The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

Anti-gravity
Ask the actor/s to jump into the air. Capture each frame at the 
highest point of the jump. Repeat with variations.
Ice skating
The actors slide in procession across the frame by animating a shot, 
moving forwards a foot, freezing a gesture, animating, etc. etc. until 
they pass through the picture.
3.1 PIXILATION
PART THREE: ANIMATION STYLES

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Animation Styles
77
Crazy faces
Set up the camera in front of a chair. Form an orderly queue of 
actors. Each actor sits on the chair in turn and pulls a face, while the 
expression is captured in two frames. Try to get all the faces to line 
up in the composition.
Hints and tips
Create a studio space using a backdrop curtain and studio lights, if 
available. Lock the camera in a fi xed position on tripod. Alternatively, 
make creative use of an outdoor location.
Try to plan a sequence ahead of time, rather than simply 
improvising. Try to imagine how to break down the desired effect 
into single frame poses.
Materials:
A video camera with a stop-motion recording mode, or a camera 
linked to a laptop, running stop-frame capture software (see 
Resources
section, p. 122 for further details), lights if available
Resources:
Video:
Pixilation
Big Bang Big Boom by Blu (a combination of wall painted animation 
and pixilation) http://vimeo.com/13085676
Norman McLaren’s 
A Chairy Tale
(see Into Animation, BFI VHS 
compilation and teaching guide on CD) 
http://fi lmstore.bfi .org.uk/acatalog/info_3963.html
 Pixilation Short Film
by Dustball and André Nguyen Spin on 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbMnOrq50iA
 Pixilation Music Video
by Sebastián Baptista Fuerte on 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXALzTinIHE
Sorry I’m Late by Tomas Mankovsky 
on 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/fi lmnetwork/fi lms/p006x5jz
Music Videos (on You Tube):
Road to Nowhere
by Talking Heads
The Hardest Button to Button 
by The White Stripes

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78
The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
Sledgehammer
by Peter Gabriel
Point of No Return
by Nu Shooz
Heard ‘Em Say
by Kanye West
Hello Again
by The Cars
Shopping Trolley
by Beth Orton
The Box
by Orbital
The End of the World
by The Cure
Strawberry Swing 
by Coldplay
Animating the human body

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Animation Styles