:: Clever tricks and techniques to create dot·line films

Remember, in this first edition the goal is to avoid figuration and any notion of 3d perspective. You'll find below different tricks thought up by amateurs [and not so amateurish]. If you have come up with your own technique, please email the recipe to info@mad-actions.com so that we can include it here ;).


:: analogical dot·lines
Animations created using drawings on a plane surface.


· Robert Breer | A man and his dog out for air · 1957 · 1'55''
Over a white background, abstract hand-drawn dot·lines move everywhere until suggesting slightly the silhouette of a man walking his dog.



· Rubén Rivera | Detritus · 1991 · 2'35''
Similar to the one above, a great abstract piece using charcoal and pencil.



:: pixel·dots
In this case the digital dot·lines are built up of groups of pixels.


· Philip Sanderson | Fleshtones · 4'08''
Using max/msp/jitter, the author took a pornographic scene and pixellated it until render it unrecognisable...



· freedom of perception · 6'31''
Intermittently returning to a full grid of circular pixels, the author erases the units without information to suggest a hidden message...



:: analogical pixels ?!
Yep. Several people have created their own analogical animation technique without having to draw a single dot. Have you got new ideas to offer?


· Aram Bartholl · 2005 · 1'16''
This clip shows you how to transform your TV set into a pixel·creating machine.



· Alejandro Sánchez | Stop motion with candles · 2006 · 1'39''
A very clever technique using candles as pixels.



:: light persistence
Animations created using the traces that different light sources leave on the CCD's or on film when captured at low obturation speed.


· Abendprozessor Neonlight · 3'44''
An interesting photographic piece using neon lights running away quickly from the camera.



· Emulsion | She Orbits · 3'45''
The author makes the most of the stroboscopic [low speed obturation] and negative effects using a digital camera's night vision.



:: CGI dot·lines
These dot·lines are generated by different algorithmic processes in a computer or distorting and decoding digital footage.


· Chiaki Watanabe | u.i.p. vol.5 · 0'40''
Amazing work on form and colour following a suggesting soundtrack.



· iamblichi | Sense from nonsense · 2'14''
Using split-image the author makes a distinction between sense and nonsense by analysing the same signal, but recoding it through lines of higher or lower definition.



· Monolake | Linear · 2003 · 2'14''
Pixellated horizontal lines on a black background moving up and down with respect to an equatorial line.



:: direct·on·film animation
A famous technique thanks to wonderful animation pieces by authors like Norman McLaren, Len Lye and Harry Smith. As its name suggests, the images are created directly on the film, painting, scratching, perforating or blanking its surface.


· Norman McLaren | Scherzo · 1939
McLaren paints on 35mm film and its soundtrack. Several circles spinning around the central are of the frame are intersected by diagonal lines, until finally a triangle pushes them out of the frame.


· Len Lye | Tal Farlow · 1960 · 2'19''
Using the scratch technique, Lye creates a delightful narrative of vertical lines getting together or apart, slightly changing their angulations and thickness.



· Scratch Fix · 2'35''
Another example of scratch [and blanking] on 16mm film to the rhythm of Eleanor Rigby; a beautiful piece that grows even richer thanks to the random apparition of colour.