Understand the Techniques and Development of 2D Animation
Development: pioneers, eg Joseph Plateau (phenakitoscope), William Horner (zoetrope), Emile Reynaud (praxinoscope), Edward Muybridge, Edison (kinetoscope), Lumière brothers; developers, eg Walt Disney, Hannah Barbera, Warner Bros, Norman McLaren, Len Lye; contemporary work, eg Monty Python, Yellow Submarine, A Scanner Darkly, Persepolis; genres and forms, eg cinema, advertising, children’s television, music videos, computer games, mobile phones, websites.
Development: pioneers, eg Joseph Plateau (phenakitoscope), William Horner (zoetrope), Emile Reynaud (praxinoscope), Edward Muybridge, Edison (kinetoscope), Lumière brothers; developers, eg Walt Disney, Hannah Barbera, Warner Bros, Norman McLaren, Len Lye; contemporary work, eg Monty Python, Yellow Submarine, A Scanner Darkly, Persepolis; genres and forms, eg cinema, advertising, children’s television, music videos, computer games, mobile phones, websites.
I researched into a few pioneers such as Joseph Plateau who invented the Phenakistoscope (invented in 1836). This is an early animation device that used the resolution of vision principle to create an illusion of motion; it uses a spinning disc attached on a wooden handle. Around the centre of the disc is a series of pictures which corresponds to the frames of the animation, when you spin the disk, look through the moving slits at the disc's reflection in a mirror which makes the drawings come to life. Joseph Plateau was born in 1801 and was a Belgian physicist; he was the first scientist at Ghent University to study light and was the first person to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image.
In 1834, William George Horner proposed to build upon the Phenakistoscope into a new device called the Zoetrope based on Plateau’s device that got rid of the need for a mirror and allowed several people to view the device at a time. Horner’s idea was to take shape in the form of drum with an open top into which was placed on a hand drawn sequence of pictures on a strip of paper. The pictures were placed around the inside of the edge of the drum and could be viewed through slots in the outside of the drum. William George Horner was a British mathematician and headmaster born in 1786. He founded his own school located in Bath called “The Seminary” when he was 27. Because of William Horner, the animation industry was able to go on and develop the idea that images moving faster than the retina can register, which creates the illusion of movement.
Frenchman Emile Reynaud produced the contraption, which was the Praxinoscope; it was an adaptation of Horner’s Zoetrope, which at the time had become extremely popular. It uses a removable strip printed in a series of 12 drawings that makeup a cyclical movement. This strip is placed inside a drum rotating about an axis used as a base. Émile Reynaud added into the drum, on the same axis, a cylinder, which is arranged on 12 facets of mirrors, each reflecting a drawing. Charles-Émile Reynaud born 8 December 1844 was a French inventor, responsible for the first projected animated cartoons and created the Praxinoscope in 1877.
The kinetoscope was invented by Thomas A. Edison and William Dickson of the United States in 1891. It consisted of a closed cabinet in which the film was spooled. To operate the device, the user opened the top and peered through a small hole, and as the film was moved across a series of rollers, a backlight would illuminate it, creating the illusion of a moving picture, as long as the film was rotated at the proper speed. When the kinetoscope was first shown to the public in 1894, it proved to be a big hit.
The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, were sons of well known Lyons based portrait painter Antoine Lumière. They were both were sent to Technical School. Antoine, noting the financial rewards of new photographic processes, abandoned his art and set up a business manufacturing and supplying photographic equipment. Joining him in this venture was Louis who began experimenting with the photographic equipment. During his experimentation, Louis discovered a process, which assisted the development of photography. Louis developed a new 'dry plate' process in 1881 at the age of seventeen, it became known as the 'Etiquette Bleue' process. By 1894 the Lumières were producing around 15,000,000 plates a year. By early 1895, the brothers had invented their own device-combining camera with printer and projector and called it the Cinématographe, a motion-picture apparatus, used as both camera and projector.
Regarding Developers I looked into Walt Disney who is the well-known creator of 'Disney'. Walt Disney first started on December 5, 1901; it was an American business magnate, filmmaker and voice actor. He is known as a cultural icon, for his influence and contributions to entertainment during the 20th century. Walt and his brother Roy O. Disney co-founded The Walt Disney Company, which started in 1923. It was there that Walt and Roy produced a series of short live-action/animated films collectively called the Alice Comedies.
Over the next 14 years, many changes took place at the Disney studio, Mickey Mouse was 'born' in 1928, followed by Pluto, Goofy, Donald Duck and the rest of the Disney gang. In 1937, Disney's first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released; it premiered at the Carthay circle Theatre on December 21st, 1937. It earned around $8 million, which assumed the record of the highest grossing sound film at the time. The popularity of the film meant it being re-released many times. Disney ultimately chose the fairy-tale of Snow White for his first animated feature because he thought that the dwarfs would make great cartoon characters and that the forest setting would be a natural opportunity to animate a variety of "appealing little birds and animals”. The film's production took nearly five years and took at least 570 crewmembers. As many as 2 million sketches and paintings were created, though only about 166,000 of them can be seen in the finished film.
