crystallized in the canon gathered in the 12 principles of classical animation (1), preconizes the literal flexibilization of volumetric consistency. In favor of the aesthetic appeal of exaggeration, the volumes receive dynamic stylization by the possibility of being squashed and stretched. In a singular occurrence in the beginning of the commercial animation, image and object are inverted in the roles of design and realization using this resource in the three-dimensional cartoons aptly denominated of puppetoons by its creator George Pal, still in the decade of 1930 in its work in Holland. After a promising period in Germany interrupted by the rise of Nazism, the Hungarian animator develops an advertising campaign for Philips radios. These films applied to the stop-motion the principle of squash and stretch by replacing distinct stages of deformation in hundreds of pieces of turned and painted wood. FIGURE 3 – Frames of The Puppetoon Film with apparent deformations of the characters by substitution. Digital composition and conversion in black and white by the author. The two examples above demonstrate that by applying deformation to the characters, George Pal spared no exaggeration, extrapolating anatomical criteria in both body language and facial language. From the point of view of closeness to reality in terms of fluidity, body animation was more successful than facial animation. The actuality of facial animation that now uses three-dimensional printing of formal interpolations now calculated in digital computer graphics (2) shows that lacked to George Pal way a greater number of transitive states - very costly and laborious to obtain by the analog techniques of the time. In addition, in terms of facial animation, his puppetoons do not attach to the anatomy - regarding the volume and proportion of cranial elements as was already established in the cartoon animation made by Disney. Compatibilizing the human protagonist with her stylized human co-starships of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs of 1937, brings in this first feature of the company the challenge of establishing criteria of consistency. Snow White does not behave by the surreal humorous appeal of squash and stretch as the romantic and dramatic heroine of the story, but the comic relief provided by his title companions allows it, always observing a return to the "normal" state. At most it was foreseen a certain flexibility that refers to the oral movement for speeches and expressions, but maintaining the shape of the skull, as shown in figures 4. In comparison, Figure 5 shows how much Grumpy's nose and Sneeze's skull were intended to deform, but for the purpose of an timely expression to the characters. FIGURE 4 – Detail of a Snow White head model sheet demonstrating volumetric referencing. 1936. Conversion in black and white by the author. FIGURE 5 – Fragments of the model sheets with notes on the freedom of positioning of the Grumpy's nose and the four stages of deformation of the Sneeze's naming act. Dated on September 28, 1936. Digital composition and conversion in black and white by the author. 2. Digital perspectivist automation of the animated cartoon. The perspectivist aesthetic project of cartoon animation comes to reach greater facilities with the advent of automation of the calculation of perspective of volumes in digital systems, erroneously called "three-dimensional" or "digital 3D" (3). In its early stages, its forms were close to the basic geometric solids, in a directly imagetic version of George Pal's work, having in common with his method the modular organization of cycle libraries. As the virtual geometric solids are being replaced by technologies that allow the use of more complex and organic forms, an aesthetic convergence between hand-drawn cartoon and digital 3D is realized. This allows the character design to maintain its level of freedom that the manual gesture presents since Snow White, but bringing the results closer to the creational representation of volumetry. The technology of partial stiffening and structuring of the virtual plasticity of the surfaces meets the historical expectations of maintaining an anatomical consistency associated to controlled forms of deformation. In this way, it is possible to virtualize what would be possible in stop-motion, in a approach that is based more on a real mechanics than of the unreality possible by the electronic means. For example, digital 3D allows a character to be made of translucent fluids contained in a certain volume with dynamics proper to the material (for example, bubbles), which is very difficult to obtain by stop-motion. But the technology and its results do not focus on of what would be impossible or very hard to do by physical 3D. It's more common to digital 3D prioritizing to mimic what should happens on real 3D, as a paradigm of it's development of technologies and works of art. Even with the flagrant technical difference in obtaining the results and their visual aspects, the cartoon and virtual 3D became convergent in terms of conception methods and aesthetics. There