# Tórculo, the open standard of the worktable

> Tórculo is an open standard in seven parts for writing videos, drawings and materials once and printing them many times: the pliego language (.mesa), the portable project, pieces, canon, plates, materials and takes.

URL: https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/ · Reviewed: 2026-10-15 · Español: https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/index.md

Films written as pliegos. A tórculo is the engraver’s press: the plate is worked once and printed as many times as needed. Here the plate is a text that reads like the film, a .mesa pliego, and the engine sets every number.

## The demonstration: Radiointermisión

Radiointermisión is a 8 min 27 s animated short that comes entirely from one pliego, radiointermision.mesa (1497 lines, 16 sequences, 113 beats). Outside the pliego there are only the bestiary and the voices and sounds (ElevenLabs takes with their timings in a sidecar). Version: v5, working cut.

- Video: https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/corto/v5/radiointermision.mp4 (854 × 480, 15 fps, 99 MB)
- Pliego: https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/corto/radiointermision.mesa
- Subtitles: https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/corto/radiointermision.vtt
- Time of every beat in the video: https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/corto/sincronia.json

## The sequences

| Sequence | Starts | Length |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 0. La noche | 0:00 | 20.5 s |
| 1. La previa | 0:20 | 41.3 s |
| 2. Primer anuncio | 1:01 | 22.3 s |
| 3. El primer gol | 1:24 | 34.4 s |
| 4. La ovación | 1:58 | 30.9 s |
| 5. El regate | 2:29 | 27.4 s |
| 6. La grieta | 2:56 | 11.4 s |
| 7. Las gambas paraguayas | 3:08 | 24.4 s |
| 8. El var de la gamba | 3:32 | 42.9 s |
| 9. La ventosa | 4:15 | 31.2 s |
| 10. La disolución | 4:46 | 73.5 s |
| 11. La invasión | 6:00 | 45.3 s |
| 12. Lo que no es de nadie | 6:45 | 37.8 s |
| 13. Las entrevistas | 7:23 | 19.3 s |
| 14. Segundo anuncio | 7:42 | 22.8 s |
| 15. Cierre | 8:05 | 21.7 s |

## Tórculo today

- **The engine.** A fork of ManimGX in Rust and WebGPU (the `gx` interpreter) prints pliegos with voice, music, ambiences, effects and a measured mix. What it does not carry yet it hands over, openly, to the Manim CE interpreter.
- **The language.** The `.mesa` pliego: Spanish, line by line, closed vocabularies generated from the parser, profiles (core, sound, poster, hearing, camera) and coded diagnostics.
- **Pieces.** The bestiary: characters and sets drawn in pen, with skeleton, views, faces, hands and cycles. The pliego calls them by name.
- **Life.** What is on screen breathes: listeners make their tics under their breath, the radio shakes with what it plays, clothes and hair sway.
- **In progress.** On working branches, not yet part of the standard: footage (filmed shots, interviews that write themselves, export to OpenTimelineIO, FCPXML or EDL), genres as a language profile, and 3D, with layered Blender and ManimGX’s light 3D.

## The seven parts

| Part | What it standardises | File | Version |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1. Pliego language | Lexicon, grammar, closed vocabularies, semantics, IR, profiles and errors. | `.mesa` | MESA v2 |
| 2. Portable project | A project package, its manifest and the voice sidecar. | `.mesapack · .tiempos.json` | mesapack 1 |
| 3. Pieces | What a piece declares and how it enters the collage. | `bestiario` | 1 |
| 4. Canon | Palette, randomness (seed, series, hash), craft and foley, with test vectors in three languages. | `canon.toml` | 1 |
| 5. Plates | Hand drawing revealed by a time atlas. | `.lamina` | 1 |
| 6. Materials | The WGSL pass convention. | `*.wgsl` | 1 |
| 7. Takes and API | The ManimGX fork's take format and the engine's public API. | `.take · <manimgx-film>` | 0x8000_0002 |

## An example pliego

```mesa
MESA v2 «La prensa y el pliego»
formato 16:9 · sala crema · tirada definitiva
BANDA sonido/banda
EFECTOS sonido/efectos
MEZCLA para la web · sin stems
// Un capítulo dirigido: función y afecto en cada clip, piezas del taller,
// una visualización y una marca. La banda: un cue por capítulo, el ambiente
// del taller y dos efectos anclados a la voz.

ARCO pregunta→respuesta
MOTIVO «pliego» —empieza como papel en blanco y acaba siendo la película
REPARTO Gutenberg: ultramar

== CAPÍTULO 1 · EL TÓRCULO ============== tensión sube · tambor ultramar
MÚSICA 1M1
AMBIENTE amb taller bucle
ESPACIO estudio

* apertura · contenido
di: Un tórculo es una prensa de grabador.
pon: rescate «EL TÓRCULO» · 60

* ilustración · nervioso
di: La plancha se trabaja una vez y se estampa tantas veces como haga falta.
al decir «estampa»: sonido: sello
ver: pila —una plancha | cien estampas

* prueba · seco
di: Cien estampas, y todas iguales.
terminal: estampas: 100 · diferencias: 0
marca: rodea «0»

* respiro · sereno
di: El pliego es la plancha; el vídeo, la estampa.
al decir «pliego»: sonido: pagina

== CAPÍTULO 2 · LA PLANCHA ============== tensión cae · tambor verde
MÚSICA 1M2
AMBIENTE amb sala bucle

* tesis · solemne
di: Lo que se escribe en el pliego no lleva números.
pon: cartulina «SIN NÚMEROS»

* remate · contenido
di: Los números los pone el motor.
al decir «motor»: sonido: campanilla
> deja posar

== FIN ====================
Estampado en Tórculo.
> silencio 2
```

Its video: https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/medios/galeria/dirigido.mp4

## Links

- [The film](https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/radiointermision.md): Radiointermisión and its pliego, in sync.
- [The specification](https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/spec.md): Normative text in English, with the Spanish translation beside it.
- [Language reference](https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/language.md): The closed vocabularies, generated from the parser, and the grammar.
- [Gallery](https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/gallery.md): Ten conformance pliegos, each with its video and soundtrack.
- [Takes](https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/takes.md): The ManimGX engine in the browser, reading recorded takes.
- [Plates](https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/plates.md): Hand drawings revealed by a time atlas.
- [Conformance](https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/conformance.md): The suite of cases that compares implementations.
- [Governance](https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/governance.md): How decisions are made, how to contribute and how to report a flaw.
- [For agents](https://torculo.joseluissaorin.com/en/agents.md): llms.txt, .md twins and a one-page cheat sheet.