This paper presents a pseudo Wigner–Ville-distribution-based method in fringe projection for analyzing temporal behavior of the displacement derivative for a continuously deformed object. In the proposed method, a computer generated fringe pattern is projected on an object undergoing dynamic deformation, and the reflected intensity is recorded in the form of video, i.e., a stack of images are captured sequentially by a CCD camera. Each image represents a recorded fringe pattern at a particular time instant whose phase contains information about the instantaneous out-of-plane displacement or deformation with respect to the undeformed object, and the corresponding spatial phase derivative relates to the displacement derivative. Subsequently, pseudo Wigner–Ville distribution is used for instantaneous phase derivative estimation from the stack of images. Simulation and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the method’s potential.