is even a moment that the aesthetics of the design process itself becomes the goal apperarance in a certain film realized in virtual 3D the experimental short Paperman, directed by John Kahrs and released in 2012. Produced by DisneyPixar, was awarded the Oscar for best short animation in 2013. Impressed by the work of classic animator Glen Keane in Tangled, from 2010, Karhs wanted to give prominence to the expressive force of the spontaneous and manual drawing of lines, which digital 3D suppresses by convention and convenience of the technique. Briefly, the technique used allows the silhouette of the character from the virtual volume to be converted into lines that maintain full possibility of modification in the two-dimensional plane, as well as the reciprocal way: to draw directly in twodimensional with coherence with the threedimensional virtual volumes. FIGURE 6 – Sketchs of Paperman's design and production process. Digital composition and conversion in black and white by the author. Source: The documentary Paperman and the Future of 2D Animation. Available in: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/cgi/a-little-more-about-disneyspaperman-63782.html 3. Three-dimensional animated cartoon. Parallel to the development of cartoon animation in its proximity to the graphic conventions emanating from cartoons of the newspaper comics, the stop-motion from its beginnings seeks to stylize its characters, being human or animal in human behavior and form. Stop-motion was also used as a visual effects technique in the field of live action cinema, when it sought to become invisible. But even so, it's creatures were predominantly fantastic - therefore, object of stylization. But it is when dialogues occur that facial animation becomes more challenging in maintaining stylization and attributing impression of reality to the lip postures. The first feature of puppet animation, The New Gulliver (Novyij Gulliver) by Russian Alexander Ptushko, released in 1935, deal with this question utilizing substitution. So does another pioneering film that is The Seven Ravens (Die Sieben Raben) of 1937, by the German brothers Ferdinand and Paul Diehl. This film uses exchanges of mouths inlayed in the faces of the characters in perfectly concealed seams. But if the first displays human caricature, the second adopts a less distant stylization of the actual human anatomy, as remains the work of the Germanic pioneers, who continued to use substitution. The anthropomorphic speaking animals of Tale of the Fox (Le Roman de Renard) - also of 1937 - of the polish-Lithuanian Ladislaw Starewicz display localized facial deformations made possible by posables internal structures, as was also used in West by Willis O'Brien and its successors, but not applied to speech. The protagonists, built and animated by Ladislaw and his daughter Irene, show movement in the jaws, lower and upper lips, muzzle, eyes, eyelids and eyebrows. Shot between 1929 and 1930 in France, it was the first stop-motion feature entirely made in puppet animation, presenting exquisitely built puppets and garments, also very expressively animated, with details as the panting bust of the Lioness Queen. FIGURE 7 – Fragment of frame of Le Roman de Renard (19301937). Very detailed costumes and complete facial expression in the first full-length film of history completely accomplished in puppet animation. Dolls by Ladislaw and Irene Starewicz. Source: http://americancinematheque.blogspot.com.br/2018/03/fox-beforefantastic-by-scott-nye.html Since then, facial animation in stop-motion by posable mechanisms has occurred in O'Brien's films and pupils: Ray Harryhausen, Jim Danforth, Phil Tippet and several of his heirtage in the United States. But these characters had no lines. After many productions with speech and singing using substitution, our study only locates a new production with internal facial mechanisms applied to speech in the far 1983, in the English TV series Wind in The Willows, based on the classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame. It consisted of a 1983 self-titled feature film, four TV seasons from 1984 to 1988, a new feature in 1989 A Tale of Two Roads and a fifth season in 1990. It was produced by Cosgrove Hall, an experienced English studio with extensive experience in children's content for TV that operated from 1976 to 2009. In 1992, Cosgrove Hall produced 13 11minute episodes of the Truckers series, based on the novel by Terry Pratchett. Like Wind in The Willows, the characters had jaw and brow joints and eyeballs but had no eyelid movement like the previous series. Mr. Toad, the protagonist of the previous series, was animated by Barry Purves, who later creates sophisticated short films of erudite and adult themes, such as Shakespeare's Theater in Next, the Infinite Variety Show (1989) and an expansion of Japanese theater culture in Screen Play (1993) with an inventive use of animated scenography. He aproaches the Trojan myth of Achilles and Patroclus in Achilles (1995) and also presents a poetic biography of the Russian composer in Tchaikowsky, an Elegy, from 2011. But it is in the adaptation of Verdi's Rigoletto in a 1996 film, in the biography of respectively librettist and composer of Victorian comedy opera in Gilbert & Sullivan: The Very Models of 1998 and in the G-Rated adventure with anthropomorphic animals of Hamilton Matress (2001) that his facial animation presents the use of speech and singing, using joints on jaw, lips, eyelids, eyelashes and eyeballs. With the exception of the Screen Play (4) all the puppets of the Purves films are made by the British studio dedicated to the manufacture of stopmotion puppets run by Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders, who started working together still for Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall in the 1980s. Still in Cosgrove Hall, Mackinnon and Saunders participated in The Reluctant Dragon, released in 1987, directed by Bridget Appleby, who also used facial animation with a movement of the lower lip reasonably articulating the lip synchronism in the title character. FIGURE 8 – Frames from The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, demonstrating contraction of the corners of the mouth in the protagonist. Digital composition and conversion in black and white by the author. In the 1991 telefilm The Fool of The World and The Flying Ship, directed by Francis Vose, the duo can make the characters smile with contractions in the corners of their mouths, in addition to the movement of the jaw, upper lips and eyelids integrated to the faces, which move together with the eyebrows and no longer by removal and replacement, as in Wind In The Willows. The sculptural style used by Ian Mackinnon in some characters recalls what will be used later in Rigoletto. In Ah Pook is Here, a 1994 short based on a recording of a speech by writer and essayist William S. Burroughs and directed by Philip Hunt, one of the characters has both flexible lips as the reluctant dragon's lower lip, resulting in great articulation of speech. It is the first such achievement of the already established Mackinnon & Saunders, since them in Altrincham, near Manchester, north of England. The television series Bump In The Night, directed by David Bleiman, 1995, has a title character whose face is the trunk itself, dominated by a large and fully articulated mouth connected a flexible nose and eyes at the tip of tentacles. His fellow Squishington is similar - fully animable by internal structuring. Only the eyelids are animated by replacement and the pupils animated by displacement of discs sliding over static eyeballs. Also in 1995, the series Story Store directed by Joe Austen presents similar resources. In 1996's short The Happy Prince and Oakie Doke series and Cabbage Patch Kids (1996-1997) the M&S could only offer simple jaw movement capabilities. For Mars Attacks! of 1996, directed by Tim Burton, there was no elaboration of lips, because its personages did not have them, but the scale of the project propitiated a decisive impulse to the company, increasing it's team from 5 to 45 people. FIGURE 9 – Martian Head from Mars Attacks! with eyebrow, mandible and eye orbital joints, which, because they are without eyelids, should had fixed by magnetism. Photos by Vincent Cole for Manchester Evening News. Digital composition and conversion in black and white by the author. Although the film was not actually performed in stop-motion, the studies carried out were an impetus for a relationship with the american filmmaker that would flourish in other determinant works for the facial animation by internal mechanisms in stop-motion. Three years earlier - in 1993, was premiered the first US stop-motion feature directed by Henry Sellick from a poem by producer Tim Burton: The Nightmare Before Christmas. The film features characters ranging from full-face replacement to characters with lips with flexible and posable edges, as the Harlequin Demon - with a 360-degree mouth around the face and the villain Oogie Boogie with both flexible lips. James and the Giant Peach of 1996, also directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton, uses the same resources in the protagonist with the addition of contraction of the corners of the mouth, and in the sidekick Centipede with a mouth of flexible lips as in above cases. The technical force behind these two films are Tom Saint Amand, Randall M. Dutra, Merrick Cheney among others in the skeletons, who had previously worked for Phil Tippet, as well as the team of Bonita DeCarlo in the puppet finishing for both films and the British Graham Maiden coordinating character fabrication in the second film. 4. Indirectly actioned internal mechanisms. Maiden was already a veteran working closely with Mackinnon and Saunders, coming from Wind in The Willows, then in Rigolleto and reuniting the compatriots in Corpse Bride, 2005. Directed by Mike Johnson and produced by Tim Burton, it became the contemporary landmark of animation facial by internal mechanisms of remote activation in feature film. In an interview given by Peter Saunders in 2011, he told us that he was waiting to use substitution because it was a horror movie that would require extreme expressions of fright or dread. But the restrained Victorian protagonists would demand more subtle but no less efficient expressions. Saunders reported that the silicone skin offers resistance to low torque joints such as a set of balls and socket, a hinge or pivot by having a single component. Thus, these traditional joints would not maintain a pose, altering subtle, but immediately the pose that the animator had just done. Initially, the jaw received a lever which extended in the direction of opening it and was withdrawn in the direction of closing by being attached to a crank (a). This in turn was engaged in a gear that was rotated by means of a spindle, which fit was accessed by a hole concealed in the top of the head (b), hidden by the hair. This provides greater torque to the mechanism by offering greater resistance to silicone skin drag. In addition, the mechanical reduction by gears brings finer and more accurate increments. The oral expressions depend on traditional ball and sockets joints for lip extension (c). The spouting of the corners of mouths already present in the protagonists of The Fool of the World here receives a remote mechanism in the sense that it is not directly and externally triggered, like the jaw. FIGURE 10 – Emily's head on The Corpse Bride, with internal mechanisms. (g) indicates the sockets for articulation of the eyebrows. (h) locate the rectangular socket for the eye orbits. Digital composition and conversion in black and white by the author. Source: Photograms from documentary Page to Puppet (2006), by Sam Hurwitz. A vailable in:https://vimeo.com/190848344 It is a pair of vertical spindles attached to the skull (d) that collect and offer wires that exit through a hole in the side of the mouth, attach to the skin and enter again through another hole, returning to the spindle (e). This in turn is driven by another orthogonal axis geared to it, whose spinning control has access through the orifices of the ears (f). The film was a public and critical success and consolidated its relationship with Tim Burton and Mackinnon & Saunders as the most prestigious international manufacturer of stop-motion puppets. The same technique is applied again effectively in Max & Co, a Franco-Belgian-Swiss production of 2007, led by the Swiss brothers Frédéric and Samuel Guillaume. In 2009, director Wes Anderson releases an adaptation of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox, which in turn approaches the rebel behavior of Renard's Roman, the title character in the Western European medieval tales adapted by Starewicz in the seminal The Tale of The Fox. The protagonist and his furry companions present the usual joints of the jaw, eyebrows, lips, eyelids and orbits. In an interview (5) Peter Saunders states that the skulls are made of polyester resin with mechanisms for animation. But there is only detailing of the jaw joint by ball and socket for animation made directly at the point of articulation. We can not say if the mechanisms used for indirect articulation were used, but in the resumption with the partnership with Burton in Frankenweenie, 2012, articulations are applied by indirect action on the faces of the protagonists (6). It is strange that in telling the story of facial animation in stop-motion, the craftsman and craftswomen who chose to make a sophisticated use of articulations to express speech are summarized by Ladislaw and Irene Starewicz, Peter Sanders and Ian Mackinnon, since the fertile period in this quest at Cosgrove Hall coincides with the presence of the last two. In terms of continuing work for feature films, they still seem to be the only ones in 90 years of work. However, we identify at least two cases still isolated, but with remarkable results in this option applied to short films. The first is In The Fall of Gravity, relased in 2008. It's a short film by Ron Cole - a New Yorker who in the Starewicz way, performed it alone (minus the soundtrack) as proof of concept of the technology he intended to develop. As he explains in PRIEBE (2010) he wanted to adapt the technique of facial movements by cables already present in the visual effects of live action to a miniaturized version of frame-by-frame use. He reports that the cable system presents the challenge of being two-way tensioning, as it performed to erect and lower the ends of the eyebrows in his system. This solution is similar to Peter Saunders's smile / frown system by using only one spindle. But what differentiates it from the English system is to have in the cables the articulation of the phoneme "o" and in two transitive positions: over the teeth of the upper or the lower arch, have a control of the bridge of the nose, crow's feet controls around the eyes, beyond the controls of jaw, eyebrows, orbits and eyelids operated externally as in the previous examples. His system for the face of the Isomer character uses 16 controls grouped in a control box external to the character, unlike the M&S system and also the second case that is also internal to the character's head. as smile and frown, in which a pair controls both sides of the mouth. Another screw controls the up and down of the jaw and another four are needed for eyebrows, totaling seven controls by linear guides for indirect movement. What is an achievement in Randall system is that these movements aren't mechanically symmetrical, but different in the spatial course and dephased in temporality, giving it an opportune organicity. For instance, the upward movement of smiling also brings up the points under the mouth line that will be depressed to do the frown, but a system of partial movement constraints on the chained arms make it act differently in both directions. The same happens to the inner extremes of the eyebrows, making the connections with the silicone skin recede at the neutral position in a not direct transition between up and down movements. FIGURA 11 – Isomer's subtle lip positions. Details of movie frames. Digital composition and conversion in black and white by the author. The second case is that of the character Barnabé, protagonist of The Awakening (La Girouette), directed by Jean-François Lévesque with production of the NFBC still to be released. Jim Randall, an American artist, met Lévesque at the Stop-motion Animation Festival in Montreal, where he brought of his first experiments in facial animation, drawing on his long expertise in animatronics for theme parks. Randall did not use cables, but mechanical compound joints to generate torque, such as Peter Saunders's jaw movement. But the Saunders mechanism drives a worm gear with a lever, converting rotational to angular motion. Now, Jim Randall uses rotational to linear motion conversion. The base of the movements of the head of Barnabé are lead screws that make run a nut, in linear movement. In the same screw it is possible to control movements in opposite ways of the same direction, FIGURE 12 – Head of Barnabé in The Awakening, made by Jim Randall. (a) four indirect vertical movers of the eyebrows, (b) eyelids manipulable directly over static eyeballs (note that one of the pupils in the left picture is rotated relative to the other, see the painted reflection), (c) direct use articulation on the upper lip, (d) left smile / frown combined actuators (e) right smile / combined actuators, (f) ball and socket chin joint. Photo source: Jim Randall. Digital composition, diagram and conversion in black and white by the author. By direct manipulation are moved: the upper lip, the tip of the chin, the eyelids and pupils that slide over stationary eyeballs. Three other examples of characters do not have indirect manipulation like those of Saunders, Cole and Randall, but they are part of the elaborate cinematography of stop-motion feature films with dialogues realized by Laika Entertainment of Hilsboro, Oregon, USA. The character of the father of the title character of 2009's Coraline, their first feature film, the puritanical zombie group of ParaNorman - the second movie, launched in 2012 and Herbert Trubshaw, also a protagonist's father in Boxtrolls (2014). Coraline's father has speeches and among the zombies, only Judge Hopkins with a few lines, but in common the jaws with ball and socket joint, allowing angulations beyond the simple opening. Trubshaw also talks, but received internal mechanisms because of it's long and bouncing hair and beard, making him impratical for replacement animation. If to the first character it gives expression and comedy, to the group of the second film, it expresses the deterioration of their bodies. The zombie of Judge Hopkins more than others have a mechanism of extension of the face, achieving the stretch anticipated in cartoon animation principles. From the point of view of lip-sync to speech, only the work of Ron Cole is based on realism in space and time, since its characters are less stylized than the Barnabas of Lévesque, those of Burton, and those of Laika. 5. Replacement facial animation by digital fabrication. Great expectations are created about the use of three-dimensional impression in facial animation by replacement. If we mentioned before that they could offer George Pal an exponential magnification of his method, it is considering it's use of simple geometric shapes, limited color palette and no textures or tonal variations. But today, when a Laika film presents tens of thousands of impressions per character, it must be noted that this is due to the use of equipment of stratospheric cost of acquisition - and diffcult leasing, because it can't be properly outsourced as a service with it's demanding environmental conditions of continuous work, that's incompatible with this technology as a service. As far as the reality of the independent film is concerned, we find cases like the movie Time / Space Reflections, by Alba Enid Garcia-Rivas (2016). The director reports (IKUMA, 2014) that all the money raised for the film was dedicated to the printing of 260 faces, leaving all 20 participants of the film without remuneration. She chose to use a company that provides 3D printing services - CadBlu from New York, with one of dozens of machines used by Laika in the last two of it's films: Boxtrolls (2014) and Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). The company used to serve the dental prototyping market. In the first month of trials and errors - even with a modest goal of a short film their only Stratasys J750 of a quarter million dollars broke. Neither the company nor the producers of the film knew how to use cyanocrylate adhesive immersion to give more color saturation as seen in Laika's making ofs. And they had to use a lower resolution to take advantage of the limited availability of service that became visible in the movie. Laika is a company run by Phil Knight, according to Forbes, the 28th largest individual fortune in the world - founder of multi-billion dollar Nike. It is not easy to play his game in terms of technology and access to the manufacturers of machinery. Any form of 3D printing that involves color confront predictability and consistency problems, rather than a paper-printing machine - for the simple fact that these were meant to produce books, magazines, and packaging in a large-scale. And they were originally designed and enhanced for this function for more than a century. Despite the promise of the name - digital manufacturing - this technology is still based on prototyping and not serial production. It takes extensive reengineering of the equipment for this function and corresponding production engineering for this context of application in animation. We then understand that the production speed claimed to be obtained in 3D printing is directly inverse to the resolution, number and consistency of colors. It's perceived that these factors can only be bypassed with high structural investments. 6. In favor of facial animation by internal mechanisms moved indirectly. Internal mechanisms of indirect action did not start on the cheeks - as reminds us the mechanism developed by Jim Danforth to animate the chest-breathing effect of one of his creatures DUTRA, CÂMARA (2015). But what it already offered was movement from the inside out, impossible to manipulated externally. In addition, another objective question is the better incremental control of the animation in very short changes, in which the very act of deforming directly the joint covering (which acts as flesh and skin) does not allow differentiation of an anterior state from the other, making the animator rely heavily on the imaging result to understand the difference from one frame to another. To modify the pose of a joint without touching it allows one to perceive the change in the object, without needing to refer to a visual result external to the object. Also not squeezing the surface to change something that is internal prevents the interference of form memory of the covering in the perception of change, even if it is low as in silicones. In addition, the character may have finishes and appendages - such as hairs and scales - that would have low shape memory, repositioning themselves involuntarily to each frame. With the advent of tin or platinum catalyzed silicones, which allow gradual pigmentation, sculpted hairs and scales circumvent this limitation of form memory, allowing internal joints to be moved also directly, but enabling the option to stylize these surfaces. But it is also because of these silicones that can be stretched up to ten times their original size without tearing is that facial animation mechanisms can perform precisely courses of movement of reasonable length. This enables endless intermediate expressions combining various parts of the faces, coupled with the animator's precision of incremental awareness in the act of animating. In fact, it is to animate as an act that needs to be valued as a fundamental human action in stopmotion and its main differential - and not to seek competition with other forms of animation, forcibly bringing them into its scope. All technology is welcome. But every form of animation is a technique. Stop-motion of threedimensional cartoons is one of the oldest. It is the technique that should determine the technologies that are convenient for them, not the other way round. Computer graphics animation may become objectual as being printed tridimensionally frame-byframe, but move away from stop-motion by canceling or restricting the freedom of the act of animating. There must be an object and an action. At least a simple chair that gains character, as in A Chairy Tale by Norman McLaren (1957). The action is what completes the lack of characterization of the object. In a discussion with Barry Purves on the subject of this study, he argued that facial replacement animation breaks the character's integrity. This completeness is also proper to the creative act which is to animate, whether it goes far beyond performing a pre-determination. Integrity of the object and its temporality. Integrity in the corporeal-sensible relation that the animator establishes with the puppet. A musical instrument is for a musician the very extension of his body. The stop-motion puppet is for the animator it's whole body while animating. The more sensorially variable this body is to those who touch it and see it, the more resonant their art will be. Notes 1. The 12 principles of classical animation described in Illusion of Life (THOMAS and JOHNSON, 2001) bring together diverse practices that guide the style developed by Disney and other studios. 2. In differentiation to the analogical graphics computation pioneered by the Whitney brothers in the 1940s. 3. Even the adjective "digital" used as a safeguard in the academic ambient of animation education in the sense of not confusing it with stop-motion is erroneous. Ontologically, the fact of being digital does not make the electronic automation of the perspective really three-dimensional. It only becomes truly three-dimensional when it ceases to be an image and becomes an object, as in the aforementioned three-dimensional printing process, which realizes the full potential of the substitution technique initiated by George Pal, but with high equipment costs when the goal is high resolution and quantity - to have close-up appearance of object obtained by analog means. In addition, there are variables that need to be controlled to maintain consistency between the impressions: humidity and ambient temperature and raw material formulation. Continued printing under these conditions is difficult to outsource, as is the cost of purchasing equipment. Therefore, only Laika, which is financed by Nike, currently uses sucessfuly the most advanced 3D printing technologies. 4. All puppets made by Barrow Models, from Manchester - with the exception of the Samurai, done by Peter Saunders. 5. SAUNDERS (2009) afirms: "All of the characters have got a polyester resin skull onto which various mechanics are added in order to articulate the puppet’s faces," In the caption of an image of Mr Fox's head it reads: Jaw tip tensioning. Access from puppet left. S.T. 1/8 (?) 0-80 socket head cap. Use 0.050" allen key. That is, the jaw joint is by ball and socket, like the lips of Corse Bride. In this same image, the articulations of eyebrows are clear, but not information about the other joints. Interview on November 13, 2009 for Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2009/11/howthe-puppets-from-fantastic-mr-fox-were-madeslideshow Article in Annals DUTRA, Leonardo. CÂMARA, Jairo J. D. "A função seguindo a forma: a genealogia do esqueleto de stopmotion contemporâneo". In AVANCA | CINEMA 2015. Organizado por António Costa e Rita Capucho. Páginas 1065-077. Edições Cine-Clube de Avanca. Periodics. 6. In the featurette Animation: Illusion of Life, Trey Thomas, the film's animation director demonstrates a similar jaw mechanism similar to that of Corpse Bride and begins to demonstrate the mouth-corner mechanism hidden in the ear canal when the image cuts off. Books Books with one author HOLMAN, Bruce L. 1975. Puppet Animation in the Cinema: History and Technique. London: Tantivy. PANOFSKY, Erwin. 1999. Perspective as Symbolic Form. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. PETTIGREW, Neil. 2008. The Stop-Motion Filmography: A Critical Guide to 297 Features Using Puppet Animation. Jefferson (NC): McFarland & Co. PURVES, Barry J. C. 2010. Basics Animation: Stopmotion. London: Ava. PURVES, Barry J. C. 2008. Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance. London: Focal Press. PRIEBE, Ken A. 2010. The Advanced Art of Stop-Motion Animation. Boston: Course Technology PTR. IKUMA, John. Time-space reflections IN: Stop-Motion Magazine. P. 29 - 35. Issue 23, 2014. Dissertation Dutra, Leonardo Rocha. 2012. Design of characters for stop-motion: design and development of skeletons with composite metal joints. ED-UEMG - University of the State of Minas Gerais. Brazil (portuguese). Filmography Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera. 1957. episode of the Tricks of Our Trade, on the Disneyland TV show, televised on February 13, 1957. Also part of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color collection (1954-1991). Vol. 57. Season 3 Episode 16. USA. Disney Video. DVD Pinocchio. 1940. Dir. Norman Ferguson, T. Hee. USA. Disney Animation. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. DVD, Blu-ray Multiformat. The Little Mermaid 1989. Dir. Ron Clemens, John Musker. USA. Disney Animation. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. DVD, Blu-ray Multiformat. The Puppetoon Film. 1987. Dir. Arnold Leibovit. USA. Leibovit Productions. DVD. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. 1937. Dir. William Cottrell, David Hand. USA. Disney Animation. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. DVD, Blu-ray Multiformat. STAREVITCH, 1936. Ladislas apud POTAMKIN, Harry Alan. Dolls in Motion: Starevitch Reveals Secrets. World Film News and Television Progress, v. 1, p. 13. Disponível em: <http://archive.org/stream/worldfilmnewstel01worl#page/n2 1/mode/2up>. Acesso em: 3 ago. 2012. Paperman. 2012. Dir. John Kahrs. USA. Disney Animation. Can be seen as a special feature on the DVD & Blu-Ray to Wreck-It Ralph (2012). THOMPSON, Frank T. 2009. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas: The Film, the Art, the Vision. Mundelein: Round Table. Tangled. 