Animation: Past and Present

Techniques

Two dimensional animation has been around for quite a long time.

The Kinetoscope

Animation has proven to be one of the greatest things to appear in technology. It has over taken our society with media like Television and Film. The popularity increases more and more each year. This is due to fascination and the endless possibilities you can do with it. A specific memory that holds in my head about animation was in 1995 when Pixar first began to shine in the world. The reason it held in my head was due to a specific film called Toy Story. Toy Story was the first film to use computer generated animation successfully. Of course other films were first created before then, but Toy Story was the first to use computers.

Think back though, to when animation was first created and who created it. Thomas Edison was one of the first to experiment with it and create an device called Kinetoscope. It was a still block of wood which didn't look like much when first looked at, but when you view it from the top of the scope, it was amazing. Well, these days you could say it was quite poor compared to some of the animation to come from film and television, but for the 1800’s, it was the best thing around. Edison was apparently a thieve when it came to creating the Kinetoscope as he had a partnership with Eadweard Muybridge but then made the Kinetoscope without him. Edison has been known to steal ideas before from people, as most might know him for creating the light bulb, but he didn’t. He stole the idea.

The kinetoscope was built with man made craftsmanship which took years to make. The way it worked was with a hole at the top of the box. The person had to look through this hole to view the animation. The moving pictures was made to move just like film is viewed these days. It was done with film reels that rotated round fast enough so the pictures looked like they were moving. One of the earliest surviving films that was first shown in the kinetoscope was of Fred Ott sneezing. He was apart of Edison’s team when creating the kinetoscope. The reason they chose him to be on the film was due to his comic timing apparently. Edison and his team were amused by his comedy and especially his sneezing, so they created a film with it. 

Fred Ott sneezing. The earliest surviving film for the kinetoscope.

In the late 1800’s, the cost to use the kinetoscope was around 25 cents. May not seem like much now, but then, this could pay for lots of things. And this was just for one short film like Fred Ott sneezing. For 50 cents, a person could watch all of the films that were there to offer. This would cost a fortune for someone working in those days. The kinetoscope looked something like you can see below.





Phenakitoscope
The phenakitoscope was device that used the persistence of vision to make the person think the image is moving, when really its just a series of images moving very fast. its an illusion of motion.
The idea and principle of this type of animation was first recognized by Greek mathematician Euclid and Isaac Newton was thought to experiment with it, but Joseph Plateau was the first to firmly establish of the phenakitoscope.  


The model of the phenakitoscope is a spinning disc attached vertically on a handle. Around the centre of the disc was a series of images that corresponded to each of the images. Around the disc would be a series of slits so a person could view the moving image. When the person looks through the slits, the images would reflect from a mirror that is placed by the spinning disc.

Here is an example of what a Phenakitoscope looks like when looking through the slits.

Zoetrope

The device consists of a cylinder that has vertical slits around the sides so the person can view the motion of images. Can you see the pattern between these devices. 

The earliest zoetrope was invented around 180AD by inventor Ting Huan. The device was driven by convection that was hung over a light source. When the device was spun fast enough, the painted images would move. The most modern zoetrope was invented by British mathematician William George Horner

Developers

Walt Disney

Walt Disney is one of the most known person in modern history. I don't think anybody has not heard of Disney in their life, and this is because of his influence. Walt has created such an expansive career over his life time, its quite hard to believe. He is most known for Co-founding the company Disney, but Walt was a lot more than that.
Director, Producer, Philanthropist, Entrepreneur and more. Walt was and still is an icon for millions of people around the world for his influence on film. Disney has been one of the most successful companies in history due to Walt and his animation. Walt began his work with small cartoons, which later led to iconic characters, like Mickey Mouse. Mickey was one of Walt's first creation.


This is the first ever Mickey Mouse cartoon that Walt created. For its time, it was something special.

Then came the golden age of cinema. When animation was being produced into films. One of the first was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was a massive success. Walt then led for a future of film, creating something that will live on for years to come. His animation was something that was so amazing that its created a future for generations. He is described as one of the best animators in history, perhaps the best.

Thomas Edison

Edison was an american inventor born in 1847. He is probably most well known for creating the phonograph and the first motion picture camera. He is the 4th most known inventor in history for his interests in electricity. All his life, Edison had a keen interest in the uses for electricity, wondering what it could be capable of. His inventions have been used in modern day, like creating the first power station for Manhattan. Like a lot of famous inventors in history, Edison was not that smart. He spent a lot of time day dreaming in his class in school, not paying any attension.

