Shannara Walsh AIT 2B

HISTORY OF ANIMATION

Animation is a graphic representation of drawings to show movement within those drawings.  A series of drawings are linked together and usually photographed by a camera.  The drawings have been slightly changed between individualized frames so when they are played back in rapid succession (24 frames per second) there appears to be seamless movement within the drawings. Early animations, which started appearing before 1910, consisted of simple drawings photographed one at a time.  It was extremely labor intensive as there were literally hundreds of drawings per minute of film.  The development of celluloid around 1913 quickly made animation easier to manage.  Instead of numerous drawings, the animator now could make a complex background and/or foreground and sandwich moving characters in between several other pieces of celluloid, which is transparent except for where drawings are painted on it.  This made it unnecessary to repeatedly draw the background as it remained static and only the characters moved.  It also created an illusion of depth, especially if foreground elements were placed in the frames. Walt Disney took animation to a new level.  He was the first animator to add sound to his movie cartoons with the premiere of Steamboat Willie in 1928.  In 1937, he produced the first full length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.     With the introduction of computers, animation took on a whole new meaning.  Many feature films of today had animation incorporated into them for special effects.  A film like Star Wars by George Lucas would rely heavily on computer animation for many of its special effects.  Toy Story, produced by Walt Disney Productions and Pixar Animation Studios, became the first full length feature film animated entirely on computers when it was released in 1995.

TIMELINE OF THE HISTORY OF ANIMATION

1824'The persistence of vision with regard to moving objects' - Peter Roget

1872Phenakistoscope invented - produced an illusion of movement

1889Kinetoscope invented by Thomas Edison- projected a 50ft length of film in approximately 13 seconds.

1906J. Stuart Blackton made the first animated film which he called "Humorous phases of funny faces." His method was to draw comical faces on a blackboard and film them. He would stop the film, erase one face to draw another, and then film the newly drawn face. 1910

 En Route - Emile Cohl -first paper cutout animation

1911Winsor McCay produced an animation sequence using his comic strip character "Little Nemo."

1914 Winsor McCay produced a cartoon called "Gertie, The Trained Dinosaur" which amazingly consisted of 10,000 drawings. It was shown as a film in the theaters and also as a multi media event on stage with McCay interacting with the animated Gertie.

1915Max Fleischer - patented the rotoscope process - live action footage to be traced.

1920FELIX THE CAT, the most popular character and series of this period, started as the Feline Follies from Sullivan's studio. The merchandising of Felix's image for dolls, watches, etc was very successful and paved the way for the later merchandising of animated characters.

1923    Walt and Roy Disney found Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.

1928 

STEAMBOAT WILLIE was the first successful sound animated film; it made Mickey an international star, and launched the Disney studio of today

1930Warner Bros. Cartoons was born.

First WB short was SINKING IN THE BATHTUB

Pluto character born in THE PICNIC.

Fleischer: introduced the character of in Betty Boop

1934  Donald Duck voice debuts on Mickey Mouse's NBC radio program.Warners, first Merrie Melody in color, the Looney Tunes were in B&W until 1943, colored in 70's in Japan. In the 1950's Warner's burnt all their cels from these series to make storage space available

1935

First Porky Pig I HAVEN'T GOT A HAT.

Marc Davis, one of the Nine Old Men begins working at Disney, spending 42 years there.

1936Tex Avery's first film at Warner's - Jones, Clampett, and Bo Cannon were also in the unit, which they called Termite Terrace.

1937  SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS

PORKYS DUCK HUNT, introduced the proto type character of Daffy Duck

1938First Chuck Jones, THE NIGHT WATCHMAN.

1940Disney: PINOCCHIO and FANTASIA

Warners: Avery's, A WILD HARE, where he defines the character of Bugs Bunny. There were three previous Bugs, but this was the film where the real Bugs was born.

First Tom and Jerry (MGM: PUSS GETS THE BOOT). first co-effort of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera

Lantz: Woody Woodpecker introduced: KNOCK: KNOCK 1941

1942

1943  MGM, Tex Avery's DUMB HOUNDED,

first Droopy

1944Leon Schlesinger studio sold to Warners

Warners, Yosemite Sam introduced in HARE TRIGGER

1945   Warners, Pepe Le Pew introduced, ODOR-KITTY, Chuck Jones.

1946Warners: Foghorn Leghorn: WALKY TALKY HAWK,

Terrytoons: HECKLE AND JECKLE series is introduced

Xerography process invented.

1947  TWEETIE PIE, AA, Warners: Tweetie and Sylvester together, first Tweetie, first AA for Warners, Friz Freleng

1949Warners, The Road Runner introduced, FAST AND FURRY-OUS, Chuck Jones Director

1950  

Animation for TV commercials becoming an important segment of the animation industry.

1953Disney: PETER PAN released.

Warners, DUCK AMUCK, Chuck Jones Director.

GUMBY first appears in GUMBASIS by Art Clokey

1954   Warners, Tasmanian Devil, DEVIL MAY HARE, Bob McKimson

1955SPEEDY GONZALES, AA, Friz Freleng, first major Speedy

1957

Hanna and Barbera were asked to leave MGM, started Hanna Barbera studios.

Warners: WHAT'S OPERA DOC? Chuck Jones

Dr. Seuss wrote Cat in the Hat

Disneyland opened.

Warners, ONE FROGGY EVENING, Chuck Jones

1959

Jay Ward's on TV.

1960  

first prime time TV series -Hanna-Barbera

1961Start of the "Nine Old Men" era at Disney

the first use of Xerox cels.

1962 Warner Bros. Animation closes.

Charles Shulz writes: "Happiness is a Warm Puppy

1965

THE DOT AND THE LINE, AA, MGM (Chuck Jones

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMASFirst Peanuts TV special

1966  

DR. SEUSS'

directed by Chuck Jones

1967

SPEED RACER

1968WINNY THE POOH AND THE BLUSTERY DAY, AA, Disney

1969SCOOBY DOO, WHERE ARE YOU debut on TV

1971 Steve Krantz producer, Ralph Bakshi director, the first X-rated feature in the USA.

1982    

Tim Burton's VINCENT.

1987

started as spots on the Tracey Ullman Show

1989

Disney's last animated feature-length film to use traditional cels.

John Lasseter, William Reeves, Pixar, first computer animated film to win an Academy Award for best Animated Short

Grossed over $300 million and proved that animation was not limited to a children's audience.

1991The first animated feature to be nominated for the Academy Award as Best Picture.

1992

starts in 2 million homes, by 1995 in 22 million

FROG BASEBALL, starring Beavis Butthead, by Mike Judge, screened to an MTV focus group.

Bill Plympton completes first feature film THE TUNE.

1993  

1994

1995

First full-length 3D CG feature film

The merger of Time Warner and Turner brings Warner Bros. Feature, TV, and Classic Animation, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, plus a couple of others under one roof.

1997  

2001

1996

This CG animated movie won the Academy Award for Best Animation.

2003

All time highest grossing animation of all time, beating out Beauty and the Beast.

2005

In its 16th season, becomes the longest running television comedy series ever made surpassing The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, which tallied 15 seasons from 1952-66

CLAYMATIONClaymation and its wonderful history dates back to about 1897, with the introduction of a messy material artists called plasticine. In more recent times, a modern man named Art Clokey started producing claymation advertising films in the 1950's, and then went on to make the famous Gumby and Pokey television show, which brought claymation into the households of many children and other household viewers. The Gumby and Pokey series ran from 1956 until about 1963, and Gumby made a come-back around the 1980's.

One famous claymation sequence that also showed great potential and claymation skill is the skeleton scene in the 1963 Jason and the Argonauts. Another is the 1985 animated production of The Adventures of Mark Twain and the 1988 Meet the Raisins by Will Vinton.

In 1989 Nick Park created the wonderful Wallace and Gromit animated series and later went on to produce a number of other films starring Wallace and Gromit before Aardman Animations worked on the famous Chevron Cars commercials starting in 1995.

While conventional commercials are shot on 35 mm film at 25 frames-per-second, the claymation production requires stop-action photography, shooting up to 30 individual frames for each second of film

HOW CLAYMATION IS USED

In clay animation, which is one of the many forms of stop motion animation, each object is sculpted in clay or a similarly pliable material such as Plasticine, usually around a wire skeleton called an armature. As in other forms of object animation, the object isarranged on the set (background), a film frame is taken and the object or character is then moved slightly by hand. Another frame is taken and the object moved slightly again. This cycle is repeated until the animator has achieved the desired amount of film. The human mind processes the series of slightly changing, rapidly playing images as motion, hence making it appear that the object is moving by itself. To achieve the best results, a consistent shooting environment is needed to maintain the illusion of continuity.

STOP-MOTION ANIMATION

Stop-motion animation, or motion capture, or performance animation, unlike any other types of animation, is simply a way to animate puppets. Essentially, puppets are used and a photograph is taken every time their position is changed slightly to create a fluid-like motion. In a way, it defines animation where we give life to non living objects and make them look life like.Stop-motion animation is a very interesting way of producing animation and it is also one of the most complicated and tedious one. Instead of just drawing on papers and coloring them, in stop motion, we not only have to design the characters, we also have to make them from scratch using wood, metal, clay and other scraps of material. For example, hair gel is used to make water, cosmetic toothpaste to make blood, a fountain is made by plastic and resin instead of plain water, cotton wool is used to make smoke and smog and etcetera

COMPUTER ANIMATION

In the beginning of the 20th century, when animation first came into the world, each page of an animation was drawn by hand. It was only much later that there came about cel animation. The use of clear acetate sheets made many cartoonists' life easier, and we can enjoy better results. Now, we have progressed so far that we now have a new approach to animation. We are now looking towards the more modern and sophisticated way of creating animation--by using computers.It started when computer experts saw the possibility of computers as a way of developing wonderfully good pictures that would have taken a lot more effort producing or even impossible to produce otherwise. Then later on, in the late 20th century, we saw the help of computer generated graphics being used in major successful movies, such as the Star Wars Trilogy and the Jurassic Park, directed by George Lucas and Spielberg respectively. In these two movies, much of the Computer Generated Imaging (CGI) was used to create impressive scenes that would otherwise need to waste much money on building believable models and then filming them. The use of computers also came in where dangerous stunts needs to be done. As the world of computer animation grows, we see the creation of the first fully computerized animation, Toy Story, a Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios Production, released by Walt Disney Pictures in 1995.

By the use of computers, we now let it do the harder work that used to be done by junior cartoonist. Before this, the chief cartoonist would draw out the key frames and others would draw the pages in between. Now, we can use the help of computers to create these scenes and do the in 'betweening' (or known as tweening) scenes. This saved the animators a lot of effort and time, which is much appreciated.This form of animation is quickly gaining importance in the world, and we are looking forward to the time when we may be able to see much more use of computers in the wide film of cinematography.

IMPACTS OF ANIMATION ON SOCIETY

children do imitate their heroes, hoping to emulate them and be able to stand as strong and powerful as they do. Parents see the television as a babysitter of sorts and let their children sit in front of it, absorbing everything they see mindlessly, while the parents do chores or work they must complete that involves not having their children distract them. This is when children receive the full force of the violence in television; studies conducted have shown that children either imitate their heroes or let the actions of these heroes influence their later, more aggressive actions. A study conducted by Albert Bandura with several groups of children, each watching a different form of violence, agrees with this and suggests that the type of violence a child performs is shaped by the type that he or she sees on television; "a person displaying violence on film is as influential as one displaying it in real life….televised models are important sources of social behavior" (Bandura, 126). Television has a strong influence on children from a young age, especially if adults give them many opportunities to watch and do not step in to remind their children that this is all fantasy, or to change the channel should the material be entirely too violent for children's eyes.

The Simpsons and violence

Whether or not exposure to media violence causes increased levels of aggression and violence in young people is the perennial question of media effects research. Some experts, like University of Michigan professor L. Rowell Huesmann, argue that fifty years of evidence show "that exposure to media violence causes children to behave more aggressively and affects them as adults years later." Others, like Jonathan Freedman of the University of Toronto, maintain that "the scientific evidence simply does not show that watching violence either produces violence in people, or desensitizes them to it."

Research strand: Children who consume high levels of media violence are more likely to be aggressive in the real world

Anyone who watches The Simpsons knows that occasionally a character falls down the stairs, or drops into the Springfield Gorge, or even dies. Homer Simpson strangles Bart in almost every episode. The concern for too much violence on television has been growing