Pixilation - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 40

Both McLaren and Kounen were shooting with movie film cameras that
allowed them to vary the shooting frame rate. The present day digital still
cameras now have the capability to shoot live-action movies and the newer
models shoot in high definition. They are starting to include features like
variable frame rates; for example, the Nikon D-90 shoots 1 to 4 frames per
second and the Canon 7D can shoot 24, 30, and 60 frames per second. Many
digital video cameras have this various frame rate feature available, because
they were made to shoot live-action video. The digital still cameras are not
far behind. Please refer to the associated website to see the latest in camera
technologies.
For animators that have no access to this higher-end equipment, using the
continuous shooting technique helps vary the look of pixilated film. When
you shoot “pure” stop motion or heavy manipulation of the subject matter
between frames, you need to consider how many pictures or frames you
want to use for every increment of subject movement. Since moving human
subjects is physically challenging, it is best to reduce the amount of work
demanded of them. I often shoot my human subjects at a rate of 15 frames
per second and play back the footage at 15 frames per second. Or, you can
just shoot two pictures for every movement of the human subject and play
it back at 30 frames per second. This technique, known as shooting on twos ,
has the same effect as shooting at 15 frames per second (fps) with a playback
of 15 fps. Since NTSC (the National Television System Committee) video is 30
frames per second, that is the rate I like to use. This is most common in the
Americas and parts of East Asia. In film, the projected playback rate is 24 fps,
so many animators shoot two pictures per movement, played back at 24 fps.
But, if this film is transferred to video, then there is an interpolation made to
stretch those 24 frames into 30 fps by averaging out two frames every five
frames of footage. This works well but can be somewhat problematic if you
are creating special effects frame by frame in postproduction, where every
frame needs to be a clean distinctive image. In this case, images are worked
on in the effects area at 24 fps then stretched to 30 fps after the effects work
is done.
Variations on Pixilation
Although the animation or pixilation of people is quite popular, so is the
combination of people and two-dimensional graphic elements, the animation
of light, and the animation of everyday objects. Mixing people frame by frame
with drawn animation, graphics, and objects elicits an infinite variation of
this genre. The important element that distinguishes this approach is that
combining these elements occurs directly in front of the camera and not in
a postproduction process. One example of this approach is by filmmaker
Jordan Greenhalgh, an independent filmmaker in New York. Jordan made
a film, Process Enacted , in which he shot his human subject frame by frame
with a Polaroid camera then animated the Polaroid photographic prints on a
tabletop.