The History and Development of Animation

PART 1

Animation has come a very long way since it was invented, from basic image animation in 1833 to 3D animation films in 2013.  Here I will be talking about the early animation and stop motion animation.

Persistence of vision is where they eye is able to see and hold an image for one twenty-fifth of a second after the image has gone, meaning we are able to see two images together. This happens in thaumatropes where you attach two disks to a piece of string and twirl the string. 
The thaumatrope was credited to John Ayrton Paris. Paris studied in London and used the thaumatrope to demonstrate persistence of vision. Although it was credited to Paris, he used the ideas from astronomer, John Herschel.  During class we made a thaumatrope with different designs. These worked fairly well.


Joseph Plataeu, a Belgian physicist, created the first device to give an illusion of a moving image. This is called the phenakistoscope. Plataeu graduated from university as a doctor of physical and mathematical science. He was fascinated with mathematical science and the effects of the eye, therefore creating the phenakistoscope. The device is made from a spinning disk attached to a handle. The disk has slits on the side which you look through in a mirror to stop the images blurring together. The disk also has a sequence of images which are slightly changed. The phenakistoscope can also be spelt as phenakistiscope or phenakitiscope.  Here is an example of how a phenakistoscope is works:

Next came the Zoetrope. The zoetrope was created by a mathematician called William Horner. He called the zoetrope the "daedalum" also known as the wheel of the devil by many people. Although Horner "invented" the zoetrope, origins of the zoetrope date back to China in 180AD, by Ting Huan. However, Horner's invention didn't take off until the 1860s, when a English and an American patented the "daedalum" and renamed it the zoetrope (wheel of life). A zoetrope also makes still pictures look as if they are moving. The zoetrope is a cylinder with slits cut in the sides to once again stop the images blurring together. Inside of the cylinder there are a sequence of pictures, which when spun, look like they are moving. The user looks through the slits cut into the cylinder. The zoetrope is a better version of the phenakistoscope.

After this was the praxinoscope which was created by a French science teacher, Charles-Emile Reynaud. Reynaud was the first to make projected animated cartoon films, which was called Pauvre Pierrot. Reynaud later opened up a theatre (The Theatre Optique) where we projected his animated films, which were sometimes accompanied by live music. The praxinoscope is an improvement on the zoetrope. Reynaud replaced the slits on the zoetrope with mirrors on the inside allowing the animation to become smoother to watch. It also allowed the images to be projected onto a wall so many other people could watch the animation.

Next is the kinetoscope.  Edward Muybride and Edison where the ones to create this, however, it was credited to Edison. Unlike the zoetrope and the praxinscope, the kinetoscope only allows one person to view a motion picture. The kinetoscope is a machine where a sequence of images move across rollers with a small projector to illuminate the pictures. This invention inspired many other people and today we have something similar to the kinetoscope which is a movie projector. 

In class we have made zoetropes, thaumatropes and praxinscopes. I believe these were very successful although it was hard to come up with an idea. It was very fun to watch our designs become "animated" as we spun them on the wheel on the zoetrope and the praxinoscope.

PART 2

There are many key people in the development of stop animation. Stop motion is when objects are moved in small amounts and photographed, so when put together make it look like they are moving. Stop motion used with clay or plasticine is called clay animation or 'claymation'.

Willis O'Brien was born 1886. He left home at just 11 years old and worked on cattle ranches.O'Brien is said to be "..responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history." (source) which includes films such as 'King Kong' and 'Might Joe Young'.  In his free time, he spent a lot of time sculpting and illustrating. In 1915, O'Brien went on to make his first movie, 'The Dinosaurs and The Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy' and this impressed Thomas Edison who hired him. Eventually he got a spot on Harold H Hoyts film, 'The Lost World'. This is were he began making his own clay sculptures. However, he did employ people to add more detail to his sculptures. His film 'King Kong'  was mixed live action footage and stop motion footage which created an unforgettable classic which was extremely successful.

Ray Harryhausen was born in 1920 in Los Angeles, California. His parents had always encouraged and supported him in whatever career path he would chose.  As a child, he was fascinated with dinosaurs and many things fantasy. He learnt in school how to creature model sets which led him to make dinosaur sculptures. As a teenager, Ray was intrigued on how the sculptures from King Kong looked to be alive, so he began searching around for answers. He came across an article of stop motion animation.  At 18, he began his first project called Evolution of The World where he built many models of dinosaurs and other prehistoric characters. However, the project was said to be too ambitious. While working on this project, Ray met Willis O'Brien who I have mentioned earlier. O'Brien gave Ray constructive criticism which led Ray to enrol in night classes at Los Angeles City College which led him to create better sculptures and study animals closer. After leaving college, Ray began looking for work. After seeing an add in a newspaper, he was interviewed by George Pal. He began making shorts with Pal, called Puppetoons. He was one of the first animators to join Pal.  Ray soon left the Puppetoons and worked on his own films and shorts, one notable one is The Mother Goose stories containing shorts such as Little Miss Muffet.

