Animation is the illusion of motion created by displaying a rapid sequence of images that differ slightly. Throughout history, people have tried to depict movement by drawing, with early examples found in ancient pottery from 3000 BC. Early animation devices like the magic lantern, thaumatrope, and zoetrope in the 18th-19th centuries used spinning images to create the illusion of movement. The development of film led to the first animated films at the turn of the 20th century, with techniques like traditional animation and rotoscoping established. The 1920s-50s are considered the Golden Age of animation due to the rise of Disney, Warner Bros, and others. Modern animation increasingly uses 3D CGI and hybrid techniques across
Animation is the illusion of motion created by displaying a rapid sequence of images that differ slightly. Throughout history, people have tried to depict movement by drawing, with early examples found in ancient pottery from 3000 BC. Early animation devices like the magic lantern, thaumatrope, and zoetrope in the 18th-19th centuries used spinning images to create the illusion of movement. The development of film led to the first animated films at the turn of the 20th century, with techniques like traditional animation and rotoscoping established. The 1920s-50s are considered the Golden Age of animation due to the rise of Disney, Warner Bros, and others. Modern animation increasingly uses 3D CGI and hybrid techniques across
Animation is the illusion of motion created by displaying a rapid sequence of images that differ slightly. Throughout history, people have tried to depict movement by drawing, with early examples found in ancient pottery from 3000 BC. Early animation devices like the magic lantern, thaumatrope, and zoetrope in the 18th-19th centuries used spinning images to create the illusion of movement. The development of film led to the first animated films at the turn of the 20th century, with techniques like traditional animation and rotoscoping established. The 1920s-50s are considered the Golden Age of animation due to the rise of Disney, Warner Bros, and others. Modern animation increasingly uses 3D CGI and hybrid techniques across
Animation is the illusion of motion created by displaying a rapid sequence of images that differ slightly. Throughout history, people have tried to depict movement by drawing, with early examples found in ancient pottery from 3000 BC. Early animation devices like the magic lantern, thaumatrope, and zoetrope in the 18th-19th centuries used spinning images to create the illusion of movement. The development of film led to the first animated films at the turn of the 20th century, with techniques like traditional animation and rotoscoping established. The 1920s-50s are considered the Golden Age of animation due to the rise of Disney, Warner Bros, and others. Modern animation increasingly uses 3D CGI and hybrid techniques across
Animation is the illusion of a motion by means of the rapid display of sequence of images that slightly differ from each other. People trough history tried to bring images to life using many inventions. Archeological artefacts prove that we’ve been attempting to depict things in motion as long as we’ve been able to draw.
Early ways of showing animation (3,000 B.C. - 1500 A.D.)
Some notable examples from ancient times are a bronze-age pottery bowl which depicts goats leaping, found in a Shahr-e Sukhteh, an archaeological site located in the southeastern part of Iran 3,000 B.C., and Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man drawing that shows multiple angles, implying movement, from European renaissance, 1500 A.D.
Animation before film (1600 – 1877)
With the spread of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America in the 18th and 19th centuries came experimentation with machines that would make images appear to move. Notable examples are: The magic lantern, from 1603., is an image projector using pictures on sheets of glass. Since some sheets contain moving parts, it is considered the first example of projected animation. The thaumatrope, from 1824., housed a rotating mechanism with a different picture on each side. When rotated, you saw a combined picture (known as persistence of vision). The phenakistoscope, from 1831., featured spinning disks reflected in mirrors that made it seem like the pictures were moving. The zoetrope, from 1834., was a hollow drum that housed images on long interchangeable strips that spin and made the images appear to move. The flip-book, from 1868., also known as the kineograph, reached a wide audience and is credited with inspiring early animators more than the machines developed in this era. The praxinoscope, from 1877., expanded on the zoetrope, using multiple wheels to rotate images. It is considered to have shown the first prototypes of the animated cartoon.
The Silent era (1900 – 1930)
The greatest invention of all was of course a discovery of a movie camera and a standard picture film, and the first ever to included an animated sequence was The Enchanted Drawing from 1900 directed by J. Stuart Blackton. The first animated film using what came to be known as traditional animation creation methods was Fantasmagorie from 1908, by the French artist, Émile Cohl. Luka Eterović
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. In 1914, American cartoonist Winsor McCay released Gertie the Dinosaur, an early example of character development in drawn animation. Also in 1914, John Bray opened John Bray Studios, which revolutionised the way animation was created and launch the careers of the cartoonists that created Mighty Mouse, Betty Boop, and Woody Woodpecker. Earl Hurd, one of Bray's employees patented the cel technique. This involved animating moving objects on transparent celluloid sheets. Animators photographed the sheets over a stationary background image to generate the sequence of images. In 1915, Max and Dave Fleischer invented rotoscoping, the process of using film as a reference point for animation. The first known animated feature film was El Apóstol, made in 1917 by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. In 1920, Otto Messmer of Pat Sullivan Studios created Felix the Cat — often considered the first animated movie star. Steamboat Willie, from 1928. featuring Mickey Mouse, the most iconic animated character —becomes the first cartoon with the sound printed on the film, and is the first notable success for Walt Disney Studios, founded in Los Angeles in 1923, which will soon to become the world’s leading animation studio to very this day.
The Golden Age (1930-1950)
During what many consider to be the “Golden Age” (1930-1950s) of animation, theatrical cartoons became an integral part of popular culture. These years are defined by the rise of Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Silly Symphonies), Warner Brothers, MGM, and Fleischer (Betty Boop, Popeye). In 1937. Walt Disney releases Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated feature to use hand-drawn animation. In 1962. Dušan Vukotić made Surogat (The Substitute) a short animated film produced by Zagreb Film. The film won an Oscar for Short Subjects in 1962.
Television Era From 1960-1980s, The animation industry began to adapt to the fact that television continued its rise as the entertainment medium of choice for American families. Studios created many cartoons for TV, using a “limited animation” style. By the mid ‘80s, with help from cable channels such as The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, cartoons were ubiquitous on TV. The anime boom, the Japanese animation, of the 1980s is considered, by many, the beginning of the "golden age" of anime.
Modern Era From 1980 until today is Modern Era marked by The CGI (computer generated imagery) which revolutionised animation. A principal difference of CGI animation compared to Luka Eterović
traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modelling, 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. The Adventures of Andre & Wally B, from 1984., was the first fully CGI-animated short film, created by The Graphics Group, the precursor of what would be later known as Pixar. In 1995., Pixar and Disney releases first fully computer-animated feature, Toy story. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first given for films made in 2001, and the film who won the award was Shrek made by DreamWorks studio. Today, there are many studios such as Walt Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Studio Ghibli, LAIKA and many others from all around the world that uses hybrids of 3D, 2D, stop animation, rotoscoping and others animating techniques to bring images to life.
