Sand animation is the manipulation of sand to create

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

. In

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

an artist creates a series of images using

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class ...

, a process which is achieved by applying sand to a surface and then rendering images by drawing lines and figures in the sand with one's hands. A sand animation performer will often use the aid of an

overhead projector An overhead projector (often abbreviated to OHP), like a film or slide projector, uses light to project an enlarged image on a screen, allowing the view of a small document or picture to be shared with a large audience. In the overhead projec ...

lightbox A lightbox is a translucent surface illuminated from behind, used for situations where a shape laid upon the surface needs to be seen with high contrast. Types Several varieties exist, depending on their purpose: * Various backlit viewing d ...

(similar to one used by photographers to view translucent films). To make an animated film, sand is moved on a backlit or frontlit piece of glass to create each frame.

History

Techniques of animating with sand were pioneered by

Caroline Leaf Caroline Leaf (born August 12, 1946 in Seattle, Washington) is a Canadian-American filmmaker, animator, director, tutor and artist. She has produced numerous short animated films and her work has been recognized worldwide. She is best known as o ...

when she was an undergraduate art student at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

in 1968. She created her first film, ''Sand, or Peter and the Wolf'' (1968), by dumping beach sand on a light box and manipulating the grains to build figures, textures and movement, frame by frame. In the 1970s,

Eli Noyes Eli Noyes (born October 18, 1942 in Amherst, Massachusetts) is an American animator most noted for his stop animation work using clay and sand. Early life Eliot Fette Noyes, Jr. was born the son of noted " Harvard Five" architect Eliot Noyes a ...

, another Harvard graduate, created the short film ''Sandman'' (1973) and the ''Sand Alphabet'' (1974), which became a feature on the children's educational television program ''Sesame Street''. In 1977, '' The Sand Castle'' by Dutch-Canadian animator

Co Hoedeman Jacobus Willem (Co) Hoedeman (born August 1, 1940 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch-Canadian filmmaker known for his mastery of stop motion animation and technical innovation in films that reveal his close observation of human and social interaction. Bi ...

won the

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

. In 2006, Gert van der Vijver created the series ''De Zandtovenaar'' ("The Sand Magician") on Dutch national television and since then, animates for the yearly outdoor play '' The Passion''.

Notable artists

* Ferenc Cakó * Su Dabao *

Alexandra Konofalskaya Alexandra Konofalskaya (born June 11, 1986) is a sand animation artist. Born in Zhodino, Minsk Region, Belarus, Konofalskaya had always dreamt of stage, and, as a child, she attended dancing classes. Though love to drawing led Konofalskaya to Zh ...

* Kseniya Simonova * Ilana Yahav

References

External links

An explanation of how to make animated films with sand animation

Marcos Magalhães' "Animando" at NFB.ca

Caroline Leaf's film ''The Owl Who Married a Goose'' at NFB.ca
Animation techniques Visual arts media Performance art

Animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

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