Pixilation Research: Sledgehammer and Neighbors

Before producing my Pixilation, first I researched some existing examples in order to get an idea for what could be achieved.

Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' Music Video

Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' Music Video was one of the first animations produced by the now famed stop-motion animation studio Aardman Animation of Wallace and Gromit fame. Much of the video appears to have been done in-camera, as this was in the days before the proliferation of digital composition meaning that in order to achieve the intended effect of the final video, Gabriel would have had to have stayed still for the duration of production. There is a lot of interaction between the fore, middle and background, which lends depth to the animation along with believability. For example, when the chalkboard behind him depicts a rollercoaster, his hair is animated via the process of intensive hair gelling to simulate wind blowing through his hair, which connects the foreground with the background.

'Neighbors' by Norman Mclaren

Norman Maclaren's 'Neighbors' serves as an allegory for the climate of the cold war in the 1950s, which was when this animation was made. Neighbors is more of a straightforward traditional Pixilation, which emphasises the exaggerated movement of the characters in the scene over stationary objects. The result is a movement speed akin to early cinema, in which camera operators would have to shoot each frame individuality and at a lower frame rate resulting in a jerky motion. Maclaren embraces than aesthetic for his pixilation, using it to his advantage for comedic effect.