History of Animation
It's Hummer Time (1945)
"Not Happy Birthday!" A sadomasochistic animated relationship, helmed by the "forgotten" Warner Bros. Director, Robert McKimson
Philip Broadcast of 1938
- A series of commercials using stop motion - Each limb was carved by wood to create smooth motion - First wave of showcasing 3D animation
Trajan's Column
- A triumphal column commemorating Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars - Surrounded by reliefs of the trajan's war
Porky's Hare Hunt (1938)
- Ben "Bugs" Hardaway - Precursor to the Bugs Bunny character pitted against Porky Pig as the hunter
Bobby Bumps Puts A Beanery On The Bum
- Bray Studios 1919
Farmer Alfalfa's Revenge
- Bray Studios, Paul Terry 1916 - Took about a month to create - Was one of the first films to have a pan background
How cartoons are made
- Bray Studios, Wallace Carlson 1919 - During this time, studios began to use storyboard as a form of timing and preparation - In order to allow the characters to talk one would have to re-draw each character
Mutt & Jeff: Domestic Difficulties
- Bud Fisher 1916
Bayeux Tapestry
- C. 1070 - Depicted the chronology of events leading up to the Norman conquest of England
Greek Vase Painting
- C. 700-500 BCE - Black Figure and Red Figure vases, illustrating attempts by the artists to depict movement
Snow White - Betty Boop (1936)
- Cab Calloway was portrayed as Koko the clown through rotoscope
The Singing Kid - I love to singa
- Cal Calloway/ Tex Avery 1936 - Warner Brothers - An animation of a little owl parodying the singing kid song and dance
Chauvet Cave Drawings
- Can considered to be the first piece of animation - Paintings had depth and illusion of movement, creating a reference to frames
Skeleton Dance
- Carl Stalling, UB Iwerks, Walt Disney 1929 - Walt Disney had an idea to create a animated shorts not after sound or voices but after music - First film that had a pre-recorded score in order to allow animators to record to the beats
Théâtre Optique
- Charles-Emile Renaud 1888 -Capable of projecting a much longer series of images on a screen
e Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (1942)
- Chuck Jones - A parody of the Rover Boys, a popular early 20th century juvenile fiction book series. One of the earliest Warner Bros. cartoons to utilize limited animation and "smears."
Porky In Wackyland (1938)
- Clampett - Classic, surrealistic Wackyland sequence was adapted and reused for many later films - The music director was able to get a orchestra soundtrack from the Warner Brothers studio
A Gruesome Twosome (1945)
- Clampett - Last of the three original Tweety Pie films - Was a parody of Jimmy and Gracy Allen (Broadway Stars) - Speed Line: A form of a dry brush to showcase fast action - Third appearance of Tweety bird
Émile Cohl
- Fantasmagorie(1908), - The Man In the Moon(1908) - The Automatic Moving Company (1910 or 1912 with Romeo Bosetti)
Koko's Earth Control
- Feisher Studios 1927 - Were able to create a rotoscope character into a full-on animated character - Dick Humor though it is best to turn to animation insted of rotoscope - He as well came up with the idea to rely on silhouettes in order to create key poses
Early Fleischer Sound Test/ Deforest Phonophone
- Fleischer Studios 1924-26 - After Walt went to New York to ask for a raise, instead he was told his pay was going to be cut - No longer having rights to Oswald, Walt came back to create a new character
Boop-Oop-A-Doop
- Fleisher Studios 1932 - Was the first short to introduce Betty as a human charcter
Popeye The Sailor Meets Sindbad The Sailor (1936)
- Fleshier Studios - A match line created with a cell to line up the character with the background to see if the character was able to move along the background - This short film lead popeye to become one of the most popular cartoon characters at the time
Little Swee Pea (1936)
- Fleshier Studios 1936 - Used the mutiplane camera is combination with traditional 2D animation
A Wild Hare (1940)
- Fred "Tex" Avery - The first Bugs Bunny cartoon with both the rabbit character and the standard Bugs-Elmer conflict fully developed - It leads Bugs Bunny to become a hit star
High Diving Hare (1949)
- Freleng - Considered perhaps the best of all Bugs and Yosemite Sam confrontations
Krazy Kat Goes A Wooing
- George Harrison 1916
Dizzy Dishes
- Grim Natwick, Fleisher Studios 1930 - Introduction of Betty Boop/ Started off as a dog character
Zoetrope
- Horner C.1833 - An improvement on the phenakistiscope using a revolving drum
James Stuart Blackton
- Humorous Phases of Funny Faces(1906) - The first evidence of drawn animation
Colonel Heeza Liar at Bat
- John Brye 1915 - Brye was heavily influenced by Mccay, learned all technique and opened an animation studio
What's Opera, Doc? (1957)
- Jones - A parody of 19th-century composer Richard Wagner's operas woven around the standard Bugs-Elmer conflict
Duck Amuck (1953)
- Jones - A pastiche on the animation process and a film that relied on the fact that animation can create characters with a recognizable personality, independent of their appearance,environment, or voice
Duck Dodgers in the 24½ Century (1953)
- Jones - Is a parody of popular comic book character Buck Rogers - Was created during the cold war; a fear that two countries would develop nuclear weapons
One Froggy Evening (1955)
- Jones - The cartoon has no spoken dialogue, in fact, no vocals except singing by the Frog, relying instead on pantomime, fascial reactions, and other visuals, sound effects and, especially, music
Rabbit Seasoning (1952)
- Jones - The second entry in the "Hunting Trilogy" directed by Jones and written by Michael Maltese. "Pronoun trouble!" - Having three characters was rare due to financial reasons
Sinkin' In The Bathtub
- Leon Schlesinger 1930 - Warner Studios decided to open an animated department
Winsor McCay
- Little Nemo (1911)/ A famous cartoonist for the New York Times - Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) - The Sinking Of The Lusitania (1918)
To Spring (1936)
- MGM Studios, William Hanna - It was an expensive and difficult cartoon to make due to its perspective and lightning - Didn't have a cast of characters unlike Disney Studios
Thaumatrope
- Paris and Roget 1824 - The first invention demonstrating Roget's principle of "Persistence of Vision." - Piece of cardboard that hold two pictures on each when moving fast it creates an animation
Astronomeous
- Pat Sullivan 1928 - Studios that had previously done animated shorts, began to add sound into their old works
The Oily Bird
- Pat Sullivan, Otto Messer 1927 - It took 10 years between the first cat cartoon shorts to the actual Felix the Cat short - Felix the cat was basically a silhouette with a white face. His design went on to influence future characters - Messer and Sullivan argued of who owns the rights to Felix the Cat. Eventually, Sullivan got the rights to the character
Feline Follies
- Patt Sullivan, Otto Messmer 1919
Praxinoscope
- Reynaud 1877 - Improving on the zoetrope by using an inner circle of mirrors
A Corny Concerto (1943)
- Robert Clampett - A parody of Disney's 1940 feature Fantasia
George Pal Interview
- Stop motion (Replacement technique) - A Hungarian born artist who went to work to Paramount - Left the Netherlands due to WWII
Captain Grog Among Other Strange Creatures
- Svenska Bio, Victor Bergdhal 1920 - A film created in Sweden - The film was banned in America due to nudity of the characters
Fleischer's Tabletop Rig (1940)
- Tabletop Dimension Rig - The picture plane was so expensive, time-consuming and complicated that it only lasted around a few movies
Władysław Starewicz
- The Cameraman's Revenge(1912) - Created a series of stop-motion films
Steamboat Willie
- UB Iwerks 1928 - Was released one month after Diner Time - Walt used music that was for the public domain so they wouldn't pay money - Animated shorts were post-score meaning the voices weren't added until after receiving them
Fiddlesticks (Flip the Frog)
- UB Iwerks 1930 - MGM animation production - The first animated short with color - An unsuccessful character that faded away
Chinaman's Chance
- UB Iwerks 1933 - Flip the Frog was redesigned to look more human - After the unsuccessful of many characters, MGM decided to shut down their studio
Disney's Multiplane and Bambi (1942)
- Used a mutliplane camera - A background cut into several different planes each piece is moved at different speeds to showcase real-depth persecution
Dinner Time
- Van Beuren Studios, Paul Terry 1928 - The first very sound animated cartoon - Walt was inspired by their cartoon and went on to add sound to their three original cartoons
Flowers and Trees
- Walt Disney 1932 - Was one of the first animated short to have three-stripe process - Ended up winning an academy award in 1939
The Band Concert
- Walt Disney Studios 1935 - An expensive film due to the outlandish animation - The appearance of Donald Duck/ It allowed him to become a main character for the studio
Three Little Pigs
- Walt Disney Studios, Burt Gillette 1935 - Other studios sued after Walt tried to claim that only Disney could create colored films, Walt lost - The characters differ based on clothing and gesture (motion of dance) - The film was created during the great depression, the music resonated with the people and became a metaphor for the public vs the government - The short became so successful it remained in the theater for 40+ weeks
Alice's Mysterious Mystery
- Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks 1926 - A sample movie to create an animated motion picture - This was near the end of the Alice series - The film used a combination of real life people and animated characters - The human character was at times drawn to a cartoon in order to capture motions that the camera could not
The Old Mill (1937)
- Walt Studios - The first short film that used the picture plane technique as an experiment
I Haven't Got A Hat (1935)
- Warner Brothers - Used Technicolor's two-strip process(red and green) instead of the three-strip process. This was the introduction of Porky Pig
Gertie the Dinosaur
- Was a short film created for Mccay's show in which he would interact directly with the film - Gertie was the first animated piece that held expressions, conveyed a story, and portrayed a non-exist ant character
The Lost World
- Willis O'Brien, Marcel Delgado 1925 - One of the feature films that was able to create "realistic" formation of dinosaurs - The film blended real life motion with puppetry of dinosaurs
Tantalizing Fly
- c. 1919 - A series called "Inkwell" that featured rotoscoping as a continuing form of animation
Ozzie Of The Mounted
- c. 1928 - At the time sound was a big issue when it came to animated shorts - Universal at the time needed a character for their shorts - The 20th character from the Disney Company
Mickey's Follies
- c. 1929 - Mouths were often exaggerated in order to allow audiences to see character's talk - 10th Mickey Cartoon
Otto Messmer On Felix The Cat
- c. 1980 - Patt Sullivan began to merchandise Felix the Cat after realizing how popular he had become
Laterna Magica
-Projection interacts with person on stage - aka. Magic Lantern
Rotoscope
-c.1915 - Traced photographic or video images with a hand-drawn appearance
George Pal
A Hungarian animator and film producer, developing a form of replacement stop-motion animation resulting in the Puppetoons series of films
Alexander Shiryaev
A belated tribute to animation and dance
Carl Stalling
A composer and arranger for music in animated films, most known for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., but he also worked with Disney. His conversations with Disney led to the first Silly Symphonies cartoons
Leon Schlesinger
A film producer, founding Leon Schlesinger Studios, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoon Studio
Replacement Technique
A series of facial expression that can be reused to animate the characters
Phenakistiscope
A spinning disc showing phases of animated movement
Van Beuren Studios
Amedee J. Van Beuren entered a partnership with Paul Terry and formed the "Aesop's Fables Studio" eventually producing the first sound cartoon, Dinner Time.
The Phi Phenomenon
An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession
Friz Freleng
Animator, director and famous for his work on Warner Bros., Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts. Freleng directed more cartoons than any other director in the studio (total of 266)
William "Bill" Hanna
Animator, director and producer whose career began with Warner Bros, then MGM, partnering with Joe Barbera for the next 60 years, developing groundbreaking cartoons for television
Max Fleischer and Out Of The Inkwell
Begun as films produced to demonstrate the rotoscope. The series, featuring animation and live-action combinations, began at Bray, eventually becoming part of the line-up at the Fleischer's own studio
Ub Iwerks
Co-created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse with Walt Disney. Iwerks was responsible for the distinctive style of the earliest Disney animated cartoons. Iwerks opened his own studio in 1930
You Ought To Be In Pictures (1940)
Combined live-action and animation with studio personnel and classic cartoon characters
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery
Did his most significant work for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, developing not only a recognizable, idiosyncratic style but also many of the studios' most influential characters
Flip Book
Employed a linear sequence of images
The Hardship Of Miles Standish (1940)
Infamous excerpt of stereotypical Native American characters
Bray Studios
John Randolph Bray produced over 500 films between 1914 and 1937, developing an animation "assembly line" and, with animator Earl Hurd, patenting the Bray-Hurd Process.
Pat Sullivan Studios
Opened in 1916, the Sullivan studio was responsible for developing Felix the Cat, the most successful animated character of the silent era. Sullivan took the credit for Felix, though animator Otto Messmer directed and was the lead animator on all of the episodes
What was Peter Mark Roget's observation?
Persistence of Vision
Emile Reynaud
Praxinoscope and Pauvre Pierrot via the Théâtre Optique
Persistence of Vision
Refers to the way our eyes retain images for a split second longer than they actually appear, making a series of quick flashes appear as one continuous picture.
Paul Terry and Terrytoons:
Terry was one of the most prolific animation producers, responsible for over 1,300 titles between 1915 and 1955, first with Bray, then Van Beuren and finally as head of his own studio.
Georges Méliés
The "father of visual effects"
Walt Disney Before Mickey
The Alice Comedies were series featuring alive-action tot named Alice and a cartoon cast having adventures in an animated world. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for Universal Pictures. While re-negotiating production costs with his distributor, Charles Mintz, Walt lost the contract. Going forward, he resolved to own the rights to any character his studio created...Mickey Mouse was the first result
Book of the Dead
The Papyrus of Hunefer, an example of ancient Egyptian funerary text
What was Wertheimer's Gestalt theory?
The Phi Phenomenon
Eadweard Muybridge
The Stanford experiments and work in human and animal locomotion
The Sinking of Lusitania
The animated film from 1918 produced by Winsor McCay. It is significant because it is considered the first animated film to use grand special effects
Myron "Grim" Natwick
Was one of the few classically trained artists working in the earliest days of animation. He is best known for drawing the Fleischer Studio's character,Betty Boop, and was a lead animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Burt Gillette
Was one of the main directors at the Disney studios, with two Academy Award winners, Flowers and Trees and The Three Little Pigs, to his credit