Animation Techniques
Great to see so many new faces today, please come again!
As promised you will find the links for the various animated sequences covered today.
Animation started off in very simple terms from the Thaumatrope, literally two images which, when spun on a string gave the appearance of being animated. All manner of contraptions came to the fore which included the:
A large scale Zoetrope was recently used as part of an advertising campaign for Sony Bravia.
Computer animation has taken over the role of traditional forms of animation in recent years with films too numerous to cover here. Some examples include
Animation covers many different techniques and approaches. Here are a few:
The first animation on standard film was Humorous Phases of Funny Faces by J. Stuart Blackton in 1906.
Jiří Trnka 1912,- 1969 was a Czech puppet maker, illustrator, motion-picture animator and film director, renowned for his stop motion puppet animations.
Émile Cohl (1857 – 1938), was a French caricaturist. One of his notable films is Fantasmagorie made in 1908.
Gertie the Dinosaur is a 1914 short animated film by Winsor McCay that inspired many generations of animators to bring their cartoons to life.
Walt Disney was the pioneer of full length animated movies and his studio still leads the way today. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938) was the first full length animated movie to be created in Technicolor.
Dimensions of Dialogue by Jan Švankmajer
Monty Python's Flying Circus uses cutout images to create to create these surreal animations.
Silhouette animation again uses cutout images, the world's oldest surviving feature film is The Adventures of Prince Achmed from 1926.
Model animation uses animated characters which interact with live-action characters. Ray Harryhausen is perhaps the best known animators in this field.
The Fantastic Mr Fox is an excellent example of puppet animation.
Computer animation has replaced much of the traditional animation we used to see. 2D animation while 3D animation has become the standard for many of today's big movies with computer generated imagery (CGI) replacing many of the techniques of the past.