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 or frames 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.

Early examples of this technique are El hotel eléctrico 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. He made an experimental movie named "Pixillation", available in his DVD collection "Cut Up – The Films of Grant Munro".

An effect similar to pixilation can be achieved by dropping occasional frames from a conventionally recorded movie. While obviously easier than the stop-frame technique, this does not achieve the same quality.

Not to be confused with Pixelation, which is a digital effect used to blur an image.

Examples of Pixilation include:

Film

• El hotel eléctrico
• Jobard ne peut pas voir les femmes travailler
• The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb
• The work of Mike Jittlov, especially Fashionation and The Wizard of Speed and Time
• Sergeant Swell of the Mounties
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man

Live-Action TV

• The Goodies
• Sesame Street (Milo Counting, Ordering a Pizza, George the Farmer)

Music Videos

• "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel
• "Road to Nowhere" by Talking Heads
• "Lame Claim to Fame" by "Weird Al" Yankovic
• "Hello Again" by The Cars
• "Point of No Return" by Nu Shooz