George Pal was born in Austria-Hungary. He graduated from the Academy Of Arts in Budepest and went onto create films for Hunnia Films in Budepest. Pal patented his technique of stop motion as Pal-Doll also known as Puppetoons, the beginning of the series he created. He had created films using his technique about the Nazis invading. Pal left home just as the Nazis came to power, inspiring this film:

Phil Tippett was born in 1951 and studied at the University of California Irvine. He was inspired by Ray HarryHausens work and after university he went to work at Cascade Pictures. While working here, he was hired to create a stop motion chess set for the first Star Wars film. Later in 1978, Tippett was the head of animation for Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Tippett set up Tippett Studios in 1984.

The Brothers Quay is made up of Stephen and Timothy Quay; identical twins born in 1947. They are said to be two of the world's most original film makers with many award winning films. They studied illustration in their home town Pennsylvania before moving to the Royal College of Art in London. They began their animated shorts in the 70's however many of their films no longer exist due to the only print being damaged. Their style of work is very surreal and unique as much of it consists of puppets and dolls coming to life. Much of their work was inspired by Polish animators such as Walerian Borowczyck and Jan Lencia and also, Czech animator Jan Svankmajer, who they named one of their films after. Their films are no dialogue making them more dark and surreal. Some of their notable works are "The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer" and "The Comb".

Tim Burton was born in 1958 in California. As a kid he would make films in his backyard either using a camera with no sound or crude stop motion techniques. After creating a very successful short film, he worked at Disney for a while, until he realised his style of work, which is dark and gothic, clashed with Disney's. His films nowadays are cartooning which is most likely from his work in Disney, but also dark. He also incorporates drawings from his child in his films.


Henry Selick was born in 1952 in New Jersey. As a child he would also draw a lot and had very imaginative drawings, just like Tim Burton.  He studied at the same college as Tim Burton however they met at Disney, where both worked for a short time. He has worked along side Tim Burton, directing 'A Nightmare Before Christmas' , one of their famous films. Selick is known for directing other films such as 'Coraline' and 'James and the Giant Peach'.

Otmar Gutmamn was born in 1937. He is mostly known for his show, Pingu, a world wide show with little dialogue so anyone can watch it. The series was run by The Pygos group which Otmar Gutman set up in 1986. The first four seasons of Pingu were produced by Pygos then the other two were produced by HiT Entertainment, a british company. Pingu is bafta award winning and is still shown on TV channels in the UK.

Nick Park was born in 1958. He is an English filmmaker of stop motion animation. He is best known for his shorts and characters, Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, academy award winning shorts. In 1985, he joined Aardman Animations where he began work as an animator. He created the very famous, Creature Comforts, where voices of the public are matched up with characters. Park is Aardman's main animator.

Adam Shaheen was born in 1964. He is a British animator, screenwriter and television producer. He founded Canada's oldest, privately owned animation studios, Cuppa Coffee Studios. Shaheen is a Claymation animator and is best known for his violent characters. Some examples of his work are Celebrity Deathmatch, JoJo's Circus and Little People. Shaheen has won over 150 international awards for his works.

All these media products have used Stop Motion animation in different ways, either using Claymation or puppets.

PART 3

Using animation of any form makes the whole piece interesting altogether. Instead of using people, animation, though more difficult, looks more fun and exciting. It allows the director to explore and create their own sense of style while entertaining the audience.

A TV programme I chose is the very famous 'The Wombles' which was created in 1968 until 1976, although it was shown on many channels after. This show was very popular with children.

                                                                       Stop-motion
                                                     
A Film I chose is 'Corpse Bride' created by the famous stop motion animator, Tim Burton, in 2005. This was once again very popular with children and also families.

Claymation

 An advertisement I chose is the John Lewis Home Insurance which was created this year, 2013.

                                                            Stopmotion
A music video I chose is Oren Lavie - Her morning Elegance created in 2009.

                                                                      Stopmotion

A channel ident I chose was BBC One's Christmas idents which included Wallace and Gromit. This was to promote the new release of Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. The did a number of ident's during this period.

Stop motion can be targeted at many age groups, however i believe that they are mostly made for children/ families. This is due to the 'cartoony' look of the characters. I would say the primary audience is children then the secondary is families. Many stop motion videos are aimed at children, however as you can see from above, their are a small minority of videos made for adults. Though some teens and adults do still enjoy stop motion videos made specifically for children.

In the future I think that Stop Motion will be made more 'computerised' due to advancing technologies. Also, it does take a long time to film, so maybe it could be ruled out altogether to save time and money.