The History of animation

The History of Animation

Joseph Plateau and the Phenakistoskope.

Joseph plateau was a Belgian physicist. hHe is the person who is credited with creating the Phenakistoskope in 1832. This device was used to view moving images. It was a device that had two disks. One with many images in different positions on it and the other contained small slits. When rotated at the correct speed these would combine and create the illusion of a moving image.

source-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Plateau

William George Horner and the Zoetrope

William George Horner was a British mathematician, he was a schoolmaster, headmaster and school keeper proficient in classes other than mathematics. He is attributed with the invention of the Zoetrope. The Zoetrope is a bit like the Phenakistaskope in that they both show images in different stages of motion. The device consists of slits cut in the sides of the cylinder/drum then images in different stages of motion on the inside. the viewer looks through the slits and sees the moving image.

source-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_George_Horner

Charles Emile-Reynaud and the Praxinoscope 

Charles Emile-Reynaud was a french inventor and was responsible for the first projected cartoons  and is credited with inventing the Praxinoscope. Reynauds late years where not as successful, his invention became outmoded by the Cinematograph. He became completely poor and as a result, in a fit of rage he threw his now invaluable work into a river. The Praxinoscope is the successor of the Zoetrope and replaced its slits with mirrors. the viewer would see a quicker succession of images with a much clearer, less distorted view.

source-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-%C3%89mile_Reynaud

Thomas Edison and the Kinetoscope
Thomas Edison is one of the most famous and important inventors of our time. he invented such devices as the phonograph the motion picture camera and the first, long lasting practical light bulb.
In 1888 Thomas Edison attended a lecture from Edweard Muybridge in which Muybridge was demonstrating the use of the Zoopraxinoscope. After this the two decided to meet up in a laboratory where thy discussed creating a combination of their two devices. The collaboration took place. However in 1889 Edison announced his plan to make a device that would do "for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear" he then a named the device the Kinetoscope: kineto(movement), scopos(to view). The Kinetoscope is a large box that the viewer looks into through the top and sees the moving image on the inside, this is from a succession of stills being shown very quickly.



source-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison

The Lumiere brothers and the Cinematographe
The Lumiere brothers are one of, if not the most important pair of people in cinema history. They patented the cinematographe which they they made their first motion picture film with Sortie 'Des Usines Lumiere a Lyon'. When the Cinematographe came about it rendered Edison's Kinetoscope obselete as the Kinetoscope only allowed one single person to have the viewing experience however the cinematographe allowed many to view the motion picture.

source-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re

Thaumotropes

The Thaumotrope was a popular toy in the 19th century. It works by putting two different images on a thin piece of material the spinning it quickly, this would make it look like the two pictures where actually one. We made some however the one I made I filmed upside down, because from my angle it looked like it was up the right way. It works through a theory of persistence of vision where the afterimage is meant to stay for 1/25 of a second in the retina which makes the two images look like they have merged together.

The Quay Brothers

Stephen and Timothy Quay are American identical twin brothers widely known as the Brothers Key.
They are very influential stop motion animators and have been praised by many critics for their work. They where influenced by a tradition of eastern European animation. They where passionate about paying close attention to the smallest details. also known for their breathtaking use of
and texture and any uncanny use of focus and camera movement. These features make their films unique and instantly recognizable. Reviews from critics range from being very favorable to being quite dismissive, usually due to confusion. For example one reviewer said "even the smallest moments can make us feel as if we've never known the film before" however another critic felt "onoccasion the images are beautiful".

source-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Quay

Willis O'Brien

Willis O'Brien was a pioneering stop motion animator.In his early life he had many jobs including a Farmhand, factory worker, fur trapper and bartender. in his spare time he would take part in sculpting and illustrating which lead him to become employed as a sports cartoonist for Francisco news. Willis O' Brien specialized in stop motion animation. this is the manipulation of film to make a object look like its moving on it own, his first film drew the attention of Thomas Edison(the kinetoscope) and he was employed by him to animate more films. other titles he worked on where, King Kong(1933) and The Lost World(1925).The last film he made was its a Mad Mad Mad Mad world(1963).

source-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_H._O'Brien

Nick Park
Nick Park was born in 1938 and is an English director, writer and stop motion artist. He is best known for Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.Nick grew up with a keen interest in drawing cartoons and made his own films at the age of 13. He studied communication and Arts at Sheffield and then went to National film and television school, where he started making his first Wallace and Gromit film, 'A Grand Day Out'. Nick Park specialized using plastecine clay in all of his films. Claymation is an object or character sculpted from clay or any other flexible material, usually around a wire skeleton called an armature and then arranged on set, being slightley moved by hand to prepare it for the next shot."plastecine was available to me when I was a teenager and started doing animation. I wanted to be more like Disney, trying to film with plastic cels but it was all too expensive. and you would make whatever you like out of a blob of plastecine".

