INTRODUCTION TO ANIMATION

INTRODUCTION

Most of us have at one time laughed at the antics of Tom and Jerry, Disney and the like. The art form
animation has its own potential than one would assume.

Humankind has always been fascinated by moving images. The desire to make pictures move has provoked
some of the most innovative developments in the fields of science and technology during the 20 th century.
Curiously though, it’s this fact which has inhibited a proper recognition of the animated film and animation as
an art form (Wells 1998: 1).

Animation or cartoons have a long rich history. Animation precedes the invention of photography and the cine
camera by several decades. (cine-camera - a camera that takes a sequence of photographs that can give the
illusion of motion when viewed in rapid succession). Ever since man began to create graphic images, he has
been concerned with recording and trying to reproduce movement while trying to tell stories by means of
sequential images (Kinsey 1970:8).According to (Wright 2005:1), animation goes back as far as cave drawings
that flickered in the light of early fires and danced on walls like spirits coming back to life.

Animation is a process of manipulating a series of static images to produce motion. It originates from the
numerous parlors - game toys popular in the early 1800s which experimented with persistence of vision effect
known as the Phi phenomenon.

Quiz: What is persistence of vision?

There are basically two elements that make up an animated film:

i. The telling of a story by means of a series of pictures
ii. Reproduction of movement within those pictures

A continuous history of storytelling can be traced from ancient classical times -the bas- relief decorations of
Greek temples, the painted linings of Egyptian cases and 18th century engraved paints to modern comic book.

Designing for the animated film involves the artist in an extra dimension, that of time. Images which may not
be particularly satisfying or exciting when considered as static pictures take on a new significance when
manipulated (in time as well as in two dimensional space).For instance, a simple line or a dot moving across a
screen becoming smaller or larger, changing pace or direction, is a very different proposition to the same line
or dot on static page (Kinsey 1970).
Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103
The animated film plays a much of more significant role in our everyday lives than we probably realize.
Currently we may lose count of the number of instances when animated graphics in their various forms appear
on the screen in the course of an evening’s television. If one includes commercials, children’s programs,
credits, titles, weather forecasts and other documentary programs using animated diagrams, we would probably
discover that we watch far more animated imagery than we realize.

Animation is an art medium that is able to entertain, simplify, exaggerate, reveal complex processes, clarify,
visualize data, sell a product, drive humor home, bring insight, portray human condition, tackle an
uncomfortable subject, be an art form etc. (wesite –animation notes contents).

Quiz. Discuss the significance of animation in dissemination of information through media in the current era.

What is animation?
According to (Wright 2005), the word animate comes from a Latin verb animare, meaning to make alive or fill
with breath. In animation we can completely restructure reality by taking drawings, clay, puppets or forms and
make them seem so real that we want to believe they are alive. Pure fantasy is applied in animation. However,
for animation to work, the fantasy world must be true to itself with its own unbroken rules that we are willing
to believe in it.

Devices for reproducing or simulating movement are of more recent origin as far as western culture is
concerned, although the East has had its shadow puppets for many centuries. Historically, it’s impossible to
separate the development of the animated film from that photography itself and the cinema film in general.

From the early 16th century when camera obscura (a device identical in principle to the pin-hole camera) was
used to delight and amaze audiences by projecting it into a white wall or transparent screen the sunlit scene
outside, various instruments have been invented. Until the invention of photography the images employed in
the devices were always hand drawn, as in the modern animated film.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

 ANIMATION HERITAGE AND EARLY DEVICES
Early devices

1. The Magic Lantern (Athanasus Kircher)

At about 1640, Athanasus Kircher invented the magic lantern. That machine was close in concept to the
modern movie projector and animated film. Kircher continued to perfect his magic lantern in various ways. He
employed a revolving disc carrying a number of individual pictures which told a story. By the end of the 17 th
century the magic lantern was widely used both as a scientific instrument and an entertainment. Showmen
would travel from town to town giving lantern shows to the populace at fairs and markets delighting them with
their magic art.

As techniques of lens manufacture improved, ways of intensifying the light passing through the image were
found. This development made the magic lantern to become more and more efficient like the modern slide
projector.

In the 18th century, Pieter Van Musschenbroek - a Dutchman conceived the idea of double projector which
would carry two sets of slides for simultaneous projection. One side would remain stationary, and generally
depicted a background whereas the other side or set of slides, was moved by using a length of a cord and
consisted of images or figures, etc, which were projected over the background. This gain is in essence hat the
modern film animator does, except that the animator is able to combine two sets of images on one strip of film.

From this point on the story of the search for motion pictures were more concerned with devices designed to be
viewed by one person at a time while moving away from the projected image and mass entertainment. Very
many devices were invented during the 19th century all of which made use of persistence of vision.

2. Thaumatrope (John Paris)

Thaumatrope was invented by an English doctor known as John A. Paris in 1825s.The Thaumatrope consisted
of a small disc of a thin card with one image drawn on the face and another one at the back. Two shot threads
were attached to the disc so that it could spun revealing is each face in rapid succession. Due to the effect of
persistence of vision, the two images appeared to combine/appeared as one. This little device would seem very
simple to our modern sophisticated taste due to advanced technology but at the time of its invention it provided
endless amusement and was indeed a significant development in search for motion picture.

