- Pixilation
Pixilation (from "pixilated") is a
stop motion technique where 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. The actor becomes a kind of living stop motionpuppet . This technique is often used as a way to blend live actors with animated ones in a film, such as in "The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb " by theBolex Brothers , which used the technique to compelling and eerie effect.The first work known to use the pixilation technique was
Emile Courtet 's 1911 film "Jobard ne peut pas voir les femmes travailler" ("Jobard cannot see the women working").hort Films
*
Bolex Brothers ' "The Secret Adventures Of Tom Thumb "
*Norman McLaren 's "Neighbours" and "A Chairy Tale "
*Chuck Menville andLen Janson's extraordinary trilogy of pixilated short films ("Vicious Cycles" - 1967, "Blaze Glory" - 1968, and "Sergeant Swell of the Mounties " - 1972)
*Mike Jittlov 's tour-de-force short "The Wizard of Speed and Time ". Jittlov made a feature film with many pixiliation sequences, also titled "The Wizard of Speed and Time", based on the making of the original short.Music videos
"
Road to Nowhere " byTalking Heads
"The Hardest Button to Button " byThe White Stripes
"Sledgehammer" byPeter Gabriel
"Point of No Return" byNu Shooz
"Heard 'Em Say " byKanye West
"Hello Again" byThe Cars
"Shopping Trolley " byBeth Orton
"The Box" by Orbital
"The End of the World" byThe Cure "Paralyzed " byThe Used "Vermillion" by Slipknot "Time Won't Let Me Go " byThe Bravery "There There " byRadiohead Michel Gondry uses pixilation in many of his videos.The pixilation technique was also used for the opening of "
Claymation ",Will Vinton '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.The Czech animator
Jan Švankmajer also uses pixilation in most of his work; most notably "Food".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. A recent example of the technique is theStephen Malkmus ' video clip "Baby C'mon" [http://www.the-rivalry.com/lana/video/malkmus2.htm] .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 film. While obviously easier than the stop-frame technique, this doesn't achieve the same quality.
External links
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbMnOrq50iA "Spin"] Award-winning Pixilation Short Film by Dustball and André Nguyen (4:13)
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXALzTinIHE "Fuerte"] Malacate's Pixilation Music Video by Sebastián Baptista (3:13)
* [http://www.paranoiaparadise.com "Paranoiaparadise"] Some pixilation cut to house music (0:36)
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd0nQE_nw20 "Leap Of Faith"] Voice of Apollo's Pixilation Music Video by the band. (5:41)
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