Techniques Developers and Developments

Animation

Techniques:

            -persistence of vision:

Persistence of vision is a theory that states that a human eye will always retain images for a fraction of second. This means that we see what is happening now and a fraction of a second ago. The Thaumatrope uses persistence of vision to appear that the pictures are one moving image rather than two separate ones.

            -stop-frame animation:

Stop frame animation is a form of animation that makes an object appear to move on its own. To create the effect that the object is moving, pictures are taken then the animator moves the object slightly and then takes another picture. The process is repeated again and again. When the effect is made using plasticine it is called 'clay-mation'.

 Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM

             -frame rates:

Frame rate is the frequency in which each image is shown. The quicker the frame rate, the smoother the object or person will appear to move. Three main standards of frame rates are used in TV and film. These are 24p, 25p and 30p. Low FPS does not give the illusion of motion effectively.

Development:

       Pioneers

              -Joseph Plateau (phenakitoscope):

Joseph Plateau was the first person to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. He created the phenakistoscope in which he would place counter rotating disks with repeated drawings each with small increments of motion.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5c0AcL9Ww8

               -William Horner (zoetrope):

William Horner created the modern zoetrope in 1833. He named it the daedalum. The daedalum didn’t become popular until the 1860s, when the rights of it were brought by both English and American makers. The zoetrope produces the illusion of motion from a group of static images
each with slightly different motions, spun round in a wheel.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3yarT_h2ws

              -Emile Reynaud (praxinoscope):

Charles-Emile Reynaud was responsible for the first projected animated cartoon films. He created the praxinoscope in 1877 which was the successor to the zoetrope. The praxinoscope works the same way as the zoetrope but instead of narrow viewing slits it uses an inner circle of mirrors.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOItdZOGnx8

               

             -Eadweard Muybridge:

Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer important for his work in studies of photographic motion. He created the zoopraxiscope, which is a device for projecting motion pictures.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE3fBDYJKZk

            

                -Thomas Edison (kinetoscope):

The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture viewing device. It was created by Thomas Edison in 1888. The device is designed for an individual to view an animation through a small peephole at the top of the device. The device only showed the viewer a few minutes of footage.

Example:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQk5RftSdF8

            

                -Lumière Brothers:

The Lumiere brothers were the pioneers in both early cinema and animation with their invention of cinematography which is a combination of a camera and a projector. Their first film was titled Sortie des Usines Lumiere a Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory). Their short films were 17 meters long, which, when hand cranked through a projector, runs approximately 50 seconds.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk

              -George Pal:

George Pal created the animated shorts call puppetoons in the 1940's. The puppetoons were wooden puppets and in each frame the puppet would change and appear to move, this process is known as replacement animation.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzHbb5s-Wa0

     Developers

              -Willis O’Brien:

Willis O'Brien was an Irish American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer. He is famous for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949) for which he won the 1950 Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects. 
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJtV2ubxU4E

           

               -Ray Harryhausen:

Ray Harryhausen is an American visual effects animator. He created a stop-brand model animation called "Dynamtion". He worked with Willis O'Brien on Mighty Joe Young (1949). Ray Harryhausen is also famous for his work on Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIDJ-Y-_Dxs

 

             -Jan Ŝvankmajer:

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist. He is self-labeled as a surrealist known for his surreal animations. His surreal style has influences other artists such as Monty Python's Terry Gilliam and Brothers Quay among others. His first feature-length film was Alice (1988) based on the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQkWrZw05P4

  Contemporary Work

 

           -The Brothers Quay

The Brother Quay are Stephen and Timothy who are identical twins. They were born in 1947 in Norristown, Pennyslvania in the United States. They are best known for their work in stop motion animation. They moved to England in 1969, where they studied at the Royal College of Arts in London. Later on they moved to the Netherlands in the 1970's before moving back to England and forming a partnership with Keith Griffiths, who then became the producer of their films. They formed Koninck studios in 1980. They made several successful films including 'The Chairs'.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zedjLOK5uyU 

     