Thaumatrope means “wonder turner” derived from the Greek words:

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

θαῦμα “wonder” and τρόπος “turn”. Roget was the first person in history to create such a device which
produces the illusion of movement.

In order to enjoy this animation, one would only need one small round piece of paper with pictures on it and
thin ropes fixed at both ends of the shape (Figure 1). Below shows what a thaumatrope (Figure 1) is and how
the illusion of movement is produced (Figure 2).

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

 Figure 1. Thaumatrope. Figure 2. Illusion of movement.

3. Phenakisticope/Fantascope - Joseph Plateaus

Phenakisticope/Fantascope was one of the complex inventions which followed the thaumatrope to further the
investigation into persistence of vision. The Fantascope was the first machine to really exploit exactly the
effects that were later to be employed in the first cine projector. There were many others. Phenakisticope is
also known as stroboscope. According to wright (2005: 13) this was a card disk with successive images that
could be spun on a pivot.

Phenakistiscope originated from the Greek word (phenakizein), meaning "to trick or cheat"; as it tricks the
eye by making the figures in the pictures appear to move. It is composed of six similar images in different
positions taken in order to relay the movement. A very simple example is a running reindeer and jumping
frogs (Figure 3).

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

 Figure 3. Examples of moving images using a phenakistiscope.

According to Kinsey (1970:12) the fantascope can be made from a disc of a card mounted on a wooden handle
by means of a thumb-tack. When spun and viewed through the slots, using a mirror, the separate drawings run
together to form an animated sequence.

Around 1845 Baron Franz von Uchatius developed the first true movie projector combining the characteristics
of the magic lantern and fantascope, thus making it possible to project moving images to an audience rather
than to a single viewer. But still the images had to be painted by hand on a glass and can therefore be regarded
as early examples of graphic animation.

During this period things were happening in the area of still photography:
i. The researches of Daguerre and Fox Talbot were being adapted for use in the magic lantern.
ii. the Langenheisms of Philadelphia developd a system for making glass slides photographically
From that moment on it was only a matter of time before the motion picture using photographic images was
born and the hand drawn images disappeared from the scene.

4. The flickerbook (1890)

Kinsey (1970: 13) says that the Flickerbook appeared in the scene in 1890. Each page of a small book contains
an individual image which forms part of an animated sequence. By flickering the pages an illusion of
movement is created. Therefore, the flickerbook is a small book that contains an individual image which forms
part of an animated sequence.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

 5. Zoetrope (1850)
The Zoetrope consists of a drum of metal or metal or card open at the top. Sealed with a disc at the bottom and
mounted by means of a bolt and spindle on a wooden base. A series of images are drawn or painted on a strip of
thin card inserted inside the drum below the slots. The viewer spins the drum and watches a succession of
images through the passing slots; a convincing effect of animation is produced. According to Wright (2005: 13)
the zoetrope was invented in 1934.

A zoetrope produces an illusion of movement from a rapid succession of static pictures. Derived from the
Greek words "life" and "turn" this forms a “wheel of life”.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

 Figure 4. Different versions of the zoetrope.

6. Praxinoscope
In 1877 Emile Raymond built another device with colored strips of paper on the inside service of a cylinder
attached to a pivot similar to the zoetrope invented earlier. Raymond patented his praxinoscope in 1877.

Almost the same as a zoetrope, the only difference was the integration of a mirror to the device which makes the
viewer more comfortable as they watch the movement of the objects. It was known as the “action viewer”.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

Figure 5. Praxinoscope in black and white, and a version in colour.

∙ Kinestoscope

An early motion picture exhibition device was invented in 1888 by Thomas Edison together with his
colleague Eadweard Muybridge. The kinestoscope was designed for films to be viewed through the
window of a cabinet (Figure 6). Kinestoscope means the “view of movement” from the Greek
words κίνησις “movement” and σκοπός “movement”.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

 Figure 6. Man views the motion picture exhibit in a kinestoscope.

∙ Multiplane Camera and Storyboard

Walt Disney and his colleagues had a problem with creating realistic animation and how to
conserve time while creating it. Then they came up with a great solution which can be considered
another innovation in the field of animation - the multiplane camera (Figure 12). The multiplane
camera is a piece of equipment designed to make cartoons more realistic and enjoyable. It uses
stacked panes of glass each with different elements of the animation (Figure 13). With this, it allowed
for the reuse of backgrounds, foregrounds, or any elements not in motion. The multiplane camera was
developed by a Walt Disney Productions team headed by William Garity in the early 1930s. It was
also known as the “super cartoon camera”.

The storyboard was yet another successful creation in animation technology. It is used to recheck
the story and utilizes pencil sketches to review motion.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

 Figure 12. Multiplane camera. Figure 13. Multiplane camera II.

