Development In Animation

Most of us only know animation to be in film made by corporate production companies such as Walt Disney, Pixar and Warner Bros. but you might want to know that there was animation before we saw it on a television screen, there was many different types of devices that motion picture could be shown on. These devices would often scare audiences because this art was absent before these 'magical' devices, this amazed every audience member. This would frighten many people at this time as there was nothing ever invented like the ‘magic lantern’ manipulates still images changing them quickly to give the illusion of motion to them. Invented around 1650, the Magic Lantern it is an extremely early version of the first kinds of projectors, it was positioned in a preferably dark room and projected on a flat surface (e.g large wall) using a form of light like a couple of candles. People often judged this device as demonic and frightening, they were even convinced this was a witnessing of the supernatural. The early known magic lanterns are believed to of been created by Christiaan Huygens or Athansius Kricher.

There were many other devices similar to this after the magic lantern, these devices have been created by the pioneers in the animation industry and I doubt they would have thought it could ever be as big as it is now. William George Horner the creator of the ‘Zoetrope’ is among these many pioneers, it is  very similar to another device the Phenakistoscope (I shall explain later), The Zoetrope was created in 1834, it is a circular device that spins on its own axis having several frames of animated prints around the circumference of the circle. Next to each printed image it had a small peep hole type of like slot in the material, this hole was there in order to allow the viewer using this device to be able to see the images through the other side when it is spinning at a rapid speed, creating the illusion of motion. The Phenakistioscope created before the Zoetrope in 1831, it was almost identical to Zoetrope, so as you can see William Horners design for the Zoetrope was defiantly influenced by Joseph Plateau’s Phenakistoscope.    

Another Pioneer for animation would have to be Emile Reynaud from a French origin created the ‘Praxinoscope’ in 1877. This device was also influenced by the Zoetrope combining the circular design of the Zoetrope nevertheless, mirrors were placed around the hand-drawn pictures, this was done to show the drawn images in a clearer way than the previous Zoetrope did. Emile Reynaud then decided to make a much improved version of this, enlarging this device naming it the 'Theatre Optique' which could now be projected onto a screen.

 

 

 

 

A 'Zoopraxiscope' was the name for the next device produced, created by Eadweard Muybridge in 1879. This device was considered the first movie projector. This device consisted of revolving glass disks with hand-painted pictures on them. These disks were moved at a rapid rate to create the illusion of motion through still pictures. A interesting fact about the Zoopraxiscope is the ‘Zoo’ in the name was used within it as it the device mostly premiered pictures of animals in motion.

 

In 1888 animation started to get some recognition as the animation industry started to get competitive, this was because the famous inventor Thomas Edison changed the industry completely decided to generate a device named the Kinetoscope, it was a very early motion picture exhibition device. What this device allowed was for short animation films to be able to be viewed by an individual at one time. This was done by looking through a small window hole. This illusion worked by the movement of conveying a strip of perforated film holding sequential images over a light source with a high speed shutter. This device was much more advanced than the other devices at this time, which made it a breakthrough in the world of animation. Thomas Edison was the inventor of the Phonograph he describes his ideas for this device which would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear" record and reproduce objects in motion.

There was yet another breakthrough in animation and projection after this. The Lumiere brothers invented and worked out how to project film onto a screen and also created the first motion picture camera in 1895. This would have been the most thrilling moment in cinematography history as no one had ever dreamt something like this could have been created. This projection device made by the Lumiere Brothers had the same affect on it audiences as the magic lantern as no one had ever seen anything like it before. You can see that from this point the cinematography and the animation/film industry has been evolving using previous inventions to improve on there own media devices are now developed up to  a high standard from all of the past inventions from the other pioneers of animation.

 

 

After the Lumiere brothers brave milestone another man who changed the film and animation industry books was George Pal a film producer of a Hungarian origin. Pal was best known for his creation of his animated shorts called ‘The Puppetoons’ these short cartoons films were pioneering in the way of using the Stop Motion animation technique. The puppetoons cartoons have defiantly developed animation today, they most likely have inspired and influenced the person who pioneered animation for the 20th century it would have been unheard of to create full-length animation films. However Walt Disney must’ve found some inspiration to create his first full-length feature animation film by watching these Puppetoons films, when he made Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Developers

Willis O’Brien was a pioneer for stop motion animation who was recognised for his work in animation, creating films such as ‘The Lost World’ (1925) and the world renowned ‘King Kong’ (1933) Especially in 1933 there was a lack in animation technology and to create such films as these it answers why Willis O’Brien became a pioneer as he was able to create these pictures that shocked audiences gluing them to there seats, it was most likely similar to the feelings that audiences got to the magic lantern from the shock of witnessing something so new and revolutionary its frightening.

Also another animation pioneer has to be Ray Harruasuen who was most famously known for his first colour animation film ‘the 7^th Voyage of Sinbad’ and 'Jason and the Argonauts', which famously contained his scene ‘the fight with the skeleton warriors’ this particular scene was extremely popular as it contained actual moving skeletons having a sword fight with the starring character. This was seen as ground-breaking to audiences as visually the pictures were life-like stop motion characters that had facial expressions and body movements.

 

 

 

Jan Svankmajer born in Prague was fascinated by puppetry, making him into a pioneer of modern animation. Some of his greatest known work is his own film ‘The Last Trick’ (1964) Svankmajer was a pioneer due to his technique in stop motion, He was able to create surreal and humorous work. His work used funny exaggerated sound effects, one of the most noticeable ones was during eating scenes within his productions. Svankmajer's work was usually only made using stop motion, however He rarely also used clay within animation similar to how the famous Aardman studio's in England created (Wallace and Gromit) and other productions.

The last considered pioneer of the modern animation/film industry is Tim Burton. Tim burton was most known for  his specific style of animation with its aesthetical visual appearance. Many of his films such as Corpse Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas these are hugely popular claymation films with cult fan followings. I feel that burton is  a pioneer in the animation industry due to his own style of rather gothic animation. Corpse bride is a very good example of this style sharing attributes with gothic culture. Most animators had ever thought about combining a completely 'off the wall' style to there animations and with Tim Burton doing this he has created a whole new dimension to animation, this style of animation has become popular throughout the world, future generations of animators will look to these pioneers to create there own style of animations that will in-turn create a new dimension to the animation industry.