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Dot is the world's smallest stop motion animated film. It was created by the makers of the Wallace & Gromit series, who used a 50x cell phone microscope.
Animators at the UK studio Aardman used a 3D printer to make 50 different versions of Dot, because she is too small to manipulate or bend like they would other stop-motion animation characters. The figurine’s tiny features stretched the limit of the printer — any smaller and it would be hard to make distinct limbs. Each one was hand-painted by artists looking through a microscope.
via Popular Science
I am an artist as well and have recently purchased a 3D printer from BotMill, www.BotMill.com. I've been printing variations of new avatars non-stop.