technique
Pixilation
Capture technique
Definition
A stop-motion technique in which live human actors are used as frame-by-frame subjects instead of purpose-built puppets or clay figures. The term derives from 'pixilated' (whimsically capricious, as influenced by pixies) rather than from 'pixel', and was widely attributed to Grant Munro and Norman McLaren at the National Film Board of Canada. Precursors appear in silent cinema: Segundo de Chomón (1908) and Émile Cohl (1911). McLaren's Neighbours (1952) — winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film — is the canonical example: live actors appear to levitate, glide and fight over a flower, embedding a pacifist message in surreal physical comedy. McLaren's A Chairy Tale (1957, co-directed with Claude Jutra) animated a domestic chair around a live actor using the same capture method. Jan Švankmajer incorporated pixilation into mixed-technique works including Food (1992). The technique reached mainstream audiences via Stephen R. Johnson's music video for Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer (1986), which won nine MTV Music Video Awards. PES's Fresh Guacamole (2012) is frequently cited as the shortest film ever nominated for an Academy Award. In production, actors pose and shift incrementally between each captured frame on a standard stop-motion camera setup; no specialised hardware beyond the capture rig is required. Dragonframe can be used for live-view monitoring and frame capture. The aesthetic ranges from jerky mechanical movement to smooth impossible gliding depending on inter-frame displacement.
Overview
Pixilation applies the frame-by-frame discipline of stop motion to a subject that can act on its own: a living performer. Rather than posing a puppet or clay figure between exposures, the animator directs a person to hold, shift, or freeze a pose for each captured frame, then plays the resulting sequence back at a chosen rate. The name derives from "pixilated" -- whimsically eccentric, as if possessed by pixies -- a fair description of how ordinary human movement turns uncanny once continuity is broken into discrete steps.
Norman McLaren's Neighbours (1952, National Film Board of Canada) remains the technique's defining demonstration. McLaren and cameraman Wolf Koenig built the film's best-known illusion -- two men appearing to float -- by having the actors jump repeatedly and exposing a frame only at the top of each jump, so the footage shows them suspended rather than rising and falling. The same exposure discipline let McLaren compress, freeze and stutter ordinary gestures to stage an escalating fight over a flower, using slapstick pixilation to carry an anti-war argument; the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1953.
Because the subject is a live performer rather than a fabricated character, a pixilation shoot trades puppet-rigging problems for performance-directing ones. The performer must hold a still, often physically awkward pose for as long as it takes to check focus and trip the shutter, then move to the next marked position on cue, repeating this for hundreds of exposures. Directors typically block the action at normal speed first, then decide how many frames to expose per beat: few frames per movement reads as a fast, jarring burst; many frames per movement reads smoother but still faintly unnatural.
Pixilation sits alongside puppet animation and object animation as a technique defined by its subject rather than its material -- what changes is not the frame-by-frame capture method but who or what stands in front of the camera. It has stayed a working tool for comedy, dance and commercial work precisely because it needs no fabrication, only a performer willing to freeze on command.
Workflow
- Block the action at normal speed with the performer(s) so timing and staging are agreed before frame-by-frame shooting begins.
- Choose exposures-per-movement for each beat: fewer frames for a fast, jarring burst of motion, more frames for a smoother but still slightly uncanny result.
- Mark the performer's hold positions (floor tape, verbal cues) so each pose repeats accurately between exposures -- the same continuity discipline used for puppet stop motion.
- Expose one frame, then have the performer move to the next marked pose and hold while the next frame is captured, repeating for the length of the shot.
- For illusions such as levitation, expose only at the extreme of a repeated physical action (for example, the top of a jump) so the in-between motion never reaches the camera.
- Review the captured sequence at the intended playback rate and adjust frame count per beat before locking the shot.