Sabin Balasa -The Galaxy (1973)

[@cameronpfiffner3415]

What a remarkable film! The thoughts and feelings it conjures are epic and mysterious. In the current day, when photorealist CGI and computer assisted anime are overwhelmingly represented, this, with its hand painted transformations and philosophical depth, is revelatory of inner truth. Thank you, whoever you are (a relative?), for making Balasa’s work available.

[@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297]

You are welcome, one must share the same quality in order to be able to see it in others. Correct guess, I am indeed related, some of my work can be seen at www.tudorbalasa.com

[@cisnese6969]

@@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297 your family is very talented!!

[@stupideronjupiter]

most of the time, youtube's recommendation is total garbage. but sometimes... just sometimes, it recommends you things like this, which are always awesome... loved this film. i cannot begin to imagine how long this must've taken to animate...

[@phubans]

In the past maybe 30 years I've seen everything from obscure vintage anime to surrealist Czech clay stop motion... And yet I have never seen anything quite like this. Breathtaking stuff, I'm glad I could find a new piece of art to feel excited about at this point in my life.

[@Treys_Random_videos_of_stuff]

I love how our perspective is pulled out from the characters almost like we are observing instead of watching

[@tillyv.8797]

What a good good thing, its so wonderful To be able to watch it on youtube. What a privilege

[@raoulduke-k9d]

Hypnotic video and music..

[@J70a.m-zg6gi_wha0]

70s acid trip thanks for reminding me

[@gorb065]

hahahahah

[@spritelysprite]

Fantastic Planet vibes...

[@crinoidthyroid]

I thought the same 🙂

[@jamesmitchell6925]

Yeah but with terrible music

[@spritelysprite]

@jamesmitchell6925 'Hard to beat Fantastic Planet soundtrack, I've played tunes from it on a few radio shows.

[@vinylarchaeologist]

Tudor, it's wonderful that you guys were able to preserve this in such quality. Felicitari!

[@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297]

The digital copies were made from the original films preserved by the Romanian national archive. Some were in better condition then others, "The Phoenix Bird" was almost perfectly preserved while "Ode" was the most damaged.

[@milkyywayy999]

Absolutely amazing! Thank you

[@halimaa9099]

i cant even wrap my mind around this

[@halimaa9099]

wow

[@MichelleFranco-oz2sj]

I too have run out of mind- wrapping paper ! At least I think so...😢

[@Gekneveld]

I'm completely in love with this animation and the music. What a work of art! It's typical 70s but has a very distinct style and poetry. Wow!

[@jacquestube]

This very much reminds me of Fantastic Planet

[@tadasmajeris]

wow, this is incredible

[@martireterno1958]

Great video and music

[@RobbieRoach-u7l]

First one of these to make any sense

[@johnjomennelson8631ForEveryone]

Absolutely remarkable I subscribed.

[@mickrozycki451]

They definitely were a fan of Ernst Fuchs paintings.

[@thelonious1634]

Just thanks!

[@Katia_Targaryen]

3:47 somehow it reminds me the Altered Beast game.

[@Ceaugo]

Rise from your grave!!!

[@caucasoidape8838]

Welcome to your doom!

[@crinoidthyroid]

Stunning work, I am so impressed by this hand painted animation style. I am curious to know how it was done. Beautiful short that makes me think about finding peace in remembering Man is one with nature and the universe...💭 🌗✨🕊️

[@unkreativesmensch]

how weird, how wonderful

[@deanwhite8413]

KZbin recommended at it again.

[@RallyTheTally]

Intresting, I liked to watch it, must have taken a while to make.

[@Kaladharma604]

And this is the eternal dance of being one with the Universe.

[@bigus9167]

what an interesting period for art

[@munafecha]

can't let gang know i fw this

[@user-fm7gu2vc6i]

Backwards compliment.

[@forkening]

who says the gang don't fw this?

[@kirillsihaev93]

Почему это выстрелило спустя 6 лет? Алгоритмы ютуба не перестают удивлять.)

[@aerosma5021]

nice

[@Barackobama-uq2ly]

Awesome

[@tillyv.8797]

Fabulous

[@lorrainemackey4851]

This kind of feels like one of those Bob Ross animatics at the end of his episodes… but way, way weirder. And also completely incredible

[@Jeff-gj7ko]

I don't know what it is but l love it!

[@Oblivionsurveyor]

This has deep hidden meaning. I actually think its displaying events that occurred during Apollo 11 in a amazing abstract artist rendition through symbolism.

[@thecassin8r]

@@Oblivionsurveyor it's a representation of individuation

[@Jvirus2]

I thought I had a pretty good idea of what was being communicated here until the end. Maybe I’m just not old and wise enough yet.

