bolexbrothers is an independent British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 animation

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 studio based in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

. The studio specialises in stop motion

Stop motion

Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...

 animation, producing numerous short films and commercials, as well as one stop motion feature film, The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb is a 1993 stop-motion animated film made by bolexbrothers, and funded by the BBC, La Sept, producer Richard Hutchinson and Manga Entertainment, which also distributed the film on video...

(their second feature, The Magic Roundabout

The Magic Roundabout (film)

The Magic Roundabout, , is a 2005 British computer-animated film based on the television series of the same name...

, was computer animated

Computer animation

Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....

). Named after the Bolex

Bolex

Bolex is a Swiss company that manufactures motion picture cameras and lenses, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. The Bolex company was initially founded by Jacques Bogopolsky in 1927. Bolex is derived from his name. He had previously designed cameras for...

 brand of 16mm cameras once popular with animators, the studio was established in 1991 by animator

Animator

An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...

 and former theatrical effects designer Dave Borthwick, and colleague Dave Alex Riddett.

The studio's films are often dark and surrealistic, described by Borthwick as presenting “a reality that's just slightly sideways”. Their films often employ experimental or uncommon animation techniques such as pixilation

Pixilation

Pixilation is a stop motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor becomes a kind of living stop motion puppet...

 (posing and shooting live actors frame-by-frame).

Feature films

• The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb
  The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb
  The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb is a 1993 stop-motion animated film made by bolexbrothers, and funded by the BBC, La Sept, producer Richard Hutchinson and Manga Entertainment, which also distributed the film on video...
  
  (1993)
• Grass Roots
  Grass Roots (film)
  Grass Roots is an upcoming clay animated film based on the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers underground comic strip created by Gilbert Shelton.-Plot:...
  
  (TBA)

Short subjects

• The Saint Inspector (1996)
• Keep in a Dry Place and Away From Children (1997)view the film at the director's website
• Little Dark Poet (1999)
• Tastes Like Tuna (2000)
• How Do You Feel (2001)