Pinscreen Animation
ピンスクリーン・アニメーション / 1930s– / Technique / Animation Techniques
Pinscreen animation pushes and pulls a field of movable pins, photographing each state under side light. Pin height becomes a continuous range from white to deep black, so print-like grain and sculptural light transform over time.
Gray tone built from tiny points and short shadows / Soft monochrome contours dissolving into grain / Countless shadows aligned to one side light / Continuous transformations sculpted after smoothing the previous state
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Expressing dream, memory or transformation through monochrome images that physically dissolve · Animating the deep tonal field of printmaking without reducing it to line drawing
- Type
- Use short medium-weight words on still areas so lettering survives the pin shadows.
- Composition
- Establish one large light-dark mass, vary pin height most finely at the focus, and let the outside contour dissolve into grain.
- Material
- Space the pins evenly and lock one side-light direction. Push pins in for white, draw them out for black, and carve intermediate tone through height.
- Caution
- A photograph with grain or pencil filters is not a pinscreen. Tone must come from pin height and light direction, physically rebuilt for each frame.
- Further study
- Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker / Pin height, side light and tonal value / The Nose and Mindscape
Related entries
- Mezzotint (メゾチント)Shared effects: Calm / Nostalgia.Compare Pinscreen Animation and Mezzotint
- Sand Animation (砂アニメーション)Same Animation Techniques lineage.Compare Pinscreen Animation and Sand Animation
More from Animation Techniques
Continue through styles in the same Animation Techniques family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Limited Animation (リミテッド・アニメーション)Shared effects: Technique / Nostalgia.
- Cel Animation (セル・アニメーション)Shared effects: Nostalgia / Technique.
- Rotoscope (ロトスコープ)Shared effects: Technique / Nostalgia.
Browse all Animation Techniques entries
Cite this entry
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- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/pinscreen-animation
- Markdown
- [Pinscreen Animation — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/pinscreen-animation)
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- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/pinscreen-animation">Pinscreen Animation — IndexStyle</a>