Stop-motion animation is an incredible (and incredibly tedious) process, as animator Dillon Markey knows too well. Tired of moving back and forth from the set, computers and cameras to film scenes, Markey had a genius idea that only a child of the '80s could have dreamed up -- a custom Power Glove.
Filmmaker Ava Benjamin has put together a short documentary about Markey and his glove that you can check out above. If you have no idea what a Power Glove is, that's understandable. It's by all means a relic of the '80s, a failed peripheral from Nintendo created as a new way to play video games on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The glove, equipped with a D-pad and various buttons, made its debut in the film The Wizard back in 1989, which brought us this cinema gem.
Despite The Wizard, the Power Glove quickly disappeared, deemed a critical and commercial failure due to its imprecise controls and a lack of quality games to support the device.
There is no denying the glove has a certain "badass cyborg" vibe to it, and that's exactly what Markey was looking for. He teamed up with an electrical engineer to transform the Power Glove into a bluetooth device that could interact with his stop motion software. From on set with his Power Glove, Markey can record frames and cycle through them without having to walk back and forth from his computer.
Markey also outfitted his custom Power Glove with a pair of retractable tweezers, which he uses to adjust the facial expressions of the characters he is animating. To top it all off, Markey rigged the glove to emit a special phrase when fist-bumped as well. Markey says he has been using the glove for more than a year and a half as he works on projects like Adult Swim's Robot Chicken.
It's a fascinating look at how old technology can be adapted for the modern day, and Markey's enthusiasm for the "coolness" of the glove is contagious. Nintendo would go on to dabble further in weird peripherals and motion controlled gaming, culminating in the massive success of the Nintendo Wii. Who knows, maybe the Power Glove was simply ahead of its time. Maybe now we are all truly ready for its power.
