Directors Gustavo Sanchez and Carlos Pierucci at Neko Studio in LA walk Stash fans thru the origin and building of their pop-up book-inspired zoetrope for the social launch of season 2 of the Wednesday series on Netflix.

Gustavo Sanchez and Carlos Pierucci: “Netflix wanted something crafty, stepping away from digital animation. Tim Burton’s use of handmade miniatures, dioramas, and stop-motion took us back to the earliest days of animation, which is how we landed on the idea of a handcrafted zoetrope. Motion from pure mechanics – printed cardboard, razor cuts, glue, double-sided tape, and a bit of magic.

“Deciphering the right frame rate was one of the first big challenges. We wanted smooth motion, so we settled on 32 evenly spaced frames, spun the disc at 45 rpm, and filmed at 24fps, which gave us the perfect balance for fluid animation.
 

“Tim Burton’s use of handmade miniatures, dioramas, and stop-motion took us back to the earliest days of animation, which is how we landed on the idea of a handcrafted zoetrope.”

 
“To make each sequence work, we looped the clips to match our 32-frame format, rotoscoped every frame, exported them, printed them, and cut them with a precision cutting machine. The base was made from hard foam, printed with exact placement guides for each figure.

“Managing hundreds of frames meant we had to be extremely organized to ensure each element landed in the exact right spot. Dozens of tests followed, and working with cardboard meant imperfections were inevitable, but we embraced them and let the handmade quality show through.

“For the background, we took inspiration from the praxinoscope [the successor to the zoetrope], borrowing its mirrors but placing them outside the disc instead of inside. This twist created layered reflections that made the scene feel deeper and more visually rich.”

Watch the making of video:
 

 
 

 
Client: Netflix

Production: Neko
Director: Carlos Pierucci, Gustavo Sanchez