History of animation

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The history of animation started long before the development of cinematography. Humans have probably attempted to depict motion as far back as the paleolithic period. Shadow play and the magic lantern offered popular shows with projected images on a screen moving as the result of manipulation by hand and/or some minor mechanics. In 1833 the phenakistiscope introduced the stroboscopic principle of modern animation, and would also provide the basis for cinematography.

Video History of animation

Early approaches to motion in art

There are several examples of early sequential images that may seem similar to series of animation drawings. Most of these examples would only allow an extremely low frame rate when they are animated, resulting in short and crude animations that are not very lifelike. However, it's very unlikely that these images were intended to be somehow viewed as an animation. It is possible to imagine technology that could have been used in the periods of their creation, but no conclusive evidence in artifacts or descriptions have been found. It is sometimes argued that these early sequential images are too easily interpreted as "pre-cinema" by minds accustomed to film, comic books and other modern sequential images, while it is uncertain that the creators of these images envisioned anything like it. The notion of instances smaller than a second that are necessary to break down an action into sufficient phases for fluent animation would not really develop before the 19th century.

Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion into a still drawing can be found in paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are often depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions. It has been claimed that these superimposed figures were intended for a form of animation with the flickering light of the flames of a fire or a passing torch illuminating different parts of the painted rock wall, revealing different parts of the motion.

Archaeological finds of small paleolithic discs with a hole in the middle and drawings on both sides have been claimed to be a kind of prehistoric thaumatropes that show motion when spun on a string.

A 5,200-year old pottery bowl discovered in Shahr-e Sukhteh, Iran has five sequential images painted around it that seem to show phases of a goat leaping up to nip at a tree.

An Egyptian mural approximately 4000 years old, found in the tomb of Khnumhotep at the Beni Hassan cemetery, features a very long series of images that apparently depict the sequence of events in a wrestling match.

The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (c. 99 BC - c. 55 BC) wrote in his poem De rerum natura a few lines that come close to the basic principles of animation: "...when the first image perishes and a second is then produced in another position, the former seems to have altered its pose. Of course this must be supposed to take place very swiftly: so great is their velocity, so great the store of particles in any single moment of sensation, to enable the supply to come up." It must be noted that this was in the context of dream images, rather than images produced by an actual or imagined technology.

The medieval codex Sigenot (circa 1470) has sequential illuminations with relatively short intervals between different phases of action. Each page has a picture inside a frame above the text, with great consistency in size and position throughout the book (with a consistent difference in size for the recto and verso sides of each page).

Seven drawings by Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1510) extending over two folios in the Windsor Collection, Anatomical Studies of the Muscles of the Neck, Shoulder, Chest, and Arm, have detailed renderings of the upper body and less-detailed facial features. The sequence shows multiple angles of the figure as it rotates and the arm extends. Because the drawings show only small changes from one image to the next, together they imply the movement of a single figure.

Ancient Chinese records contain several mentions of devices, including one made by the inventor Ding Huan, that were said to "give an impression of movement" to a series of human or animal figures on them, but these accounts are unclear and may only refer to the actual movement of the figures through space.

Since before 1000 CE the Chinese had a rotating lantern which had silhouettes projected on its thin paper sides that appeared to chase each other. This was called the "trotting horse lamp" [???] as it would typically depict horses and horse-riders. The cut-out silhouettes were attached inside the lantern to a shaft with a paper vane impeller on top, rotated by heated air rising from a lamp. Some versions added extra motion with jointed heads, feet or hands of figures triggered by a transversely connected iron wire.

Volvelles have moving parts, but these and other paper materials that can be manipulated into motion are usually not regarded as animation.

Maps History of animation

Shadow play

Shadow play has much in common with animation: people watching moving figures on a screen as a very popular form of entertainment, usually a story with dialogue, sounds and music. The figures could be very detailed and very articulated.

The earliest projection of images was most likely done in primitive shadowgraphy dating back to prehistory. It evolved into more refined forms of shadow puppetry, mostly with flat jointed cut-out figures which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen. The shapes of the puppets sometimes include translucent color or other types of detailing. The history of shadow puppetry is uncertain, but seems to have originated in Asia, possibly in the 1st millennium BCE. Clearer records seem to go back to around 900 CE. It later spread to the Ottoman empire and seems not to have reached Europe before the 17th century. It became very popular in France at the end of the 18th century. François Dominique Séraphin started his elaborate shadow shows in 1771 and performed them until his death in 1800. His heirs continued until their theatre closed in 1870. Séraphin developed the use of clockwork mechanisms to automate the show.

Around the time cinematography was developed several theaters in Montmartre showed elaborate "Ombres Chinoises" shows that were very successful. The famous Le Chat noir produced 45 different shows between 1885 and 1896.

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The Magic Lantern

Moving images were possibly projected with the magic lantern since its invention by Christiaan Huygens in 1659. His sketches for magic lantern slides have been dated to that year and are the oldest known document concerning the magic lantern. One encircled sketch depicts Death raising his arm from his toes to his head, another shows him moving his right arm up and down from his elbow and yet another taking his skull off his neck and placing it back. Dotted lines indicate the intended movements.

Techniques to add motion to painted glass slides for the magic lantern were described since circa 1700. These usually involved parts (for instance limbs) painted on one or more extra pieces of glass moved by hand or small mechanisms across a stationary slide which showed the rest of the picture. Popular subjects for mechanical slides included the sails of a windmill turning, a procession of figures, a drinking man lowering and raising his glass to his mouth, a head with moving eyes, a nose growing very long, rats jumping in the mouth of a sleeping man. A more complex 19th century rackwork slide showed the then known eight planets and their satellites orbiting around the sun. Two layers of painted waves on glass could create a convincing illusion of a calm sea turning into a very stormy sea tossing some boats about by increasing the speed of the manipulation of the different parts.

