History of animation
Jack Daniels
Basic principals
• Persistence of vision: The act that if still pictures are close enough
then when played in sequence it maintains the illusion of vision.
• Framerate: The rate that the pictures are shown, to slow a framerate
makes persistence of vision harder to achieve whilst to high creates a
larger workload
Animation techniques
• Stop motion: The act of taking pictures of a statue then moving the
statue a very small amount before taking the next picture.
• Cell animation: The act of drawing the frames to be similar to each
other in order to achieve persistence of vision
• CGI: Using models on a computer to make animation
Phenakistoscope
A phenakistscope was a paper
disk that if you pointed
towards a mirror and looked
though the hole you could see
a repeating image spinning.
This is important because this
is the first working example of
persistence of vision
Zoetrope
The zoetrope uses the same
concept as the
phenakistscope however it
allows multiple people to use
it at once making it a social
activity that people are more
eager to share.
Praxinoscope
A praxnoscope was made
due to the discomfort of
looking though the small
gaps in the zoetrope and
makes it easier to use. It
uses the fact that human
eyes would only focus on
one mirror at once to it’s
advantage
Cinematographe
The cinematographe was the first
object that was able to record
footage live that didn’t have to be
drawn, from this modern cinema
was born as it could also project
the images that it film onto a wall
for people to watch. This stared
cinemas as people would pay to
see these machines show there
footage often of mundane things
such as a train arriving
Kinetoscope
A kinetoscope was able to show
people who looked though the
hole a tape and people often had
to put a nickel into them to get
them to start working, this created
the nickelodeon.
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie made by
Walt Disney and was huge
because instead of having
somebody play music along
side it, it had sound effects
alongside it. This was huge as
instead films only using sight
they could also use sound in
order to get across messages.
Multiplane camera
The multiplane camera was
invented by Walt Disney and was
used to movie images in a
animation whilst not moving
other images in the same
animation.
CGI
CGI or computer generated image is
when a computer will simulate models
moving to skeletons within a 3D space.
It’s largely used in video game
animation and action moves.
Comparatively it is a lot faster and can
make a lot more realistic images than
other animation techniques however it
is the most expensive with animators
being highly paid and software and
hardware powerful enough being
expensive to acquire.
George pal
George Pal was the creator of puppetoons
which received a honorary Oscar ‘for the
development of novel methods and
techniques’. Puppetoons was memorable
for it’s use of replacement technical,
where a series of models were used with
different expressions for each character
and switched out instead of a single
model for each character.
Lou Bunin
Lou Bunin was one of the first
people to use wire framing inside
of animation models but he also
used his own rubber formula in
order to make said models. The
wire framing helped to keep the
model stably without having to
change how the model would look
without it as well as helping it keep
shape whilst moving.
Willis o‘Brien Jan Svankmajer
Willis o’Brien was a infuentional
animator who an acadermy award
for his work on the lost word, king
kong and mighty joe young. In
order to make his models he would
start with a wooden base including
ball sockets and cover it with clay,
he would also use foam and animal
hair in order to improve the quality
of his models which led to more
realistic models.
Tim Burton
Tim Burton is famous
for his works on
animations such as
nightmare before
Christmas and uses
robotic exoskeletons in
order to make tiny
movements that would
otherwise be nigh
impossible to make.
Animation today
High budget films such as toy story will
often use CGI unless it’s unique lack of CGI
is a selling point in movies such as Wallace
and Grommet. A large amount of live
action films will also incorporate CGI in
order to improve said films most
prominently in action films. Whilst lower
budget animations prefer to use methods
such as stop motion in order to increase
cost effectiveness.
Picture sources
Phenakistscope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenakistoscope
Zoetrope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoetrope
Praxnoscope:
http://physics.kenyon.edu/EarlyApparatus/Optical_Recreations/Praxinoscopes/Praxinoscopes.html
Cinematographe: http://www.geh.org/fm/precin/lumiere/htmlsrc/cinematographe.html
Kinetoscope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetoscope
Steamboat Willie: http://www.disneyshorts.org/shorts.aspx?shortID=96
Multiplane camera: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplane_camera
George Pal: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/George_Pal_%281979%29.jpg
Lou Bunin: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/wp-content/G/Lou%20with.jpg
Willis o’Brien: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/Willis_H._O%27Brien.jpg
Tim Burton: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Tim_Burton_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg
CGI: http://computerstories.net/wp-content/uploads/Avatar.2009.CGI_.jpg