Remember the last time you fell asleep on the couch and your TV remote left an imprint on your face? Taking inspiration from that, DBLG, a UK-based ad agency, produced an amusing series of animations by imprinting characters and objects directly onto human skin.
It’s an animation style you probably won’t see Disney copying anytime soon, but as unsettling as Hey Pressto occasionally is, it’s also an incredibly original creation. To pull it off, a studio called Animade used a 3D printer to create a series of plastic stamps — similar to cookie cutters — for every frame of an animation. Those stamps were pressed onto the skin of an actor until they left an impression, and then photographed.
It’s a time-consuming technique that’s also probably a little uncomfortable for the actors, but what’s art without a little sacrifice?