Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion An optical illusion is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a percept that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source. There are three main types: literal optical illusions that create images that are different of motion In physics, motion means a change in the location of a body. Change in motion is the result of applied force. Motion is typically described in terms of velocity, acceleration, displacement, and time. An object's velocity cannot change unless it is acted upon by a force, as described by Newton's first law also known as Inertia. An object's momentum due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina, supposedly to compensate for the blackout that would be experienced otherwise through blinking. The theory was invoked to explain how the perception of apparent motion in film created the, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects or video Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion program, although several other forms of presenting animation also exist.

Contents

Early examples

Main article: History of animation Animation is an art form which, in its modern guise, appeared alongside the development of motion pictures. Earlier attempts at making drawings move were only experimental An Egyptian Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر‎ Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Egyptian Arabic: Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about 1,010, burial chamber A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interree than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could also serve as places for storage of the dead from one family or social group and were often used over mural Murals of sorts date to prehistoric times such as the paintings on the Caves of Lascaux in southern France . Many ancient murals have survived in Egyptian tombs, and in Pompeii, approximately 4000 years old, showing wrestlers Wrestling is part of the martial arts. A wrestling match consists of physical engagement between two people in which each wrestler strives to get an advantage over, or control of, the opponent. Physical techniques used, include clinching, holding, locking, application of leverage and takedowns. Today there are a wide range of styles with varying in action. Even though this may appear similar to a series of animation drawings, there was no way of viewing the images in motion. It does, however, indicate the artist's intention of depicting motion.

Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion drawing can be found in paleolithic Lower Paleolithic (genus Homo) cave paintings Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest known European cave paintings date to Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the paleolithic cave paintings is not known. The evidence suggests that they were not merely decorations of living, where animals are depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.

A 5,200 year old earthen bowl found in Iran in Shahr-i Sokhta Coordinates: 30°39′N 61°24′E / 30.65°N 61.4°E Shahr-e Sukhte "Burnt City" is an archaeological site of a sizable Bronze Age urban settlement, associated with the Jiroft culture. It is located in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, the southeastern part of Iran, on the bank of the Helmand River, near the Zahedan-Zabol road has five images of a goat painted along the sides. This has been claimed to be an example of early animation.[1][2][3] However, since no equipment existed to show the images in motion, such a series of images cannot be called animation in a true sense of the word.[4][5]

The phenakistoscope The phenakistoscope was an early animation device, the predecessor of the zoetrope. It was invented in 1832 simultaneously by the Belgian Joseph Plateau and the Austrian Simon von Stampfer, praxinoscope The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors,, as well as the common flip book A flip book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but may also be geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than were early popular animation devices invented during the 1800s, while a Chinese zoetrope A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words zoe, "life" and trope, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life" or "living wheel."-type device was invented already in 180 AD.[6][7][8][9] These devices produced movement from sequential drawings using technological means, but animation did not really develop much further until the advent of cinematography Cinematography (from Greek: kinesis κινησις and grapho γραφω (to record)), is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for the cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography. Many additional issues arise when both the camera and elements of the scene may be in motion, though this also.

There is no single person who can be considered the "creator" of the art of film animation, as there were several people doing several projects which could be considered various types of animation all around the same time.

Georges Méliès Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was born in Paris, where his family manufactured shoes was a creator of special-effect films; he was generally one of the first people to use animation with his technique. He discovered a technique by accident which was to stop the camera rolling to change something in the scene, and then continue rolling the film. This idea was later known as stop-motion animation. Méliès discovered this technique accidentally when his camera broke down while shooting a bus driving by. When he had fixed the camera, a hearse happened to be passing by just as Méliès restarted rolling the film, his end result was that he had managed to make a bus transform into a hearse. This was just one of the great contributors to animation in the early years.

The earliest surviving stop-motion advertising film was an English short by Arthur Melbourne-Cooper Arthur Melbourne-Cooper was a British film maker who witnessed the birth of the movies as an assistant/cameraman of Birt Acres (1854-1918) who, in 1895, developed the first British 35 mm moving picture camera. Cooper, for the next 20 years, pioneered in making moving pictures called Matches: An Appeal (1899). Developed for the Bryant and May The registered trade name Bryant and May still exists and it is owned by Swedish Match; as are many of the other registered trade names of the other, formerly independent, companies within the Bryant and May group Matchsticks company, it involved stop-motion animation of wired-together matches writing a patriotic call to action on a blackboard.

J. Stuart Blackton James Stuart Blackton , usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation. He is considered the father of American animation was possibly the first American filmmaker to use the techniques of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation. Introduced to filmmaking by Edison Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first, he pioneered these concepts at the turn of the 20th century, with his first copyrighted work dated 1900. Several of his films, among them The Enchanted Drawing The Enchanted Drawing is a silent film made in 1900. It was directed by J. Stuart Blackton, an American film producer of early silent films, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and an early animator. He also stars in the film. It was produced by Vitagraph Studios. A combination of animation and film showing a man drawing a cartoon face on an easel (1900) and Humorous Phases of Funny Faces Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is a silent cartoon by J. Stuart Blackton in the year 1906. It features a cartoonist drawing faces on a chalkboard, and the faces coming to life. It is generally regarded as the first animated film. It features movements as where a dog jumps through a hoop, a scene which actually uses cutout animation made to look (1906) were film versions of Blackton's "lightning artist" routine, and utilized modified versions of Méliès' early stop-motion techniques to make a series of blackboard drawings appear to move and reshape themselves. 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces' is regularly cited as the first true animated film, and Blackton is considered the first true animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images called frames and Key frames that form an illusion of movement called animation when rapidly displayed. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an animation piece requires the collaboration of several animators. The methods of.

