Report on Animation

Animation has a long and varied history, from cave paintings showing running herds of prey and fearsome predators to depictions of wrestling and festival parades in Ancient Egypt, to the friezes on the side of the Parthenon in Ancient Greece. Still life animation and the artistic portrayal of people and the time in which they lived is evident all around the globe and the need to represent what we see is something that makes the human race what we are. This need to pass on knowledge and point of view through art is one of the many things that helps archaeologists understand what our ancestors saw and felt when they were working on their masterpieces.
With the invention of the magic lantern in 1671 we see a massive leap in the creativity of artists and the first attempts at moving animation. Though some of the shows that would have been all the rage in London during this time may seem silly and unimpressive by today's standards, they were the first steps toward the creation of cartoons and live moving pictures that we have now.
In modern times we have kept the basic techniques and ideas of our forefathers and built upon them. Adding new technology into the mix has brought about the newest computer programs. Instead of just drawn images we now have live action movies as well, this has allowed artists and scriptwriters the ability to see their creations come to life on screen. Yet with all this new lease of creativity we still love to see remakes of the "Classic Stories" and directors love to work on projects surrounding their favourite childhood stories.

Finished Project two

Today my group finished off our second project. The video we made deals with the anti-racism project Show Racism the Red Card.

Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is a technique used by animators to create an animated movie from live-action film. Although the process of tracing over the live action frame by frame used to have to be done all by hand, in recent years the process has been sped up with the use of new computer programs. A recent movie using this technique is Beowulf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9qpqyO_dmU

Cut Out Animation

Cutout animation is not widely used in main stream animation any more. South Park, however has managed to retain its original appearance while incorporating some of the more modern technologies. Here the very first intro to South Park along with one of the more reacent ones. The only real change is the quality of the picture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWmjK2f6XY8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaCs5Wh_o_U

Drawn Animation

Drawn animation is one of the oldest methods of creating a movie. With the creation of the first film camera people started to illustrate their stories. In recent times drawn animation has taken a back seat to other more modern methods, however it is still used widely within the making of films for children. One of the most well known examples is 101 Dalmatians, made by Walt Disney. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lheD6-IXXYA

Computer-Generated Imagery

Computer-Generated Imagery, more commonly known as CGI; is used in television shows, commercials, and films during the special effects. Some movies are made completely from CGI, such as TMNT (2007). Here is a link to one of the trailers for the movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YApWhRvqdZQ

Stop Motion

Stop Motion animation, also known as frame-by-frame, developed alongside the invention of the camera. Initially the cameras took to long to take one photo, but as the technology of film developed this type of animation became more feasible. In recent decades the popularity of this type of animation grew. Although the process is still a relatively long one the films when completed have a richness that live film has trouble capturing. Here is an example off youtube although the quality isn't the best. http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpVlcpk6x5I

Flipbook

Flipbooks are a series of pages of paper or card with images drawn onto them. The images moved slightly from page to page and as the pages are flipped through the images move. Here is an example of a flipbook from youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UocF4ycBnYE

Praxinoscope

Paxinoscope replaced the zoetrope in 1877. Taking animation to the next stage of it development. Like the zoetrope it was made of a cylinder with images around the inside. However unlike the zoetrope it has a set of mirrors in the center which the viewers looked at and saw the pictures move. This youtube clip has two different examples. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOItdZOGnx8

Zoetrope

The zoetrope was popular from its creation in 1834 until it was made obsolete in 1877. The zoetrope was made up of a cylinder with vertical slits cut in the sides. A strip of of card with drawings or a strip of film are laid underneath the slits. This is then mounted on a base with a spindle. The fast turning of the cylinder allows the allusion of movement to occur. Here is an example from youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKEM5sYnOjE