'Quiltimation' Is Stop-Motion Animation's Cozy Cousin

A horse gallops in infinite loops through a field of freshly knitted quilt fabric in cartoonist Nina Paley's cozy take on stop-motion, Horse Quiltimation. In the short scene above, Paley has re-stitched the groundbreaking image from Eadweard Muybridge's 19th century animal locomotion series—a touchstone for all modern GIF artists.

To piece together her equestrian animation, the cartoonist relied on the talented needle of so-called "quilt-master" Behemoth, enlisted Chris Carlson to engineer the quilt's algorithmic fill patters, and Theodore Gray for stitchcoding and binding. In 12 frames, and 12 bright fabrics, HorseQuiltimation inspires the impluse to either finally finish that scarf or escape to the studio for some stop-motion action of your own.

Below, peek inside Paley's process with individual frames and a slow-motion steed:

And check out more of Nina Paley's work on her blog. Related:

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