In 1770 Edmé-Gilles Guyot detailed how to project a magic lantern image on smoke to create a transparent, shimmering image of a hovering ghost. This technique was used in the phantasmagoria shows that became very popular in several parts of Europe between 1790 and the 1830s. Other techniques were developed to produce convincing ghost experiences. The lantern was handheld to move the projection across the screen (which was usually an almost invisible transparent screen behind which the lanternist operated hidden in the dark). A ghost could seem to approach the audience or grow larger by moving the lantern away from the screen, sometimes with the lantern on a trolley on rails. Multiple lanterns made ghosts move independently and were occasionally used for superimposition in the composition of complicated scenes.

Dissolving views became a popular magic lantern show, especially in England in the 1830s and 1840s. These typically had a landscape changing from a winter version to a spring or summer variation by slowly diminishing the light from one version while introducing the aligned projection of the other slide. Another use showed the gradual change of for instance groves into cathedrals.

Between the 1840s and 1870s several abstract magic lantern effects were developed. This included the chromatrope which projected dazzling colorful geometrical patterns by rotating two painted glass discs in opposite directions.

Occasionally small shadow puppets had been used in phantasmagoria shows. Magic lantern slides with jointed figures set in motion by levers, thin rods, or cams and worm wheels were also produced commercially and patented in 1891. A popular version of these "Fantoccini slides" had a somersaulting monkey with arms attached to mechanism that made it tumble with dangling feet. Fantoccini slides are named after the Italian word for puppets like marionettes or jumping jacks.

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Animation before film

Numerous devices that successfully displayed animated images were introduced well before the advent of the motion picture. These devices were used to entertain, amaze, and sometimes even frighten people. The majority of these devices didn't project their images, and could only be viewed by a one or a few persons at a time. They were considered optical toys rather than devices for a large scale entertainment industry like later animation. Many of these devices are still built by and for film students learning the basic principles of animation.

Prelude

An article in the Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature, and The Arts (1821) raised some interest in optical illusions of curved spokes in rotating wheels seen through vertical apertures. In 1824 Peter Mark Roget provided mathematical details about the appearing curvatures and added the observation that the spokes appeared motionless. Roget claimed that the illusion is due to the fact "that an impression made by a pencil of rays on the retina, if sufficiently vivid, will remain for a certain time after the cause has ceased." This was later seen as the basis for the theory of "persistence of vision" as the principle of how we see film as motion rather than the successive stream of still images actually presented to the eye. This theory has been discarded as the (sole) principle of the effect since 1912, but remains in many film history explanations. However, Roget's experiments and explanation did inspire some further research by Michael Faraday and also by Joseph Plateau that would eventually bring about the invention of animation.

Thaumatrope (1825)

In April 1825 the first Thaumatrope was published by W. Phillips (in anonymous association with John Ayrton Paris) and became a very popular toy. The pictures on either side of a small cardboard disc seem to blend into one combined image when it is twirled quickly by the attached strings. This is often used as an illustration of what has often been called "persistence of vision" (scientifically better known as positive afterimages). Although a thaumatrope can also be used for two-phase animation, no examples are known to have been produced with this effect until long after the phénakisticope had established the principle of animation.

Phénakisticope (1833)

The phenakistiscope or fantascope was the first animation device using rapid successive substitution of sequential pictures. The pictures are evenly spaced radially around a disc, with small rectangular apertures at the rim of the disc. The animation could be viewed through the slits of the spinning disc in front of a mirror. It was invented in November or December 1832 by the Belgian Joseph Plateau and almost simultaneously by the Austrian Simon von Stampfer. Plateau first published about his invention in January 1833. The publication included an illustration plate of a fantascope with 16 frames depicting a pirouetting dancer.

The phénakisticopees was very successful as a novelty toy and within a year very many sets of stroboscopic discs were published across Europe, with almost as many different names for the device - including Fantascope (Plateau), The Stroboscope (Stampfer) and Phénakisticope (Parisian publisher Giroux & Cie).

Zoetrope (1866)

In July 1833 Simon Stampfer described the possibility of using the stroboscope principle in a cylinder (as well as on looped strips) in a pamphlet accompanying the second edition of his version of the phénakisticope. British mathematician William George Horner suggested a cylindrical variation of Plateau's phénakisticope in January 1834. Horner planned to publish this Dædaleum with optician King, Jr in Bristol but it "met with some impediment probably in the sketching of the figures".

In 1865 William Ensign Lincoln invented the definitive zoetrope with easily replaceable strips of images. It also had an illustrated paper disc on the base, which was not always exploited on the commercially produced versions. Lincoln licensed his invention to Milton Bradley and Co. who first advertised it on December 15, 1866.

Flip book (1868)

John Barnes Linnett patented the first flip book in 1868 as the kineograph. A flip book is a small book with relatively springy pages, each having one in a series of animation images located near its unbound edge. The user bends all of the pages back, normally with the thumb, then by a gradual motion of the hand allows them to spring free one at a time. As with the phenakistoscope, zoetrope and praxinoscope, the illusion of motion is created by the apparent sudden replacement of each image by the next in the series, but unlike those other inventions no view-interrupting shutter or assembly of mirrors is required and no viewing device other than the user's hand is absolutely necessary. Early film animators cited flip books as their inspiration more often than the earlier devices, which did not reach as wide an audience.

The older devices by their nature severely limit the number of images that can be included in a sequence without making the device very large or the images impractically small. The book format still imposes a physical limit, but many dozens of images of ample size can easily be accommodated. Inventors stretched even that limit with the mutoscope, patented in 1894 and sometimes still found in amusement arcades. It consists of a large circularly-bound flip book in a housing, with a viewing lens and a crank handle that drives a mechanism that slowly rotates the assembly of images past a catch, sized to match the running time of an entire reel of film.

