 Six months were devoted to developing the design specifications for  the cameras Bluth and his crew needed for the newly founded Don  Bluth Productions and their upcoming movie, and then another  fourteen months were spent building and testing the cameras. Two  identical camera stands were built by Mechanical Concepts especially  for Bluth because there were no animation cameras available  commercially that could do everything necessary to shoot the film,  according to Fred Craig, Director of Special Processes for the film.  One of the features which the cameras built for Bluth had that was  not found on conventional animation stands was the capability of  shooting backlit art in an anamorphic format.