(this explains most of Edison's life)

Overall, Edison's history is quite blured and misunderstood. He is quite well known for creating the lightbulb, but he didnt infact. Edison didnt create the lightbulb at all, he stole the idea from another man. This was just like other inventions of Edison. He stole quite a few ideas from people for his own gain. Although he was an inventor, he was also a thief.

Hannah Barbera

Hannah Barbera Inc. is a company that specialises in  animation. The company dominated north ameircan television during the second half of the 20th century. The company was formed in 1957 by William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and George Sidney. They were all former MGM (Metro-Goldwyn Mayer) animators, but then tried other projects as MGM shut down their animation studio and cut short their animational shorts like Tom & Jerry. The company was originally called H-B Enterprises Inc. but was later renamed Hanna Barbera Productions Inc in 1959.

Over 3 decades, the studio has created such programs like The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo where are you?, Wacky Races and even The Smurfs. The animations were mostly shown on saturday mornings and late afternoons through the week.

This is a clip of the opening scene of Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

In 1991, the company was bought by TBS (Turner Broadcasting System) which later cataloged The Cartoon Network, which is known all over the world. The company wasn't heard of much after they merged with Time Warner in 1996. These days, the comany does small jobs like Cartoon Cartoons for Cartoon Network at midnight.

In 2006, Joseph Barbera died, leaving Hanna Barbera Inc lost and gone technically. The company is now used to market properties and productions. The name though is associated with classic work like Scooby Doo and Huckleberry Hound.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. is one of the major film studios in the US. The company is the most successful company in the US and has been for quite some time. The company was founded in 1904 by the Warner Brothers.

Warner Bros. was one of the pioneers in sound for films, which were known as 'talking pictures'.
The company is probably most known for its animation and films, like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. In the 1930's, Warner Bros. animation was born. Looney Tunes and others became the most popular thing at the time, and still remains to this day as popular as ever.

At the time of the second world war, Warner Bros. just like most film companies of the time, made a lot of gangster and war films that related to the problems of the time. This led to franchises being built from then to today. The company has made hundreds of films as of today and remains as successful as ever. Not just that though, the company had made films like The Dark Knight which have grossed billions and billions of dollars. The company has also made cartoons into films which lead to more franchises. Looney Tunes was one of the first cartoons to turn into a film.

Len Lye

Len Lye was an artist born in New Zealand known for his experimental films and Kinetic sculpture. His films are kept in various places across the world like BFI and the museum of modern art. Lye's scultures are held in the Whitney museum of american art and various other places. You would think that his work would become apart of somewhere in New Zealand as he was born there, but Lye became a citizen of the US in 1950. Some work did infact go to New Zealand when he died, but most of his most noted work is held in other places.

Lye was recognised for various career moves in his life, like writing, creating art and working with films, Lye tried the anything. He experimented with anything that he found interesting and completely out of the ordinary. For many of his art pieces, Lye tried to do something different and exciting that wasn't done before. He never played with the ordinary art works, he always wanted to be different.

For his sculptures, Lye again wanted to be different. The sculpture in the picture below shows what he called the Wind Wand. He called most of his Tangible Motion Sculptures, because they made visible motion with things like the wind. The Wind Wand was infact too heavy and blew in the wrong direction, meaning it didn't quite work so well.

Monty Python

Monty Python was a british comedy sketch series that was first aired in october 1969. Ever since its creation, Monty Python has made people laugh, shocked, happy and even creeped out. The main thing Monty Python has achieved, is changing the face of comedy forever.

Monty Python started as a TV show which streched across four series. The series was unlike anything that had ever came from comedy. Not only was it strange and sometimes completely random, but it pushed the bounderies of most things and topics of the time. Style, politics, religion and much more, Monty Python was unstoppable. The team of comdians consisted of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The show was a loose sketch show that mixed live action with animation. The animation was inbetween sketches but was a sketch of its own. It usually featured a hand and clippings newspapers, that were just put together and animated.

The main thing with Monty Python was they were not afraid to try something new. They experimented with their show all the time and sketches were different all the time.

After the end of The Flying Circus (that was what they named the series), the team went on to make several movies. This was where Python was recognised most for good and bad reasons. The main film recognised was Life of Brian. This was a film about a man called Brian, that would falsely recognised as Jesus. The film was thought to twist religous content from the bible, but it was rather making up a story of their own.

