Pixilation

Pixilation

Pixilation is a form of stop motion where live actors are used in an animated film. The actors pose repeatedly whilst one or more frames are being taking, only slightly changing their pose each time. The actor is almost a puppet. The technique is often used to blend the actors in with animated characters. The technique was earliest known in 1908 el ‘hotel electrico’. Here is a clip from the film where there are live actors in the film but also objects being moved around.

The technique is simple simply move the objects or actors slightly in front of a camera, shooting one frame at a time. Then you simply play the images in a sequence, playing the frames at a fast rate to give the illusion of movement. Here is another example by Yuval and Merav Nathan called ‘Her morning elegance’.

This type of stop motion animation was there from the beginning of animation history. Animator Norman McLaren made a short film ‘neighbours’, he was very experimental when it came to animation. Here is a clip showing how Norman McLaren made people fly without any of the fancy software used now.

Before computers were involved with the improvement of animation, pixilation was 3D whereas a bit later on drawings were used an example of where drawings were used is ‘the snowman’ in 1982. However when you see real people flying not drawings the audience are more amazed, which was one of the first examples of animated special effects.