Sand animation is the manipulation of sand in real time to create animation. In the performance art, an artist creates a series of images using sand, a process which is achieved by applying sand to a surface and then rendering images by drawing lines and figures in the sand with one's hands. A sand animation performer will often use the aid of an overhead projector or lightbox (similar to one used by photographers to view translucent films). To make an animated film, sand is moved on a backlit or frontlit piece of glass to create each frame.
Techniques of animating with sand were pioneered by Caroline Leaf when she was an undergraduate art student at Harvard University in 1968. [1] She created her first film, Sand, or Peter and the Wolf (1968), by dumping beach sand on a light box and manipulating the grains to build figures, textures and movement, frame by frame. [2] In the 1970s, Eli Noyes, another Harvard graduate, created the short film Sandman (1973) [3] [4] and the Sand Alphabet (1974), which became a feature on the children's educational television program Sesame Street. [5] About the same time Misseri Studio located in Italy produced the A.E.I.O.U. series, which was drawn in wet sand. [6] In 1977, The Sand Castle by Dutch-Canadian animator Co Hoedeman won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. [7] In 2006, Gert van der Vijver [8] created the series De Zandtovenaar (The Sand Magician) on Dutch national television and since then, animates for the yearly outdoor play The Passion .
The National Film Board of Canada is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 13,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has bilingual production programs and branches in English and French, including multicultural-related documentaries.
William Norman McLaren, LL. D. was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including hand-drawn animation, drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound. McLaren was also an artist and printmaker, and explored his interest in dance in his films.
Drawn-on-film animation, also known as direct animation or animation without camera, is an animation technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or objects are photographed frame by frame with an animation camera.
Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique has been used to create animated films with a range of textural effects difficult to achieve with any other animation technique, including traditional cel animation.
Caroline Leaf is a Canadian-American filmmaker, animator, director, tutor and artist. She has produced numerous short animated films and her work has been recognized worldwide. She is best known as one of the pioneering filmmakers at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). She worked at the NFB from 1972 to 1991. During that time, she created the sand animation and paint-on-glass animation techniques. She also tried new hands-on techniques with 70mm IMAX film. Her work is often representational of Canadian culture and is narrative-based. Leaf now lives in London, England, and is a tutor at The National Film and Television School. She maintains a studio in London working in oils and on paper and does landscape drawing with an iPad.
Ryan Larkin was a Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor who rose to fame with the psychedelic Oscar-nominated short Walking (1968) and the acclaimed Street Musique (1972). He was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Ryan.
George Garnett Dunning was a Canadian filmmaker and animator. He is best known for producing and directing the 1968 film Yellow Submarine.
Jacobus Willem (Co) Hoedeman is a Dutch-Canadian filmmaker known for his mastery of stop motion animation and technical innovation in films that reveal his close observation of human and social interaction.
Normand Roger is a Canadian composer, sound editor and sound designer. He is particularly known for his work as a composer of soundtracks for animated films, having composed more than 200 such works since 1970. He has also worked on the creation of music for documentaries, feature films, television dramas, children's series, commercials, and new technologies with 3D and virtual reality. He is the composer of many original soundtracks for Frédéric Back, Paul Driessen, Michaël Dudok de Wit, Caroline Leaf and Aleksandr Petrov. Thirteen of his works have been nominated for Academy Awards, of which six have won. He also notably wrote the theme for the PBS's Mystery!. Roger lectures throughout the world on music and sound for animation.
Grant Munro LL. D. was a Canadian animator, filmmaker and actor. In 1952, he co-starred with Jean-Paul Ladouceur in Norman McLaren's Neighbours. His film, Christmas Cracker, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1965.
Zlatko Grgić was a Croatian animator who emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s.
Gerald Potterton was a Canadian director, animator, producer and writer. He is best known for directing the cult classic Heavy Metal and for his animation work on Yellow Submarine.
The Street is a 1976 animated short film by Caroline Leaf for the National Film Board of Canada.
The Sand Castle is a 1977 stop motion animated short created by Co Hoedeman for the National Film Board of Canada. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 50th Academy Awards.
Eliot Fette Noyes, Jr. was an American animator most noted for his stop animation work using clay and sand. His 1964 work, Clay or the Origin of Species, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and established claymation as a medium. He designed animated sand pinwheels for the Nickelodeon show Pinwheel and the sand alphabet for Sesame Street.
Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis are a Canadian animation duo. On January 24, 2012, they received their second Oscar nomination, for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short film, Wild Life (2011). With their latest film, The Flying Sailor, they received several nominations and awards, including for the Best Canadian Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and on January 24, 2023, they received a nomination for the 95th Academy Awards under the category Best Animated Short Film.
Robert Verrall is a Canadian animator, director and film producer who worked for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1945 to 1987. Over the course of his career, his films garnered a BAFTA Award, prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and six Academy Award nominations.
The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend is a 1974 Canadian animated short from Caroline Leaf, produced by the National Film Board of Canada and the Canadian Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.
The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa is a 1977 Canadian short animated fantasy film by Caroline Leaf, adapted from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, told through the animation of beach sand on a piece of glass. The film features music by Normand Roger and sound by Michel Descombes. The film earned ten awards from the year of its release in 1977 through to 1981 as it was screened at various film festivals around the world.
Interview is a 1979 Canadian short live-action animated documentary film directed by Caroline Leaf and Veronika Soul, produced by David Verrall. The film is a record of a working day in the lives of two women filmmakers, sometimes described as "an autobiographical collaboration", though both filmmakers are discussing the other woman. The film is also seen as a study of female friendship, the women relating their perceptions of each other through their respective animation techniques, "each creating a visual portrait of the other based on characteristic gestures and impressions."
The Sand Castle Co Hoedeman.