What the heck is Alphabetical Athleticalz?

Alphabetical Athleticalz is a stop motion animated exploration of all things sports from A to Z. Basically for every letter of the alphabet we are creating a comedic, sports-themed scene using words that start with the same letter (Arthritic Armwrestling, Butler Boarding, Cat Curling, etc.) Once complete, all 26 letters will be strung together into a single short film. Here are a few (mostly) completed scenes.

What the heck is pixilation?

The above scenes were all animated using an animation technique called pixilation, which is a type of stop motion animation, except instead of manipulating puppets or clay, real humans are posed, moved, and photographed one frame at a time to create the illusion of motion.

Why pixilation?

Short answer: because it looks cool! Long answer: pixilation allows us to do things that are impossible with video. Shooting actors as a series of photos makes it possible to make our characters stretch, bend, bounce, or hula hoop with a hoop made of humans.

More importantly though, pixilation has a look and feel that is totally unique. By capturing our characters one photo at a time, their movements are inevitably… off. Their actions are jittery and not quite realistic, yet somehow captivating. It is these imperfections that make pixilation feel quirky and fun.

And the final reason we chose to use pixilation is that nobody does it! For such a cool form of animation, there is surprisingly little content out there. So we are happy to fill the void and push this under-utilized form of animation forward with Alphabetical Athleticalz.