Next we will discuss the first ever animated films together with some of the most famous and
successful animation characters. Outstanding works in stop motion and clay motion are also elucidated,
followed by a discussion of computer graphics and computer animation, i.e 3D animation.

7. Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

After the invention of the above-mentioned devices, J. Stuart Blackton made the first animated film in
1906. The film was entitled Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, and with this he became known as
the father of animation. He was using a blackboard as his workplace together with chalk and an
eraser as his main tools. He was able to record the animation using the “draw-stop-film-erase”
method.

8. Birth of Cartoon Characters

In 1914 Winsor McCay crafted a masterpiece known as Gertie the Dinosaur. It was the first time someone
created a true character for the screen and had the character act out a little story (Marx 2007:3).

The creation of the first ever animated film also inspired many animators to create their own animations. For
instance, Winsor McCay drew Gertie, the trained dinosaur (Figure 8). It was an animated film astonishingly

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

consisting of 10,000 drawings. The animation was shown as a film in theatres as well as at a multimedia event
on stage with McCay interacting with the animated Gertie.

Next in line was Felix the Cat (Figure 9). During the early 1920s, he became the most famous animated
character. Then came Mickey Mouse (Figure 10). Mickey Mouse was created on November 18, 1928 and with
his creation came the first successful sound animated film. Mickey Mouse was originally known as Steamboat
Willie (Figure 11). He became an international star and made way for the launch of Disney Studios. Lastly,
Looney Tunes was introduced in 1930 by Hugh Harman and Rudolp Ising run by the Warner Bros. Company.
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird and Silvester are just a few of the main characters in this cartoon.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture notes | MFA 103

Figure 8. Gertie the trained dinosaur Figure 9. Felix the Cat.

Figure 10. Steamboat Willie. Figure 11. Mickey Mouse.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 9. Stop Motion and Claymation

Stop motion animation is used to animate things that are smaller than life size. Willis Harold
O’Brian pioneered motion picture special effects, which were perfected in stop motion. He
became famous after his successful work on King Kong (Figure 14), claiming the title Dean of Stop-
action Animation. Ray Harryhausen followed in the footsteps of O’Brian and became one of the
most outstanding stop motion film makers through his films Mighty Joe Young and The Lost World
(Figure 15).

On the other hand, claymation also became a trend. Technically, it is the art of moulding clay figures
and making them move, dance, talk, sing and whatever you can think of. Frames are run together to
produce the animation. Chicken Run and Wallace & Grommit are the two most successful
claymations created by Aarmand Studios of the United Kingdom.

Figure 14. King Kong Figure 15. Lost World

One artist doing all the work was both painstaking and time-consuming. The next step was the
development of animation studios where teams of artists would work on projects, leading to
specialization. Soon there were artists doing storyboards, character animation, backgrounds, painting
cells, or other jobs. However, one area of specialization that never developed in these early studios
was the actual scrip writer (Marx 2007:3).

Earlier on in 1911 a newspaper Cartoonist known as Winsor took his most famous cartoon strip little
Nemo and turned it into the first character of animated film in history (YouTube –from pencils to
pixels).
Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109
 10. Cell patent - Earl Hurd
By 1915, Earl Hurd an American, patented the cell process, by means of which the action could
be drawn on a transparent sheets (cels) and superimposed on a constant background, most of the
techniques still employed in the production of animated cartoon films - had been developed.

Film goers had become accustomed to watching the antics of Felix the Cat and Koko the Clown
as regular part of their film entertainment. It was Marx Fleischer who created the Koko the Clown
and went on to animate Popeye and Betty Boop.

11. Disney’s Steamboat Willie (1928)

The USA dominated the cartoon film world in general, although the Russians and Germans also
made their contribution, particularly in cut-out or Silhouette film (Kinsey 1970:13). The Fleischer
brothers’ sing- along cartoons beginning 1924 and Disney’s Steamboat Willie in 1928 were
important milestones. They advanced animation styles and use of sound and music at a time when
sound was still new and revolutionary even for live-action movies.

It was not long however before the name Walt Disney began to exclude all others in the minds of
ordinary filmgoer. Disney’s influence dominated the scene between wars and his characters
became household words. Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie for instance was known to a
generation of children who did not experience the original films.
12. Disney’s Snow White
Marx (2007) alludes that although Disney’s Snow White wasn’t the first animated feature ever
created, it set a high level of art, sophistication of character development and memorable music.

On the other hand Kinsey (1970:13) says that much critical comment have been made about the
later Disney productions. Certainly in the light of more sophisticated and adult work of the post
war period the Disney features with their sugarly, sweet sentimentality and slick characterless
drawing appear almost totally lacking in aesthetic merit. But there is no denying the powers of
invention and organization of Disney studio. Technically, of course, the films were superb.

Decline of animated film came as a result of:

i. Over emphasis on technical aspect of the medium

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109
 ii. The constant striving after realism as exemplified in the full length features, Snow white,
Bambi etc,
iii. Incorporation of live actors - some animated films incorporated photographs of live
actors led to the almost total decline of animated film.
iv. It became too expensive to produce by drawing and it became easier to produce by using
real live actors.

Eventually, Disney turned to making conventional acted films and documentaries seldom
employing animation techniques.

On early animation features there are people credited with the story and adaptation features but
no actual animation script was part of the process. It was a fluid of storyboards, and story
concepts being worked up on some combination of images and written word (Marx 2007).

Other than Disney features most animation through the 1950s consisted of short pieces made to
run in front of feature films, relying mostly of gags and jokes.

As interest in the article shots waned, many movie studios shut down their animation production
arms. This led William Hanna and Joe Barbera, who had formed HB enterprises in 1944 (later
Hanna Barbera productions), to focus on animation for the new medium of television starting
1957. Initially the studio turned out five to seven minute cartoons, giving birth to Yogi Bear and
Huckleberry Hound. Later, the half hour sitcom of The Flintstones debuting in 1960.
13. The first animators
At the beginning of the 19th century Emile Cohl, a Frenchman who could be regarded as the
originator of the cartoon film, began to experiment with simple black line drawings on a white
paper. These were photographed in succession and the resulting negative projected to produce on
the screen the effect of white images moving against a black background (Kinsey 1970:13).Other
early animators included McCay, Muybridge and others.

QUIZ: Discuss five early animators showing their contribution to the historical development of
animation

14. Later developments in animation

a) Business oriented
Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109
Producing animation in 1960s was business driven. The need to turn out longer shows week after
week on extremely tight budget had a profound effect on quality of animation and the need to
streamline the process. Animators couldn’t maintain the volume of work that was required for
longer shows. Why? Animators were used to making shorter theatrical shorts/gags.
b) Hiring of scriptwriters
The business driven necessities led to the hiring of actual script writers –people who knew to type
a script that could be handed to storyboard artists. Thus, the role of script writers in the field of
animation is relatively recent, given the history of art form.

Attempts have been made for a show to go back to creating animation in the old way. However,
those efforts have not succeeded for regular half-hour series. Today the dominant method to for
creating a feature film or television animation project is to begin with a written script which then
goes to story boards and art design.
Recent developments
c) Computer generated images (CGI)/3-D
This is one of the most recent developments of animation which is also just shortened as CG
(computer generated) or 3-D.The ground breaker in creating top quality CG shows was
Mainframe Entertainment in Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada. In 1994, Mainframe TV
Series ReBoot was the first all CGI series. Initially CG was more expensive than traditional cel,
or 2-D, animation, but as technology and techniques continued to advance, CG became more and
more an integral part of TV and feature animation.

Pixar’s toy story in 1995 showed that a CG feature could match the success of a 2-D feature,
further driven by the enormous success of finding Nemo.

In fact, these features were so successful that both DreamWorks and Disney have since
announced that they have virtually abandoned 2-D production in favor of 3-D, decisions that
continue to be hotly debated by writers, animators and others in the field of animation. The one
thing that doesn’t change whether the project is done in 2 –D or 3 - D is the need for strong
stories, compelling characters and well written scripts. The fact that the Oscars now include a
category for best animated feature supports the need for top quality writing in an art form that
continues to mature,
What is the difference between traditional animation and Computer Animation?

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

Traditional animation - a system of animating in which the illusion of movement is presented by
photographing a sequence of individual drawings on consecutive frames of film. On the other
hand, computer animation is a form of pictorial presentation which refers to simulated
motion pictures showing movement of drawn objects.

d) Computer Graphics and 3D Animation

This is where graphics are created using computers and the illustration of image data by a
computer particularly with the help of respective graphic hardware and software such as
Superpaint. It is used to replace physical models then create realistic intermixed elements with
the live action. 3D animation is today’s animation. By using some sophisticated software and
looking at the Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Animation concept, animators
are able to produce outstanding and aesthetic animations such as, Toy Story, Madagascar,
Megamind, etc.

Week 1 Assignment for presentation in the 3rd week

a) Explore genres and categories in animation.
b) “Script writing terms employed in animation are the same as those employed in live-
action scripts with perhaps a few exceptions”. Discuss
c) Explain any five types of animation.

PERSISTANCE OF VISION

According to Kinsey 1970:15 is persistence of vision describes the way in which an image
‘burns’ itself on to our retina so that it remains with us in for a small fraction of time after the
source of the image has been removed.

This phenomenon is the basis of cinema film enabling succession of projected images to be
assimilated without interruption and thereby producing an illusion of continuous and natural
movement. The persistence of vision is a physiological fact which over which the individual has
no control over. In brief:

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109
 In other words, Persistence of vision refers to the optical illusion that occurs when visual
perception of an object does not cease for some time after the rays of light proceeding from it
have ceased to enter the eye. The illusion has also been described as "retinal persistence"
"persistence of impressions" or "persistence" and other variations.

This has been believed to be the explanation for motion perception in cinema and animated
films, but this theory has long been discarded by scientists. It is assumed that the illusion that
film historians often refer to as "persistence of vision" is the same as what is known as positive
afterimages by psychologists. The cause of positive afterimages is not well known, but
possibly reflects persisting activity in the brain when the retinal photoreceptor cells continue to
send neural impulses to the occipital lobe.

Early descriptions of the illusion often attributed the effect purely to imperfections of the eye,
particularly of the retina. Nerves and parts of the brain later became part of explanations.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 GENRES AND CATEGORIES
According to Marx (2007) animation can be categorized into into 3 genres namely:

● Features eg theatrical –direct – to – video, television

● Television (Children’s animation and adult animation)

Children’s animation
When shows are evaluated for ratings, they are broken down into:

● Kids 2 – 11

● Kids 6 – 11

● Teens 9 – 14

Common categories
In development it’s more common to break the categories into 2 i.e

● Preschool and very young (2 – 8)

● Young heading to teens (8 – 12)

After age 12 teens begin to shy away from children’s animation. Animation for the youngest
audience is usually geared towards soft, safe shows with educational content. Laws protect young
children from content deemed potentially harmful.
The older group of children has a wider menu:

● Comedy (SpongeBob, SquarePants, Looney Tunes)

● Humerous action – adventure (Jackie Chan Adventures, Kim Possible)

● Serious - action adventure ( X – Men, Teen –Titans, He-Man)

● Anime (Pokeman, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball Z)

Educational, comedy and action – adventure are viable markets for breaking into animation
writing. The anime shows are done in Japan and don’t provide work for outside writers except
for one specialized job:

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 ● ADR: This stands for additional dialogue recording. English speaking writers are

hired to write the English Language dialogue to either be dubbed over Japanese
dialogue or be used as subtitles.
Animation for Adults
Types for adult audience spread all over the spectrum. Here are a few examples

● Sitcoms and Satire

● Edgy anthropomorphic animals

● Science fiction

● Fantasy

● Cyberpunk

● Contemporary, mainstream life with a twist

● Sexy, naughty action – adventure

● Weird off - the wall humor

● Adaptations of comic books or comic strips

Note
Sitcom –style shows like run during prime time like the Simpsons or King of the Hill are
produced using animal as a medium, they are written in the same way as sitcoms, meaning they
use a staff of in-house (who sit in a room working out the shows) with experience in live –action
sitcom comedy. This shows never, if at all, any use animation writers.

SHADOW PUPPETS (personal research quiz)

Shadow puppets are figures that are placed between a light and a screen. Moving them creates the
illusion of moving images on the screen. An experienced puppeteer can make figures appear to
walk, talk, fight and dance. ... For example, in China, shadow plays are usually based upon
Chinese legends and folk tales.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

QUIZ: Write brief notes on shadow puppets based on meaning, history and different types. To be
submitted on the next lecture.

EARLY TECHINCAL DEVELOPMENTS

Introduction
Early technical developments are based on traditional animation.
Types of Animation
Historically there are 3 major types of animation:
1. Hand Drawn Animation
2. Stop Motion Animation
3. Computer Animation
HAND DRAWN ANIMATION

◼ Done by an artist who draws each character and movement individually

◼ Very time consuming to have to draw, then colour, then photograph each picture

◼ Draw pictures first, then colour them on celluloid, then they take pictures and animate

them

◼ Very expensive due to hours of labour involved

◼ Also called traditional, classical or cel animation.

Examples: Older Disney Movies i.e. Bambi, Fox and Hound, Cinderella etc
What is traditional animation?
Traditional animation is the art of displaying a sequence of images (frames) at a rapid speed to
create the illusion of movement. The practice of animation can be traced as early as the 1800s. Its
early forms include silhouette cut-out puppetry, stop-motion photography and cel-animations
. For instance in cel-animation, foreground figures are painted on transparent celluloid sheets
(called cels), and layered over an opaque background.

STOP MOTION ANIMATION

◼ Can be done by virtually anyone, with no extensive training

◼ Does not take that much time relative to the other 2 methods

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 ◼ Uses jointed figures or clay figures that can be moved to make motions

◼ Take still pictures of the individual movements, then use relatively inexpensive computer

software to animate

◼ We use Movie Maker Software to complete our animations

◼ Not very expensive because all you need is a digital camera and the software comes with

Windows XP operating system

◼ Examples: Star Wars, Robot Chicken, Old Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 Stop-motion is a simple, but time-consuming, form of animation where objects are physically
manipulated and filmed frame-by-frame. Stop motion comes in many forms: Object animation
and pixilation can use the stop-motion technique without specialist equipment, but special stop-
motion models have often been used for special effects in live-action films. The 1933 King
Kong film was famous for the stop-motion ape, and the original Star Wars films and The
Terminator used stop motion models for many of the aliens and machines.

Other forms of stop-motion use artistic materials to create the physical objects. The earliest
known animated feature-film used cut-out animation, where flat pictures are physically cut out
of paper or fabric and animated. The children’s show Charlie and Lola uses a cut-out animation
style. Another form of stop-motion uses puppets, such as Tim Burton’s animated films. These
puppets often have hundreds of interchangeable heads to create lip-movement and facial
expressions. Claymation is the name given to stop-motion that is made with clay or plasticine
figures. Plasticine is easily moved and shaped, so the figures can be moved very carefully and
precisely. It takes a long time to create a claymation, as a figure is usually moved about twelve
times for every second of film. Aardman Animation’s Chicken Run is a claymation film, and
currently the highest-grossing stop-motion film ever made.

