History of animation

Animation is the process of making the illusion of motion and the illusion of change[Note 1] by means of the rapid display of a sequence of images that minimally differ from each other.

Humans have probably attempted to depict motion as far back as the paleolithic period. While there were several predecessors, the 17th century invention of the magic lantern provided the first apparatus with which convincing moving images have been created. However, the movement of these images were the result of moving parts rather than a rapid succession of sequential images. The introduction of the phenakistiscope in 1833 marks the start of true animation, although it could only show loops of a limited number of "frames".

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.[1] 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.[2][3]

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.[4] 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.[5][6]

Archaeological finds of small paleolithic discs with a hole in the middle and drawings on both sides have been claimed to be prehistoric thaumatropes that show motion when spun on a string.[5]

Sequence of images that minimally differ from each other - from the site of the Burnt City in Iran, late half of 3rd millennium B.C.

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.[7][8]

An Egyptian burial chamber mural, approximately 4000 years old, showing wrestlers in action.

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.[9]

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 on top of each page, 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).[10]

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,[11] but these accounts are unclear and may only refer to the actual movement of the figures through space.[12]

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" [走馬燈] 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.[13]

These and other occurrences of moving images, like for instance shadow play with jointed puppets or moving parts in book illustrations, are not considered true animation. Technically they lack the rapid display of sequential images and the results are usually not very lifelike.

The Magic Lantern

Christiaan Huygens' 1659 sketches for a projection of Death taking off his head
Slide with a fantoccini trapeze artist and a chromatrope border design (circa 1880)

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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] 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 towards 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.[17]

Dissolving views became a popular magic lantern show, especially in England in the 1830s and 1840s.[17] 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.[18] Another use showed the gradual change of for instance groves into cathedrals.[19]

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.[20]

Occasionally small shadow puppets had been used in phantasmagoria shows.[17] 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.[21]

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)[22] 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.” [23] 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.[24] 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)

A phenakistoscope disc by Eadweard Muybridge (1893).

The phenakistiscope was the first animation device using rapid successive substitution of sequential pictures. The pictures are evenly spaced radially around the disk, with small rectangular apertures at the rim of the disc. The device would be placed in front of a mirror and spun. It was invented in November or December 1832, simultaneously by the Belgian Joseph Plateau and the Austrian Simon von Stampfer and first published about by Plateau in January 1833. It was very successful as a novelty toy and within a year very many sets of phénakisticopes were published across Europe, with almost as many different names for the device - including Fantascope (Plateau), The Stroboscope (Stampfer) and Phénakisticope (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.[25] 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".[26]

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.[27] Lincoln licensed his invention to Milton Bradley and Co. who first advertised it on December 15, 1866.[28]

Flip book (1868)

An 1886 illustration of the kineograph.

John Barnes Linnett patented the first flip book in 1868 as the kineograph.[29] 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.[30]

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.[31] 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.[32]

Earliest animations on film

Théâtre Optique

Charles-Émile Reynaud further developed his projection praxinoscope into the Théâtre Optique with transparent pictures in a long strip wound between two spools, patented in December 1888.[33] On October 28, 1892 he gave his first public performance of a moving picture show at the Musée Grévin in Paris. The show, billed as Pantomimes Lumineuses, included three cartoons: Pauvre Pierrot, Un bon bock, and Le Clown et ses chiens. Reynaud acted as the projectionist and the show was accompanied by a piano player. Although the films shown by the Lumière Brothers in 1895 eclipsed it, the show stayed at the Musée Grévin until 1900 and over 500,000 people had seen it.

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper

Matches an Appeal (1899) by Arthur Melbourne-Cooper is a stop-motion commercial "promoting an appeal by the Bryant and May match company for donations to allow the supply of matches to British soldiers serving overseas. The year of production is disputed, with some records (including 'They Thought it was a Marvel', de Vries & Mul) suggesting the film was created in 1899 to support troops fighting in the Boer War, whilst others point to a production date as late as the First World War."[34]

J. Stuart Blackton

The Enchanted Drawing (1900) by J. Stuart Blackton is sometimes stated to be the first film recorded on standard picture film that included "animated sequences". 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 his mouth and takes his cigar. The technique used in this film was basically the stop-action effect popularized by Georges Méliès: the camera was stopped and some change was made to the scene, in this case the 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 probably used the same technique in a lost 1896 film.[35] The effect can hardly be considered animation, but Blackton's 1906 film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is regarded as the oldest known 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 stop-motion cut-out animation.

