The earliest signs of artistic interest in animation can be seen in the cave paintings from the Palaeolithic Era. These images usually consisted of an animal with multiple sets of legs in certain positions, in an attempt to convey the perception of motion. Some examples, such as a vase found in Iran 5200 years ago, are set out in a modern storyboard layout. With five boxes in a line with a goat that is modified slightly as the viewer looks left to right. Another example is from Egypt, where paintings approximately 4000 years old have sequences of images depicting men wrestling or in combat.
The next stage in animation came around in 180 AD. When a man called Ting Huan made the first ever Zoetrope, which is a device that creates the illusion of a moving picture. His version used the heat from a lamp to turn vanes which were connected to translucent paper or mica panels. If these panels moved fast enough it gave the illusion of the images moving. The modern cylindrical Zoetrope, as we know it today, was created by William George Horner in 1834. On this cylinder William put slits for people to look through; he then put images on the inside of the cylinder and spun it. When people looked through those slits the images on the inside appeared to be moving. Zoetropes are still used today; however they have become a lot more advanced, with the introduction of 3D Zoetropes that use 3D models instead of images.
After this, the next major breakthrough in animation was the first animated film. This was created in 1892 by a man called Charles-Emile Reynaud. He used an animation system which looped 12 pictures and consisted of about 500 frames. This then led to the first animated work on standard picture film called Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. This was created by J. Stuart Blackton in 1906. He came up with a clever technique in which he drew the animation on white paper with black pen, and then printed it as a film-negative, giving it the look of white chalk on a blackboard. Then in 1914 came about the first cartoon that depicted a character with an appealing personality. This cartoon was called Gertie the Dinosaur, created by Winsor McCay. The fact that he drew every single frame by hand and produced a smooth and engaging cartoon was astounding. It is also considered the first attempt at a narrative.
Next came the introduction of animated feature film. The first of these was El Apostol which was created in 1917 by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. Unfortunately this and two other animated feature films directed by Quirino Cristiani did not make it to the present day. The earliest-surviving animated feature belongs to a German called Lotte Reininger and French/Hungarian called Berthold Bartosch. They directed a silhouette animated feature called Adventures of Prince Achmed from 1926.
Then in 1937 Walt Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated feature to use cel animation. Disney studios were also responsible for the first animation to use the Technicolor method; this was called Flowers and Trees and was made in 1932. However before the introduction of colour, Disney created the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound in 1928 called Steamboat Willie, which was the third Mickey Mouse cartoon to be created. Also in 1937 Walt Disney produced the Silly Symphonies cartoon called The Old Mill. This cartoon is significant because it was the first time Disney used its multi-plane camera, which was used to create a three-dimensional effect. This was accomplished by moving a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds. Another reason this cartoon is significant is because it incorporates realistic depictions of animal behaviour and introduces effects animations, such as rain, wind, lightning, ripples and so on.
The 1930’s also brought about Tex Avery. Avery started out his animation career at Walter Lantz studio in the early 1930’s. He then moved to the Leon Schlesinger studio in the later part of 1935 and convinced Schlesinger to let Avery run his own unit of animators. This unit was primarily assigned to work on the black and white Looney Tunes. This led to the creation of some of the most popular cartoon characters that are still known today such as Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Tex Avery also directed the animated cartoon short called Red Hot Riding Hood. Because of the success of this short and others like it we can still see references in films released today. For example we can see references to Red Hot Riding Hood in the film The Mask, starring Jim Carrey.
Later down the line in the 1950’s we were provided with, what is considered on of the best cartoons of all time, the Rabbit of Seville. This was directed by Chuck Jones and produced by Warner Bros. It is based on the opera called The Barber of Seville and cleverly uses music to help add comedic value to the story.
Also in the 1950’s we were introduced to TV animation and also the release of commercial television in Britain. This combination then made the UK one of the leaders in animated commercials.
That brings us to the 1960’s. Here we are introduced to prime time cartoons. This was started with the Flinstones. The Flinstones led the way for other well known cartoons such as Scooby-Doo which started in 1969. Another popular television program from this time was The Magic Roundabout. This program was created in France in 1963 by Serge Danot and used stop motion animation. The BBC later took the original stop motion animations and produced their own version in 1965 with English language scripts.
One important development and release in the 1960’s was One Hundred and One Dalmatians, produced by Walt Disney. The reason this was an important development was because it was the first to use xerography. This was the process of using a modified Xerox camera to transfer the animators’ drawings directly to animation cels. The reason Disney did this was to reduce costs dramatically as they were on the verge of shutting down their animation studio due to the cost of producing them.
The 1970’s produced the next major breakthrough in animation. This was the creation of the first computer generated face and hand. This opened the doors to things such as 3D animation and special effects. This was then followed by the release of the first Star Wars film in 1977 crated by George Lucas. This movie was the start of a major franchise which is still incredibly popular to this day. This movie was also partly responsible for the rise in popularity of Anime in Japan in the 1980’s.
The 1990’s brought us major enhancements in CGI which have been improving at a fast rate to the present day, giving people the ability to create incredibly realistic effects and animations. Unfortunately in the 1990’s 2D animation started to get even more expensive making it difficult for companies to produce animations within their budget.
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