sources- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Park
Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5th 1941. he is an animator,manga artist, illustrater, producer and screenwriter. He began his animation career in 1963 when he joined Toei animation. his first contribution to animation was in 'Gulliver's travels beyond the moon'. this was then followed by 'Lupin 3, The Castle of Cagliostro'. after the success of his next film 'Of the wind' in 1984 he co-founded studio Ghibli and continued to create highly praised feature films. John Lasseter who is the chief creative officer at Pixar and the director of toy story said;'Miyazaki is one of the greatest film makers of our time. At Pixar, when we have a problem and we cant seem to solve it, we often take one of Mr. Miyazaki's films and look at a film in our screening room for a shot of inspiration. And it always works! we came away amazed and inspired. toy story owes a huge debt of gratitude to the films of Mr. Miyazaki.

Pixar
When Pixar first started up they where known simply as the 'Graphics Group' as part of Lucasfilm. Later, they spun off and became their own studio thanks to funding from Steve Jobs. while starting out as a hardware company, a lot of staff had different backgrounds in different kinds of animation, including cel animation(hand drawn), stop motion and computer animation. Pixar specialize in 3D/Computer animation. Pixar's big claim to fame is of course making the first full length feature film completely in CGI, Which is of course the highly succesful 'Toy story'(1995). Pixar are now one of the heavyweights in the animation world along with Disney and Dreamworks.



Sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar

Tim Burton 

Tim Burton was born on august 25 1958 and is an America film director, producer, artist , writer poet and stop motion animator. He is known for his dark, quirky horrors such as Edward            Scissor Hands(1990) and Sleepy Hollow(1999). Tim started his carrer at the age of 13, when he created 'The island of doctor Agor' which is an adaptation of H.G wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau. He went on to create other shorts and was heavily influenced by the works of Dr. Suess and Rould Dahl. Tim is a very influential stop motion animator making films such as 'Corpse Bride'(2005) ,Frankenweenie(2012), and the short film 'Vincent'(1982). Tim attracted the attention of Walt Disney productions' animation department and they offered him an apprenticeship at the studio. he worked on 'The Fox and the Hound' and 'The Black Couldron'. As an animator, storyboard artist and Concept Artist. However Burtons style clashed with Disney's standards; He went on to make solo projects.

sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton

Otmar Gutman
Otmar Gutman was born on the 24th of April 1937 and died on October 13th 1993. He was a German television producer animator and director. He is perhaps most memorably known for his long running and successful creation Pingu. Pingu is a British-Swiss stop-motion clay-mation children's show. first aired in 1986. the show first started with several short episodes. Pingu's original name would have been 'Hugo'. the several short episodes where made into a short film. Then the show made a pilot movie for Swiss TV and was later created into the official show. After Gutmann past away, the pygos group collapsed and all the assets of the company were sold to HiT entertainment. HiT relaunched Pingu for a scheduled  52 episodes however after it ran its course, it ended rather abruptly and without any announcement. Pingu ran for 14 years.


sources-Otmar Gutman-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otmar_Gutmann

George Pal
George pal was born February 1st 1908, originally graduated the Budapest Academy of arts with a degree in Architecture and advanced drawing skills, both of his parents were stage entertainers and he was raise in a very artistic enviroment. He was employed by hunnia films in Budapest where he learnt motion picture cartooning . after becoming head of the cartoon department at UFA studios, Berlin, he decided to take his work to his own studio where he explored his own way of making inanimate objects move using stop motion animation. Pal originally specialized in motion picture cartooning, but when he moved to his own studio he started to experiment with making inanimate objects move. This was an up and coming method at the time. After doing adverts for cigarettes he eventually had his own wooden puppets made that had names and starred in their own films and were eventually called the Puppetoons. He caught the attention of american film maker Dave Bader and he decided to take a trip to New York with him where one of his films was shown at a party where the president of paramount pictures, Barney Baliban, saw it. He was so impressed that he offered Pal a contract them for him ion either New York or their animation studios in Florida.

sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pal

Walt Disney and Disney
The most famous animator and animation company in the world in my opinion most likely someone of any age has seen a Disney film at some point in their life. Walt Disney started his career as an animator back in 1923 with Alice's wonderland, a film that featured a child actress interacting with animated characters. In 1928 Disney created their most well known character, Mickey Mouse. Then in 1934 they created their first feature film, Snow White. Until relatively recently recently Disney had kept with hand drawn animation. This changed however in 2005 when they released Chicken Little.


