The problem was how to take a painting and make it behave like a real piece of scenery under the camera. The trouble was that we were photographing a flat, two-dimensional background. So, we set about making plans and blueprints for a new cartoon camera that would overcome this issue.
The different elements in the scene were separated according to their varying distances from the viewer. This placed the moon on a plane farthest away from the camera. With our original picture broken down in this manner, it became possible to control the relative speed with which each individual part moved toward or away from the camera. However, the moon remained absolutely still and, as a result, would always remain the same, neither growing nor shrinking in size.
Since this new camera used many planes, we called it the multiplane camera. Here is our same moonlight scene as seen through the multiplane camera. As you can see, we finally got the Moon to keep its proper distance.
