Surreal animation using millions of movable pins in a frame — created by pressure, form, and movement. Each frame individually lit and shot — iconic in music videos and experimental work.
You are looking at a frame full of movable pins — millions of them, packed tightly together. A hand, an object, or simply pressure from behind deforms the surface, and each pin follows this movement. If you photograph it frame by frame, you create a visually surreal, almost tactile animation that looks neither like classic 2D nor stop-motion. This is pin screen animation — one of the most laborious, but also visually idiosyncratic techniques in an animator's arsenal.
The mechanics are incredibly simple: a frame with thousands of fine steel pins, all vertically movable. If you press an object or a hand against the back, the pins push forward, precisely following the contour. If you illuminate from an angle above or from the side, these pins cast shadows that model the form. Each individual frame — and we're talking about 24, often 30 frames per second — is captured individually. Move a frame, photograph, next frame, repeat. Conceptually, this is the rhythm of stop-motion, but with a completely different aesthetic.
In practical workflow: The screen itself must be stable — any vibration destroys continuity. Lighting is critical; side, diffused light shapes the pin shadows into volume. You often work with raw materials — hands, wooden forms, textures — to press them into the screen. In editing later, you can invert, shift colors, and refine transitions. The raw footage is gray, textured, almost X-ray-like.
The technique became legendary primarily in music videos and artist films — experimental works that sought precisely this peculiarity: the mixture of physicality and abstraction, of depth without true spatial dimension. The screen print creates something that is both photography and animation, but clearly neither one nor the other. This makes pin screen animation uncomfortable for the mainstream, but indispensable for anyone who wants to visually irritate — and that is often exactly the goal.