Chad Gadya in Embroidery

Chad Gadya is a traditional Passover song (lyrics here). Nina Paley and Theodore Gray animated it using embroidery on matzoh covers, a process Paley calls “embroidermation.” She also calls it “Our most ridiculously labor-intensive animation ever!” I can see that.

Each embroidered matzoh cover, used in zoetrope fashion, provides six frames of animation. The covers are for sale. Gray explains the process of creating the video here. Not only did they have to embroider hundreds of characters, but create custom software, too!

This video is a part of Paley’s ongoing feature film project Seder-Masochism. She says Chad Gadya will serve as an intermission in the story. (via Metafilter)