A Very Short History of
Animation
Phenakistoscope
• 1872
Phenakistoscope
invented produced an
illusion of
movement
Funny Faces
• 1906 J. Stuart Blackton
made the first
animated film which he
called "Humorous
phases of funny faces."
• His method was to
draw comical faces on
a blackboard and film
them. He would stop
the film, erase one face
to draw another, and
then film the newly
drawn face.
Little Nemo
•It was colorized
by hand
• 1911 Winsor
McCay produced
an animation
sequence using
his comic strip
character "Little
Nemo."
Gertie, The Trained Dinosaur
• Winsor McCay
produced a
cartoon called
"Gertie, The
Trained
Dinosaur"
which
amazingly
consisted of
10,000
drawings.
Gertie
• It was shown as a film in the
theaters and also as a multi media
event on stage with McCay
interacting with the animated
Gertie.
Felix the Cat
• 1920 FELIX THE
CAT, the most
popular character
and series of this
period, started as
the Feline Follies
from Sullivan's
studio.
More Felix
• The merchandising
of Felix's image for
dolls, watches, etc
was very successful
and paved the way
for the later
merchandising of
animated characters.
Mickey Mouse
• 1928 STEAMBOAT
WILLIE was the
first successful
sound animated
film; it made
Mickey an
international star,
and launched the
Disney studio of
today.
• When Disney used sound for the
first time in Steamboat Willie
(1928), he gained an advantage
over his competitors.
More Mickey
• According to Disney, "Mickey Mouse's
official birthday is November 18, 1928
when he made his first film debut in
Steamboat Willie. This was the first
Mickey Mouse cartoon released.
• Mickey Mouse’s image is the most
reproduced in the world. Over 7,500
items bear his likeness. Jesus is number
two, and Elvis is number three.
Even More Mickey
• Critics came to see in Mickey Mouse
as blend of Charlie Chaplin in his
championing of the underdog,
Douglas Fairbanks in his rascally
adventurous spirit, and Fred Astaire
in his grace and freedom from
gravity's laws.
Betty Boop
In 1930 Betty Boop
was first created as
a dog character by
Grim Natwick and
appeared as the girl
friend of another
dog named Bimbo.
Betty Boop
• Betty's figure was
modeled after
Mae West's and
her singing style
taken from Helen
Kane the "BoopBoop-a-Doop"
girl.
Looney Toons
The Looney Tunes series, created by
Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising, was
introduced in 1930. A blatant rip-off of
Disney's Silly Symphonies series, each
Looney Tune was required to have one
full chorus from a song from a Warner
feature film.
Looney Toons
• The cartoons typically were run prior to
the main feature at theaters, and the
idea was that they would promote WB
product. (Among other things, the
company had various music-publishing
concerns.) The schedule called for a
new cartoon approximately once a
month.
Merrie Melodies
• Merrie Melodies also featured Warner
songs, but where Tunes had regular
characters, Melodies for the most
part were one-shots, without
continuing characters. Another
difference was that Melodies were
shot in color starting in 1934, while
Tunes stayed black and white.
More Warner Bros.
• 1936
• Tex Avery's first
film at Warner's Jones, Clampett,
and Bo Cannon
were also in the
unit, which they
called Termite
Terrace.
Still at Warner’s
• Avery created or
developed some of
the most timeless
characters in cartoon
history with Bugs
Bunny, Daffy Duck,
Porky Pig, and
Droopy Dog, along
with the inimitable
catch-phrase
"What's up, doc?”
MGM
• Screwy's purpose,
according to critic
Greg Ford, was to
"shatter audience
complacency," which
he did with some of
the rudest gags on
record.
Screwy Squirrel
MGM
• More successful was the
series of World War II
walking pin-ups that Avery
created for American G.I.s
stationed abroad.
• He changed Cinderella and
Red Riding Hood into
gorgeous sexpots who
tantalize "the Wolf"
(unnamed) and the audience
with their lurid charms.
Jessica Rabbit
• These characters were
the basis for "Jessica
Rabbit" in Who
Framed Roger Rabbit,
but equally fun for
audiences were the
Wolf's reactions to
Cinderella/Red's
come-ons.
Snow White
• 1937 SNOW
WHITE AND THE
SEVEN DWARFS
Walt Disney
• Walt Disney
invented both
Mickey Mouse and
the multiplane
camera. Disney
was granted U.S
patent 2,201,689
for the "art on
animation"
camera on May 1,
1940.
Multiplane Camera
• The multiplane used stacked
planes of glass each painted with
different elements of the
animation. This allowed the
animator to re-use the same
background, foreground, or any
elements not in motion, saving
hours of labor. The exposure
differences for each plane was
calculated.
Storyboards
• Disney's other
innovations in
animation
technology were
the use of a
storyboard to
review the story
and the use of
pencil sketches to
review motion.
Stop Motion Animation
• Typically stop motion
animation is being
used to animate things
that are not life-size.
Some things don't
scale down well or
stay under your
control, eg water, so
substitutions need to
be made.
Stop Motion Animation
• Stop-motion
animation was
frequently combined
with live action
scenes.
Stop Motion Animation
• Filming the live action scenes first they
could be back-projected, 1 frame at a time,
behind the stop-motion scene, or front
projected, 1 frame at a time, onto glass
plates in front of the stop-motion scene, or
eventually in the 70s combined with the live
action scenes and/or other stop-motion
models using blue-screen.
Stop Motion Animation
• Originally, and still
today, you have a
team of people
moving the models
once per frame,
especially for
'living' creatures.
Stop Motion Animation
• Machines were
originally done by
hand as well, but in
the 70s computer
controlled motion rigs
took over this job.
Here the computers
were programmed to
move the model in a
given, repeatable,
pattern.
King Kong
• Willis O'Brian of King
Kong fame is usually
considered the dean of
stop-action animation.
Ray Harryhausen
• His understudy who
went on to do
impressive work in his
own right was Ray
Harryhausen (Mighty
Joe Young, Jason and
the Argonauts).
Claymation
•
Claymation is
the art of
making clay
figures move,
talk, sing,
dance or
whatever your
imagination
wants it to do!
Claymation
• Sometimes called plasticine,
figures and props are molded
from clay and are then used to
tell a story. Using stop motion
photography the frames are
then run together to produce
an animation.
Computer Animation
• Computer animation
is considered by
many to be actually
closer to other
animation techniques
rather than traditional
hand-drawn
animation.
• Often it is compared
to stop motion
animation
• Early on, Computer
Graphics (CG) appeared in a
variety of movies in which it
was used as computer
graphics (that is, the CG was
not intended to fool the
audience into thinking it was
anything other than CG).
For example, Future World
(1976) and Star Wars (1977,
Image West) fall into this
category.
Tron
• Tron (1982)
integrated computer
animation with live
action, but, since the
action took place in
a computer, the CG
didn't have to look
realistic (and didn't).
This was the first
time CG was used as
an integral part of a
movie.
The Last Starfighter
• One main use of CG has
been to replace physical
models. In this case, CG
is used to create realistic
elements which are
intermixed with the live
action. The Last Star
Fighter (1984) used
computer animation
instead of building
models for special
effects.
• CG is also used to create 'alien'
creatures. Creatures which are
supposed to be realistic, but don't have
to match anything that the audience is
familiar with. The Abyss (1989) is one
such movie in which CG is used to
effect an alien creature which is
integrated with the rest of the live
action. Some of the CG in Terminator II
served a similar purpose as well as
Casper(1995), Species (1995), Mighty
Morphin' Power Rangers.
• More challenging is the use of CG to
create realistic models of creatures
that are familiar to the audience.
Jurassic Park
• Jurassic Park (1993) was the first to
completely integrate use of CG character
animation in which the graphics were
designed so as to blend in with the live
action so that it was difficult to tell what
was computer generated and what wasn't.
Computer Animation Animation
• Of course, one use of
computer animation is
simply to 'do
animation.' By that I
mean computer
animation is used to
produce animated
pieces which would
otherwise be done by
more traditional means
- essentially 3D
cartoons
Pixar
• Toy Story (1995, Pixar,
Disney), the first full
length fully computergenerated 3D
animation, would fall
into a category of 3D
cartoon