Praxinoscope (1877)

French inventor Charles-Émile Reynaud developed the Praxinoscope in 1876 and patented it in 1877. It is similar to the zoetrope but instead of the slits in the cylinder it has twelve rectangular mirrors placed evenly around the center of the cylinder. Each mirror reflects another image of the picture strip placed opposite on the inner wall of the cylinder. When rotating the praxinoscope shows the sequential images one by one, resulting in a fluent animation. The praxinoscope allowed a much clearer view of the moving image compared to the zoetrope, since the zoetrope's images were actually mostly obscured by the spaces in between its slits. In 1879 Reynaude registered a modification to the praxinoscope patent to include the Praxinoscope Théâtre, which utilized the Pepper's ghost effect to present the animated figures in an exchangeable background. Later improvements included the "Praxinoscope à projection" (marketed since 1882) which used a double magic lantern to project the animated figures over a till projection of a background.

Zoopraxiscope (1879)

Eadweard Muybridge had circa 70 of his famous chronophotographic sequences painted on glass discs for the zoopraxiscope projector that he used in his popular lectures between 1880 and 1895. In the 1880s the images were painted onto the glass in dark contours. Later discs made between 1892 and 1894 had outlines drawn by Erwin F. Faber that were photographically printed on the disc and then coloured by hand, but these were probably never used in the lectures. The painted figures were largely transposed from the photographs, but many fanciful combinations were made and sometimes imaginary elements were added.

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1888-1908: Earliest animations on film

Théâtre Optique

Charles-Émile Reynaud further developed his projection praxinoscope into the Théâtre Optique with transparent hand-painted colorful pictures in a long perforated strip wound between two spools, patented in December 1888. From 28 October 1892 to March 1900 Reynaud gave over 12,800 shows to a total of over 500.000 visitors at the Musée Grévin in Paris. His Pantomimes Lumineuses series of animated films each contained 300 to 700 frames that were manipulated back and forth to last 10 to 15 minutes per film. A background scene was projected separately. Piano music, song and some dialogue were performed live, while some sound effects were synchronized with an electromagnet. The first program included three cartoons: Pauvre Pierrot (created in 1891), Un bon bock (created in 1888, now lost), and Le Clown et ses chiens (created in 1890, now lost). Later on the titles Autour d'une cabine (created in 1893) and A rêve au coin du feu would be part of the performances.

Standard picture film

Despite the success of Reynaud's films it took some time before animation was adapted in the film industry that came about after the introduction of Lumiere's Cinematograph in 1895. Georges Méliès' early fantasy and trick films (released between 1896 and 1913) occasionally came close to including animation with substitution splice effects, painted props or painted creatures moving in front of painted backgrounds and film colorization by hand. Méliès also popularized the stop trick, with a single change made to the scene in between shots, that had already been used in Edison's The Execution of Mary Stuart in 1895 and probably led to the development of stop-motion animation some years later. It seems to have lasted until 1906 before proper animated films started to appear in cinemas. The dating of earlier films with animation is contested, while other films that may have used stop motion or other animation techniques are lost and can't be checked.

Printed animation film

In 1897 German toy manufacturer Gebrüder Bing had a first prototype of their Kinematograph. In November 1898 they presented this toy film projector, possibly the first of its kind, at a toy festival in Leipzig. Soon other toy manufacturers, including Ernst Plank and Georges Carette, sold similar devices. Around the same time the French company Lapierre marketed a similar projector. The toy cinematographs were basically magic lanterns with one or two small spools that used standard "Edison perforation" 35mm film. These projectors were intended for the same type of "home entertainment" toy market that most of these manufacturers already provided with praxinoscopes and toy magic lanterns. Apart from relatively expensive live-action films, the manufacturers produced many cheaper films by printing lithographed drawings. These animations were probably made in black-and-white from around 1898 or 1899, but at the latest by 1902 they were made in color. The pictures were often traced from live-action films (much like the later rotoscoping technique). These very short films depicted a simple repetitive action and were created to be projected as a loop - playing endlessly with the film ends put together. The lithograph process and the loop format follow the tradition that was set by the zoetrope and praxinoscope.

Katsud? Shashin, from an unknown creator, was discovered in 2005 and is speculated to be the oldest work of animation in Japan, with Natsuki Matsumoto, an expert in iconography at the Osaka University of Arts and animation historian Nobuyuki Tsugata determining the film was most likely made between 1907 and 1911. The film consists of a series of cartoon images on fifty frames of a celluloid strip and lasts three seconds at sixteen frames per second. It depicts a young boy in a sailor suit who writes the kanji characters "????" (katsud? shashin, or "moving picture"), then turns towards the viewer, removes his hat, and offers a salute. Evidence suggests it was mass-produced to be sold to wealthy owners of home projectors. To Matsumoto, the relatively poor quality and low-tech printing technique indicate it was likely from a smaller film company.

J. Stuart Blackton

J. Stuart Blackton was an Anglo-American filmmaker, co-founder of the Vitagraph Studios and one of the first to use animation in his films.The Enchanted Drawing (1900) by is considered to be the first film recorded on standard picture film that included some sequences that are sometimes regarded as animation. It shows Blackton doing some "lightning sketches" of a face, cigars, a bottle of wine and a glass. The face changes expression when Blackton pours some wine into the face's mouth and takes his cigar. The technique used in this film was basically the substitution splice: the single change to scenes was that a drawing was replaced by a similar drawing with a different facial expression (or a drawn bottle and glass were replaced by real objects). Blackton had possibly used the same technique in a lost 1896 lightning sketch film. The effect can hardly be considered animation. Blackton's 1906 film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is often regarded as the oldest known drawn animation on standard film. It features a sequence made with blackboard drawings that are changed between frames to show two faces changing expressions and some billowing cigar smoke, as well as two sequences that feature cutout animation. Blackton's The Haunted Hotel (1907) featured a combination of live-action with practical special effects and stop-motion animation of objects, a puppet and a model of the haunted hotel. It was the first stop-motion film to receive wide scale appreciation. Especially a large close-up view of a table being set by itself baffled viewers; there were no visible wires or other noticeable well-known tricks. This inspired other filmmakers, including French animator Émile Cohl and Segundo de Chomón, to work with the new technique. De Chomón would release the similar The House of Ghosts and El hotel eléctrico in 1908.

