History of Animation - Essay Example

HISTORY OF ANIMATIONS Introduction : Creativity of a person is admired and applauded by one and all. The desire to create new concepts and methods in every field is an unending phenomenon in human history. The animation field is also one such field which has seen tremendous improvement from ages old till today. In this article the chronological developments in the field of animations are discussed. The techniques used in past and present are also discussed. Around the world each country has it’s own history about animation development. Let us discuss about the history of animation in different countries like United States, United Kingdom, Japan and China. History of animation technology : According to Bob Thomas (1958), the Paleolithic Cave paintings show the illusion of motion by superimposition of multi legged animals. The Tehran Times (2008) says that the world’s oldest animation comes from Iran. The idea was to paint images of the object in progressive motion along the sides of an earthern pot. When the pottery is spun it gives the illusion of the image in motion. Such a painting, which is 5200 years old has been discovered in Shahr-i-Sokhta of Iran. Excavations from Ninevah shows that around 800 B.C. the Greeks had a picture in motion called the Panthenon frieze. In 18th century the Thaumatrope was used to get the illusion of motion pictures by twirling two strings that have two different pictures. Later came the Zeotrope. A zoetrope has a series of images in a drum with slits. In the inner side of the drum there are images opposite to the sides of the slits. When the drum is rotated, the illusion of motion is achieved by viewing through the slits. The Flip Book created in 1890s gives a motion picture when the sequentially painted pictures are seen at a high speed. In the early 20th century the main technology behind animation was the Stop Motion mechanism. In this an object is photographed then it is moved a bit and again it is photographed. When these photographs are played back in normal speed the object appears to move. This method was used in the animation of ‘The Chicken run’. Then came the technology of Cell Animation. Here the moving objects are drawn in different papers and the still background is drawn in a single transparent sheet. The super imposition of these gives the illusion of motion. Later the Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) method in 1990s changed the face of the animation industry. The process of CGI shares many principles with that of the traditional animation methods. The main difference between them is the drawing is replaced by 3D modeling. This supported by special audio visual effects makes the animation remarkable. At present the CGI animation concentrates only on animal characters, human like cartoons and machines. The future animation challenge is to generate animated humans. Creating a real character needs more details to be involved. Animation around the world : The animation history of various countries vary according to the culture and political situation of that country. Let us see about a few animation histories. Animations in China : The earliest animation history of china dates back to 1800 AD, when the zoetrope was invented. Animation became a practice in china only by the inspiration from other countries like America, France and others. The Jilin School of Art ( 2006) states that the initial cartoon shorts like ‘Shuzhendong Chinese Typewriter’, ‘Dog Treat’, ‘New year’ were created in 1920s by Wan brothers. These brothers worked for the Great Wall Film Company in China. Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan were the pioneers in Chinese animation and they produced the first animation ‘Uproar in the Studio’ in black and white. The development of animation was uniquely Chinese in their style. The first Chinese animation with sound was ‘The Camel’s Dance’ in 1935 by Wan brothers. The first animated feature film was ‘Princess Iron Fan’ in 1941. There was a steady growth in the Chinese animation field during 1940s. The Shanghai Animation film Studio was founded in 1950. This company was sponsored by the central government of China as the national animation factory. After this the Chinese animation industry came to a standstill during the communist government. The communist leader Mao Zedong posed stringent rules on the animators who propagated anti communist ideas. This pause in Chinese animation lasted till 1976 when the cultural revolution was over. Then came the period of rebirth for the Chinese animation industry when the Shanghai Animation Film Studio launched ‘Nezha’ , ‘Snow Kid ‘, ‘The Deer’s Bell’ and the ‘ Three Monks’ which won awards. Then came the digital era in which all other countries were forward compared to China. Recent report by Lowell Bennett (2006) shows that the China Central Television (CCTV) has produced 186 domestic animations with a total running time of 40,000 minutes. This statistics shows that China has improved in the animation field. Also in 2007 the viewers of CCTV channels for children ranks fifth among the 16 CCTV channels. At present the major animation studios of China are Shanghai ToonMax TV channel, Beijing Television's Kaku Animation Channel and Hunan Golden Eagle Animated Cartoon Channel. The statistics of Ai Fang & Wang Xiao (2008) also states that the revenue of these Chinese channels are nearly 90 million yuan each. Thus China is in a competent position in the world’s animation industry. Animations in United States : According to Wikipedia, the animation history of United States can be divided into four stages namely Silent era, Golden era, Television era and the Modern era. The pioneer in the Silent era was Winsor Mc Cay, whose animated cartoons like ‘Felix the Cat’ and ‘Koko the Clown’ were produced in the Fleischer studios. The silent era was till 1920s. During this period the Bray Studios was set up in New York and the first cartoon stars of this studio were Farmer Alfalfl and Bobby Bumps. Also many cartoons like ‘Mighty Mouse’ , ‘ Betty Boop’, ‘ Woody Woodpecker’ came out with fame during this period. The next ten years from 1930 to 1940 was the golden era for the United States animation industry. During this era Walt Disney was dominating the animation industry by releasing cartoons like ‘Mickey Mouse’, ‘Donald Duck’ , ‘Silly Symphonies’. Leonard Mosley (Disney's World, 1985), says that the breakthrough for Disney was by the production of the ‘ Steam Boat Willie’ in 1928 which was released with sound effects. The main competitor for Disney at this time was Pat Sullivan Studio. But Pat Sullivan had a downfall after it’s attempt to bring sound into the ‘Felix Cat’ which had been drawn already. Meantime Mickey’s popularity increased and it’s technical designer Ub Iwerks partially redesigned it so that it is very much appealing. Also the ‘Snow White and The Seven Drawfs’ was a major success in the history of Disney. The other animation producers during this golden era were Warner Brothers, MGM, Lantz and Fleischer Studios. The Fleischer Studios owned by Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer produced animations for Paramount Pictures. The ‘Popeye the Sailor’ was a boon from Fleischer Studios, which had many fan clubs like that of Mickey’s. The Warner Brothers distributed ‘The Looney Tunes’ , ‘Bosko’ and the ‘Merrie Melodies’. MGM’s ‘Barney Bear’ was a hit. Lantz’s main character was ‘ Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’. The next stage in US animation history was the TV era. The first animation to enter into the Broadcasting technology was the ‘Felix The Cat’ . Around 1958 the major animation production for TV came from Hanna Barbera Productions. The ‘Huckleberry Hound Show’ aired in the evening was a popular animated TV series. The main problem with the production of TV animations was the expensive labor, to reduce this many shortcut techniques were adopted to minimize the animation process. This led to low quality in TV animations. Then came the Modern era after 1988 when Disney had a come back with many productions like ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Aladin’ and the ‘Lion King’. Then Disney collaborated with the Pixar Animation Studios to Produce the ‘Toy Story’ which was the first animation to be done by Computer Generated Imagery(CGI) in the history of animations. The others who are active in the animation production are Steven Speilberg in collaboration with Warner Bros. for ‘Tiny Toon Adventures’ and Ralph Bakshi with ‘Cool World’ in 1992. Thus the United States animation history saw many successes and was a model for the animation industries all around the world. Animations in the United Kingdom : The animation field had a beginning in the UK in 1872 when photographer Edward Muybridge shot a series of photographs of animals in motion. The first animation film was made by Arthur Melbourne Cooper in 1899. After this there was no improvement in the animation industry in UK till 1950 when TV commercials started coming out in low budgets. UK started concentrating in the TV video games through which it became a forerunner in the digital animation techniques. Animations in Japan : The first known Japanese animation (Anime) was produced in 1917. It is based on celluloid method with fifty frames. This untitled shot depicts a sailor boy . The animation industry in Japan was very sluggish before the twentieth century. Shimokawa Oten and Kochi Junichi were the famous cartoonists in 1910s . Their works include about 15 movies. Then the Kitayama Eiga Seisakujo Studio was founded by Kitayama. It was later destroyed by an earthquake in 1923. The movie law was enforced in Japan in 1940, which led to changes in the anime industry. The Toei Animations founded in 1948 gave the first color anime feature film ‘The Tale of the White Serpent’ which was released in 1958 and the other hits were ‘Dragon Ball’ in 1986 and ‘Sailor Moon’ in 1992. Another company called Mushi Productions released the first anime TV series ‘Mighty Atom’ in 1963. This was remade in US as ‘Astro Boy’. After Mushi came the Madhouse Production in 1970s with many popular animes. According to Dave Kher (2002) the golden era of anime started in 1980s and continues till today. The Japanese animation has gained tremendous boom in the recent years. As quoted by the International Business Times (2008), Walt Disney Animation Studios has collaborated with the Madhouse Productions to release the TV series ‘Stitch’. Conclusion : In the above article the technological developments in the field of animation are articulated and discussed in the order of chronology. Also the evolution of animation industries around the world particularly in the US, UK, China and Japan are discussed. References : 1. Ai Fang & Wang Xiao, ‘China making breakthrough advances in animation industry’, Last Updated(Beijing Time):2008-04-17 09:35, < www.en.ce.cn\ Insight\ t20080417_15183331.htm > 2. ‘Animation History transcribed from Jilin School of Art.’, "CCTV." Animation History. Retrieved on 2006-12-19. 3. Bob Thomas , ‘The Art of Animation’ , New York: Golden Press Inc., 1958. 4. CHTHO produces documentary on world’s oldest animation, Tehran Times. 04- 03-2008. 5. Dave Kehr, ‘Anime, Japanese Cinema's Second Golden Age’ , The New York Times, January 20, 2002. 6. ‘Disney seals Japan anime and "Lilo and Stich" deal’ , International business times, 2008-03-06 7. Lowell Bennett , ‘The Business of Animation of China’, 2006 , Retrieved on 2008 – 08-09 , < www.wordstoweb.com\cartoondothtm.htm > 8. Leonard Mosley, ‘Disney's World’, Stein & Day Publication, November 1985 . 9. Wikipedia, < www.wikipedia.org > Read More