History of Animation

                                                                        Animation

History of Animation
1825 Thaumatrope: A spinning disc with images either side. When the disc is spun it looks like the images are on the same side of the disc, combining the images one of the first steps towards modern animation. This could also be called a magic lantern, historians are not exactly sure who invented the thaumatrope, but some say it was Peter Roget, Sir John Herschel and Charles Babbage.

Old Picture showing how a Thaumatrope Worked

1834 Zoetrope: Created by William Horner, this a device has images on the inside of a spinning wheel and the viewer looks through the slits and it looks like the images are moving. This was 1st called a Daedalum, aka the wheel of the devil which was later renamed wheel of life.

How a Zoetrope Worked

1868 Flip book: A book with pictures which change slowly from each page to the next, when the pictures start moving they eventually act out an animated story. This was very similar to the Zoetrope but using a booklet instead of the spinning wheel. The First Flip Book appeared in September 1868 by John Barnes Linnet under the name Kineograph (Latin for 'Moving Picture').

An example of a Flip Book

1891 Kinetoscope:  The Kinetopscope was the first appliance which displayed moving image. It was invented by Thomas A Edison and William Dickson in the United States 1891, first introduced to the public in 1893. They would shine a light source through the frames of film and use a shutter to show each one at a time and the viewer would look through the single peep hole and created what would look like a moving image. This was driven by an electric motor. The first prototype was released May 1891 using Flexible Film. When Edison created the Kinetoscope he  considered it to be a insignificant toy, not knowing what this was going to do for the world.

A Kinetoscope

1895 Cinematography: Cinematography was a early motion picture and projector designed by the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Lois. This is where we get the word cinema form. There invention was first demonstrated at a Scientific Meeting in March 1895. They decided to use 35mm the same as Edison but instead of 16fps used 46fps. The Lumiere brothers first film was 'La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon' or workers leaving the lumière factory, this film was reckoned to be the first motion picture. This was revolutionary for film makers.

The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis

1900 Silent Animation: The earliest age of mainstream animation known to man, lasting from 1900's to the late 1920's the same time as the rise of sound technology. One of the first animated films was created by Emile Cohl it was stop motion and was called Fantasmagorie and created in 1908. Others also include Gertie the Dinosaur - 1914, Felix the Cat - 1919. The down fall of silent animation came with the invention of sound with film, animation started to become unpopular.

Felix the Cat

The Very First Animation
The first animated film was a supposedly a film called Humorous Phases of Funny Faces and was a silent film created in 1906 by J. Stuart Blackton. The film consists of them drawing funny faces onto a chalk board and runs at 20 fps (FPS = Frames Per Second).
A link to the film = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M5So1WFNzo

The Titles for the Film

Walt Disney
Disney first started out as the studio called 'Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio', Walt Disney was in a partnership with his brother Roy Disney. But in 1926 changing there name to The Walt Disney Studio, even though still in partnership with his brother. It wasn't until 1928 that they both came up Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and later on that year Steamboat the first cartoon with synchronized sound and image. In 1937 that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released the first big film to be mad by Disney. This was the film which kick started Disney's big film career and popularity rise.
Mary Poppins is one of the most well know mixed media film, both to have animation and live action it went on to we five Oscars. Another popular mixed media film would be Who Framed Roger Rabbit? This another film to have animation and live action interact.

Image from the original Snow White

Image from Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Pixar
Pixar was founded in 1979 as a Graphics Group, later became Pixar in 1986. It was part of the computer division of Lucasfilm, then it was acquired by Steve Jobs, in 1986. Disney bought Pixar in 2006 and went on to create big hits such as 'Frozen'. Pixar have created 16 feature films, the latest one being the sequel to Finding Nemo, Finding Dory. All of the films produced by Pixar are among the 50 highest grossing films of all time.

Pixar Studios Logo

Links
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Pixar
http://www.historicalfolktoys.com/catcont/2016.html
http://zoetrope.org/zoetrope-history
http://fliptomania.com/did-you-know/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lumiere-brothers
http://history-of-animation.webflow.io/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation?from=Main.TheSilentAgeOfAnimation
https://d23.com/disney-history/