Edwin S. Porter

In 1905 American film pioneer Edwin S. Porter used animated letters and a very simple cutout animation of two hands in the intertitles in How Jones lost his roll. He experimented with a small bit of crude stop-motion animation in his trick film Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906). His 1907 film The "Teddy" Bears mainly shows people in bear costumes, but also features a short stop-motion segment with small teddy bears.

Segundo de Chomón

Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomón made many trick films and has often been compared to Georges Méliès. De Chomón frequently used stop-motion in his films, even before the release of J. Stuart Blackton's groundbreaking The Haunted Hotel. Le théâtre de Bob (1906) features over three minutes of stop-motion animation with dolls and some objects. El hotel eléctrico (1908) features much stop motion with objects, a bit of pixilation and one effect done with drawn animtion (a few lines probably drawn on the negative that represent electric sparks).

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper was a British filmmaker who did much pioneering work in stop motion animation. He produced over 300 films between 1896 and 1915, of which an estimated 36 were all or in part animated.

Based on later reports by Cooper and by his daughter Audrey Wadowska some believe that his Matches: an Appeal was produced in 1899 and therefore the very first stop-motion animation. The black-and-white film shows a matchstick figure writing an appeal to donate a Guinea for which Bryant and May would supply soldiers with sufficient matches. No extant archival records show that the film was indeed created in 1899 during the beginning of the Second Boer War. Others place it at 1914, during the beginning of World War I. Cooper created more Animated Matches scenes in the same setting. These are believed to also have been produced in 1899, while a release date of 1908 has also been given. There is also an Animated Matches film by Émile Cohl that was released by Gaumont in 1908, which may have caused more confusion about the release dates of Cooper's matchstick men animations.

The lost films Dolly's Toys (1901) and The Enchanted Toymaker (1904) may have included stop-motion animation. Dreams of Toyland (1908) features a scene with many animated toys that lasts circa three and a half minutes.

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Traditional animation

The silent era

The French artist Émile Cohl created the first animated film using what came to be known as traditional animation methods: the 1908 Fantasmagorie. The film largely consisted of a stick figure moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects, such as a wine bottle that transforms into a flower. There were also sections of live action where the animator's hands would enter the scene. The film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, which gave the picture a blackboard look. Cohl later went to Fort Lee, New Jersey near New York City in 1912, where he worked for French studio Éclair and spread its animation technique to the US.

Influenced by Émile Cohl, the author of the first puppet-animated film (i.e., The Beautiful Lukanida (1912)), Russian-born (ethnically Polish) director Wladyslaw Starewicz, known as Ladislas Starevich, started to create stop motion films using dead insects with wire limbs and later, in France, with complex and really expressive puppets. In 1912, he created The Cameraman's Revenge, a complex tale of treason and violence between several different insects. It is a pioneer work of puppet animation, and the oldest animated film of such dramatic complexity, with characters filled with motivation, desire and feelings.

More detailed hand-drawn animations with detailed backgrounds and characters, were those directed by Winsor McCay, a successful newspaper cartoonist, including the 1911 Little Nemo, the 1914 Gertie the Dinosaur, and the 1918 The Sinking of the Lusitania. Gertie the Dinosaur featured an early example of character development in drawn animation. The film was made for McCay's vaudeville act and as it played McCay would speak to Gertie who would respond with a series of gestures. There was a scene at the end of the film where McCay walked behind the projection screen and a view of him appears on the screen showing him getting on the cartoon dinosaur's back and riding out of frame. This scene made Gertie the Dinosaur the first film to combine live-action footage with hand-drawn animation. McCay hand-drew almost every one of the 10,000 drawings he used for the film.

Also in 1914, John Bray opened John Bray Studios, which revolutionized the way animation was created. Earl Hurd, one of Bray's employees patented the cel technique. This involved animating moving objects on transparent celluloid sheets. Animators photographed the sheets over a stationary background image to generate the sequence of images. This, as well as Bray's innovative use of the assembly line method, allowed John Bray Studios to create Colonel Heeza Liar, the first animated series.

During the 1910s, the production of animated short films, typically referred to as "cartoons", became an industry of its own and cartoon shorts were produced for showing in movie theaters. The most successful producer at the time was John Randolph Bray, who, along with animator Earl Hurd, patented the cel animation process that dominated the animation industry for the rest of the decade.

In 1915, Max and Dave Fleischer invented rotoscoping, the process of using film as a reference point for animation and their studios went on to later release such animated classics as Ko-Ko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor Man, and Superman. In 1918 McCay released The Sinking of the Lusitania, a wartime propaganda film. McCay did use some of the newer animation techniques, such as cels over paintings--but because he did all of his animation by himself, the project wasn't actually released until just shortly before the end of the war. At this point the larger scale animation studios were becoming the industrial norm and artists such as McCay faded from the public eye.

The first known animated feature film was El Apóstol, made in 1917 by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. He also directed two other animated feature films, including 1931's Peludópolis, the first feature length animation to use synchronized sound. None of these, however, survived.

In 1920, Otto Messmer of Pat Sullivan Studios created Felix the Cat. Pat Sullivan, the studio head took all of the credit for Felix, a common practice in the early days of studio animation. Felix the Cat was distributed by Paramount Studios, and it attracted a large audience. Felix was the first cartoon to be merchandised. He soon became a household name.

