Modern animation is pretty incredible. It’s getting close to being indistinguishable from actual film thanks to advanced computer graphics and futuristic techniques. French artist Julien Maire is taking animation back a few decades to a kind of nostalgic stop-motion era with the short film “Relief.”

Instead of drawings on pieces of film, Relief features tiny translucent resin figurines on a conveyor belt. The 3D figures roll around the belt with a light illuminating one at a time against a projector screen.

As they roll around the belt, the small figures act out a scene of a man digging a hole and then putting the dirt back into the hole. A total of 85 tiny men rotate around and around, eternally taking dirt out and putting it back in. Their never-ending labor is a unique combination of low-tech – stop animation – and high-tech – 3D printing.

Relief isn’t just a movie to be watched on the projector screen; it’s an experience that encompasses the entire humming machine and each tiny, 3D-printed little character that casts its individual shadow. The stop-motion shadow show was built while Maire was doing a manufacturing residency at the iMAL Center for Digital Cultures and Technology in Brussels.

The post Stop-Motion Film Composed of Rotating 3D Miniature Men first appeared on Gajitz.

Spray-painting on a wall in your house is usually a one-way trip to somebody getting really, really angry. The Spraycan Projection Clock is the best way we’ve seen to get out all of your hooligan-esque tendencies by “spraying” the time onto a wall – temporarily and completely reversibly.

The Spraycan Projection Clock is the creation of GAMAGO, an independent San Francisco consumer products design company. The clock looks just like a can of spray paint, but when you push down on the button on top of the can, instead of a blast of color you get a lighted projection of the current time.

The time is displayed as numerals inside a beam of light. When the light hits a surface, the time is temporarily “painted” on it. The clock, a perfect gift for retired taggers, works on two replaceable AA batteries and goes for $20 from GAMAGO.

The post Novel Projection Clock Spray Paints the Time on Your Wall first appeared on Gajitz.

Ah, the good old days – when your ancient great-aunt would sit the whole family down for a two-hour slideshow on her most recent Florida vacation. The slideshow has since gone out of style, what with the ready availability of computers and phones to do the same things for us, but Benjamin Redford is bringing it back…small time.

The Projecteo is an itty-bitty projector that fits in the palm of your hand. It links with your Instagram account for access to your most treasured photos. With your initial order of a projector, you also pick nine of your favorite Instagram photos. The Projecteo team develops those nine pics on a single frame of 9mm film in a circular formation.

The slide is inserted into a black plastic wheel which fits neatly into the Projecteo. Then you just have to find a light-colored expanse of space on which to project your pictures. The pictures are surprisingly sharp for a device that looks a lot like a Barbie doll-sized toy. You can order new wheels (currently $8.99 each) any time you have some more memories worth preserving on tiny photo wheels.

The post Palm-Sized Projector Turns Instagram Snapshots Physical first appeared on Gajitz.

People traveling to new and exciting destinations are often compelled to take something home with them, something that reminds them of that trip. Every time they look at that object, they are reminded of the moments spent in that special destination. Snow globes are a particularly popular souvenir, available in nearly shop in tourist towns. Lana Z. Porter’s “Floating Signifier” manages to be nearly the opposite of the traditional snow globe.

Instead of coming with a pre-determined memory attached, these snow globes let you fill them with your own memories. You “fill” them with images, video, and audio clips from your journeys (the method by which this is done is unclear). A base unit uses RFID to identify which globe is placed on it. After you pick up a glob and shake it, the projector in the base unit then plays little clips from that selected trip. As the snowflakes all fall to the bottom of the globe, the memory fades away on the projector…until you choose another memory to relive.

The post Recordable Snow Globe Lets You Make Your Own Memories first appeared on Gajitz.

Office equipment isn’t generally seen as stylish or sexy in the least, but this plastic bracelet might be an exception. You see, it is not just a bracelet – its stylish exterior hides a high def projector and USB storage. The Mini Projector Bangle was designed by Prospective Design Studio to help business women (or men who like pretty jewelry; we don’t judge) keep their presentation equipment close at hand.

The projector inside the bracelet is designed to cast an image onto any available surface. The bangle is equipped with touch-sensitive controls, so moving from one slide to the next is as simple as swiping a finger in one direction or the other. The two halves of the bracelet come apart for easy access to the USB storage; when put back together they’re held in place with strong magnets.

The concept also features an LED clock that shines through from just beneath the surface, giving it added functionality as a watch. The Mini Projector Bangle, while a neat idea, is only a concept and doesn’t seem poised to go into production anytime soon.

The post Functional Finery: Presentation Tool Disguised as Jewelry first appeared on Gajitz.