Major Post 12: Pinscreen Technique

Posted on by Sydney McPherson

We looked at some films by animator Alexandre Alexeieff who invented the technique of pinscreen animation. This technique is basically another form of stop motion animation. At first, I didn’t really understand how the technique worked to create images, and so I watched a documentary on the process. The pinscreen is large and consists of a white background that had thousands of small holes. In each hole there is a cylindrical pin that sits flush in the hole or can be pushes out from the backside (fig. 1).

  • Figure 1
  • Figure 2

The actual images seem to be created using the shadows that the pins cast on the white background, once pushed out (fig. 2). In the video, someone demonstrates how the animator would achieve the shades of black, gray, middle gray, light grey, and then white. Depending on the angle of the light source, when all pins are pushed out to their max, the shadows overlap and cover all the white, creating a black surface. When the pins are pushed in just a bit, more of the white shows and looking from far away, the mixing of the black shadows and white background create mid-gray (fig. 3). And so, the pins can be placed at different lengths to experiment with the tones created (fig. 4).

  • Figure 3
  • Figure 4

In my next post, I will discuss how the technique is applied to some animations by Alexeieff.

Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4u-C8kyUeA

Sydney McPherson

Major Blog Post 11- Drawing And Pinscreen in Animation

Posted on by Wendy Kong

Animations are started with a lot of drawing. In fact, we can make a little anime by drawing on a booklet repeatedly, a little difference to show the movement on each page, when we flip them quickly, we can see the movement or even the story there! I think the first person who thought of putting drawings together to produce movement was really creative, he/she broke the limitation of time. This action gave the subjects in the drawings a soul, they seem like they are actually running, dancing in the artwork. Comparing animation to drawing, animation is livelier than a drawing, which may interest the population more.

Pinscreen is an amazing invention in animation history. It employs the shadow of the pins on the screen filled with pins. A pinscreen is a flexible tool for artists to create an artwork, because they would not need more materials, like drawing and painting, to create something better, all they need is ideas! I think pinscreen has become a lot more common as I see them a lot in toy stores. I believe I have seen them a lot in the past, but this is the first time I know the origin of pinscreen. We can’t see many people producing pinscreen animation nowadays because it requires a lot of effort to make one and not knowing can it get people pay to watch it. In my opinion, pinscreen animation is very unique and stylistic. I hope I can see some of them in the future!!

Wendy Kong

Major Post 11: Different forms of animation

Posted on by Sammy Liu

Light and Shadow

This class we learnt about Alexandre Alexeieff who invented Pinscreen, which is a method that uses a lot of pins with different lengths in protrusion to create light and dark spaces. This technique allows for more flexibility in lighting and three-dimensional space – an aspect that requires more time in Cell Animation.

His works: The Nose (1963)
NFB: Mindscape (Pinscreen too)

Our second artist is Caroline Leaf – one of the earliest animators who used sand to animate. She had a low artistic background but during one of her art classes where her teacher asked them to bring stuff in, she brought in sand. Leaf carried on experimenting with sand and her technique has certainly inspired many more down the generation of artists – for example:

Which is sOO cool and expressive. I think similar to the Pinscreen technique – light and shadow and three dimensional space is something that’s achieved faster too.

The last artist that I will mention here is William Kentridge, a South African Artist, famous for his prints.
We had noticed in class, how most experimental animators have Fine Art backgrounds, and Kentridge is another example of that transition in professions.
His piece, Felix in Exile (1994) expresses social issues in his country, South Africa, and explores the physical and mental struggle of those times.
A rather uncanny source of his inspiration for his creations comes from using “other people’s pain as rare material” – Kentridge.
This stood out to me because at my first impression it sounded rather inappropriate and possibly insensitive, yet actually, with further thought, with appropriation perhaps the artists can portray it in a way that could be healing, or at the least, acknowledged.

In this video, he talks about how he uses charcoal because “you can change charcoal as quickly as your mind changes” pulling in the idea of spontaneity again; a mind-set similar to our previous artist, Norman McClaren.

Class notes:
William Kentridge
Felix in Exile (1994)
History of the Main complaint (1997)
Eyewash (1959) – Rober Breer
Fuji (1974)
Jake’s Professor – COMMUTER – Matt Patterson
George Dunning – Yellow Submarine (1968) designed by Hienz Edelman
Also Founder of TVC in London.
Paul Driessen –
The End of World in Four Season – multiple frames (like a comic book style) moving at the same time.
The Killing of an Egg (1977)
Frederic Back – Cel overlays. Colouring pencils on frosted cells.
Frederick Back – Crac (1981)

Major Post 10 – Pinscreen Animation’s Modern Day Equivalent

Posted on by Julia Reymundo

It was cool seeing another unique technique to create animation. I was really interested in the Pinscreen and the films that were created using it. This was invented by Alexandre Alexeieff. It is a small metal frame that holds thousands of movable pins in small tubes. Each pin that sticks out casts a shadow. When these pins are placed strategically, it creates an image.

This technique is not used that much nowadays, but I would guess that the modern equivalent to it would be pixel animation. Here is a music video for the song “White Flag” by Delta Heavy. I noticed it had a very similar motion comparing it to the works of alexander Alexeieff. Though they are different in style, the thought and execution is simalar. Especially with everything feeling “dotted” or “linear.”

This style was popularized by the rise of video games from the 80s. The earliest video games would be pixelated due to the processor only being able to output a limited number of colors at once. Nowadays we are now able to process a lot of colors due to the advancement in technology. Which allows current pixellated video games and animations like the music video above to be created.

Related image
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Julia Reymundo