Pixilation

This article is about the stop motion film technique. For the graphics effect induced by enlarging a bitmap, see Pixelation. For the image-editing technique of displaying part of an image at low resolution, see Pixelization.

Pixilation is a stop motion 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. The actor becomes a kind of living stop-motion puppet. This technique is often used as a way to blend live actors with animated ones in a movie, such as in The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb by the Bolex Brothers.

In Hôtel électrique (1908), Julienne Mathieu's hair appears to brush itself, one of the first uses of stop-motion animation in film.

Early examples of this technique are Hôtel électrique 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."[1]

  1. ^ Grant Munro