You name it though, and Monty Python has been associated with just about everything. Games, Music, Theatre, Books, Python has done everything.

(This is a typical short from Monty Python's Flying Circus. As you can tell, its quite random)

Yellow Submarine

Yellow Submarine was an animated film from 1968 that was based around the music of The Beatles. The film was directed by animation producer George Dunning. The real Beatles were only in a small part of the film (voicing), other voice actors actually filled in. The film is keenly liked by both critics and audiences of the time, and is mostly regarded for its creativity and art.

The film was based on one of their songs called Strawberry Fields Forever. The animation was mostly all the way through except for the end in which it turns to live action to see the Beatles perform.

George Dunning who also worked on the cartoon series of the Beatles, was the overall director of the film, watching over 200 artists for 11 months. More than 30 minutes of the film was done with a rotoscope, which was done by Bob Balser and Arne Gustafson. The film was very contemporary for its time and was compared with other artists like Peter Max, for the psychedelic feel of the whole thing.

(This was the trailer for the Yellow Submarine)

On March 20th 2012, Apple corps Ltd. annouced that the film would be digitally remastered for Blu Ray and DVD for the first time. But with this problems occured. Apple Corps had to have specialists in for 4 months to clean each frame of the animation by hand rather than a machine doing the process. they chose to do it this way because they felt they needed to be more delicate with the animation.

A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly is a film made in 2006 based on a book by Phillip K Dick. The film was different from any other film which makes it so special. The film was filmed normally using digital filming with cameras. But, after the film was finished, it ws animated using a interpolated rotoscope. The animation went over the original footage to give it a special distinctive look, which was not normal.

After the film was completed, the film was tranfered to a quicktime format for a 15 month animation process. The film was filmed normally using a digital camera and then animated using Rotoshop. Rotoshop uses an animation technique called interpolated rotoscope. The rotoscope is usually refered as tracing, as they trace the live action sequences frame for frame. The rotoshop method uses the style of vector and interloops inbetween each frame.

(The trailer is very interesting on how the style of the film is. The film looks live action, but is clearly shown as an animation. Its unlike anything)

 

Genres and Forms

Cinema

The cinema can refer to many things like an actual cinema where people go to view new films that are made, or can refer to the feel for film. The cinema isn't just a place to go, its the experience. The feeling of going to the cinema is unlike any other. Its the feeling of escaping your everyday life and going into a world that you will experience for how ever long. The feeling of being part of the action. This can just come from the film, but it can also come from the technology of the film, like 3D or IMAX.

Cinema has been around for quite some time, since the early 20th century. The golden age for cinema was around the 1920's. This was called the studio system, where stars were forced to be in films as they were tied to a contract. Over the years, cinema has become bigger and bigger, these days its where most people profit money.

As technology has grown, cinema has become more vast and incredible. Films give us something that everyday life can't give, and thats being engrossed into something we feel part of.

Computer games

Computer games can be described as many different things, its not just games on computers. Computer games are games that we play all around us. They can be on computer but they can also be on consoles.

Over the years, technology has become so advanced that gaming systems have become better and better. We've had consoles from Atari, Sega, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, all getting better over the years. The main consoles these days are The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Wii. All 3 consoles have a battle to attract a wider audience all the time, seeing which will come out on top.

With this, most people forget what computer games try to achieve. They give us a sense of playing as someone that isnt ourself. Its also acomplishment we feel when we comlete a game. The feeling of finishing something that you started, it really is something.

Computer games come in different genres too, but mostly all put you into the feeling that you are in the game. This could be an RPG (role playing game) or a 1st person shooter. These two genres are the most popular genres at the moment. The shooter genre gives the player a sense of being a part of action in a war or battle, while the RPG gives the player a sense that they are in the game, literally. You can create a person thats exactly that yourself, or someone completely different, its your choice.

Websites

Websites that places we visit on the internet. Websites have everything, and i mean everything. The internet is full of websites that contain everything that you need to know about anything. The internet is amazing and huge.

Websites are used for everyday use to find information. That was the original use for websites, to contain vast amounts of information on pages. A website is full of information that actually makes up the page, rather than it just being made out of scratch.

Most websites have several things which are just typical, like home pages and what the website is about. To create a website, it takes programs on a computer like Adobe Dreamweaver or even Notepad. With most websites, its built upon lines of code that make the text and other parts. A website is special though, you either make a good website or a bad one. A bad website means nobody will go or return to it. A successful one makes makes you get more and more hits, increasing your popularity.