Pedro Faria Lopes, a Portuguese animator, became fascinated by the pinscreen technique invented by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker, and experimented with the technique, later developing a computer simulation that would allow animators to create films using this technique without needing the costly and difficult to use physical pinscreen. For details on his analysis of the pinscreen and his computer simulation, see The Pinscreen in the Era of the Digital Image. He used this technique in Palavras de Pessoa, a film with J. Xavier, financed for pre-production by Instituto Português de Cinema.