History of animation Jack Daniels

Basic principals Persistence of vision: The act that if still pictures are close enough then when played in sequence it maintains the illusion of vision. Framerate: The rate that the pictures are shown, to slow a framerate makes persistence of vision harder to achieve whilst to high creates a larger workload

Animation techniques Stop motion: The act of taking pictures of a statue then moving the statue a very small amount before taking the next picture. Cell animation: The act of drawing the frames to be similar to each other in order to achieve persistence of vision CGI: Using models on a computer to make animation

Phenakistoscope A phenakistscope was a paper disk that if you pointed towards a mirror and looked though the hole you could see a repeating image spinning. This is important because this is the first working example of persistence of vision

Zoetrope The zoetrope uses the same concept as the phenakistscope however it allows multiple people to use it at once making it a social activity that people are more eager to share.

Praxinoscope A praxnoscope was made due to the discomfort of looking though the small gaps in the zoetrope and makes it easier to use. It uses the fact that human eyes would only focus on one mirror at once to it’s advantage

Cinematographe The cinematographe was the first object that was able to record footage live that didn’t have to be drawn, from this modern cinema was born as it could also project the images that it film onto a wall for people to watch. This stared cinemas as people would pay to see these machines show there footage often of mundane things such as a train arriving

Kinetoscope A kinetoscope was able to show people who looked though the hole a tape and people often had to put a nickel into them to get them to start working, this created the nickelodeon.

Steamboat Willie Steamboat Willie made by Walt Disney and was huge because instead of having somebody play music along side it, it had sound effects alongside it. This was huge as instead films only using sight they could also use sound in order to get across messages.

Multiplane camera The multiplane camera was invented by Walt Disney and was used to movie images in a animation whilst not moving other images in the same animation.

CGI CGI or computer generated image is when a computer will simulate models moving to skeletons within a 3D space. It’s largely used in video game animation and action moves. Comparatively it is a lot faster and can make a lot more realistic images than other animation techniques however it is the most expensive with animators being highly paid and software and hardware powerful enough being expensive to acquire.

George pal George Pal was the creator of puppetoons which received a honorary Oscar ‘for the development of novel methods and techniques’. Puppetoons was memorable for it’s use of replacement technical, where a series of models were used with different expressions for each character and switched out instead of a single model for each character.

Lou Bunin Lou Bunin was one of the first people to use wire framing inside of animation models but he also used his own rubber formula in order to make said models. The wire framing helped to keep the model stably without having to change how the model would look without it as well as helping it keep shape whilst moving.

Willis o‘Brien Jan Svankmajer Willis o’Brien was a infuentional animator who an acadermy award for his work on the lost word, king kong and mighty joe young. In order to make his models he would start with a wooden base including ball sockets and cover it with clay, he would also use foam and animal hair in order to improve the quality of his models which led to more realistic models.

Tim Burton Tim Burton is famous for his works on animations such as nightmare before Christmas and uses robotic exoskeletons in order to make tiny movements that would otherwise be nigh impossible to make.

Animation today High budget films such as toy story will often use CGI unless it’s unique lack of CGI is a selling point in movies such as Wallace and Grommet. A large amount of live action films will also incorporate CGI in order to improve said films most prominently in action films. Whilst lower budget animations prefer to use methods such as stop motion in order to increase cost effectiveness.

Picture sources Phenakistscope: Zoetrope: Praxnoscope: Cinematographe: Kinetoscope: Steamboat Willie: Multiplane camera: George Pal: Lou Bunin: Willis o’Brien: Tim Burton: CGI: