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Corpse
Bride is the first movie to be shot with digital still cameras.
Previous stop-motion movies (such as Aardman Animations' Chicken
Run) were shot on modified Mitchell film cameras, the same old
cameras used to shoot King Kong. The camera chosen for production
was the Canon EOS-1D Mark II digital still camera. Additional
work was required to develop systems to permit precise camera
positioning, the mounting of Nikon optical lenses, and previewing
a scene in camera.
The film was also the first stop-motion animated movie to
use the new "gear and paddle" technique for the
maquette's heads. This new system involved the maquettes being
built with a complex gear system inside of the main character's
heads. The various gears were attatched to external paddles.
A soft skin-like material was placed over these paddles to
create the head. By adjusting the gears, done by inserting
an allen wrench into small holes located on the maquette's
head and in the ears (you can clearly see the holes in the
ears throughout the film), the paddles would move, therefore
adjusting the facial expression of the character. This allowed
for a much more smooth system of emotion change and lip-sync
than the old style of replacing heads. The soft "skin"
material also gave the characters a much more natural look.
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