What is animation exactly?...
Animation has a very long history dating all the way back to the stone ages with cave paintings and has progressed all the way through to the modern day CG that everyone has come to know and recognise. But there are many types of animation that people don't know about like the thaumatrope or the zoetrope dating back to the eighteen hundreds along with other more complex forms.
Animation has a very long history dating all the way back to the stone ages with cave paintings and has progressed all the way through to the modern day CG that everyone has come to know and recognise. But there are many types of animation that people don't know about like the thaumatrope or the zoetrope dating back to the eighteen hundreds along with other more complex forms.
Key animation historical points
Traditional
Thaumatrope - Is a disk with a picture on each side that is attached to two pieces of string. The strings are twirled quickly and the two pictures appear to blend into one due to the persistence of vision. It was made roughly in the early eighteen hundreds (around 1824) and the invention is credited to John Ayrton Paris when it was presented to show the persistence of vision.
Traditional
Thaumatrope - Is a disk with a picture on each side that is attached to two pieces of string. The strings are twirled quickly and the two pictures appear to blend into one due to the persistence of vision. It was made roughly in the early eighteen hundreds (around 1824) and the invention is credited to John Ayrton Paris when it was presented to show the persistence of vision.
Zoetrope - Spinning the zoetrope quickly would reveal images inside that blurred together to make it seem like the images were moving to show the illusion of motion. It was invented in the year 1833 or 1834 by William George Horner but didn't become popular until the 1860's when the device was redesigned so the slits were above the image allowing the images to be changed for a different image.
Kinetoscope - Is an early motion picture device where the user would peer through a peephole viewer and a strip of perforated film with images would be conveyed under a high speed shutter and a light source. Invented by Thomas Eddison in 1888 it would create the illusion of moving images and set the basic for cinematic production.
Traditional Film
Steam boat Willie - Was an animated film made by Walt Disney in 1928 which featured the now famed character "Mickey Mouse" as the sailor of a steamboat who forgets his duties to make music with other animal characters in the film. It was the first animated film to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack which make a great leap in animated film.
Steam boat Willie - Was an animated film made by Walt Disney in 1928 which featured the now famed character "Mickey Mouse" as the sailor of a steamboat who forgets his duties to make music with other animal characters in the film. It was the first animated film to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack which make a great leap in animated film.
Snow white and the seven dwarfs - The classically famed film Snow White was created in 1937 by Walt Disney and once again marked a major leap in animation by Walt Disney as it was the first animated feature film to feature colour and sound and was drawn with only hand drawings. This then set the mark for every animated feature film to be made in the same way in this era.
Hannah Barbera - In 1958 Hannah Barbera brought animation to a whole new level with the first animated tv program called Huckleberry Hound. Only two years later Hannah Barbera revolutionised it even more by creating The Flintstones which brought the first animated tv show to primetime tv and moved the gaze from shorts in cinema to tv.
Digital Techniques
Stop Motion - Has been around for a long time but has brought many successful films with the use of clay puppets and other kinds of puppets made out of different materials like cloth and wood. Wallace and Gromit was made using clay models allowing a more softer and easily changeable look to the image, whereas The Nightmare before Christmas was made using puppets with other materials like cloth making it harder to perfect but gave a better image.
Stop Motion - Has been around for a long time but has brought many successful films with the use of clay puppets and other kinds of puppets made out of different materials like cloth and wood. Wallace and Gromit was made using clay models allowing a more softer and easily changeable look to the image, whereas The Nightmare before Christmas was made using puppets with other materials like cloth making it harder to perfect but gave a better image.
CGI - Computer generated imagery has only been around for just under twenty years as computers took time to develop enough to be able to produce computer generated imagery. In 1995 Pixar made the first CGI animated feature film with Toy Story using 3D models that the use of CGI could create instead of 2D models. This allows a more dynamic look and gives even more possibilities to films but is a much longer and more difficult process as in order to create a realistic look, many slight movements and hairs for example are difficult to replicate. CGI has progressed dramatically over the past 20 years and has made incredible scenes in films such as The Matrix, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.
What has it lead to?
With all these different forms of animation developing over the years it has now lead to the most common used items containing animation that not many people would recognise. Standard items like computer screens, mobile phones and computer games all use forms of animation and without these milestones in animation history then these wouldn't be possible at all.
With all these different forms of animation developing over the years it has now lead to the most common used items containing animation that not many people would recognise. Standard items like computer screens, mobile phones and computer games all use forms of animation and without these milestones in animation history then these wouldn't be possible at all.