See the "Embroidermation" by Nina Paley, a new, stunning, intensive working form of Animated Drawings
(Republished with translation from: OPEN CULTURE, "Watch Nina Paley's 'Embroidermation', a New, Stunningly Labor-Intensive Form of Animation“, By Colin Marshallin Animation, August 7th, 2015)
THRONE – 'THARSIS SLEEPS' (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Vimeo video, duration 00: 04: 33
from Nicos Livesey
Created by: Nicos Livesey
Direction: Nicos Livesey & Tom Bunker
Production Manager: Harry Hill
Producers: Posh Dixon, Dan Keefe, Nicos Livesey
2D Moving Design Leader: Blanca Martinez De Rituerto
2D Animation: Tom Bunker, Elisa Ciocca, Anne-Lou Erambert, Duncan Gist, Dan Hamman, Nicos Livesey, James Martin, Azusa Nakagawa, Nuno Neves, Joe Sparkes, Joe Sparrow, James Turzynski
3D Animation & Modeling: Luke Howell, Sam Munnings
Step-by-Step Operators: Stefan Iyapah, Michalis Livesey, Theo Nunn
Embroidery Department (Embroidery): Liz Barlow, Rosy Maddison, Julia Owen, Victor Jakalfabet
Head of Embroidery: Just Newman
Assistants: Daniela Alvarez, Daniel Matczak, Annalotta Pauly, Polina Sologub, Anna Streit, Lynn Yun, Jennifer Zheng
Sound Design: Alex Pieroni
Song"Tharsis Sleeps"By Throne
Graphics: Toby Evans
Digitization: Tim Gomersall, Nicos Livesey
Support from: Brother Sewing UK
A production of Lucky Features in collaboration with Channel 4 & Dazed Digital
Special thanks to: Steve Bliss, Martina Bramkamp, Amy Leverton, Ebru Oz, Clapham Road Studio, Kickstarter and all our supporters.
Sponsorship from: Bosh, Madeira Threads, Mother, Orta Anadol, Wilcom Embroidery
facebook.com/thronemusic
nicoslivesey.com
tombunker.tumblr.com
facebook.com/BrotherSewingUK
facebook.com/wilcom
facebook.com/madeirauk
Keeping in touch with the animations we occasionally present in our publications here in OPEN CULTURE, you will know that techniques that require seemingly inhuman levels of dedication to their construction are particularly powerful. Some older examples include pinscreen animations by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker that were used to inspire the "The nose"By Nikolai Gogol and"Night on Bald Mountain"By Modest Mussorgsky. More recently, professionals of such cartoons that require serious work intensity include Nina Paley, the self-taught cartoon director who created the entirely hand-made "Sita Sings the Blues", A feature-length jazz adaptation of the classic Indian myth that we introduced to 2009.
CHAD GADYA
Vimeo video, duration 00: 02: 54
from Nina Paley
The most ridiculous, high-powered working animations we've ever made!
A traditional elementary school song of Easter represented in embroidermation by Nina Paley and Theodore Gray.
Exactly the same embroidered matzoh covers are available for purchase here: palegraylabs.com/chad-gadya/
Music: Chad Gadya is sung by Moishe Oysher with the Choir Abraham Nadel Chorus (circa 1955?), Aramaic and Hebrew
Since then, Paley has significantly enhanced her skills in a form she calls herself "embroidermation". It looks like it sounds: with frame-frame embroidered in a sequence that animates it. You can get an idea of the whole process at Paley's blog. He made this project under the flag of PaleGray Labs, "a textile collaboration between Nina Paley and Theodore Gray"(Whose slogan reveals their mission"put NERD in quiltiNg and EmbRoiDery"). They used them to make the music video for the song "Tharsis Sleeps" by Throne (which we put at the beginning of the article) and then to make it Chad Gadya, a three-minute performance of a traditional folk song for Easter.
PaleGray Labs feature Chad Gadya "the most ridiculous labor intensive animations we've ever done,” which means they also have to be the most ridiculously labor-intensive animations we've ever featured here at Open Culture. To create them requires not only formidable embroidery skills, but also a deft hand with industrial-number-processing-power with software Mathematica, in order to create those procedures that will allow to animate the embroidered data with a smooth transition and movement. If the results have captured your imagination, know that you can purchase the original natural materials: “Each unique, approximately 16-inch-wide, unbleached cotton matzoh cover contains 6 frames from the cartoon and is signed by the artists, the site assures us of PaleGray”. You might want to consider starting your gift collection for next Easter now...
Related Content:
- Nikolai Gogol's Classic Story, “The Nose,” Animated With the Astonishing Pinscreen Technique (1963)
- Night on Bald Mountain: An Eery, Avant-Garde Pinscreen Animation Based on Mussorgsky's Masterpiece (1933)
- Sita Sings the Blues
Ο Colin Marshall writes about cities, language, Asia, and the style of men. Now he is working on writing a book about Los Angeles, at And the Los Angeles Primer and for the television series The City in Cinema. Follow it on Twitter at @colinmarshall or at Facebook.