After the success of Snow White, Walt and Roy continued to make a long list of Disney animated films, which became very successful. The company still produces animated films to this day and it is well known for making the best-animated films in the world.
Over the next 14 years, many changes took place at the Disney studio, Mickey Mouse was 'born' in 1928, followed by Pluto, Goofy, Donald Duck and the rest of the Disney gang. In 1937, Disney's first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released; it premiered at the Carthay circle Theatre on December 21st, 1937. It earned around $8 million, which assumed the record of the highest grossing sound film at the time. The popularity of the film meant it being re-released many times. Disney ultimately chose the fairy-tale of Snow White for his first animated feature because he thought that the dwarfs would make great cartoon characters and that the forest setting would be a natural opportunity to animate a variety of "appealing little birds and animals”. The film's production took nearly five years and took at least 570 crewmembers. As many as 2 million sketches and paintings were created, though only about 166,000 of them can be seen in the finished film.
After the success of Snow White, Walt and Roy continued to make a long list of Disney animated films, which became very successful. The company still produces animated films to this day and it is well known for making the best-animated films in the world.
Another company ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ was created around 1918 and incorporated in1923 by the four Warner brothers, which were Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack who already had a thriving movie theatre business. Warner Bros. Pictures is a movie and television production studio. Long-running shows that filmed at Warner Bros Studios were Ellen, Two and a Half Men and a lot more. In the early days, Warner Bros had a hard time keeping up with older studios like Paramount, MGM and First National, which led them to become innovators just to try to make a profit. But in 1927, they created the first film with music and synchronized sound, 'The Jazz Singer'. Since then, Warner Bros has gone on to make some of the most well known and hugely popular films, including, The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, The Exorcist, The Shining and more recently Sherlock Holmes.
Contemporary animation is produced at the present period in time. I researched into Monty Python, this was a British comedy group that created 'Monty Python's Flying Circus', and this was a British television comedy sketch show that was aired on the BBC on the 5th of October 1969. This show developed to spawning touring stage shows, films, albums and books. The Group's influence on comedy has been compared to The Beatles influence on music. A contemporary and surreal animation is shown before Monty Python. The animation, which features sequences of animation merged with live action, is a prime example of this. The animation has very random and flamboyant scenes, such as legs flying out of pipes and kicking things, and people’s teeth moving around.
I looked into some interviews with some of the members and I found one with Terry Gilliam, he says in an article he preferred cutout animation, which involved pushing bits of paper in front of a camera instead of photographing pre-drawn cels.
I also looked into the 'Yellow Submarine', which is a 1968 British animated musical fantasy film inspired by the music of The Beatles. The film was used as a marketing tool to heighten the bands popularity to sell more albums. The Film shows The Beatles accompanying Captain Fred in his Yellow Submarine and goes to Pepper land to free it from the music hating Blue Meanies. Before Yellow Submarine, animation was a mild, it wasn't just for kids anymore. Without Yellow Submarine there would never have been The Simpsons, Toy Story or Shrek that enables us to laugh at ourselves while being highly entertained.
Genres and Forms of Animation
There are a lot of animated films created for a number of genres, but most animated films are family films and aimed to appeal for children. Animation is a great for children because it is easy to keep the attention of a child with an animated film. There are no limits and the animation can capture their imagination with things. A film that really depicts this well is Shrek as it’s all about fantasy. Children love fantasy and this movie has all the characters from children's fairy tales. The Nightmare Before Christmas is an animated fantasy musical mainly aimed at adults. Since Tim Burton produces the movie it will obviously be a bit weird. The style of the animation is strange because the features of the characters are extremely exaggerated and their mannerisms are odd.
I think animation is used when the animator wants to create something that doesn't exist for example one of the most visually beautiful modern animated movies is Avatar. It is part digitally recorded and part animated. Again the animation was used to create something fantasy like.
Animation is also sometimes used in advertising to make a product stand out; animation is usually used when advertising products that already are well known because it's a high cost and most companies can't afford it. For example Compare the Market uses animation to promote their site to make them stand out. The animation also gives them the opportunity to create their own mascots; this has become a gimmick and is probably the way the company gets a lot of business. They have even started giving away plushies of their mascots when someone gets a quote from them. Animation has really paid off for this company because everyone remembers the advert because the animation makes it memorable.
Children's TV shows have been animated for a very long time; animated shows have proved more popular with children than digitally recorded. A very early animated kids show was Mr. Benn, this was aired in the early 70's; it had very simple animations and they didn't really run smoothly because the frames were so far apart. The way they animated it was by drawing different scenes then taking pictures of them and putting them together.
Now modern animators have the ability to create more advanced animations for kid’s shows, for example the creators of The Amazing World of Gumball have used rotoscoping. They have digitally recorded the world but animated the characters and some objects. Its great for kids as it fuels the child's imagination, which is important.
Animation is also used in music videos to make them more interesting and get across the songs message more. A lot of bands have started using animation for many of their music videos. A band that is famous for this is the Gorillaz; the reason why they used animation in their videos was to make them stand out. It is very hard to be successful in the music industry and the band thought they'd increase their chances by doing something creative. The animations in their videos are very good considering the art, which is a mixture of 2D and 3D.