Whilst it is very similar to traditional animation in technique, stop-motion continues to be a

popular form of animation, with at least twelve feature-length stop-motions currently in
production. Many animators work with stop-motion for artistic reasons, as it is still difficult to
recreate stop-motion models digitally.

Computer animation

◼ All characters and movements are generated using computer animation software

◼ Can also be very time consuming as they can get very complicated in movements and

effects

◼ All characters are fully animated with no still pictures

◼ Can be very expensive because of the complexity of the stunts and animations being done

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 ◼ Huge budgets because the animation sequences more complicated these days eg. the war

scenes in Lord of the Rings etc.

◼ Examples: Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Matrix, Lord of the Rings

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 b) ANIMATION TODAY
i. ANIMATION IMPACT

▪ Animation is NOT just for kids

▪ It has become mainstream and kids, teenagers, adults and seniors.

▪ When most teachers today were kids it was very odd for a parent to be sitting

with their children and watching an animated show.

▪ Now adults take their kids to the movies and watch with them and there are often

“inside jokes” for adults too

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 ii. ANIMATION USES

▪ Video games

▪ TV Programs (e.g. Weather, News)

▪ Used online (images, ads, chatting)

▪ Simulations (Science & Engineering)

▪ Virtual reality (e.g. second life)

▪ Animated Movies: Million dollar industry; e. g 1- 20 millions spent on each

movie

▪ Animation & Computer Graphics Effects are used in movies frequently

iii. Important terminologies

a) Animation storyboards

◼ A storyboard is a series of sketches that can be used as a guide for making a film

or video

◼ It contains the action and dialogue of the film

◼ Can also include the music, narration, special effects information etc. for the

person to guide them in creating the film

b) Comic Strips

◼ Felix The Cat

◼ First comic strip (1922)

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 c) Comic books and comic strips

● Are they more like an animation sequence or a storyboard?

● They are more like a storyboard because they

DO NOT SHOW CONTINUOUS MOVEMENT

● It shows the person or object in one place and then in another and the sequence between

is left to the imagination to make the link from one picture to the other.

TRADITIONAL ANIMATION (CEL, CLASSICAL OR 2D) EXPANDED

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 Traditional animation is one of the older forms of animation. The animator draws every frame
to create the animation sequence. Animators draw images on a transparent piece of paper fitted
on a peg using a colored pencil, one frame at the time.

Traditional animation is sometimes called hand-drawn animation or cel animation and, for most
of the 20th Century, many popular animated films were created this way. It was a lengthy
process. Thousands of pictures were drawn entirely by hand on acetate sheets, or cels, with
each cel being slightly different from the one before it. Each cel was photographed onto a
separate frame of film so that when the filmreel was played, the animation moved. This form of
animation could also be combined with live-action video by placing the cels on top of the film.
This technique was popular in the late 80s and early 90s, and was used in films such as Space
Jam and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Traditional animation takes a lot of artistic skill and has many different artistic styles: Disney’s
films are very recognisable and considered quite realistic, whilst Studio Ghibli characters have
a distinctive anime look. More stylistic drawings were used for many cartoon programmes,
such as The Flintstones, and the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine used a pop-art style that was
popular at the time it was made. The music video for the song “Take On Me” by A-ha is a good
example of another style of traditional animation called rotoscoping, which used a live-action
recording as a template for animation. In this video, a very simple pencil-sketch style was used.
In fact, any style of art can be turned into animation. Although this traditional animation
became unnecessary when digital techniques were invented, some modern animators, such as
those who worked on the 2010 film The Illusionist, still choose to use this form.

The First Traditional Animated Short

French artist Émile Cohl is credited with the first ever animated film – 1908’s Fantasmagorie.
The hand drawn film follows a stick figure running into morphing objects. Cohl made the film
by drawing each frame on a piece of paper and shooting it on film. There are a few scenes in
the film where Cohl’s hands are visible while taking the photograph.
First Synchronized Sound and Dialogue
In 1924, brothers Max and Dave Fleischer released Oh Mabel, a seven minute animated short
that used Phonofilm to sync sound and footage. It was the first animated film to have a talking
character with synced dialogue – a dog shouting “Follow the ball, and join in, everybody!”
This short was released four years before Walt Disney perfected synchronization in the
infamous 1928 Steamboat Willie cartoon, which introduced the world to Mickey Mouse.
Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109
 3. The Multiplane Camera
To break away from the previously one-dimensional work of animation, Walt Disney (and his
team led by William Garity) devised a new machine dubbed the multiplane camera. The device
use a series of glass panes with individual elements painted on them. A camera was placed high
above all the planes of glass and an image was taken. Then individual panes were moved – and
another photo taken. This created a three dimensional world in which elements in the
foreground would move separately from those in the background.
The device was first tested in the 1937 short, The Old Mill. The final product featured realistic
depictions of animals and weather, as well as complex lighting and color effects. The stunning
work earned The Old Mill an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Cartoons.
Here is Walt Disney himself explaining the technology in this short from Disney Family.

