Zoetrope - 1834
Created by William Horner who originally dubbed it the "Daedatelum" or "The Wheel of the Devil", the Zoetrope is like a little cinema whose film doesn't last for more that a few seconds.
It creates a seemingly single image by blurring all the individual frames together. To begin this a strip of parchment is made with images with the stages of movement on them, frame by frame and this is then inserted within a cylinder, which you then spin. As the cylinder spins it has slits of which you peer into, as you continue to look into the cylinder through the slits, the images begin to blur together creating one image.
The reason why this works is because of something called "The Persistence of Vision". This is the length of time that the retina retains an image, meaning the impression of something that appears and reappears in front of us in a 10th of a second, it would seem to be continuous.
Edward James Muggeridge: late 1800's
A very well known English photographer for his pioneering work in photographic studies in motion. By the age of 20 he moved to America as a bookseller but then decided to head back to England again so he could pursue a profession in photography. In england he learnt a technique called 'wet-plate collodion' and he also patented two of his inventions as well. Learning everything he could on the subject of photography, he went to America again where his photography made him world-wide famous at that time. However he is known these days for his work in stop-motion animation, and his technique in doing it as well. He used different cameras to make these animations, making him a cinematic figure in history.
First animated film created by J Stuart Blackton - 1906
Born on the 5th of January 1875 in Sheffield, England; his parents migrated to the United States when he was just 10. Having a natural talent for drawing, it found him a place at the New York World as a staff member whose job it was to write and draw regular illustrated features on personalities in the news at the time.
After his time as a regular appearance as a cartoonist in the company of a conjurer named Albert Smith, his performance at the New York World Sick Baby Fund Benefit Concert which was filmed by the Edison Company (1896), and in the same year making three films in Edison's Black Maria Studio. These three films were shown first at the Proctor's Pleasure place on September 12 1896, one of which made him famous as well as encouraging him to join the film business.
In 1906, Blackton made the first animated film called Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, which features himself on screen as the cartoonist who begins the life of his drawings. The camera technique he used was mainly stop-motion. To achieve the affects in his films, he would draw part of a figure, film the change, stop the camera, and then draw more to the figure and then film that. The result being the figure seemingly appearing piece by piece until it is complete. Although this was a long process, he was able to achieve the first animated film in history making him the father of American animated cartoons. Despite all his achievements, he died a poor man through a motorcar accident in Hollywood after he lost all his money in the stock market crash of 1929
Ladislas Starevich:1912
Starevich became well known for his career as a French stop-motionist and an author for this first puppet animated film. The technique he used was unique, other than stop-motion, he proceeded to use dead insects and taxidermy animals as the stars of his animations. in 1910 he became the director of the natural history museum in Kaunas, Lithuania. During his time there, he spent it making four short live action documentaries for the museum he directed.
His fifth film had recorded a battle between two stag beetles and this was when he realised that the stage lighting was too hot and would kill his beetles. His solved this problem by using stop-motion animation, but with dead beetles. He would manipulate them by attaching them to wire, essentially making puppets. His fifth film becoming famous, he then used the same technique to make another film called 'The Cameraman's Revenge' in 1912.
First animated character (Gertie the Dinosaur) created by Windsor McCay - 1914
Max Fleischer: Rotoscope 1914
Max Fleischer invented the Rotoscope and proceeded to make his first animation with it. By 1915, the invention had been patented, up until 1921 he produced his imaginative Inkwell animation films for Bray Studios. Having gained a reputation, he become producer for his two brothers in the Fleicher studios. The reason why he is an important figure in animation history is because of his invention which added fuel to the changing image of future animators
First animated film with synchronised sound 'Steamboat Willie', 1928
As well as being the first animated film with synchonised sound, it is also the first film with the famed Micky Mouse, this is what threw silent animation into obsolescence, throwing a new animation empire into the picture. Before all this, there was little to distinguish Disney from its competitors, facing bankruptcy, Walt Disney had to think of new ways to bring his company to the up and coming. Alan Crosland's 'The Jazz Singer' with its song and dialogue, Disney sensed that sound movies meant big business, hence, making 'Steamboat Willie'
Oliver Postgate
Oliver Postgate was an English puppeteer and animator. He created what children's programmes such as 'Pingwings'. He was made stage manager in 1957 and became successful after Alexander the Mouse where he was able to get a budget for his animation. With this budget, he was able to produce stop motion animations, one of his most famed ones is a Chinese story called 'The Journey to Master ho"
Aardman Animation
Most famous for 'Morph', the lovely claymation character from the 1970's, you can probably tell that Aardman is the birthplace of popular claymation animation. Since then they have made major blockbusters such as 'Wallace and Gromit' and 'Chicken Run', however, still keeping true to their roots, they continue to make children tv shows such as 'Shaun the sheep', which has also been turned into a movie as well.
First computer animation: Pixar's Toy story (1995)
The first every fully computer generated animation is Toy Story by Pixar. Instead of using 2D drawings on paper, they made a feature length animation film that using 3D modelling on the computer, and 3D drawing still being tedious to do then, it was an impressive feat.