2010. Dir. Nathan Greno. Byron Howard. USA. Disney Animation. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. DVD, Blu-ray Multiformat. Books with two or more authors The New Gulliver (Novyy Gulliver). 1935. Dir. Alexandr Ptushko. Soviet Union. Soyuz Video studio DVD. DALTON, Tony; HARRYHAUSEN, Ray. 2008. A Century of Stop-Motion Animation: From Méliès to Aardman. New York: Watson‐Guptill. Tale of The Fox (Le Roman de Renard) 1937 Dir. Irene and Ladislaw Starewicz. France, Germany. Doriane Films DVD. 2006. THOMAS, F. e JOHNSON, O. 1981. The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. New York: Hyperion. Wind in The Willows. 1983-1990. Direction and Producion: Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall. United Kingdom. Freemantle Media International DVD. Wind in The Willows: A Tale of Two Roads. (1989) Dir. Chris Taylor. United Kingdom. Cosgrove Hall Productions. Freemantle Media International DVD. Cabbage Patch Kids: The New Kids. 1994. Dir. Dave Johnson. United Kingdom. Famous Flying Films for Original Appalachian Artworks Inc. VHS. Cabbage Patch Kids: The Clubhouse. 1995. Dir. Dave Johnson. United Kingdom. Famous Flying Films for Original Appalachian Artworks Inc. VHS. Terry Pratchett's Truckers - The Complete Series. 1992. Dir. de Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall. United Kingdom. Freemantle Media International DVD. Mars Attacks! 1996. Dir. Tim Burton. USA. Tim Burton Productions. Warner Bros. Warner Home Video. DVD. Next - The Infinite Variety Show. 1989. Dir. Barry Purves. United Kingdom. Aardman Animation - Channel Four. Available as: Barry J.C. Burves - His Intimate Lives. Potemkine Films DVD. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. 1993. Dir. Henry Selick. USA. Tim Burton Productions. Skellington Productions. Touchstone Pictures. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. DVD and Blu-ray. Screen Play. 1992. Dir. Barry Purves. United Kingdom. Bare Boards / Channel Four. Available as: Barry J.C. Burves - His Intimate Lives. Potemkine Films DVD. James and The Giant Peach. 1996. Dir. Henry Selick. USA. Allied Filmakers. Skellington Productions. Walt Disney Pictures. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. DVD and Blu-ray. Achilles. 1995. Dir. Barry Purves. United Kingdom. Bare Boards / Channel Four. Available as: Barry J.C. Burves His Intimate Lives. Potemkine Films DVD. Tchaikovsky - An Elegy. 2011. Dir. Barry Purves. United Kingdom, Russia. Studio M.I.R. / Loose Moose DVD. Rigoletto. 1993. Dir. Barry Purves. United Kingdom. Operavox Series. Bare Boards / S4C - Channel Four Wales. Available as: Barry J.C. Burves - His Intimate Lives. Potemkine Films DVD. Gilbert & Sullivan: The Very Models. 1998. Dir. Barry Purves. United Kingdom. Bare Boards / Channel Four. Available as: Barry J.C. Burves - His Intimate Lives. Potemkine Films DVD. Hamilton Matress. 2001. Dir. Barry Purves. United Kingdom. Harvest Films for BBC. MGM DVD. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. 2005. Dir. Mike Johnson. United Kingdom. USA. Tim Burton Productions. Warner Bros. DVD and Blu-ray. Max & Co. 2007. Direction: Frédéric and Samuel Guillaume. Switzerland. Belgium. France. Wild Bunch International. DVD. Frankenweenie. 2012. Dir. Tim Burton. USA. Tim Burton Productions. Warner Bros. DVD and Blu-ray. Fantastic Mr. Fox. (2009). Dir. Wes Anderson. USA. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment DVD, Blu-ray, Multiformat. In The Fall of Gravity. Ron S. Cole. USA. 2008. Independent. The Reluctant Dragon. 1987. Dir. Bridget Appleby. United Kingdom. Cosgrove Hall Productions. The Awakening (La Girouette), In production. dirigido por Jean-François Lévesque. Canada. NFBC National Film Board of Canada. The Fool of the World and The Flying Ship. 1990. Dir. Francis Vose. United Kingdom. Cosgrove Hall Productions. Coraline. 2009. Dir. Henry Selick. USA. Laika Productions. Focus Features. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. DVD and Blu-ray. Ah Pook is Here. 1994. Dir. Philip Hunt. United Kingdom. Studio Aka. Independent. ParaNorman. 2012. Dir. Chris Butler, Sam Fell. USA. Laika Productions. Focus Features. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. DVD and Blu-ray. Bump In The Night. 1995. David Bleiman. United Kingdom. Mill Creek Entertainment. DVD. The Story Store - Where's Pip and other stories. 1995. Dir. Joe Austen. United Kingdom. Carlton. VHS. The Happy Prince. 1996. Dir. Alan Platt. United Kingdom. Case Television for Channel Four Schools. VHS. Oakie Doke 1995-1996. Dir. by various. United Kingdom. Cosgrove Hall Productions. Cinema Club DVD. Time/Space Reflections. 2016. Dir Alba Enid Garcia-Rivas. USA. Independent. Boxtrolls. 2014. Dir. Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi. USA. Laika Productions. Focus Features. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. DVD and Blu-ray. Kubo and Two Strings. 2016. Dir. Travis Knight USA. Laika Productions. Focus Features. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. 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