MILK by Bastien Roger

As more and more big budget 3D animated films are released we're getting used to seeing extremely detailed smooth animation, and this is also becoming true of stop motion if The Corpse Bride is anything to go by. MILK is a refreshing (hur hur) piece of animation by the French animator Bastien Roger. Made last year, it was featured in this year's Bitfilm Festival. He uses pixillation, a technique in which the animator removes frames from live action footage to give a similar result to stop motion.


In MILK an orange-painted man abandons his daily routine to drift aimlessly through an indifferent world made up of chaotic ripped up adverts. It's only when he takes drastic action to change his environment that he manages to escape. The film has a really interesting visual style to it, and the animation of the protagonist is awkward and jerky which somehow makes him seem ill at ease with his surroundings. The soundtrack by Pictureshop is also worth mentioning as it really helps the mood. Personally MILK reminded me of playing old PC adventure games from the 90s that used green-screened actors against mostly static backgrounds, which (perhaps unintentionally) helped me empathise with the main character. The film was voted 11th out of 18 in the FX Mix (mixed techniques) category.