sources -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company

Ray Harryhousen
Dubbed as a 'special effects titan' Ray Harryhousen was born on the 29th of June 1920 in Los Angeles to parents Fred and Martha. He had a passion for dinosaurs and anything fantasy. His parents both encouraged him to persue what he wanted to. even if the career wasn't what they would have considered usual. Some of his favourite things as a child where museums, marionette shows and local movie houses. It was whilst at grammar school that he learnt how to make model miniature set. this took him to the next phase which he began to make three dimensional figures and sets that of course led him to make his own versions of prehistoric creatures. he evolved further from there and became one of the most famous names in animation and made such films as Jason and the Argonauts(1963) and Mighty Joe Young(1949).

sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen


Dreamworks

Dreamworks is another one of the big heavyweights of the animation world. The company has made such feature films as Shrek and Antz. On October 12th 1994 Dreamworks SKG was formed and founded. It is a film production company which produces and develops films,television programming and also video games. its based in Glendale, California. As of august 2014 its feature films have made 12 billion dollars world wide. They have released a total of 29 feature films. Dreamworks specialize in computer animation and are in heavy competition with Disney and Pixar.

Sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DreamWorks

Media Platforms and Audiences

Animated Music Videos
The first music video is The White Stripes 'Fell in Love with a Girl'. It is stop motion animation. I think this video would appeal to younger audiences because its of course, made from Lego. It is also very upbeat and there is a lot of bright colors used. This makes it ideal for younger audiences as the Lego is something that they are very interested in and the bright colors would keep them fixated to the video.



The second music video I chose was the video for Clint Eastwood by The Gorillaz. The tone of the animation completely changes from the fell in love with a girl video. For one this is not stop motion which instantly takes away the upbeat feel of the former video. Also it is all quite dark and not many bright colours are used at all.



Animated films
The first animated film i looked at was chicken little. straight away you can tell that the audience for this film is children aged from five to around ten. the animation in this film is very childlike as all of the shapes and body movements are exaggerated to add comedy effect. Look at Chicken Little's head for example it is big and over the top in proportion to the rest of his body which makes it funnier. then there is also the vibrant colours that keep the younger viewing audience attracted and engaged with the film.





The second animated film I looked at was Tim Burtons A Nightmare Before Christmas. the animation in this film is completely different to that of Chicken Little. the animations are warped and out of proportion like in chicken little however the shapes are completely different. the arms and legs are elongated and it gives a very gothic an creepy feel. the colors are all very dark and Burton-esque and once again give a dark and creepy feel.


Animated Television shows
A tv show that is aimed at children instantly makes me think of Spongebob Squarepants. Like chicken run above the animations are all very colourful as this is a children's TV show. I know how captivating this TV show is as a child as I used to watch it all the time and could not get enough of it. the animations are very fluid and comical and all of the characters are made to look friendly and inviting for children.




The second animated TV programme I looked at was Futurama. although, like Spongebob there is lots of bright and vibrant colours they are used more on the enviroment than on the characters themselves. The characters movements are just as fluid as in Spongebob Squarepants however they are a lot more human than in Spongebob when they interact with eachother in the show, there is also more adult comedy in Futurama which makes it appeal to an older audience than Spongebob. Here is a compilation of some of the best moments from the series.




Channel Idents
Idents are a short sequence shown between programmes on television channles. They are usually quirky and are under ten seconds in length. they are used to promote the channel and keep the viewer engaged in what's happening on screen. We have been given the task of making an ident for channel four. Here is an example of what channel four has done in the past;

Adverts

Adverts commonly use animation to make them memorable and unique. It is probably more logical to make an advert with animation as the companies can use more bright and vibrant colours to catch the viewers attention. here is a current animated advert for clash of clans;

This animation is focused on children and young adults. this is quite obvious through its use of colors and the character movements are made to attract viewer's attention and keep them watching. It is a comedic advert and is made to make people laugh. all of the bodies are out of proportion and absurd which once again adds to the comedy.

Were is stop motion animation going?

I believe that stop motion animation is beginning to fade out in popularity. I still think it has a few gems such as Wallace and Gromit and also film like chicken run will be timeless children's classics. however I cant really see it going anywhere. Its popularity is just too low in the current media world which is a shame because there is something intriguing about stop motion films and programmmes but with the ever rising use of special effects and computer animation I feel like stop motion will become a thing of the past.

sources

en.wikepedia.org
youtube.com
http://btecmediaen2.blogspot.co.uk/
www.imdb.com
www.rottentomatoes.com
vimeo.com