The Difference Between Pixilation and Stop Motion

Pixilation is stop-motion animation using people instead of puppets. So instead of making an armature and photographing that, you photograph a person doing small incremental movements. The result is a surreal look at our real world. The laws of physics and the real world no longer apply since we’re using animation, but since our environment and characters are real places it puts a unique twist on filmmaking.

The History of Pixilation

Pixilation has been around since early film, in its earliest forms you can see it in films that date back to the 1910s. Pixilation didn’t really take off though until the 1950s with a man named Norman McLaren. McLaren’s most famous film in pixilation, and arguably the most famous pixilation film is Neighbours. The film reflects anti-war themes through two feuding neighbors, and using pixilation makes it take place in our own world, if not a more exaggerated one.

One of the most prominent animators working today with pixilation is the animator PES. His Oscar-nominated short film Fresh Guacamole combines pixilation with traditional stop motion in a fun and creative way. Pixilation not only has had a big role in the world of independent animation, but also in music videos.

One of the most famous examples of pixilation is Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer. Like PES, it combines pixilation with traditional stop motion. Even today pixilation is still big in the music video scene. The White Stripes’ Hardest Button to Button, Radiohead’s There There, and OK Go’s End Love all use pixilation and traditional stop motion.

Pixilation As a Gateway to the World of Stop Motion

I think pixilation is a great entryway into the world of traditional stop-motion, with quick turn around you can create shorts quickly and take what you learned doing those into the world of armatures and sets. Everything that applies to a pixilation video also applies in traditional stop-motion, so it’s fun to play with them back and forth.

There’s a reason it’s been around for so long and people turn to it time and time again for their visuals. Smartphones have such brilliant cameras now, you could make an entire music video with what’s already in your pocket.