In Germany, during the 1920s the abstract animation was invented by Walter Ruttman, Hans Richter, and Oskar Fischinger, however, the Nazis censorship against so-called "degenerate art" prevented the abstract animation from developing after 1933.

The earliest surviving animated feature film is the 1926 silhouette-animated Adventures of Prince Achmed, which used colour-tinted film. It was directed by German Lotte Reiniger and French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch.

Walt Disney & Warner Bros.

In 1923, a studio called Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupt and its owner, Walt Disney, opened a new studio in Los Angeles. Disney's first project was the Alice Comedies series, which featured a live action girl interacting with numerous cartoon characters. Disney's first notable breakthrough was 1928's Steamboat Willie, the third of the Mickey Mouse series. The short film showed an anthropomorphic mouse named Mickey neglecting his work on a steamboat to instead make music using the animals aboard the boat. Even though many wrongly believe Steamboat Willie was the first cartoon with synchronized sound, since May 1924 and continuing through September 1926, Dave and Max Fleischer's Inkwell Studios produced 19 sound cartoons, part of the Song Car-Tunes series, using the Phonofilm "sound-on-film" process.

In 1933, Warner Brothers Cartoons was founded. While Disney's studio was known for its releases being strictly controlled by Walt Disney himself, Warner brothers allowed its animators more freedom, which allowed for their animators to develop more recognizable personal styles.

The first animation to use the full, three-color Technicolor method was Flowers and Trees, made in 1932 by Disney Studios, which won an Academy Award for the work. Color animation soon became the industry standard, and in 1934, Warner Brothers released Honeymoon Hotel of the Merrie Melodies series, their first color films. Meanwhile, Disney had realized that the success of animated films depended upon telling emotionally gripping stories; he developed an innovation called a "story department" where storyboard artists separate from the animators would focus on story development alone, which proved its worth when the Disney studio released in 1933 the first-ever animated short to feature well-developed characters, Three Little Pigs. In 1935, Tex Avery released his first film with Warner Brothers. Avery's style was notably fast-paced, violent, and satirical, with a slapstick sensibility.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Many consider Walt Disney's 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the first animated feature film, though at least seven films were released earlier. However, Disney's film was the first one completely made using hand-drawn animation. The previous seven films, of which only four survive, were made using cutout, silhouette or stop motion, except for one--also made by Disney seven months prior to Snow White's release--Academy Award Review of Walt Disney Cartoons. This was an anthology film to promote the upcoming release of Snow White. However, many do not consider this a genuine feature film because it is a package film. In addition, at approximately 41 minutes, the film does not seem to fulfill today's expectations for a feature film. However, the official BFI, AMPAS and AFI definitions of a feature film require that it be over 40 minutes long, which, in theory, should make it the first animated feature film using traditional animation.

But as Snow White was also the first one to become successful and well-known within the English-speaking world, people tend to disregard the seven films. Following Snow White's release, Disney began to focus much of its productive force on feature-length films. Though Disney did continue to produce shorts throughout the century, Warner Brothers continued to focus on features.

The television era

Color television was introduced to the US Market in 1951. In 1958, Hanna-Barbera released The Huckleberry Hound Show, the first half-hour television program to feature only animation. Terrytoons released Tom Terrific the same year. In 1960, Hanna-Barbera released another monumental animated television show, The Flintstones, which was the first animated series on prime time television. Television significantly decreased public attention to the animated shorts being shown in theatres.

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Animation Techniques

Innumerable approaches to creating animation have arisen throughout the years. Here is a brief account of some of the non traditional techniques commonly incorporated.

Stop motion

This process is used for many productions, for example, the most common types of puppets are clay puppets, as used in The California Raisins, Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep by Aardman, and figures made of various rubbers, cloths and plastic resins, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Sometimes even objects are used, such as with the films of Jan ?vankmajer.

Stop motion animation was also commonly used for special effects work in many live-action films, such as the 1914 Italian cult epic film Cabiria, the 1933 version of King Kong and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

CGI animation

The first fully computer-animated feature film was Pixar's Toy Story (1995). The process of CGI animation is still very tedious and similar in that sense to traditional animation, and it still adheres to many of the same principles.

A principal difference of CGI animation compared to traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modeling, almost like a virtual version of stop-motion. A form of animation that combines the two and uses 2D computer drawing can be considered computer aided animation.

Most CGI created films are based on animal characters, monsters, machines, or cartoon-like humans. Animation studios are now trying to develop ways to create realistic-looking humans. Films that have attempted this include Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001, Final Fantasy: Advent Children in 2005, The Polar Express in 2004, Beowulf in 2007 and Resident Evil: Degeneration in 2009. However, due to the complexity of human body functions, emotions and interactions, this method of animation is rarely used. The more realistic a CG character becomes, the more difficult it is to create the nuances and details of a living person, and the greater the likelihood of the character falling into the uncanny valley. The creation of hair and clothing that move convincingly with the animated human character is another area of difficulty. The Incredibles and Up both have humans as protagonists, while films like Avatar combine animation with live action to create humanoid creatures.

Cel-shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering intended to make computer graphics appear hand-drawn. It is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon. It is a somewhat recent addition to computer graphics, most commonly turning up in console video games. Though the end result of cel-shading has a very simplistic feel like that of hand-drawn animation, the process is complex. The name comes from the clear sheets of acetate (originally, celluloid), called cels, that are painted on for use in traditional 2D animation. It may be considered a "2.5D" form of animation. True real-time cel-shading was first introduced in 2000 by Sega's Jet Set Radio for their Dreamcast console. Besides video games, a number of anime have also used this style of animation, such as Freedom Project in 2006.

Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation. Machinima-based artists, sometimes called machinimists or machinimators, are often fan laborers, by virtue of their re-use of copyrighted materials.