              -Tim Burton

 Tim Burton was born in August 25, 1958. He is an American movie director, producer, writer and actor. His most famous films are; Beetlejuice (Burton,1988), Edward Scissorhands (Burton,1990), Batman (Burton,1989), The Nightmare Before Christmas (Selick,1993), Sleepy Hollow (Burton,1999) and The Corpse Bride (Burton,2005), all of which share a dark, quirky-theme.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD8uQzu0IL0

                -Matt Groening

Matt Groening is an American cartoonist who is most famous for creating The Simpsons. He firt became famous with his comic strips 'Life in Hell'. In 1987, he created The Simpsons which were a cartoon family that appeared in 2-3 minutes shorts on the Tracey Ullman Show (1987). Later in 1989, the first full lenght episode of The Simpsons was aired and was a big hit, episodes are still being made to date. Futurama is Matt Groening's other successful TV show. It first aired in 1999 and shared The Simpsons animation style and humour.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZEgvViNAFk

                 -Bruce Timm

Bruce Timm is a cartoon character designer and animator. He co-created the hugely successful Batman: The Animated Series (Timm,1992-95). The show was followed by spin-off shows such as Superman: The Animated Series (Burnett, 1996) and Batman Beyond (Burnett, 1999) which he also worked on. Timm doesn't usually work as an actor but provided many voice cameo appreaences for the shows he has created. His animation style is based on  1950s and 1960s comics and art deco. He was self taught to draw as he never recieved any formal art schooling.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld0uIhst3TA&feature=related

                -Seth MacFarlane

Seth MacFarlane is best known for creating the massively popular show Family Guy (MacFarlane, 1999-Present). After attending college, he was hired by Hanna-Barbera based on his writing abilities rather than his cartooning abilities. He spent most of his time there working on Johnny Bravo (Partible, 1997) as he felt it was easier to apply his own style to this show. He later pitched Family Guy to Fox while he still worked at Hanna-Barbera as he wanted to move into prime-time television. The show was later picked up by Fox in 1998 and the first episode was aired in January 1999. The show has been a huge success and is still being made to date. MacFarlane has had success with other television shows that other share the same humor and animation style; American Dad (MacFarlane, 2005) and The Cleveland Show (MacFarlanee, 2009). In 2012 he released his first feature length film, Ted (MacFarlane, 2012), which was live-action rather than animation.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJCfUm21BsI

                     -Aardman Animations

 Aaardman is a British animation studio based in Bristol, UK. They are well known for their use of 'claymation' and their characters Wallace and Gromit. Aardman was founded in 1972 as a low-budget project by Peter Lord and David Proxton. In 2000 they released their first feature length film, Chicken Run (Lord, 2000)
Example:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3x4NntHAs0

 

           -Cinema (animated films)

Animated movies are very popular in cinemas. They have been around since the 19th Century. The first feature length cel animated movie was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Hand, 1937).
Example:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQZ6zzLpoNQ

 

           -TV animation

 Animation is used for a lot of TV programmes due to its little cost to produce. A lot of the most popular and successful TV shows are animated such as The Simpsons (Groening,1989) , Family Guy (MacFarlane,1999) and Looney Toons (Avery,1930).
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aBaX9GPSaQ

 

           -Channel idents

 Channel idents are used before a programme starts, such as bookends, to show the audience what channel they are watching. Channel 4 and its spin off channel E4, are well known for using channel idents.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z34XUDTz0GQ

 

            -TV & Cinema advertising

 Animation is used a lot of the time in adverts as it can be cheap yet effective. An example of a TV advert that uses animation is Twinings - Gets You Back To You.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdkcsDueSMM

 

            -Animated music videos

 Animation is used in quite a few music videos now-a-days as it is effective and can be made unique. An example of when animation is used in the music video for U2- Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, in which it is mixed with clips of Batman Forever (Schumacher, 1995).
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_WDG8iLT1o

 

             -SMA for mobile phones

 Stop motion animation is also used for mobile phone advert. There is an application available on the App Store called Stop Motion Recorder which enables the user to create their own stop motion video with ease.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK2RDu6cYRY

 

          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            -SMA for website use

Stop motion animation is occasionally used in websites for competitions, idents and adverts.