Fantasmagorie by Emile Cohl, 1908

Another French artist, Émile Cohl Émile Cohl , born Émile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet, was a French caricaturist of the largely-forgotten Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "The Oldest Parisian", began drawing cartoon strips and created a film in 1908 called Fantasmagorie.[10] The film largely consisted of a stick figure A stick figure is a very simple type of drawing made of lines and dots, often of the human form or other animals. In a stick figure, the head is represented by a circle, sometimes embellished with details such as eyes, mouth or crudely-scratched-out hair. The neck, arms, legs and stomach are all represented by straight lines . The neck and torso moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects, such as a wine bottle that transforms into a flower. There were also sections of live action where the animator’s hands would enter the scene. The film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film Film , for 35mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that the next image is projected onto unexposed film. When the film is developed it is a long strip of small negative images. This strip is often cut into sections for easier, which gave the picture a blackboard look. This makes Fantasmagorie the first animated film created using what came to be known as traditional (hand-drawn) animation Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. In a traditionally-animated cartoon, each frame is drawn by hand.

Following the successes of Blackton and Cohl, many other artists began experimenting with animation. One such artist was Winsor McCay Winsor McCay (September 26, 1867 – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator, a successful newspaper cartoonist, who created detailed animations that required a team of artists and painstaking attention for detail. Each frame was drawn on paper; which invariably required backgrounds and characters to be redrawn and animated. Among McCay's most noted films are Little Nemo Little Nemo is the main fictional character in a series of weekly comic strips by Winsor McCay that appeared in the New York Herald and William Randolph Hearst's New York American newspapers from October 15, 1905 – April 23, 1911 and April 30, 1911 – July 26, 1914; respectively. The strip was first called Little Nemo in Slumberland and then In (1911), Gertie the Dinosaur Gertie the Dinosaur is a 1914 short animated film by Winsor McCay. Although not the first animated film, as is sometimes thought, it was the first cartoon to feature a character with an appealing personality. The appearance of a true character distinguished it from earlier animated "trick films", such as those of Blackton and Cohl, and (1914) and The Sinking of the Lusitania The Sinking of the Lusitania, released in 1918, is an animated short film by American artist Winsor McCay. It features a short 12 minute explanation of the sinking of RMS Lusitania after it was struck by two torpedoes* fired from a German U-boat. The film was one of many animated silent films published to create anti-German sentiment during World (1918).

The production of animated short films, typically referred to as "cartoons", became an industry of its own during the 1910s, and cartoon shorts were produced to be shown in movie theaters A movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures. The most successful early animation producer was John Randolph Bray John Randolph Bray produced the first animation film in color The Debut of Thomas Cat (1920) in Brewster Color, developed by Percy D. Brewster of Newark, New Jersey. Bray Productions produced over 500 films between 1913 and 1937, mostly animation films and documentary shorts. Cartoonist Paul Terry worked briefly for Bray Studios in 1916, who, along with animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images called frames and Key frames that form an illusion of movement called animation when rapidly displayed. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an animation piece requires the collaboration of several animators. The methods of Earl Hurd Earl Hurd was a pioneering American animator and film director. He is noted for creating and producing the silent Bobby Bumps animated short subject series for early animation producer J.R. Bray's Bray Productions. Hurd and Bray are jointly responsible for developing the processes involved in cel animation, and were granted patents for their, patented the cel animation Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. In a traditionally-animated cartoon, each frame is drawn by hand process which dominated the animation industry for the rest of the decade.

Techniques

Traditional animation

Main article: Traditional animation Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. In a traditionally-animated cartoon, each frame is drawn by hand An example of traditional animation, a horse animated by rotoscoping Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, pre-recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope, although this device has been replaced by from Eadweard Muybridge Eadweard J. Muybridge was an English photographer, known primarily for his early use of multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the celluloid film strip that is still used today. The name "Eadweard Muybridge" is pronounced /ˌɛdwərd ˈmaɪbrɪdʒ/'s 19th century photos.

(Also called cel animation Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. In a traditionally-animated cartoon, each frame is drawn by hand or hand-drawn animation) Traditional animation was the process used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, which are first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Celluloid was used for animation and film production up until the late 20th century, however, it burned easily and suffered from spontaneous decomposition, and was largely replaced by cellulose acetate plastics, which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one onto motion picture film against a painted background by a rostrum camera A rostrum camera is a specially designed camera used in television and film to animate a still picture or object. It consists of a moving lower platform on which the article to be filmed is placed, while the camera is placed above on a column.

The traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. Today, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software Software includes things such as websites, programs or video games, that are coded by programming languages like C or C++ programs are used to color the drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery mediums, including traditional 35 mm film 35 mm film is the basic film gauge most commonly used for both still photography and motion pictures, and remains relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1892 by William Dickson and Thomas Edison, using film stock supplied by George Eastman. The photographic film is cut into strips 35 millimeters wide — hence the name. The standard and newer media such as digital video Digital video is a type of video recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal. The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article. The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animators Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process concerning the animation of one or more characters featured in an animated work. It is usually as one aspect of a larger production and often made to complement voice acting. Character animation is artistically unique from other animation in that it involves the creation of' work has remained essentially the same over the past 70 years. Some animation producers have used the term "tradigital" to describe cel animation which makes extensive use of computer technology.

Examples of traditionally animated feature films include Pinocchio Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based on the story Pinocchio: Tale of a Puppet by Carlo Collodi. It was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on February 7, 1940. It is the second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series (United States, 1940), Animal Farm (United Kingdom, 1954), and Akira (Japan, 1988). Traditional animated films which were produced with the aid of computer technology include The Lion King (US, 1994) Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) (Japan, 2001), and Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003).

Stop motion

A clay animation scene from a TV commercial.

Computer animation

Main article: Computer animation A short gif animation

Like stop motion, computer animation encompasses a variety of techniques, the unifying idea being that the animation is created digitally on a computer. You can use programs like Blender 3d, Autodesk Maya, 3d Max, and many others to create computer animations.

2D animation

2D animation figures are created and/or edited on the computer using 2D bitmap graphics or created and edited using 2D vector graphics. This includes automated computerized versions of traditional animation techniques such as of tweening, morphing, onion skinning and interpolated rotoscoping.

Examples: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, SpongeBob SquarePants(certain sequences only), Danny Phantom, The Fairly OddParents, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera

3D animation

3D animation digital models manipulated by an animator. In order to manipulate a mesh, it is given a digital skeletal structure that can be used to control the mesh. This process is called rigging. Various other techniques can be applied, such as mathematical functions (ex. gravity, particle simulations), simulated fur or hair, effects such as fire and water and the use of Motion capture to name but a few, these techniques fall under the category of 3d dynamics. Many 3D animations are very believable and are commonly used as Visual effects for recent movies.

Examples: Toy Story, Shrek, Pocoyo

Terms

2D animation techniques tend to focus on image manipulation while 3D techniques usually build virtual worlds in which characters and objects move and interact. 3D animation can create images that seem real to the viewer.

Other animation techniques

Other techniques and approaches

See also

Computer graphics portal

References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2008)
  1. ^ CHTHO produces documentary on world’s oldest animation. Tehran Times. 04-03-2008.
  2. ^ First Animation of the World Found In Burnt City, Iran, Persian Journal, 2004
  3. ^ Oldest Animation Discovered In Iran. Animation Magazine. 12-03-2008.
  4. ^ http://www.emaki.net/blog/2006/02/burnt-city-animation-vl.html
  5. ^ http://www.tommoody.us/archives/2008/12/09/burnt-city-goat/
  6. ^ Ronan, Colin A; Joseph Needham (1985). The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 2. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31536-0.
  7. ^ Dulac, Nicolas; André Gaudreault (2004). "Heads or Tails: The Emergence of a New Cultural Series, from the Phenakisticope to the Cinematograph". Invisible Culture: A Journal for Visual Culture. The University of Rochester. http://www.rochester.edu/in_visible_culture/Issue_8/dulac_gaudreault.html#1. Retrieved on 2006-05-13.
  8. ^ History of Media, University of Minnesota, accessed May 13 2006
  9. ^ "Zoetrope". Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman Exhibit of Optical Toys. The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. 2005. http://courses.ncssm.edu/GALLERY/collections/toys/html/exhibit10.htm. Retrieved on 2006-05-13.
  10. ^ [1]

Further reading

External links

Look up animation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikinews has related news: Annie Awards for animation Sunday; Wikinews will be there
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Animation-related topics
By country
China • Japan • Korea, United States
History Canada • China • France • Iran • Japan • Russia • United States
Industry Animator (List of animators) • Animation director • Animation studios • Animation film festivals (international / regional)
Animated works Feature-length films • Short films • Television series • Films based on cartoons • Computer-animated films • Stop-motion films
Techniques
Traditional animation Limited animation • Rotoscoping
Stop motion Clay animation (Strata-cut animation) • Cutout animation (Silhouette animation) • Graphic animation • Model animation (Go motion) • Object animation • Pixilation • Puppetoon
Computer animation
2D animation Flash animation • PowerPoint animation • SVG animation
3D animation Cel-shaded animation • Crowd simulation • Morph target animation • Motion capture • Non-photorealistic rendering • Skeletal animation
Other methods Drawn on film animation • Flip book • Inbetweening • Paint-on-glass animation • Pinscreen animation • Pixel art • Sand animation
See also
Cartoon series • Cartoon physics • Animated cartoon
Character animation • Independent animation • Adult animation • List of animated shorts available on DVD

Categories: Animation | Film and video technology | Stop motion

 

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