Pinscreen Animation - Origin

Origin

The technique was developed by Alexandre Alexeïeff and his wife Claire Parker who were often guests of the National Film Board of Canada. They made a total of 6 very short films with it, over a period of fifty years. Despite the short running time and the monochrome nature of these films, they won numerous awards over the years.

On August 7, 1972, Alexeïeff and Parker demonstrated the pinscreen to a group of animators at the National Film Board of Canada. This demonstration was filmed, and released by the NFB as Pin Screen. This film, along with "Pinscreen Tests" (1961), appear on disc 7 of the Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition DVD collection.

Until his retirement in 2005, the National Film Board's Jacques Drouin remained involved in pinscreen animation. Drouin's pinscreen work included the 1976 film Mindscape/Le paysagiste. The most recent NFB animator to use the medium is Michèle Lemieux, with her 2012 film Here and the Great Elsewhere. As of June 2012, the NFB is reported to have the only working animation pinscreen in the world.

Ward Fleming patented the vertical three-dimensional image screen, a toy which to date has sold more than 50 million pieces worldwide.

Read more about this topic:  Pinscreen Animation

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