the history of animation copyright © texas education agency, 2015. all rights reserved

The History of Animation

Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2015. All rights reserved.

The Age of Discovery

1824 to 1875

1824, Peter Roget presented his paper 'The persistence of vision with regard to moving objects" to the British Royal Society.

1831, Dr. Joseph Antoine and Dr. Simon Rittrer constructed a machine called a phenakitstoscope.


Phenakistoscope images

Public Domain Image from Wikimedia Commons


Phenakitstoscope

A phenakitstoscope produced an illusion of movement by allowing a viewer to gaze at a rotating disk containing small windows

When the disks were rotated at the correct speed, the synchronization of the windows with the images created an animated effect.


Eadweard Muybridge



Eadweard Muybridge

1872, Eadweard Muybridge started his photographic series examining the positions of of animals in motion.


Thomas Edison



Thomas Edison

1887, Thomas Edison started his research work into motion pictures.


Emile Renynaud Theatre Optique



Emile Reynaud

1892, Emile Reynaud, combining his earlier invention of the praxinoscope with a projector, opens the Theatre Optique in Paris.

It displays an animation of images painted on long strips of celluloid.


Thomas Edison, Kinetoscope

1893, Thomas Edison invents the Kinetoscope a device which projected a 50ft length of film in approximately 13 seconds.

The Kinetoscope was a machine that allowed one viewer at a time to watch a movie through a viewfinder.


The Age of Invention

About 1875 to 1895

Animation benefits from the Industrial Revolution.

Animation is a hobby of the elite, not an entertainment for the masses

Animation is not considered an art form, but a technological oddity


Kinetoscope



Film is invented



George Eastman

1889, George Eastman began the manufacture of photographic film-strips using a nitro-cellulose base.

Nitro-cellulose is flexible and transparent, but highly inflammable. They caught fire- a lot.


A Record of a Sneeze



The Record of a Sneeze

1894, Edison copyrights his first motion picture "The Record of a Sneeze". He opens his Kinetoscope Parlour, in New York City,

This earliest instance where people pay to go out to watch a movie.

There was no popcorn.


The Age of Creation

About 1895 to 1925

Animation moves from hobbyists and inventors laboratories to an entertainment medium for everyone

Animation drawing techniques are developed and perfected

Animation because a craft and an industry is created


Lumiere Brothers



Workers leaving the Lumiere factory



The Yellow Kid



Humorous Phases of Funny Faces



The Enchanted Drawing



Winsor McCay, Little Nemo



Old Doc Yak



W. McCay, Gertie the Dinosaur



Walt Disney



Merrie Melodies



The Golden Age of Animation

About 1925 to 1950

Animation becomes an art form

Sound and color are added

Like any art form, animation content reflects the social mores of its time

Animation reaches a peak of technical and artistic proficiency


Still from a feature



WW2



Atomic Modern

About 1950 to 1965

TV is invented and animation is used to fill up time

This creates stresses on budgets, forcing ever cheaper and simpler animations

As society moves to the “space age” animation tries to follow along, but is increasingly seen as a “children’s media”.

Overseas, Japanese and European animation industries start to grow


The Dead YearsAbout 1965 to 1985

Animation almost dies as a media in the US

Limited animation is almost exclusively used.

The big studios either stop making animations or close down. The ones that still make animations create very few new works.

Overseas, animation studios are growing because of cheaper production costs, but still don’t turn out the quality of work that the US did 30 years earlier.

In the vacuum left by the big studios, small independent animators labor and create.


The NEW Golden Age of Animation

About 1985 to Now.

Animation is revived by computers which allow for cheaper, faster animating

3D digital animation is invented

Animation skills are actively hunted down and relearned.

Animation reaches a new peak of technical and artistic proficiency.


Computer Animation

Computer animation began around 1985 and continues to the present.

How many computer animated productions can you name?

Check online for animated movie titles.

Search online for some of the trailers for these movies.

What do you notice in these productions?


the history of animation copyright © texas education agency, 2015. all rights reserved

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