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Firsts in animation

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Americas

History of Argentinian animation

The world's first two feature-length animated films and the first film with sound were developed in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani;

• 1917: El Apóstol
• 1918: Sin dejar rastros

History of Brazilian animation

• 1917: Álvaro Marins produces Kaiser, Brazil's first animated short film.
• 1953: Anélio Lattini Filho produces Amazon Symphony, Brazil's first animated feature-length film.
• 1996: NDR Filmes produces Cassiopéia, considered for some as the first CG movie in the world.

History of Canadian animation

• 1914: Raoul Barré of Barré Studio produces animated segments for Animated Grouch Chaser.
• 1916: Raoul Barré produces Mutt and Jeff.
• 1919: Jack (J.A.) Norling produces The Man Who Woke Up, the oldest surviving animation made in Canada.
• 1926: Raoul Barré works as guest animator for Felix the Cat.
• 1941: The National Film Board of Canada's animation department is founded with the addition of Norman McLaren to the organization..

History of Cuban animation

• 1970: Juan Padrón creates the character of Elpidio Valdés, star of a long-running series of shorts and two motion pictures.
• 1985: Juan Padrón's ¡Vampiros en la Habana!
• 1992: An animation category is added to the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano.

History of Mexican animation

• 1935: Alfonso Vergara produces Paco Perico en premier, an animated short film.
• 1974: Fernando Ruiz produces Los tres reyes magos, Mexico's first animated feature-length film.
• 1977: Anuar Badin creates the film Los supersabios, based on the comic.
• 1983: Roy del espacio

History of United States animation

• Beginning of industrial production of animated cartoon.

The history of Hollywood animation as an art form has undergone many changes in its hundred-year history, the following lists four separate chapters in the development of its animation:

Animation in the United States during the silent era (1906 through 1929)

• 1906: Vitagraph produces the first animated short film recorded in conventional film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces.
• The beginnings of theatrical, the earliest animated cartoons in the era of silent film, ranging from the works of Winsor McCay through Koko the Clown and Felix the Cat.
• The Bray Studios was the first and foremost cartoon studio, housed in New York City. Many aspiring cartoonists started their careers at Bray, including Paul Terry of Heckle and Jeckle fame, Max Fleischer of Betty Boop fame, as well as Walter Lantz of Woody Woodpecker fame. The cartoon studio operated from c. 1915 until 1928. Some of the first cartoon stars from the Bray studios were Farmer Alfalfa (by Paul Terry) and Bobby Bumps (by Earl Hurd).
• Disney and Alice Comedies (1923-1927).
• Max and Dave Fleischer formed their own studio Fleischer Studios, and created the Koko the Clown, Out of the Inkwell, and Sound Car-Tunes series.
• Disney creates the first cartoons of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse.

Golden age of American animation (1928 through mid-60s)

• Appearance of the first sound synchronized cartoons in 1928 and the appearance of technicolor in the 1930s.
• The dominance of Walt Disney throughout the 1930s, through revolutionary cartoons Silly Symphonies, Mickey Mouse, and Donald Duck.
• Theatrical cartoons of Van Beuren Studios with RKO Radio Pictures (1928-1937).
• Theatrical cartoons of Terrytoons with 20th Century Fox (1929-1968).
• Theatrical cartoons of Walter Lantz Productions with Universal Studios (1929-1972).
• Theatrical cartoons of Screen Gems with Columbia Pictures (1933-1946).
• The rise of theatrical cartoons of Warner Bros. (1933-1969) and MGM (1937-1967).
• The Fleischer Studios creation of Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons (1929-1942).
• Theatrical cartoons of Famous Studios with Paramount Pictures (1942-1967).
• Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs marks the start of the "Golden Age" at Disney's films (1937-1970).
• The departure from realism, and UPA (1943-1970).
• 1938: Chad Grothkopf's eight-minute experimental Willie the Worm, cited as the first animated film created for TV, was shown on NBC.
• The first TV animated series from Jay Ward Productions in 1948: Crusader Rabbit.
• The emergence of TV animated series from Hanna-Barbera in 1957 and theatrical cartoons with Columbia Pictures (1959-1965).
• Japanese animation, known as anime, arrives to America in 1961.
• Theatrical cartoons of DFE with United Artists (1964-1969).

Animation in the United States in the television era (1962 through mid-80s)

• The competition begins in television animation with Filmation (1962) and DFE (1963)
• The rise of Saturday-morning cartoons in the mid-1960s.
• The decline of theatrical cartoons and feature films.
• The start of the "Dark Age" of Disney's films (1967-1985).
• The attempts at reviving animated features in the late 1960s.
• The rise of adult animation in the early 1970s.
• The onslaught of commercial cartoons in the 1980s.
• The rise of anime series in America in the 1980s.
• Disney creates his first animated television series in 1985: The Wuzzles.

Modern animation in the United States (1986 through present)

• Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Disney Renaissance (1989-1999).
• Success of Disney animated series: The Disney Afternoon (1985-1997).
• Steven Spielberg's collaborations with Warner Bros..
• The Simpsons marks the resurgence of adult-oriented animation.
• The decline of Saturday-morning cartoons in the 1990s.
• A flood of newer, bolder film animation studios.
• Don Bluth's films appear on the scene, creating potential competition for Disney (1986-1989).
• Pixar Animation Studios with Luxo Jr. (1986) and Toy Story (1995).
• The rise of computer animation, for both 2D and 3D (CGI) animation.
• The decline of traditional animation.
• South Park mimicks cut-out animation by using computer animation.
• Cartoon Network's late-night animation block Adult Swim becomes immensely popular and leads to a resurgence in short, adult animation.
• Disney Post-Renaissance films (2000-2008) and Disney Revival films (2009-2016).