Traditional animation

The first animated film created by using what came to be known as traditional (hand-drawn) animation—the 1908 Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl

The French artist Émile Cohl created the first animated film using what came to be known as traditional animation creation methods: the 1908 Fantasmagorie.[36] 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.

The more detailed hand-drawn animations, requiring a team of animators drawing each frame manually 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.[37][38]

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.[39]

The silent era

Charles-Émile Reynaud's Théâtre Optique is the earliest known example of projected animation. It predates even photographic motion picture devices such as Thomas Edison's 1893 invention, the Kinetoscope, and the Lumière brothers' 1894 invention, the cinematograph. Reynaud exhibited three of his animations on October 28, 1892 at Musée Grévin in Paris, France. The only surviving example of these three is Pauvre Pierrot, which was 500 frames long.[40]

After the cinematograph popularized the motion picture, producers began to explore the endless possibilities of animation in greater depth.[41] A short stop-motion animation was produced in 1897 by Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton called The Humpty Dumpty Circus.[42] Stop motion is a technique in which real objects are moved around in the time between their images being recorded, so that when the images are viewed at a normal frame rate the objects appear to move by some invisible force. It directly descends from various early trick film techniques that created the illusion of impossible actions.

A few other films that featured stop motion technique were released afterward, but the first to receive wide scale appreciation was Blackton's The Haunted Hotel, which baffled viewers and inspired much further development.[43] In 1906, Blackton also made the first drawn work of animation on standard film, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. It features faces that are drawn on a chalkboard and then suddenly move autonomously.[44]

Fantasmagorie, by the French director Émile Cohl (also called Émile Courtet), is also noteworthy.[45] It was screened for the first time on August 17, 1908 at Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris. 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.

Katsudō Shashin, from an unknown creator, was discovered in 2005 and is speculated to be the oldest work of animation in Japan, with Natsuki Matsumoto,[Note 2][46] an expert in iconography at the Osaka University of Arts[47] and animation historian Nobuyuki Tsugata[Note 3] determining the film was most likely made between 1907 and 1911.[48] 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.[49] It depicts a young boy in a sailor suit who writes the kanji characters "活動写真" (katsudō shashin, or "moving picture"), then turns towards the viewer, removes his hat, and offers a salute.[49] Evidence suggests it was mass-produced to be sold to wealthy owners of home projectors.[50] To Matsumoto, the relatively poor quality and low-tech printing technique indicate it was likely from a smaller film company.[51]

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 1911, 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.

In 1914, American cartoonist Winsor McCay released Gertie the Dinosaur, an early example of character development in drawn animation.[52] 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.[53]

Also in 1914, John Bray opened John Bray Studios, which revolutionized the way animation was created.[54] Earl Hurd, one of Bray's employees patented the cel technique.[55] This involved animating moving objects on transparent celluloid sheets.[56] 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.[57][58]

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.[58] At this point the larger scale animation studios were becoming the industrial norm and artists such as McCay faded from the public eye.[53]

The first known animated feature film was El Apóstol, made in 1917 by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina.[59] 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.[60][61][62]

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.[63] Felix the Cat was distributed by Paramount Studios, and it attracted a large audience.[64] 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.[65] It was directed by German Lotte Reiniger and French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch.[66]

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.[67] Disney's first notable breakthrough was 1928's Steamboat Willie, the third of the Mickey Mouse series.[68] It was the first cartoon that included a fully post-produced soundtrack, featuring voice and sound effects printed on the film itself ("sound-on-film"). 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.[69]

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.[53]

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.[40] Color animation soon became the industry standard, and in 1934, Warner Brothers released Honeymoon Hotel of the Merrie Melodies series, their first color films.[70] 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.[71][72][73] In 1935, Tex Avery released his first film with Warner Brothers.[70] Avery's style was notably fast paced, violent, and satirical, with a slapstick sensibility.[74]

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.[75] 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.[76] In 1960, Hanna-Barbera released another monumental animated television show, The Flintstones, which was the first animated series on prime time television.[77] Television significantly decreased public attention to the animated shorts being shown in theatres.

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 Švankmajer.

Stop motion animation was also commonly used for special effects work in many live-action films, such as 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).[78] 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.

