History of animation Layla Gillham

1893: Thomas Edison invents the kinetsocope. This machine could make sure that reels of celluloid were not unrolled, however they were stretched over a set of wheels that panned in front of a viewing window, the problem with this is that only one person could watch. This was the first machine that enabled moving pictures to be shown. 1894: Lois Lumiere invents a cinematograph (this was a combination of camera/projector/printer). This was the first machine to show moving pictures on a screen. This allowed all types of films to be shown to a large audience.

1895: Auguste and Lois Lumiere project their first film ‘Workers leaving the Lumiere factory in Lyon-Montplusir’ at the Hotel Scribe in Paris. This impacted because it was a successful film to be shown, this was the start on cinemas. 1900: James Stuart Blackton makes a film called the ‘Enchanted Drawing’. The smile and frown of his drawn characters were achieved by the replacement technique. This was a prototype for animation, it gave other animators a feel for the field and a technique to adapt.

1907: Blackton creates another film. This animated film was created using stop-motion animation and using effects which could animation 3D objects. This was a huge impact because it introduced the world to 3D animation. 1908: Emile Cohl makes his first film ‘Fantasmagorie’. This film was and still is considered to be the first animated film. Cohl made 250 animated films between : Cohl combines live action and drawn animation together into his films. ‘Claire de lune Espanola’ (spanish moonlight) was on of the films he created. This changed the world of animation because it showed that you could combine to things together to stun an audience and to create illusion that animation could be twisted with real life.

1911: Winsor McCay makes his first film ‘Little Nemo’. McCay was already famous for his comic strips. His advice to other animators was “an idiot that wants to make a couple of thousand drawings for a hundred feet of film is welcome to join the club”. 1912: Wladyslaw Starewicz (who was a Russian/French 3D animator) makes ‘The Cameraman’s revenge’. He animated 3D characters for this stop-motion film. These films impacted animation because it gave a insight to how weird animations could really be.

1914: McCay’s ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’ was the first major triumph in character animation. It was shown as a film in cinemas and also as a multimedia event. This was an impact on animation because it involved McCay actually interacting with Gertie, this gave animators a whole new idea for animation. They could make it look like the animator was controlling the animation live. 1914: Raoul Barre starts his own animation studios. He developed a slash and tear technique for doing levels in animation and he also devised a peg system for registration. This impacted animation because it gave a new technique for people to animate with.

1915: International Film Service was backed by the Hearst Newspaper and used their comics, Katzenjammer Kids ect, as the basis of their animated films. The studio closed in This impacted animation because anybodies ideas could be turned into an animation if it was successful enough. 1918: McCay finishes ‘The Sinking of the Lusitania’. It is animated with cels, washe and paintings in a very striking and realistic style. This impacted animation because it was the first realistic and propaganda film done in animation.

1919: Lottie Reigner makes the first of her many 2D shadow puppet animations. This showed animators that they could work with not only physical objects but could animate almost anything. 1920: Goldwyn-Bray creates the first colour animation called ‘The Debut of Thomas Cat’. It was made in Brewster Colour and made with a 2 emulsion colour process. Sadly, it was judged to expensive for commercial use. This was an amazing breakthrough for animators and film makers because it was the first animation to be shown in colour, although it was very expensive, they proved that you could make animations in colour.

1920: Felix the Cat was the most popular character and series of this period. Otto Messmer not only created Felix, however he also created the stories and directed on a schedule of one film every 2 weeks. The merchandise of this character was extremely successful and found a way for the later merchandising of other animated characters. 1922: Disney’s first animation studio is made in Kansas City and is named ‘Laugh-O-Gram Films’.

1923: Walt Disney’s Laugh-O-Gram Films studio goes bankrupt. Disney moves to LA, California and opens his new studio in his uncles garage. Disney gets a contract signed with Margaret Winkler, they are signed to make a show called ‘Alice Comedies’ which is set to combine both live action and animation. 1926: Reigner creates a show called ‘Adventures of Prince Achmed. This was a one hour shadow puppet film. This film is claimed to be the 1 st animated feature film.

1927: Disney started to produce a popular animated series called ‘Oswald the Rabbit’. 1928: Disney created Mickey Mouse, firstly he created to films with Mickey Mouse. By the time it came to the third (Steamboat Willy) motion picture sound arrived. He added sound to the third Mickey Mouse picture. 1928: The first picture with sound was released, ‘Terry’s Dinner Time’. Although it was the first, Disney’s Mickey Mouse was the first successful film with sound. This impacted the history of animation because Disney showed you could add sound to a motion picture, this ushered a new age of sound for animation.

1929: Walt Disney’s ‘Skeleton Dance’ was the use of prerecorded music in animation, this leads to very tight synchronization of sound and picture. This set very high standards in the animation field for the use of prerecorded sound. 1930: The Warner Bros are born. The first Warner Bros short film was ‘Sinking in the Bathtub’ with a character called Bosko, it was their take of Mickey Mouse. The Looney Tunes series starts. This series had a huge impact on animation because it was so popular then and is still so popular now.

1931: Disney starts the use of storyboards. This impacted hugely, as they are such an important part of the planning process now. 1932: Walt Disney wins his first Academy Award for ‘Flowers and Trees’. This was the first film to use 3 strip Technicolour in animation. 1937: Disney creates a new invention called the multiplane camera. It used multiple layers of glass, containing backgrounds, foregrounds, and everything in between, this was to create the illusion of depth and make things seem more realistic. This was an amazing invention in the world of animation. It was the first camera to record things in depth and make animation more realistic. This impacted so much as it was such a grand invention, which could be used by animators everywhere.

1945: Harry Smith produced animation by drawing directly onto film. This changes everything for animation because they no longer have to draw individual images and try to film them separately, it is shown that you can draw straight onto the film. 1957: John Whitney used Bodine motors, Selsyns, different gear units and ball integrators to create analog computer graphics. This was a complete change for creators as the first computer graphics idea was being created, meaning that animators now have the chance to create from a computer screen, and not hand draw everything!

1961: Using his ideas and inventions with creating computer graphics, John Whitney used differential gear mechanisms to create film and television title sequences. This was a huge breakthrough, because computer graphics were in use, although it was just the start it was a huge development. 1961: Disney released the film 101 Dalmatians. The one thing that was huge for the world of animation was the way in which this film was created. At the time photocopying inventions were becoming very big and useful. Instead of drawing 101 Dalmatians, Disney drew one picture of 4/5 dogs and copied them onto the picture, and then animated them to look like they were all doing separate actions.

1964: Ken Knowlton, started developing computer techniques for producing animated movies. 1971: Robert Abel and Assoc studio began. First by doing motion control and in a few years began doing high quality computer animation commercials. 1983: Bill Reeves at Lucasfilm publishes techniques for modeling particle systems. This would show animators how to create models, in which they could animate.

1972: University of Utah, Ed Catmull develops an animation scripting language and creates a smooth animation. This is a massive thing in the animation world because the software made a successful animation. 1983: Bill Reeves at Lucasfilm publishes techniques for modeling particle systems. This would show animators how to create models, in which they could animate. 1984: A partially completed version of The Adventures of André & Wally B is the first short film created by the future animation studio. It features ground-breaking technology such as complex flexible characters, hand-painted textures, and motion blur.

1988: Pixar’s new animation system, Menv (short for "modeling environment"), comes online. 1991: Disney and Pixar announce an agreement "to make and distribute at least one computer-generated animated movie.” 1993: 1993: Jurassic Park use of CG for realistic living creatures 1995: Toy Story is the world’s first computer animated feature film, is released in theaters on November 22.