Popularity in Italy (1960s through present)

The invasion of US cartoons, thousands of animated series, along with animated films, bring popularity and success also in Italy, since the 1960s.

src: i.ytimg.com

Europe

History of British animation

• 1899: Arthur Melbourne-Cooper's "Matches Appeal"
• 1954: Animal Farm
• 1978: Watership Down
• 1982: Plague Dogs
• 1982: SuperTed
• 1989: Wallace and Gromit
• 1990: The Dreamstone
• 1999: Watership Down

History of Czech animation

The roots of Czech puppet animation began in the mid-1940s when puppet theater operators, Eduard Hofman and Ji?í Trnka founded the Poetic animation school, Brat?i v triku. Since that time animation has expanded and flourished.

• 1945: D?dek zasadil ?epu ("My grandfather planted a beet")
• 1946: Zví?átka to petrovstí ("Animals and bandits")
• 1946: Pérak SS ("The jumper and the men of the SS")
• 1946: Dárek ("The Gift")
• 1947: ?palí?ek ("The Czech Year")
• 1949: Román s basou ("Story of a bass")
• 1949: ?ertuv mlýn ("The Devil's Mill")
• 1949: Arie prerie ("Song of the Prairie")
• 1949: Císa??v Slavík ("The Emperor's Nightingale")

History of Estonian animation

Estonian animation began in the 1930s and has carried on into the modern day.

• 1931 - The Adventures of Juku the Dog, first Estonian animated short film
• 1950s - founding of puppet animation division of Tallinnfilm by Elbert Tuganov
• 1970s - founding of drawn animation division, Joonisfilm, by Rein Raamat

History of French animation

• 1908-1925, The work of animation pioneer Émile Cohl produces a number of firsts in animation and animation techniques.
  • 1908: The first animated cartoon
  • 1909: First use of morphing
  • 1910: First use of puppet animation and first color-animated cartoon
  • 1911: First use of pixilation
  • 1916: La journée de Flambeau becomes the first animated series. (also known as Flambeau, chien perdu)

History of Hungarian animation

• 1914: István Kató Kiszly first becomes involved in cut-out promotional animations for use during newsreels.
• 1932: Gyula Macskássy and János Halász establish Hungary's first animation studio, Coloriton.
• 1930-1940: Hungarian animators such as Jean Image, George Pal, and John Halas emigrate from Hungary due to political instability and settle abroad.
• 1948: All film-making is nationalized by the Hungarian Communist Party under Magyar Szinkronfilmgyártó Vállalat (later rechristened as Pannónia Film Stúdió).
• 1951: Gyula Macskássy and Edit Fekete create Hungary's first color animation, A kiskakas gyémánt félkrajcárja.
• 1962: Gyula Macskássy and György Várnai create Hungary's first animated serial, the Peti series.
• 1973: Marcell Jankovics creates the first feature-length Hungarian film, János Vitéz.
• 1981: Ferenc Rofusz wins the 1981 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film with A Légy.
• 1981: János Kass' Dilemma becomes the first fully digital animated film
• 1985 - Hungary holds its first Hungarian Animated Cartoon Festival in Kecskemét.
• 1990 - Communism ends, and with it state support for Pannónia Film Stúdió. Independent studios like Varga Studio and Digic Pictures emerge.

History of Italian animation

• 1914: First use of stop-motion animation as special effects in Cabiria
• 1949: The first two Italian animated movies are released: La Rosa di Bagdad directed by Anton Gino Domeneghini and The Dynamite Brothers directed by Nino Pagot
• 1970: The Italian animated cartoon art and industry (La Linea, Mio Mao, Calimero...) is born.
• 1977: The animated Italian classic, Allegro non troppo, is both a parody of and homage to Disney's Fantasia; this is director Bruno Bozzetto's most ambitious work and his third feature-length animation, after West and Soda, an animated spaghetti western, and VIP my Brother Superman, a parody of superheroes, although he also directed several notable shorter works including Mr. Rossi and the Oscar-nominated Grasshoppers (Cavallette).

History of Russian animation

• 1910-1913: Ladislas Starevich creates puppet animations
• 1935: First animated feature film in the USSR, The New Gulliver
• 1935: Soyuzmultfilm Studio is created.
• late 1930s to 1950s: Socialist Realism in cartoons:
• 1947: The Humpbacked Horse
• 1952: The Scarlet Flower
• 1955: The Enchanted Boy
• 1956: The Twelve Months
• 1957: The Snow Queen
• 1967-1971: Adventures of Mowgli series
• 1969: Gena the Crocodile, the first Cheburashka short is made.
• 1969: Winnie-the-Pooh.
• 1969: The Bremen Town Musicians.
• 1969-1986: Nu, Pogodi! original series.
• 1973: The Nutcracker
• 1975: Hedgehog in the Fog
• 1978: Three from Prostokvashino
• 1979: Tale of Tales
• 1981: The Mystery of the Third Planet
• 1982: Once Upon a Dog
• 1987: The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin
• 1990s: Government subsidies shrink dramatically, while the number of studios grow.
• 1999: The Old Man and the Sea
• since 2001: Internet era in the Russian independent animation: Masyanya, Mr. Freeman and others
• 2004-2012: Kikoriki (Smeshariki) series
• since 2009: Masha and the Bear series
• 2011: Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf
• 2012: The Snow Queen

History of animation in Croatia (in former Yugoslavia)

• 1953: Zagreb Film inaugurates the Zagreb school of animation.
• 1975: ?kola Animiranog Filma ?akovec (?AF) inaugurates the ?akovec school of animation.

src: pixelsmithstudios.com

Asia

History of Chinese animation

• 1922: first animation in a commercial Shuzhendong Chinese Typewriter
• 1926: first animation to showcase technology Uproar in the Studio and acknowledge Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan as pioneers.
• 1935: The Camel's Dance - first chinese animation with sound.
• 1941: Princess Iron Fan
• 1980: Three Monks

History of Indian animation

• 1974: Ek Anek Aur Ekta
• 1978: The Hunt
• 1986: Ghayab Aaya
• 1992: Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama
• 2005: Hanuman
• 2012: Chhota Bheem and the Curse of Damyaan
• 2012: Arjun: The Warrior Prince
• 2013: Chhota Bheem and the Throne of Bali
• 2014: Mighty Raju Rio calling
• 2016: Chhota Bheem Himalayan Adventure
• 2016: Motu Patlu: King Of Kings

History of Iranian animation

Iran's animation owes largely to the animator Noureddin Zarrinkelk. Zarrinkelk was instrumental in founding the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) in Tehran in collaboration with the late father of Iranian graphics Morteza Momayez and other fellow artists like Farshid Mesghali, Ali Akbar Sadeghi, and Arapik Baghdasarian.