Firsts in animation

Year Milestone Film Notes
1917 Feature film El Apóstol Created with cutout animation; now considered lost
1926 The Adventures of Prince Achmed Oldest surviving animated feature film, cutout silhouette animation
1924 Synchronized sound on film Oh Mabel Short film; used Lee DeForest's Phonofilm sound on film process, though none of the characters "speak" on screen
1926 Synchronized sound on film with animated dialogue My Old Kentucky Home[79] Short film; used Lee DeForest's Phonofilm sound on film process; a dog character mouths the words, "Follow the ball, and join in, everybody!"
1930 Filmed in Two-color Technicolor King of Jazz[80] Premiering in April 1930, a three-minute cartoon sequence produced by Walter Lantz appears in this full-length, live-action Technicolor feature film.
1930 Two-color Technicolor in a stand-alone cartoon Fiddlesticks Released in August 1930, this Ub Iwerks-produced short is the first standalone color cartoon.
1930 Feature length puppet animated (stop-motion) film The Tale of the Fox
1931 Feature-length sound film Peludópolis
1932 Filmed in three-strip Technicolor Flowers and Trees Short film
1937 Feature filmed in three-strip Technicolor Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1940 Stereophonic sound Fantasia
1949 Television series Crusader Rabbit
1950 Short lived TV show The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican
1953 Filmed in stereoscopic 3D Melody Short film
Presented in widescreen Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom Short film
1955 Feature filmed in widescreen format Lady and the Tramp
Animated TV series to aired outside of USA A Rubovian Legend
Stop-motion television series The Gumby Show[81]
1956 Primetime television series CBS Cartoon Theatre Compilation television series
1957 Television series to be broadcast in color Colonel Bleep Television series
1958 Half-hour television series The Huckleberry Hound Show
1959 Animated series to have its production outsourced to an overseas company Rocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show Television series
Syncro-Vox Clutch Cargo Television series
1960 Xerography process (replacing hand inking) Goliath II Short film
Primetime animated sitcom The Flintstones Television series
1961 Feature film using xerography process One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Long-running TV show Minna no Uta
1964 Feature film based on a television show Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!
1969 Adult anime film A Thousand and One Nights Lost film
G-rated cartoon film A Boy Named Charlie Brown
1970 Primetime animated sitcom created for syndication Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies Television series
1972 Adult cartoon film Fritz the Cat
Adult cartoon TV series Wait Till Your Father Gets Home
1974 R-rated cartoon film The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat
1977 PG-rated cartoon animated film Wizards
1978 Animated feature to be presented in Dolby sound Watership Down
1983 3D feature film - stereoscopic technique Abra Cadabra
Animated feature containing computer-generated imagery Rock and Rule
Animated TV series to be recorded in Stereo sound Inspector Gadget
1984 Fully CGI-animated film The Adventures of André and Wally B. Short film
1985 Feature length clay-animated film The Adventures of Mark Twain
1988 Cinematography milestone Who Framed Roger Rabbit First feature film to have live-action and cartoon animation share the screen for the entire film
1989 TV cartoon to be broadcast in Dolby Surround sound. Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration
1990 Produced without camera
Feature film using digital ink and paint 		The Rescuers Down Under First feature film completely produced with Disney's Computer Animation Production System
1991 First animated film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture Beauty and the Beast As of 2017 no animated film has won the Best Picture award.
1993 Direct-to-video CGI-animated series VeggieTales
CGI-animated TV series Insektors
1994 Half-hour computer-animated TV series ReBoot
1995 Fully computer-animated feature film
G-rated CGI feature film		 Toy Story
Animated television series to be broadcast in Dolby Surround Pinky and the Brain
1997 Animated series produced for the Internet
Flash-animated series 		The Goddamn George Liquor Program
1998 PG-rated CGI animated film Antz
1999 IMAX Disney animated film Fantasia 2000
2000 First Aardman Rated-G Film Chicken Run
2001 Motion-capture animation
PG-13-rated CGI animated film 		Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
First Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Won by Shrek Monsters, Inc. and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius were also nominated.
2002 Flash-animated television series ¡Mucha Lucha!
2003 First Flash-animated film Wizards and Giants
2004 Cel-shaded animation Appleseed
Steamboy
2005 Feature shot with digital still cameras Corpse Bride
2006 Blu-ray release Dinosaur
2007 Feature digitally animated by one person Flatland
Presented in 7.1 surround sound Ultimate Avengers
Ultimate Avengers 2 		Blu-ray release
2008 Feature film designed, created and released exclusively in 3D Fly Me to the Moon
Adult CGI animated film Free Jimmy
2009 Stop-motion character animated using rapid prototyping Coraline
Feature film to be produced in 3D, instead of being converted into 3D in a post-production process Monsters vs. Aliens It was the first animated feature film to be produced in a 3D format.
2010 Animated feature film to earn more than $1,000,000,000 worldwide
Feature film released theatrically in 7.1 surround sound 		Toy Story 3
2012 Stop-motion film to use 3D printing technology for models ParaNorman
2014 First 3D IMAX film. Mr. Peabody & Sherman
The First Pixar Sing Along Song Short Film Lava (2014 film)
2015 First Cartoon Style in Flash Animation The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show
The First Best Cartoon Animated Short Film World of Tomorrow
2016 R-rated CGI feature film Sausage Party

Asia

History of Chinese animation

History of Indian animation

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.[82]

History of Japanese animation (anime)

Europe

History of British animation

History of Czech animation

The roots of Czech puppet animation began in the mid-1940s when puppet theater operators, Eduard Hofman and Jiří Trnka founded the Poetic animation school, Bratří v Triku. Since that time animation has expanded and flourished.[84][85]

History of Estonian animation

Estonian animation began in the 1930s and has carried on into the modern day.[86]

History of French animation

History of Hungarian animation

History of Italian animation

History of Russian animation

History of animation in Croatia (in former Yugoslavia)

Oceania

History of Australian animation

See: Animal Logic, Yoram Gross, Flying Bark Productions

History of New Zealand animation

See: Weta Digital

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;[60][62]

History of Brazilian animation

History of Canadian animation

History of Cuban animation

History of Mexican animation

History of United States animation

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)
Golden age of American animation (1928 through 1967)
Animation in the United States in the television era (1962 through 1989)
  • 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 in 1967.
  • The start of the "Dark Age" of Disney's films (1967-1988).
  • 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 1984.
  • The Simpsons marks the resurgence of adult-oriented animation.
Modern animation in the United States (1988 through present)

Media

Notes

  1. ↑ With the "squash and stretch" principle often applied in case of character animation.
  2. ↑ 松本 夏樹, b. 1952
  3. ↑ 津堅 信之, b. 1968

