The World of Animation

SUMMARY:

The art of drawing started 35,000 years back with drawings in caves. Even more, with the help of time, the artistic development of drawings became much refined and steady (Williams, 2009, p. 11). In 16,000 BC the goddess Isis was drawn on columns and as people passed by the illusion of movement was established. Furthermore, the Ancient Greeks successful presented the previous idea by having spinning pots with figures drawn and so once spun the illusion of movement was once again established (Williams, 2009, p. 12).

An animation is simply doing simple things by piecing everything together in systematic order. It is also about giving the characters specific movements that the audience can relate to, just like the actors and actresses in films do (Williams, 2009, p. 9). 

Moreover in the mid-seventeenth century ‘Magic Lantern’ was invented by Athanasius Kircher. It was a projection on a wall with various drawings on glasses and as it shifted, different images would be shown on the wall (Williams, 2009, p. 12, 13).

Many various inventions were brought forward during various centuries as these were not typically photographs but an illusion of movement for the civilians to enjoy and witness. Some of the prominent ones can be mentioned such as The Thaumatrope, The Phenakistoscope, The Wheel of Life (1867) and The Praxinoscope (1877) which was devised by Emile Reynaud (Williams, 2009, p. 12, 13).

The Flipper book appeared in 1868 and was sold worldwide. A prime example of how animation works in animated films today. It is a leisure way of spending time for kids during classes (Williams, 2009, p. 13, 14).

In 1896 Thomas Edison and James Blackton worked on creating moving images with drawings and photographs together. A few years later in 1906 Humorous Phases of Funny Faces was released which was a brilliant success considering today as the forefather of animated cartoons (Williams, 2009, p. 14).

An example of how Humorous Phases of Funny Faces was presented in 1906 is shown below.

The synopsis of this drawn animation consists of funny moments with various figures drawn. It presents counteraction and gives a feel of motion. A man smoking in front of a woman as she is disgusted by it, later in the animation a different man is portrayed with his umbrella and bowler hat and towards the end, a clown plays with a dog while making it jump through a hula hoop (LibraryOfCongress, 2009).

A YouTuber by the name KiwiCo (2015) further emphasizes on some major points on the history of animation with clips embedded in the video.

KiwiCo explains the history of animation with important facts such as, In 1879 Eadweard Muybridge invented simple loops to showcase movement during which at that time was considered to be an equivalent of a modern movie. Furthermore, during 1890 Thomas Edison created a Kinetoscope which could present a live-action movie. This was made possible by a camera that would capture many images per second and with the help of a little window on the Kinetoscope, it could be viewed in motion.

REFLECTION:

Animation has come a long way since I was a child with various movies and television shows blooming today. With this, I agree that Animation is a whole in general with little pieces put together in a systematic order. This goes for any form of arts and science. I am also very surprised that drawing has been a part of our world for centuries just like how music has. This shows that many forms of art have a beautiful history that explores the world as a whole today. The book presents a conversation between Milt Kahl and a public individual and how Milt explains that the performance is what matters while giving various counteractions to characters and not the "technical aspect" behind it (Williams, 2009, p. 9). While I partially disagree with Milt, I should say that learning the basics and understanding the fundamentals is important before freely giving any "performance". As a musician I am solely responsible for various notes I select, one has to be able to understand the location of each specific notes before giving any performance in ease, thus, it can be helpful to understand how the actions of each character have come to be. 

REFERENCES:

KiwiCo. (2015, Jan 29th). The (Awesome) History of Animation [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4gBaZcBHkE

LibraryOfCongress. (2009, October 8th). Humorous phases of funny faces. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGh6maN4l2I

Williams, R. (2009). Drawing In Time. In The Animator's Survival Kit (Expanded ed., pp. 4-15). London, U.K: Faber & Faber