EARLY TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN ANIMATION

Cels

This image shows how two transparent cels, each with a different character drawn on them, and
an opaque background are photographed together to form the composite image.

The cel technique allows some parts of each frame to be repeated from frame to frame, thus
saving labor. For example in a scene with two characters on screen - one may be talking and the
other standing silently. Since the latter character is not moving, it can be displayed in this scene
using only one drawing, on one cel, while multiple drawings on multiple cels are used to animate
the speaking character.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

For a more complex example, consider a sequence in which a boy sets a plate upon a table. The
table stays still for the entire sequence, so it can be drawn as part of the background. The plate
can be drawn along with the character as the character places it on the table. However, after the
plate is on the table, the plate no longer moves, although the boy continues to move as he draws
his arm away from the plate. In this example, after the boy puts the plate down, the plate can then
be drawn on a separate cel from the boy. Further frames feature new cels of the boy, but the plate
does not have to be redrawn as it is not moving; the same cel of the plate can be used in each
remaining frame that it is still upon the table. The cel paints were actually manufactured in
shaded versions of each color to compensate for the extra layer of cel added between the image
and the camera; in this example, the still plate would be painted slightly brighter to compensate
for being moved one layer down. In TV and other low-budget productions, cels were often
"cycled" (i.e., a sequence of cels was repeated several times), and even archived and reused in
other episodes. After the film was completed, the cels were either thrown out or, especially in the
early days of animation, washed clean and reused for the next film. Also, after the completion of
the film, some of the cels were put into the "archive" to be used again and again for future
purposes in order to save money. Some studios saved a portion of the cels and either sold them in
studio stores or presented them as gifts to visitors.

Play media
How Animated Cartoons Are Made (1919), showing characters made from cut-out paper
In very early cartoons made before the use of the cel, such as Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), the
entire frame, including the background and all characters and items, were drawn on a single sheet
of paper, then photographed. Everything had to be redrawn for each frame containing
movements. This led to a "jittery" appearance; imagine seeing a sequence of drawings of a
mountain, each one slightly different from the one preceding it. The pre-cel animation was later
improved by using techniques like the slash and tear system invented by Raoul Barre; the
background and the animated objects were drawn on separate papers. [9] A frame was made by
removing all the blank parts of the papers where the objects were drawn before being placed on
Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109
top of the backgrounds and finally photographed. The cel animation process was invented by Earl
Hurd and John Bray in 1915.
Limited animation
In lower-budget productions, shortcuts available through the cel technique are used extensively.
For example, in a scene in which a man is sitting in a chair and talking, the chair and the body of
the man may be the same in every frame; only his head is redrawn, or perhaps even his head stays
the same while only his mouth moves. This is known as limited animation.[10] The process was
popularized in theatrical cartoons by United Productions of America and used in most television
animation, especially that of Hanna-Barbera. The end result does not look very lifelike, but is
inexpensive to produce, and therefore allows cartoons to be made on small television budgets.
"Shooting on twos"
Moving characters are often shot "on twos", that is to say, one drawing is shown for every two
frames of film (which usually runs at 24 frames per second), meaning there are only 12 drawings
per second.[11] Even though the image update rate is low, the fluidity is satisfactory for most
subjects. However, when a character is required to perform a quick movement, it is usually
necessary to revert to animating "on ones", as "twos" are too slow to convey the motion
adequately. A blend of the two techniques keeps the eye fooled without unnecessary production
cost.
Academy Award-nominated animator Bill Plympton is noted for his style of animation that uses
very few in-betweens and sequences that are done on threes or on fours, holding each drawing on
the screen from an eighth to a sixth of a second. [12] While Plympton uses near-constant three-
frame holds, sometimes animation that simply averages eight drawings per second is also termed
"on threes" and is usually done to meet budget constraints, along with other cost-cutting measures
like holding the same drawing of a character for a prolonged time or panning over a still image, [13]
techniques often used in low-budget TV productions. [14] It is also common in anime, where
fluidity is sacrificed in lieu of a shift towards complexity in the designs and shading (in contrast
with the more functional and optimized designs in the western tradition); even high-budget
theatrical features such as Studio Ghibli's employ the full range: from smooth animation "on
ones" in selected shots (usually quick action accents) to common animation "on threes" for
regular dialogue and slow-paced shots.
Animation loops

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

A horse animated by rotoscoping from Eadweard Muybridge's 19th-century photos. The
animation consists of 8 drawings which are "looped", i.e. repeated over and over. This example is
also "shot on twos", i.e. shown at 12 drawings per second.
Creating animation loops or animation cycles is a labor-saving technique for animating repetitive
motions, such as a character walking or a breeze blowing through the trees. In the case of
walking, the character is animated taking a step with his right foot, then a step with his left foot.
The loop is created so that, when the sequence repeats, the motion is seamless. However, since an
animation loop essentially uses the same bit of animation over and over again, it is easily detected
and can, in fact, become distracting to an audience. In general, they are used only sparingly by
productions with moderate or high budgets.
Ryan Larkin's 1969 Academy Award-nominated National Film Board of Canada short Walking
makes creative use of loops. In addition, a promotional music video from Cartoon Network's
Groovies featuring the Soul Coughing song "Circles" poked fun at animation loops as they are
often seen in The Flintstones, in which Fred and Barney (along with various Hanna-Barbera
characters that aired on Cartoon Network), supposedly walking in a house, wonder why they keep
passing the same table and vase over and over again.
What is rotoscoping
Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame,
for use in live-action and animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were
projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is
called a Rotoscope.

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

 Fig- 1: Frame by frame tracing of an object (Rotoscoping)

Multiplane camera
Main article: Multiplane camera
The multiplane camera is a tool used to add depth to scenes in 2D animated movies, called the
multiplane effect or the parallax process. The art is placed on different layers of glass plates, and
as the camera moves vertically towards or away from the artwork levels, the camera's viewpoint
appears to move through the various layers of artwork in 3D space. The panorama views in
Pinocchio are examples of the effects a multiplane camera can achieve. Different versions of the
camera have been made through time, but the most famous is the one developed by the Walt
Disney studio beginning with their 1937 short The Old Mill. Another one, the "Tabletop", was
developed by Fleischer Studios. The Tabletop, first used in 1934's Poor Cinderella, used
miniature sets made of paper cutouts placed in front of the camera on a rotating platform, with the
cels between them. By rotating the entire setup one frame at a time in accordance with the cel
animation, realistic panoramas could be created. Ub Iwerks and Don Bluth also built multiplane
cameras for their studios.
Xerography
Applied to animation by Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney studio during the late 1950s, the
electrostatic copying technique called xerography allowed the drawings to be copied directly onto
the cels, eliminating much of the "inking" portion of the ink-and-paint process. [15] This saved time
and money, and it also made it possible to put in more details and to control the size of the
xeroxed objects and characters (this replaced the little known, and seldom used, photographic

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109

lines technique at Disney, used to reduce the size of animation when needed). At first, it resulted
in a more sketchy look, but the technique was improved upon over time.
Disney animator and engineer Bill Justice had patented a forerunner of the Xerox process in
1944, where drawings made with a special pencil would be transferred to a cel by pressure, and
then fixing it. It is not known if the process was ever used in animation.[16]
The xerographic method was first tested by Disney in a few scenes of Sleeping Beauty and was
first fully used in the short film Goliath II, while the first feature entirely using this process was
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). The graphic style of this film was strongly influenced
by the process. Some hand inking was still used together with xerography in this and subsequent
films when distinct colored lines were needed. Later, colored toners became available, and
several distinct line colors could be used, even simultaneously. For instance, in The Rescuers the
characters' outlines are gray. White and blue toners were used for special effects, such as snow
and water.
The APT process
Main article: APT process
Invented by Dave Spencer for the 1985 Disney film The Black Cauldron, the APT (Animation
Photo Transfer) process was a technique for transferring the animators' art onto cels. Basically,
the process was a modification of a repro-photographic process; the artists' work were
photographed on high-contrast "litho" film, and the image on the resulting negative was then
transferred to a cel covered with a layer of light-sensitive dye. The cel was exposed through the
negative. Chemicals were then used to remove the unexposed portion. Small and delicate details
were still inked by hand if needed. Spencer received an Academy Award for Technical
Achievement for developing this process.
Cel overlay
A cel overlay is a cel with inanimate objects used to give the impression of a foreground when
laid on top of a ready frame. This creates the illusion of depth, but not as much as a multiplane
camera would. A special version of cel overlay is called line overlay, made to complete the
background instead of making the foreground, and was invented to deal with the sketchy
appearance of xeroxed drawings. The background was first painted as shapes and figures in flat
colors, containing rather few details. Next, a cel with detailed black lines was laid directly over it,
each line drawn to add more information to the underlying shape or figure and give the
background the complexity it needed. In this way, the visual style of the background will match
that of the xeroxed character cels. As the xerographic process evolved, line overlay was left
behind.
Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109
 REFERENCES
http://www.studentworldonline.com/article/6-different-types-of-animation-an-introduction/495/
https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/breakthroughs-in-animation-history/
Maha Zeini Al-Saati, David Botta, and Robert Woodbury School of Interactive Arts and
Technology.International Scientific Journal Architecture and Engineering
http://www.scientific-journal.com/articles/architecture_engineering.html
Simon Fraser University
BC, Canada [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
https://www.thoughtco.com/animation-techniques-for-beginners-137590

Ashish Sharma, MukeshAgarwal, Anima Sharma,Pankhuri Dhuria MOTION CAPTURE

PROCESS, TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS.International Journal on Recent and
Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication Volume: 1 Issue: 4

Mr. Alex Okoth | Introduction to Animation Lecture Notes | BJL 2109