References

  1. ↑ https://1895.revues.org/4624
  2. ↑ Buchan, Suzanne (2013). Pervasive Animation.
  3. ↑ https://books.google.nl/books?id=lA8kTFv-TVIC
  4. ↑ Thomas 1958, p. 8.
  5. 1 2 https://books.google.nl/books?id=XuYzjgEACAAJ&dq
  6. ↑ Zorich, Zach (March 27, 2014). "Early Humans Made Animated Art". Nautilus.
  7. ↑ Ball 2008.
  8. ↑ Cohn 2006.
  9. ↑ Egypt Thomb. Lessing Photo. 02-15-2011.
  10. ↑ http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg67/0001/thumbs?sid=cf04d0c1f1b9e65a5338bc1a06222e96#/current_page
  11. ↑ Needham 1962, pp. 123–124.
  12. ↑ Rojas 2013, p. 5.
  13. ↑ Yongxiang Lu. A History of Chinese Science and Technology, Volume 3. pp. 308–310.
  14. ↑ Huygens, Christiaan. "Pour des representations par le moyen de verres convexes à la lampe" (in French).
  15. ↑ Rossell, Deac (2005). The Magic Lantern and Moving Images before 1800.
  16. ↑ "Magic lantern - collection of moving magic lantern slides part 1.". Luikerwaal.
  17. 1 2 3 Heard, Mervyn. Phantasmagoria: The Secret History of the Magic Lantern. The Projection Box, 2006
  18. ↑ "Luikerwaal - Mechanical Slides".
  19. ↑ The Spectator. 1835-07-18. p. 13.
  20. ↑ The Athenæum. 1845-01-04.
  21. ↑ "Luikerwaal - Fantoccini Slides".
  22. ↑ J.M. (1820-12-01). Account of an optical deception.
  23. ↑ Roget, Peter Mark (1824-12-09). Explanation of an optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel when seen through vertical apertures (PDF).
  24. ↑ Herbert, Stephen. "Wheel of Life - The Taumatrope".
  25. ↑ Stampfer, Simon (1833). Die stroboscopischen Scheiben; oder, Optischen Zauberscheiben: Deren Theorie und wissenschaftliche Anwendung.
  26. ↑ The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 1834. p. 36.
  27. ↑ Herbert, Stephen. (n.d.) From Daedaleum to Zoetrope, Part 1. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  28. ↑ Colman’s rural world. December 15, 1866. p. 366.
  29. ↑ Solomon 1989, p. 8.
  30. ↑ Crafton 1993, p. 7.
  31. ↑ http://emilereynaud.fr/index.php/post/Le-Praxinoscope
  32. ↑ http://emilereynaud.fr/index.php/post/Le-Praxinoscope-a-projection
  33. ↑ Bendazzi 1994, pp. 4–5.
  34. ↑ http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/215258
  35. ↑ https://books.google.nl/books?id=GBUABAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA128&dq=%22enchanted%20drawing%22%20melies&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q&f=false
  36. ↑ Beckerman 2003, pp. 17–18.
  37. ↑ Solomon 1989, pp. 14–19.
  38. ↑ Crafton 1993, p. 116.
  39. ↑ Crafton 1993, pp. 152–154.
  40. 1 2 Dirks, Tim. "Animated Films Part 1". filmsite.org. AMC Networks. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  41. ↑ Crafton 1993, p. 9.
  42. ↑ Crafton 1993, p. 21.
  43. ↑ Crafton 1993, p. 11.
  44. ↑ Beckerman 2003, pp. 16–18.
  45. ↑ Bendazzi 1994, p. 9.
  46. ↑ Matsumoto 2011, p. 98.
  47. ↑ Clements & McCarthy 2006, p. 169.
  48. ↑ López 2012, p. 584.
  49. 1 2 Anime News Network staff 2005.
  50. ↑ Matsumoto 2011, pp. 116–117.
  51. ↑ Litten 2014, p. 15.
  52. ↑ Bendazzi 1994, p. 17.
  53. 1 2 3 Crandol, Michael. "The History of Animation: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Studio System in the Production of an Art Form". Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  54. ↑ Solomon 1989, pp. 22–23.
  55. ↑ Crafton 1993, pp. 153–154.
  56. ↑ Crafton 1993, p. 150.
  57. ↑ Solomon 1989, pp. 24–26.
  58. 1 2 McLaughlin, Dan (2001). "A Rather Incomplete but Still Fascinating History of Animation". UCLA. Archived from the original on 19 November 2009. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  59. ↑ Finkielman 2004, p. 20.
  60. 1 2 Bendazzi 1996.
  61. ↑ Beckerman 2003, p. 25.
  62. 1 2 Quirio Cristiani's page (Spanish)
  63. ↑ Beckerman 2003, p. 27–28.
  64. ↑ Solomon 1989, p. 34.
  65. ↑ Beckerman 2003, p. 44.
  66. ↑ Beckerman 2003, p. 83.
  67. ↑ Beckerman 2003, p. 29, 35.
  68. ↑ Solomon 1989, pp. 40–41.
  69. ↑ Maltin 1980, p. 34.
  70. 1 2 Solomon 1989, p. 101.
  71. ↑ Lee 2012, pp. 55–56.
  72. ↑ Krasniewicz 2010, pp. 60–64.
  73. ↑ Gabler 2007, pp. 181–189.
  74. ↑ Maltin 1980, p. 250.
  75. ↑ Solomon 1989, p. 61–62.
  76. ↑ Beckerman 2003, p. 61.
  77. ↑ Solomon 1989, pp. 239–240.
  78. ↑ Beckerman 2003, p. 83–84.
  79. ↑ Maltin 1980, p. 89.
  80. ↑ "Whiteman Film Due Tomorrow." Los Angeles Times 18 Apr. 1930: A9. Print.
  81. ↑ Solomon 1989, pp. 231–232.
  82. ↑ Press TV - Zarrinkelk, father of Iran animation
  83. ↑ "China People's Daily Online (Japanese Edition): 日本最古？明治時代のアニメフィルム、京都で発". Retrieved 2007-03-05.
  84. ↑ Catalogue of Czech animation
  85. ↑ Czech animation homepage
  86. ↑ Article summarizing the history
  87. ↑ Notable People Who Died In 2010. Art Knowledge News. Accessed 19 January 2012.
  88. ↑ "QNetwork Entertainment Portal". Qnetwork.com. 2004-02-03. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
  89. ↑ Connecticut Historical Society
  90. ↑ Beckerman 2003, p. 47.

Works cited

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