Pixilation
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Pixilation is a
stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...
technique in which live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. This technique is often used as a way to blend live actors with animated ones in a movie. Early examples of this technique are included in Segundo de Chomón's ''Cuisine magnétique'' and '' Hôtel électrique'', both from 1908, and Émile Cohl's 1911 movie ''Jobard ne peut pas voir les femmes travailler'' (''Jobard cannot see the women working''). The term is widely credited to Grant Munro (although some say it was Norman McLaren) and he made an experimental movie named "Pixillation", available in his DVD collection "Cut Up – The Films of Grant Munro."


Films

* Norman McLaren's Oscar-winner ''
Neighbours ''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera that has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons and ...
'', '' A Chairy Tale'' (1957) and ''Two Bagatelles'' * Chuck Menville and Len Janson's trilogy of pixilated short films '' Stop Look and Listen'' – 1967, '' Blaze Glory'' (1968) and '' Sergeant Swell of the Mounties'' (1972), along with their sequence in '' Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies'' (1972) * Mike Jittlov's short '' The Wizard of Speed and Time'' (1979). Jittlov made a feature film with many pixilation sequences, also titled ''The Wizard of Speed and Time'' (1989), based on the making of the original short. * '' Monsieur Pointu'' (1975) * Jan Kounen's Gisele Kerozene (1989) * '' Tetsuo: The Iron Man'' (1989) * Bolex Brothers' '' The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb'' (1993) * Numerous Jan Švankmajer movies, but most notably ''
Food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...
'' (1992) and large sections of '' Conspirators of Pleasure'' (1996). * Michael Langan's ''Doxology'' (2007) * '' Luminaris'', a short film by Juan Pablo Zaramella (2011) * ''Western Spaghetti'' and the Academy Award-nominated '' Fresh Guacamole'' (2012) by PES utilize pixilation. * Glenn Barit's '' Cleaners'' (2019) utilize pixilation in black-and-white with intrusion of colour through clothing.


Television shows

* '' Angry Kid'' * ''
Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...
'' (''Milo Counting'', ''Ordering a Pizza'', ''George the Farmer'') * '' The Goodies'' * '' Rex the Runt'' * ''The Flash'' (1990 TV series)


Music videos

* "All the Way to Heaven" by Doug E. Fresh and The Get Fresh Crew * " And She Was" by
Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads
* "Baby C'mon" by Stephen Malkmus * " Be Near Me" by ABC * " Big Time" by
Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...
* " The Box" by Orbital * " Bridge to Your Heart" by Wax * "
Cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjectivity, subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute t ...
" by Tears for Fears * " Consolation Prizes" by Phoenix * " End Love" by
OK Go OK Go is an American Rock music, rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, now based in Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of Damian Kulash (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar, bass, backing vocalist, v ...
* " The End of the World" by
The Cure The Cure are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Crawley in 1976 by Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith (vocals, guitar) and Lol Tolhurst (drums). The band's current line-up comprises Smith, Perry Bamonte (guitar and keyboards), Reev ...
* "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall" by
Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...
* "Fix" by Jean-Paul De Roover * " The Hardest Button to Button" by
The White Stripes The White Stripes were an American Rock music, rock duo formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals) and Meg White (drums, percussion, vocals). They were a leading group of 2000s indi ...
* " Heard 'Em Say" by
Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...
* " Hello Again" by
The Cars The Cars were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the New wave music, new wave Subculture, scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek (rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (l ...
* " Her Morning Elegance" by Oren Lavie * " I Stay Away" by
Alice in Chains Alice in Chains (often abbreviated as AiC) is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1987. Since 2006, the band's lineup has comprised vocalist/guitarists Jerry Cantrell and William DuVall, bassist Mike Inez, and drummer Sean Kinney. Voca ...
* "In Your Arms" by Kina Grannis * "Is That It" by Katrina & The Waves * "Lame Claim to Fame" by
"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...
* "Last Dance" by George Clinton * "Les Tartines" by Sttellla * "Long Gone" by Fat City Reprise * "Ma Che Discorsi" by Daniele Silvestri * " Now You See Her" by Crash Test Dummies * " Paralyzed" by
The Used The Used is an American rock band from Orem, Utah, formed in 2000. The group consists of vocalist Bert McCracken, bassist Jeph Howard, drummer Dan Whitesides, and guitarist Joey Bradford. Former members include Quinn Allman, Branden Steinec ...
* "
Point of No Return The point of no return (PNR or PONR) is the point beyond which one must continue on one's current course of action because turning back is no longer possible, being too dangerous, physically difficult, or prohibitively expensive to be undertaken. ...
" by Nu Shooz * " Rhythm of Love" by Yes * " Road to Nowhere" by
Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads
* " Sex Machine" by The Fat Boys * " Shopping Trolley" by Beth Orton * " Sledgehammer" by
Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...
* " Strawberry Swing" by
Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...
* " There There" by
Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...
* " Time Won't Let Me Go" by The Bravery * "
Vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide). It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a moder ...
" by Slipknot Quebec band Les Colocs and Michel Gondry used pixilation in many of their music videos. Of note, " Leave Me Alone" by
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...
utilises a variation on this technique by slowing down the frame rate of video and overlaying objects to achieve the distinctive pixilation look to great effect.


Others

The pixilation technique was also used for the opening of ''Claymation'',
Will Vinton William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Academy Awards, Os ...
's 1978, 17-minute documentary about his animation studio's production techniques, the first time the famous trademarked ''Claymation'' term was used, now a term synonymous with all
clay animation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...
.''Claymation Documentary Part 1'' (1978)
/ref> The Czech animator Jan Å vankmajer uses pixilation in most of his work; most notably ''
Food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...
''. Jan Kounen's ''Gisele Kerozene'' (1989), a short film that shows witches riding around a city on broomsticks, is another influential example of this technique. Pixilation is also used in Andrew Huang's short video ''Fluxis''. An effect similar to pixilation can be achieved by dropping occasional frames from a conventionally recorded movie. While obviously easier than the stop-frame technique, this does not achieve the same quality.


References

{{reflist


External links

* Watc
''A Chairy Tale''''Neighbours''
an
''Monsieur Pointu''
at the
National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

''Spin''
award-winning pixilation short film by Dustball and André Nguyen (4:13)
''Fuerte''
Malacate's pixilation music video by Sebastián Baptista (3:13)
''Paranoiaparadise''
some pixilation cut to house music (0:36)
''Leap Of Faith''
Voice of Apollo's pixilation music video by the band (5:41)
''Mirage''
surreal animated dance utilizing the pixilation technique by Joel Fletcher and Mark Danel, 1981 (4:49)
'The Hunter Pixilation Project'

''Two Gentlemen of Honour''
slapstick short film utilizing pixilation, 2012 (3:21)
''Giant Pencil Animation''
short video with pixilation of a woman drawing with an oversized pencil Animation techniques Stop motion