Looking At The History Of Animation Film Studies Essay

Firstly Edward Mybridge used 24 cameras to record the actions of “Humans in Motion” stop motion pictures. By this method they learned the dynamics of animal movement.

In 1880’s Thaumatrope two side one side with bird and other side with cage when twirl it the two image superimpose on each other and the bird will appear inside the cage because of the persistance of vission.

Zoetrope is the series of images which are drawn and placed in a cylindrical object when the object revolves the images in a cylinder creates the illusion of motion and creates an animation in 1860s.

1878- THE PRAXINOSCOPE

It is similar to the Zeotrope but its requiring mirrors to project the image. Emile Reynaud was the first person to opened first movie theater in Paris using the Praxinoscope.

1891- THE KINETOSCOPE

The famous American inventor Thomas Alva Edison built on the previous models a model of his own which is considered to be the first cinema machine.

It consisted of a box through which a reel of photos were passed, at a rate of 46 images per second, and lit by an incandescent lamp; the spectator could see the show through a peephole. In 1896 he shot the first movie kiss of all time.

1894- THE CINEMATOGRAPH

In 1894 the French duo of Lumiere brothers created the first real movie camera. They were intrigued by the Kinetoscope and tried to build a better model themselves. They came up with a machine which the called the Cinematograph which was a combination of a camera and a projector. In 1895 they shot the first movie called Date. This movie is considered to be the birth of cinema.

Flip Book is the process of drawing a picture some semilar to the another, by fliping the page the an animation is being create. The similar process is also called cel animation.

Cel and Paper Animation Technique

By mid of 1910s animation production in US was already controlled by the techniques of cell and paper. America was the most popular in cell animation than in Europe because of assembly line Taylorism that had taken America by storm.Cell Animation wass most appropriate way to the assembly line style of manufacturing because itook a whole line of persons working on very specific and simple respective duties. On the other hand in Europe where the assembly line style of work was not encouragd, clay animation and other form of animation that required only a few individuals working on the set at a time was more popular. Because the actual set can only afford a limited amount of individuals working at one time together and no more this style and other alternative forums of animation became more widely accepted.

Disney Cell Animation

By drawing each image background and layout of scene one at a time using onion-skinning technique. The element or character which might have movement are drawn on transparent sheet of paper known as ‘Cels’ and laid over the background which is static. Only moving elements need to be redrawn, backgroung can also be drawn longer and moved to give the effect of travelling.

For eg- The simpsons, South park etc.

These days most of the work done on Computer.

Synched Sound : Steamboat Willie – was released on November 18th 1928 by Disney.

The first cartoon synchronized with sound titled”Steamboat Willie” was created by Disney.

Firstly Didney tried to get a deal with RCA or Western Electronic to record the sound track of the movie but it was not succided. Then Walt signed contract with botleg Powers Cinephone process and even with disastorous finally the first sound track in a session was recorded with a 15-pice band and his own Micky squeaks.

The Future of Animation

3D Animation

Toy Story – released November 22nd 1995

On enterance of computer graphics and 3D softwares the feature length film of high graphics can virtually be created in 3D. Toy Story is considered to be the first full length animated feature film which ever made on computer graphics. Toy Story was made by the partners Disney and Pixar.

Story board of the movie to final render created in CG digital imagery.

Combination of 3D & 2D

The Iron Giant released on 1999. If we see the Iron Giant it looks like the traditionaliy drawn cell by cell but its not true – the giant robot is actually made and designed in 3D software and rendered as a 2D image. Autodesk Maya was used to design this character. One of the most important advantage in creating 3D software is that it is easy to animate no need of frame by frame drawing. Also most of the backgrond which looks like 2D were also made in 3D software and rendered as 2D image.

Fishing released on 1999 Pacific Data Images use of non realistic photo, realistic water colour effect rendering in 3D software.

“Character Animation is all about what the character is thinking .At times, he was getting lost. Is he happy or sad? So we punched it up. Rather then having him just look up at the sky, we had him jump off the ground just a bit. That touch better communicates what he is thinking, what his feeling. That’s all I do all day long as a character animator- move 3D models to look like their thinking”

David Gainey

Dinosaur – released in 2000

With the development of the technologies of Computer Graphics it introduce a new and more realistic CGI characters accordingly those seen in Dinosaur. The creation, design and implementation of real technology of realistic digital hair on the lemurs are elaborated.

Kung Fu Panda was released on November 9th 2008 with the development of advanced technology DVDs and Blue-ray Disc produced by DreamWorks Animation and was distributed by Paramount Pictures. However the concept of “Kung Fu Panda” has been around since 1993, but the work started on this feature film in 2004 because of the flexibility of the software flexibility or the software development.

Berief History of Indian Animation

Dadasaheb Phalke is known as the father of Indian cinema he produced 95 movies and 26 short films in his 19 years career.

Ek Anek Aur Ekta, a short traditional animated short educational film was released in 1974 was considered as the first animated film from India from Doordarshan’s Film Division. The theme of the film is to teach children the value of unity. This film was the first animated films from India which was broadcast on National television channel and it was broadcast in the nation’s official language Hindi.

The first Indian animated television series is Ghayab Aaya was released in 1986 and it is directed by Suddhasattwa Basu. And Rodeside Romeo is the first Indian 3D Animated film was written and directed by Jugal Hansraj and was produced by a joint project between Yash Raj Films and the Indian Division of the Walt Disney Company.

Development of Animation Principles:

Almost all of the principles of traditional animation were developed at the Walt Disney Studios in 1930’s. The principles of the animation were developed to make good animation, especially character animation, more realistic and entertaining. All the principle which was developed during the traditional animation is applied to 3D CG animation.

There are 28 Principles of Animation out of those 12 principles are considered as basic but most important principles of animation introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnstone and Frank Thomas in 19 81 in the book called The Illusion of Disney Animation. Their effort is to produce more realistic animations “The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation” on the work of the leading Disney animators from the 1930 onward. The book and its principles have become generally adopted and have been referred as the “Bible of the Animation Industry”. The principles are still having the great relevance or the computer graphics animation.