The Encoder

Scott McCloud/Space Angel, Taurus, Crystal Mace, Professor Mace

The outer-space adventures of Scott McCloud, an agent for the Earth Bureau of Investigation and captain of the spaceship Starduster. His crew include Taurus, an amiable Celtic-accented mechanic, Crystal, an electronics expert, and Crystal's father, Professor Mace, head of base station Evening Star

Cambria's second cartoon using its patented Synchro-Vox system developed by Edwin Gillette for "talking animal" commercials in the 1950s. The Synchro-Vox system combined still animation cels of the characters and live actors' lips superimposed over the characters' heads to make the "animation." Producer Clark Haas referred to Cambria's process of limited animation as "motorized movement." Cardboard cutouts of the character sometimes would be moved by hand past the background. To produce Synchro-Vox, the voice actor would be filmed in closeup, with a mask hiding everything but the actor's lips. Heavy makeup was used to ensure that the actors' skin color matched that of the cartoon characters.

When in action, rather than animate the character, the cels were shaken, or the camera zoomed to simulate the motion. As Scott McCloud/Space Angel's face was covered by a space helmet, no lip movement was required for his characters in the Synchro-Vox process.

Each story took place over five episodes. Two hundred and sixty shorts were produced, packaged into 30-minute shows, or to air individually in syndication.