March 8, 2025
Animation
Film
Grace Ebert

Just to have one character walk across the set, the filmmakers of Eastend Western utilized eight unique 3D-printed figures.

Already more intricate than digital techniques, stop-motion animation typically involves sets and characters designed to make subtle movements so that filmmakers can capture minute shifts frame by frame. Directors Jack Cunningham and Nicolas Ménard, of Eastend Western, have chosen the even more involved process of replacement animation for their recent project.

Popularized by George Pal in the 1930s and ’40s, replacement animation involves creating distinctive models for each movement. Where Pal used wooden characters, though, Cunningham and Ménard opted for 3D-printed figures for their new anthology, TRIPLE BILL.

Comprising a trio of films all under two minutes, the collection spans “three genres to survey the atmospheric potential of the technique,” the directors say. The first is “BLUE GOOSE,” a western mocking the current state of social media, that features an enormous cowboy statue that leaves his post at the gas station. Just to have the figure walk across the set required eight unique models.

The second two are similarly labor-intensive. “CLUB ROW” is a dizzying film noir about data privacy featuring an endlessly spinning staircase, and “MYTHACRYLATE” is a fantastic glimpse at the battles we have with ourselves.

As the behind-the-scenes photos below show, each model had to be cut, sanded, and painted individually before being precisely placed in position. Ménard told It’s Nice That that elements like lighting, sound, and camera angles were particularly important to help convey emotion in TRIPLE BILL, which envelops viewers in a hypnotic critique of technology and its effects.

More: A Trio of Stop-Motion Shorts Utilize an Involved 3D-Printing Technique