Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Actors hold still while the camera takes single frames between tiny moves. The figure is taken from BFI, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a movies & tv fact?

Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Pixilation animates real people a frame at a time

Actors hold still while the camera takes single frames between tiny moves Norman McLaren used pixilation in Neighbours, his 1952 film about two men fighting over a flower. Live actors freeze, move slightly, then freeze again, so on screen they glide or jump like drawings. The technique lets a real body do things no drawn figure could. It sits in Mondo's movies & tv collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

BFI

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Squash and stretch keeps drawings from looking stiffA bouncing ball flattens on impact and stretches as it leaves the ground An animation camera looks down at a tableCels stack on metal pegs under a lens that can move a hair at a time Most hand-drawn animation is shot on twosEach drawing is photographed twice, so twelve drawings fill a second Go motion blurred puppets while the shutter was openA computer nudged the armature during each exposure so the frame carried blur Walt Disney has won more Oscars than anyone elseHe took home 22 competitive awards and four honorary ones Snow White was the first full-length American cel-animated filmDisney's 1937 gamble took three years to make

Tags: animation, pixilation, technique

Pixilation animates real people a frame at a time: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Actors hold still while the camera takes single frames between tiny moves. The figure is taken from BFI, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a movies & tv fact?: Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.