Animation _ Background

Animation is a very special media form. More than any other it allows the complete re-presentation of reality. It can be as simple as a stick drawing turned into a "flick book" or elaborate as a three dimensional landscape rendered in elaborate detail by computers. As we move into the 21st century, and computer generated graphics, animation and live-action filming merge, we can be less and less sure of the 'true' nature of what we are seeing on screen. Animation has never been so powerful - nor so widely used. From computer games, to TVCs, to blockbuster movies, animation is used to fill in the gaps when reality isn't enough. Often what we think is real on screen (e.g. rain, faces in a crowd) is an animation effect added in post-production.

Comics are the print equivalent of animation.

History of Animation

Animation is as old as the drawings done on rock surfaces by cavemen that tried to capture the sequential movement of animals' legs as they ran.

Namibia pic here

 Over the centuries various mechanical devices, often sold as toys, replicated movement by running a series of still images in sequence — the earliest version of the zoetrope, which moved thanks to the hot air from a lamp, was invented in China around 180AD. It looks like the images are moving because of a phenomenon called persistence of vision. This was first proved in 1829 by the Belgian, Joseph Plateau, and his discoveries paved the way for a slew of nineteenth century inventions (the phenakistoscope, praxinoscope) that eventually gave us the Lumière Brothers' Cinematograph (the foundation of modern cinema) in 1895.

You can see some beautiful examples of early Phenakistiscope plates here.

While some early pioneers of film (like the Lumières) experimented with the new cinema technology to record real life events, others explored ways of creating fantasy narratives. Georges Méliès accidentally discovered stop motion animation when his camera broke down in the middle of filming one day, and he used the technique to make some of the earliest sci-fi movies. However, although he used animation techniques, he relied mainly on live action footage. J. Stuart Blackton adopted the principle of stop motion by drawing on a blackboard, and photographing the subtle changes in the drawings as he erased and redrew. Émile Cohl was the first to transfer his drawings to negative film, in 1908, which makes him the first person to produce a hand-drawn animated film.

What is Animation?

Animation is the process of linking a series of slightly different drawings together to simulate movement. There are normally 24 frames per second in moving film, and the best animation (ie the most flowing and detailed) will use a different drawing for each of those 24 frames. Limited animation will move to a new drawing less frequently, and this results in a jerky image.

The same processes used for film are used for the animated GIFs you see on websites.

There are three different types of animation: