Needle Screen Animation

Needle screen animation is an animation technique where you use a screen full of needles that can move in or out, pressing them with an object. These needles generate a relief, which is illuminated from the sides to generate an image on the screen, with its shadow. The result is an image that could be mistaken for charcoal shading. With this technique you can achieve a wide range of texture effects very difficult to achieve with traditional animation by cells. The technique was developed by Alexandre Alexeieff and his wife Claire Parker, who often visited the National Film Board of Canada. This couple made a total of six short films with this type of animation, over a period of fifty years.

The original screen had 240,000 needles, which were usually pressed one by one with a small tool or other specially designed instruments. The needles were firmly attached to the screen, so that the image produced by them remained stable for days or even weeks, since each was composed with such subtlety. Smaller, cheaper screens are now available on the web or in science museums.

According to Claire Parker, the images created with the screen of needles enabled the realization of animated films that escaped the boring and "comical" aspect of cell animation, instead giving rise to dramatic and poetic effects thanks to exploitation of chiaroscuro.

A contemporary entertainer using this technique is Jacques Drouin of the National Film Board.

Several computer programs have been made to simulate the effect of a traditional needle screen.

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