The world's smallest animated character

"Stardust Odyssey", an animated stop-motion short film, holds the world record for the smallest actor!

Just imagine. A character 0.3 mm high, the size of a grain of dust, invisible to the naked eye, and fully animated in stop motion. That really would be quite an achievement, wouldn't it? That's what the Guinness World Records thought too… The film is the result of the collaboration between the production company DARROWAN Prod, the University of Franche-Comté (UFC) and the team from the École Polytechnique de Bruxelles.

Several microscopic figurines had to be printed to create "Stardust Odyssey", the microscopic short film featuring the smallest animated character in the world... Hundreds of microscopic figurines, in fact! These figures, printed using the 3D printer at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), made it possible to break down the character's movements and bring it to life.

And there were yet more challenges in store for the teams! To film these minuscule actors, they had to use a unique camera, a scanning electron microscope, and film the sequences image by image.

This experience allowed the researchers to test the limits of their 3D printer and pave the way for other research manipulations; it also allowed director Tibo Pinsard to pay tribute to David Bowie by creating this world in the image of the polymorphous artist.

See how it was made.