Animation

Persistence of Vision

Persistence of vision was the theory that if two images are seen in quick succession of each other the two images would merge together because of a 0.04 second delay in our vision. This theory was then debunked in 1912 by Wertheimer who stated that the real reason the two merge together is through fault of the brain and a process called beta movement.

Stop Frame Animation 

Stop Frame Animation is a series of pictures that are put together to give the illusion of a moving image. Usually clay figures or paper based drawings are used in stop frame animation. This type of animation works by moving an object bit by bit and taking a picture every time it is moved to give the illusion of an object moving on its own. This  type of animation is generally shown in 12 fps meaning for every 12 pictures there is just 1 second of footage.

 

Frame Rates

Frame rate or fps (Frames per second) are the speed in which a group of individual images are pieced together. Animation is usually filmed at 12 frames a second and normal films at 24 frames a second as this is the normal rate a human sees the world anyway. Different frame rates can be used for different purposes for example slow motion sequences can be filmed at 1000 fps meaning that when played back the sequence would be slow. This works in reverse too as if you were to shoot something in 8 fps the sequence would be fast but also very jumpy.

 

Joseph Plateau (Phenakitoscope)

Joseph Plateau born 14th October 1801 was the first ever person to give the illusion of moving images and he did so through the use of the Phenakitoscope which was created in 1832. This creation used drawings that were repeated for example 12 different pictures of a man running on a circular piece of card.this card also had slots cut out around the edges to allow viewing. when spun, the Phenakitoskope would give the illusion, in this case, of a man running and was a revelation in animation. An example of the Phenakitoscope can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odm2zk2RtoE

 

William Horner (Zoetrope)

 

William Horner born 1786 was the inventor of the Zoetrope. The Zoetrope was a cylinder with slits cut out to allow viewing with, like the Phenakitoscope, had a piece of card inserted into it with different drawings on it for example a ball bouncing. When the cylinder was spun it would give the illusion of the person(s) watching it that the ball was bouncing up and down. An example of a Zoetrope can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKEM5sYnOjE

Emile Reynaud (Praxinoscope)

Emile Reynaud born 8th December 1844 was the inventor of the Praxinoscope. The Praxinoscope was effectively the same and was the successor of the Zoetrope. The Praxinoscope replaced the Zoetropes viewing slots with an inner circle of mirrors this allowed a smoother less jumpy piece of animation to be shown and was also the first projected piece of animation. An example of the Praxinoascope can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez_UJAafRMs

 Edward Muybridge

Edward Muybridge was born 9th April 1830 is known for his work in motion and motion picture projection. he is most famous for his work of proving that a horse does indeed lift all four legs off the ground as it runs. The way he proved this was by setting up a series of cameras along a race track and as the horse ran the cameras took pictures. by the end he had enough pictures to prove that he was right in the way the horse ran.

 

Thomas Edison (Kinetoscope) 

One of Edisons many inventions was the Kinetoscope. the Kinetoscope was a box designed with a peep hole at the top for one viewer at the time. The way it worked was by showing multiple images on a piece of perforated film in quick succession with a high speed shutter and a light source behind it. This would give the illusion of a moving image. Although the Kinetoscope was not a projector it did however possess the early fundamentals of one.

An example of the Kinetoscope can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=686Y7bZYavA

Lumiere Brothers

The Lumiere Brothers, Auguste Lumiere born 19th October 1862 and Louis Lumiere born 5th October 1864 were the earliest film makers in history. They wanted to use the same method of animation by using pictures but put it into practice within the real world with real people. The brothers created the Cinematograph allowing them to take many pictures in quick succession making them into a film. Their first film shows workers in a factory.

 

George Pal

 

George pal born February 1st 1908 was a Hungarian born American animator. He was a well known animator who has won many awards and also has an honorary award which was given to him in 1944. His most famous creation must be the puppetoons which were a series of stop motion animated cartoons usually using wooden hand carved puppets.

 

  

Willis O'Brien:

  Willis O'Brien was born on March 2nd 1886. Willis had many jobs including farm hand, factory worker, Proffesional marble sculptor a boxer and even an guide to palaeontologists where he picked up his love for dinosaurs. In his spare time he would scuplt and illistrate and eventually got a job working for sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Daily News. He longed to work with animation and Later he made 90 seconds worth of test footage and was then comissioned to make his first film, the dinosaurs and the missing link: a prehistoric tragedy for a budget of $5000. A period of time after this he began to work with Harold H Hoyts The lost World and this eventually lead him to work on his most famous film King Kong.

Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen Born June 29th 1920 is an American visual effects artist. Who developed a brand of stop motion animation called “Dynamation”  He later worked with Willis O Brien and created famous films such as Jason and the Argonauts which featured multiple aspects of stop motion animation for example, the skeletons towards the end of the film.

A clip from Jason and the Argonauts can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF_Fi7x93PY 

 

Jan Svankmajer

 

Jan Svankmajer born 4^th September 1934 is a Czech filmmaker and artist known for his surreal animations and creations. His first film was called Alice, based on the book of Alice in wonderland. influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay.

The brothers Quay

 

The brothers Quay, Stephen and Timothy Quay, are identical twins born on June 17^th 1947. The two brothers are better known for their animation. They now live in England having moved here in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art, London. They then formed a partnership with Keith Griffiths who produced all of their films. They have made some successful films including “The Chairs”.

 

 

Tim Burton

 

Tim Burton born August 25, 1958 is an American Film director, Film producer, Writer and artist. He is widely known for his dark and gothic themed films. His most famous animated films of the time are “Nightmare before Christmas” and “Corpse Bride”. Both of these films used Claymation and  stop frame animation.

The opening scene of Nightmare Before Christmas can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOtEdhKOMgQ

 

Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations is a British animation studio based in Bristol. The studio is known for its use of Stop motion animation techniques using Claymation. Its most popular films from the studio are Wallace and Grommet franchise but the company did recently enter the computer animation market with “Flushed Away”.

 

Cinema (animated films)

Animation has been in the cinemas since the 19^th century. It has been extremely popular especially in today’s generation of cinema. The first ever feature length film shown in the cinema was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. This film was hand drawn frame by frame by the team at Disney.

 

TV Animation (TV shows that are animated)

Today there are multiple forms of animation on Television, most of which are shown on children’s channels such as Cartoon network and Boomerang. There are also some adult animated shows shown on TV though such as the Simpsons, Family guy and southpark.

 

Channel idents

Channel Idents are short clips, usually animated,  to show that you are watching a specific channel and to give that channel its own unique spin. A good example of this would be the channel E4 and its estings which feature different animated clips.

An example of a channel ident can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzJY3vVOLBE 

 

TV and Cinema advertising

TV and cinema advertising can be just as effective if done through animation. Animation is used a lot in TV and cinema advertising as it is efficient, simple and cheap. A good example of an effective piece of animated advertising is Cartoon Boy which is an advert to raise awareness for child abuse.

 

Animated music videos

Animated music videos have become ever popular in todays music industry and domains such as YouTube only help to promote this popular demand. Music videos are animated officially or even sometimes fan made animations. A good example of officially animated would be KT Tunstall’s Suddenly I see.

An example of an animated music video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toC2NjwMVKM

 

SMA for website use

Stop motion animation is used for website use a lot recently a good example of this would be E4’s Estings website which asks fans of the channel to submit their own animated channel ident into a competition. A lot of these estings are stop motion animation and are showcased on the E4 website.