History of Animation and its Role in Modern Technologies - Term Paper Example

History of Animation Introduction Animation has a great history when considered seriously. It has been an art that has been there even before the existence of the computers. The old cave murals as seen in countries like Egypt can be seen as having been the first steps towards animation. These early paintings on the walls of the caves depicted humans with several instances which indicated movement. Even long before the advent of the modern computers, there were numerous devices that had been effectively used to create animation in order to entertain people using animated images. Not only were these images used to entertain people, they were also used to scare people and to act as some sort of information with regarded to current affairs (Modest, 2012). One of the earliest firms of animations was the magic lantern which appeared around 1650. This technology was sued to act as the modern projector and was used to project images on a flat white surface, in most cases, the magic lantern was used to project scary images which in most cases used to depict demonic messages. This method was one of the earliest attempts to demonstrate the use of animation. Before the modern animations became the trade of the art in animation, there were other technologies that depended on manual technology (Weston, 2012). A Thaumatrope was a good example of this and used the a circular object that had several images on itself and which appeared to be animated when the person using moved the material by pulling the string fast. This was a very important first steps to animation in the 19th century. Although his may not look like a very big step in the development of animation today, but it was obviously a major step in the growth of the art and science of animation. The Phenakistoscope is also another very important piece of technology that had graced the history of animation. This included a disc that has images along its circumference and that was moved on its centre in order to make sure that those images could be animated. The device was invented simultaneously but two inventors and the credit had been given to these two inventors. This was the first device to use real animation to depict the movement of pictures in an animated way. Zoetrope was also another animation device that was invented by Geroge Hornwr in 1834. It was a cylindrical device that used to depict still pictures in motion so as to create an impression of moving pictures. Later, other devices were also invented. The flip book was probably one of the most common animation devices before the advent of the modern computers. This kind of animation used a series of pages with different consequent images that were then flipped continuously to create the impression of moving images (Earnest, 2012). This technology, as primitive as it could seem, had a very import role in the development of the modern animation. In fact, the modern computer aided animation depended a lot on this kind of idea with regard to animation. The eeliest computerized animation depended a lot on the use of this kind of animations. It used a series of pictures that were hand drawn and then developed using a computer. The earliest computerized animation such as developed by such firms as he Dalmatians depended on this kind of animations which used animated pictures which were drawn in sequence. The Praxinoscope has been credited as the first kind of animation to have been used in a digital projection. This technology was invented by a French science teacher in 1877. It was also the first kind of animation to have been mass produced and seen more than halve a million people in a theater. Definitely, this was the first step towards the development of modern commercial production of animated films. However, it was only until the 20th century that full scale animation was invented. The first use of enhanced animation showed up in the early 20th century when enhanced drawing an animation was used to crate animated pictures. This was an important development in the development of animation. Animation was the first creation of animated entertainment and even predates the use of motion pictures. Walt Disney & Warner Bros is one of the firms that have been instrumental in the development of the animation film. The Walt Disney & Warner Bros has its history in the early 1920s when the first intention of an animation firm was created. In 1923, the first company started by Walt Disney went bankrupt and Walt Disney started another film company. This film company went under the name of Walt Disney & Warner Bros.abd has been in existence since then. The Walt Disney & Warner Bros animation studios has been credited as one of the technology firms also angels and has been one of the fundamental steps in the development of animation technology. Since then, the Walt Disney has been a critical contributor in the industry of animation and has seen massive changes over the last almost one century of years. The firm has been able to develop a number of technological developers in the past in order to meet the modern animations. From its initial hand drawn animation, today the firm has been able to develop some of the most advanced animation techniques in computer aided animation. The firm has been a major contributor in the animation industry (Moses, 2011). The Walt Disney film titled Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was one of the major feature films that has been credited for being one of the major contributors to modern animated films. However, there were several film that had been there before the development of this film. This is considered as a major progress in the development of largely commercial films. In 1950s, that the use of animation to crate television series was used. Hanna Barbary was the first one to develop and deliver a television animated series of thirty minutes named Huckleberry Hound and later produced the Tom Terrific animated series in 1960s. Later, Hanna-Barbera also produced the Flintstones show which was the first animated series to be delivered through the prime time television. Animation techniques have also developed in the history of animation. Stops motion was one of tree earliest methods of animations. In fact this method used animated puppets in order to crate motions pictures to depict animations of inhuman figures. This method was also used in stop the production of motion pictures where the use of special effects was required. Techniques Computer-generated imagery (CGI) has been considered as one of the most modern forms of animation and it replaced the traditional methods of animation. This methods depends so much on the use of computers for the production of computer animated films. The use Computer-generated imagery (CGI) for the production of animated films was first used by Pixar to produce the popular movie Toy Story. It has been seen as a modern form of stop motion where computer modeling replaced the use of hand drawn images for animation. The method has also been used in other various film is seen to be the modern form of animation. However, although Toy Story has been credited as the first film to utilize the Computer-generated imagery (CGI), the technology has also been used way before the production of the toy story film. For instance, the reduction of Jurassic age was done using Computer-generated imagery (CGI) so many years before the production of the toy story. The use of Computer-generated imagery (CGI) has been regarded as the biggest step in animation technology. However, the production of the film Avatar brought a new era in the production of animation films. Although the animated film has always been a taxing process, the prediction of the film avatar has been credited as one of the production of animated films that was the most taxing, taking almost ten years. This was very important in that it brought in a new paradigm with regard to how animated film is done in the modern world. The use of Computer-generated imagery (CGI) was used in this film as well as other techniques that were used to ensure that the film was as real as possible. The producers of the film Avatar used several technologies including human motions in order to create animated motions. For instance, to crate the human motions, the film used technology by affecting motion detectors of human actors and these motions were then recorded into a computer in order to make sure that the motions were as natural as possible. This was the most advanced animation technology and was able to replicate the action of humans. It used massive computing power and massive human resource to produce the film and it is considered as one of the modern ways to produce animated films. It is referred as the state of the art animation technology. Since the advent of Computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation technology, computer animation ahs mainly depend on the use of generic computer animation software to be able to produce animation. However, the production of Avatar shifted the paradigm and in most cases used custom made software in order to produce the film. The production of the second Avatar Movie is taking place and expected be through by 2016. The production of these animation movies has shown that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to animation. They indicated that each animation film has to depend on the custom developed software to be able to provide the best platform to produce animated films. While the animation technology has developed for a long time, some animation such as the famous American shows such as the American Dad and the Homer Simpson use traditional methods of animation. This traditional methods of animation and animated films seems to suit comedic animation because in this kind of film, the most important issue is to not to create a realistic animated film but to crate humor. Because of the humorous nature of these films, the use of traditional animation has been seen as useful and necessary. At the same time, since these film are produced rapidly as opposed to the amount of time needed to produce an animated film such as the avatar, the use of traditional methods which are less taxing has been seen as viable for this film. As a result, while there have been developments in the animations sector, it can be argued that some forms of animations have to continue using the traditional method. However, the use of computers to aid animation process ahs and will continue to be there for a long time. References Earnest, Y. (2012). History of Animation, Modern Animation techniques. New York, NY: Guille Books. Modest, P. (2012). Modern Animation Computer. New York, NY: pearson Books. Moses, M. (2011). The Future of Animation techniques. New York, NY: Pearson Books. Weston, P. (2012). Modern Film Development; Computer-generated imagery. New York, NY: Pearson Books. Read More