The world's smallest movie, and how it was made

By Creative Bloq Staff
published

'A boy and his Atom' is a stop-motion film made using single atoms. Watch it here and then discover the astonishing process behind its creation.

'A Boy and His Atom' is not just a movie short, it's a movie small. The images you see are made up of single atoms, magnified over 100 million times to make them visible.

The project came about after, last year, IBM scientists announced the creation of the world's smallest magnetic memory bit, made of just 12 atoms. That project was more about giving devices extra computing memory than art - but the nanophysicists involved decided to explore the limits of filmmaking at the same time.

To make the animation, the team moved molecules around, one at a time, to make a picture

To make the animation, the team moved molecules around, one at a time, to make a picture

Used their scanning tunneling microscope to move single atoms a frame at a time, they created the cute film, which has now now been verified by Guinness World Records as The World’s Smallest Stop-Motion Film.

Want to know how they did it? Hear from the brains behind it in this 'Making of'...

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Have you seen a short that pushes the boundaries of animation? Let us know in the comments below...

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Creative Bloq Staff

The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of seven full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Deals Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Digital Arts and Design Editor Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Abi Le Guilcher, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq. 

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