[@xalexletelechat6464]

Lourd.

[@Evil_Scissor]

This remind me of hylics

[@ericakirst3768]

yes!!!!

[@nastyatumys]

wowww

[@hondakid]

how was this made its incredible

[@SusanaChristianAyuso]

❤

[@stegokitty]

This looks amazing. I've no idea of how this was done, other than thinking that it appears to be a painstakingly careful stop motion of painting over painting over painting, and possibly including overlay cells here and there, say for instance when the dove turns to look at camera. My only complaint is the "music" at the beginning, which is horrible, grating, and distracting from the beautiful art and animation. Subscribed, so I can more!

[@johnnyroyal6404]

my saliva is spilling from one side, very calm

[@zzausel]

You are authentic, show some ancient dreams of mine. The 14. painting of your site I would call "soul of matter". Isn't "galaxy" a funny name?

[@EriMSoarez]

Oil painted all frames? 😮

[@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297]

yes, all direct oil painting on a glass sheet by one man, the author Sabin Balasa

[@matthewpeinado2047]

Before I go and do research, I think the media is a combination of chalk pastels and oil clay. What do you all think?

[@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297]

My father did this film by using just plain oil paint on a single glass sheet . The paint was manipulated while wet, it never had a chance to dry and, because it was all made on a single surface, not a single physical painted plate remained when the movie was done, just the shots.The dark blue background was another layer behind the glass.

[@saradosiggi5287]

​@@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297that's some serious dedication, you can be proud of your father for doing such magnificent work

[@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297]

@@saradosiggi5287 he worked enormously and had incredible skill. The works on his website are only a small part of his work.

[@abbeleon]

@@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297 I watched the film again after your description of the process and the magic is even further enhanced. Amazing work. I haven't seen this technique before, do you know of other artists who employed this single surface painting stop motion like approach? Thank you for helping conserve this work. I also was moved by your paintings. The surreal juxtapositions in "Maria" and "The Apprentice" are beautiful and twist my mind in just the right way. The motif of the white bird featured in different works of your father including the awe inspiring "The Victor" resurfaces in one of my favorite paintings of yours that you put online: "The Nest." It feels like the corpus of works connects to something deeply rooted, unnameable, ungraspable where the bird is one representative form of this that is deeply captivating. Thank you for sharing your work and your father's: it is so refreshing to see art with so much human soul when I am constantly surrounded by the artificial.

[@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297]

​@@abbeleon Thank you for the kind remarks on my work. It is not a common quality in our times, only some people have it themselves, therefore they can recognize it in others. Regarding my father's technique: he was regarded a new film genre inventor at the time, at Annecy festival, the french named it "cine-peinture", but in fact I think it was not the technique, but his vision and skill which attracted the attention. In fact only the movie "Ode" was done in the same oil painting technique as " The Galaxy". The early movies were done in gouache on small size papers, using more conventional animation techniques, then "The Wave" was done in oil, but on several cardboard panels. His last movie "Exodus Towards Light" was done in Flashe (a vinyl-acrylic paint). The very quick drying time and water resistance allowed for everything to be painted on top, using translucent and opaque layers instead of scraping oil paint from the glass, in order to move the action. There are various possibilities and limitations that each technique offers, but again, I think that what makes the real difference, is the author. Sabin's unique style could not lead to an artistic current in movie animation, as there are not enough people with the same level of skill and dedication in order to take such a task. Not anyone would paint and erase "The last Judgement" and "The Mona Lisa" in one short animation, just to show them for a few seconds. Yet, I'm sure the idea of the technique he used was not totally new at the time, sand and charcoal powder were manipulated before to a similar intent, there were even computer 2D animation attempts in the 70's. Most likely oil paint was used too, I don't know, the only thing that comes to my mind right now, that looks like oil paint animation is the "Scott Free Logo" but I presume there must be also others, which are not so recent.

[@empress1156]

Who does the music for this?

[@pc4mlc451]

I totally get it now. ......no i don't.

[@3VVK]

So this is how AI was in the 70's..

[@GreyishHouse]

How old is the music?

[@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297]

the music was composed by Lucian Metianu for the film, at the time it was made, 1973.

[@GreyishHouse]

@sabinbalasaanimationfilms9297 interesting, his music predates the industrial music scene

[@Gekneveld]

​@@GreyishHouse It's great, isn't it? Try listening to stuff like Poème électronique from Edgar varèse, also some very good proto-industrial.

[@kinhamid9665]

"Bro the drops aren't hitting" 2 minutes later:

[@バブゲイ]

こ、こ、こえーーーー

[@skiesquiggles7319]

This is awesome as fuck

[@scootymcfloof]

Hmm