• Circa 3000 BCE: Zoopraxiscope-style animated pottery is produced. This is considered one of the oldest forms of animation in the world.
• 1970: Duty, First
• 1971: A Playground for Baboush
• 1971: Philipo and a Train from Hong Kong
• 1971: Seven Cities
• 1972: Shower of Flowers
• 1973: Association Of Ideas
• 1973: I Am He Who...
• 1974: Atal-Matal
• 1974: The Castle
• 1975: The Mad, Mad, Mad World
• 1975: The Sun King

History of Japanese animation (anime)

• Circa 1915: Discovered in Kyoto in 2005, the earliest known Japanese animated film is Katsud? Shashin (Moving Picture), which depicts a boy wearing a sailor uniform performing a salute. The undated film is considered among the earliest examples of Japanese animation. The discoverer speculates that it is from as early as 1907. It is composed of 50 frames assembled on 35mm Celluloid with paste.
• 1917: Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki
• 1917: Namakura Gatana
• 1918: Urashima Tar?
• 1921: Kiatsu to Mizuage Ponpu
• 1922: Shokubutsu Seiri: Seishoku no Maki
• 1924: Usagi to Kame
• 1945: Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors
• 1958: The Tale of the White Serpent
• 1963: Astro Boy
• 1968: Hols: Prince of the Sun
• 1970: Ashita no Joe
• 1974: Space Battleship Yamato
• 1979: Mobile Suit Gundam
• 1979: The Castle of Cagliostro
• 1984: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• 1984: Lensman: Secret of The Lens
• 1986: Dragon Ball
• 1987: Wicked City
• 1988: The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin
• 1988: My Neighbor Totoro
• 1988: Grave of the Fireflies
• 1988: Akira
• 1989: Dragon Ball Z
• 1992: Yu Yu Hakusho
• 1993: Ninja Scroll
• 1995: Neon Genesis Evangelion
• 1995: Ghost in the Shell
• 1996: Dragon Ball GT
• 1997: Pokémon
• 1997: Princess Mononoke
• 1998: Hunter x Hunter
• 2000: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
• 2000: Yu-Gi-Oh!
• 2001: Spirited Away
• 2001: Millennium Actress
• 2002: Naruto
• 2004: Howl's Moving Castle
• 2004: Bleach
• 2006: Paprika
• 2008: Ponyo
• 2009: Fairy Tail
• 2011: Hunter x Hunter
• 2013: Attack on Titan
• 2013: The Wind Rises
• 2014: Noragami
• 2014: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
• 2015: Dragon Ball Super
• 2015: One-Punch Man
• 2016: Yuri on Ice

History of Malaysian Animation

Animation in Malaysia began in 1946 with the establishment of the Malayan Film Unit (now known as National Film). The first short animated film was the Hikayat Sang Kancil (Anandam Xavier, 1978) and aired in 1983. Short films that appeared between 1985 and 1987 were: The Mouse & Monkey, The Mouse & Crocodile, The Crow Rage, the Rabbit Arrogant and the Lion of Haloba made by Hassan Abdul Muthalib.

• 1972: Selamat Hari Natal
• 1979: Hapuskan Nyamuk Aedes
• 1978: Hikayat Sang Kancil
• 1985: Sang Kancil & Monyet
• 1985: Sang Kancil & Buaya
• 1986: Gagak Yang Bijak
• 1986: Arnab Yang Sombong
• 1987: Singa Yang Haloba
• 1993: Usop Sontorian
• 1996: Keluang Man
• 1999: Kampong Boy
• 1999: Anak- Anak Sidek
• 1999: Sang Wira
• 2006: Bola Kampung
• 2007: Upin & Ipin
• 2011: Boboiboy
• 2014: The Amazing Awang Khenit
• 2016: Ejen Ali

src: www.desktopbackground.org

Oceania

History of Australian animation

See: Animal Logic, Yoram Gross, Flying Bark Productions

• 1977: Dot and the Kangaroo
• 1979: The Little Convict
• 1982: The Seventh Match (also known as Sarah)
• 1984: The Camel Boy
• 1984: Epic: Days of the Dinosaurs (also known as EPIC)
• 1991: The Magic Riddle
• 1992: Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala
• 1992: FernGully: The Last Rainforest
• 2000: The Magic Pudding (2000)
• 2006: Happy Feet

History of New Zealand animation

See: Weta Digital

• 1986: Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale
• 2015: 25 April

Media

Notes

References

Works cited

Bibliography

Online

• Anime News Network staff (2005-08-07). "Oldest Anime Found". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2014-02-12. 
• Cohn, Neil (February 15, 2006). "The Visual Linguist: Burnt City animation VL". The Visual Linguist. 
• Ball, Ryan (March 12, 2008). "Oldest Animation Discovered In Iran". Animation Magazine. 
• Bendazzi, Giannalberto (1996). "The Untold Story of Argentina's Pioneer Animator". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2011-03-28. 

External links

• Chronology of animation
• European animation films
• Animation before film

Source of the article : Wikipedia