Animators

Animators

Historical (pre digital era)

An example that I am going to use for a historical pre digital era is Walt Disney. Walt Disney is an animated film that producers have created to make a film for younger audience.

Significant productions

There are a lot of different films that Walt Disney has produced. These are some films that has been produced by them:

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this was produced in the 1937
• Cinderella this was produced in the 1950s
• The Jungle Book was created in the 1967s
• Sleeping Beauty this was created in the 1969s
• Dumbo this was produced by Walt Disney in the 1941s
• Lady and the Tramp in 1955s
• Pinocchio was created in the 1940s
• Bambi that was created in the 1942

These are a lot of the common films that was created by Walt Disney, a lot of people should know these as they are very popular. Some people may know these from when they was younger and know their children watches them. As these particular films that Walt Disney is that they was made to be targeted at the young age range. All the films that are listed up at the top have all been animated ever via hand made drawing or on the computer software.

Character creation

The character that has been created for all these films that Walt Disney has produced are very popular to the audience. These are some of the Walt Disney characters that are in some of the films:

• Goofy - This character was created in the 1932, he was animation that was going to be shown in film. This character was a bit clumsy in the films, he also was a bit childish. But because goofy was like that in the films, this is what he is well known to be like. By having this in a character the audience will be thinking what is going to happen next so it builds tension as they don't know what will happen because he is clumsy and childish. By having these two things in a character it creates the role of the animation character and the audience will know him to be like that and will suspect something is going to happen all the time with him. Goofy was first presented in the film a Goofy Movie.
• Mickey Mouse - This animation character was created in the year 1928s, this is a cartoon character that is aimed at a young audience to watch their films. This character is a famous and well known by people. In 1928 this character was first presented on steamboat Willie, this was a film that was in black and white. Mickey mouse is a quite a happy character, he is very enthusiastic, he can be silly and mischievous. In 1943s Mickey Mouse was becoming a lot more popular, throughout the years Mickey Mouse has started to become more popular . The producers are hoping that Mickey Mouse the character will become more popular over the years after being in more films and programmes.
• Donald Duck - This character was produced  in the 1934s, this character is that he is a bit bad tempered. Donald Duck is well known from having a bad temper, this is what the producers wanted the audience to remember the character to be like. Donald Duck is well know to be in Looney Tunes the films.
• Pluto -  Pluto was first created in the year 1931. Pluto is a very well trained dog that can also get into a lot of trouble. He is also an  Pluto is an extremely well known dog that has been in 48 short films for Disney he has had his own role in all these films.  Pluto is a well known dog that is in the short film called Donald's Dog Laundry in 1940.

There are many other different character that Walt Disney has been created for different films.

Working method

At the start of Walt Disneys career, he started producing animations by hand drawing them. This was a technique that he used to use. But since then he has changed the different way of producing their animation as the technology has changed a lot so they have better software. This has changed the way that producers create animation films. Now a days Walt Disney has created their animation films on a computer software, that is called Computer generated imagery (CGI). This has created animations from 2d designs to 3d as it had made all the images a better quality.

Legacy or influences

Walt Disney has a lot of different people that influenced him for making animated films. By having people to influence him it made him be very creative and to produce different types of films for younger age ranges. Walt Disney was inspired by himself at a young age as he wanted to do arts and make money. So this inspired him to get somewhere with his arts and to get recognised in what he liked doing drawing. People admired him for what he did and what animations he produced in films.  Walt Disney influenced people in America, he influenced them to produce films and more. This has made people in America to start producing films at a good quality. By inspiring these it made the Americans view films in a completely different way to what they viewed films before Disney. He also inspired other people and it also changed the way that animations was made in films.

Historical context

Walt Disney started their company  in 1923, this started of as a small business then they started producing a lot of films. This started the Walt Disney to become popular because a lot of people know all the different films that they have created. They are a lot of well known films that Walt Disney produced this was for younger people. Nowadays, people who was younger when they produced these films will be now films that their own children will watch and enjoy.  The person that first created the business was called Walter Elias Disney that was born in Chicago. This person started making their animations by experimenting all different kind of ways to animations to make films. He started of experimenting doing hand drawn animations to try producing films. This was a way that Walt Disney got into creating animations, he also experimented in making cut out animations. The first person that Walter made him an employer to help him produce animations was Fred Harman. By employing Fred Harman he realised that he would need to employ more people to help him create animations film to make them a good quality and to get people to help with good ideas. As Fred was helping him by giving him some good ideas and did some creative work for Walter so it helped him produce animations.

Contemporary (post-digital era)

Significant productions

An example that I am going to use for a contemporary post digital era is going to be Tim Burton. He has created a wide range of different animation films. Here are some of his films:

• The Nightmare Before Christmas that was created in the 1993s
• Alice in Wonderland that was produced in the 2010s
• Batman that was created in the 1989
• Frankenweenie was produced in the 2012

These films above is what Tim Burton has created, these are popular films that a lot of people have heard off. These types of films that he has created is that they are popular throughout the years they have been out. Some people who have watched these films have persuaded other people to watch these as they are good and well known.

Character creations

There are a lot of different types of characters that is in the film Tim Burton produced. These are some of the character:

• Victor Frankenstein - This character was born in the year 1774. Victor was a very young boy in the film Frankenweenie as he was just 10 years old when was in the film. This boy is a clever person in the film, as in the film called Frankenweenie in 1984 his dog dies and he brings him back to life. Victor is very inspired with science and really enjoys doing science experiments.
• Willy Wonka - This character was born in the year 1964, he is a well known character that is in the film charlie and the chocolate factory. He is a clever person and likes to create new ideas. This character is very popular to a lot of people who have watched charlie and the chocolate factory.
• Batman - This character was created in the year 1939.  He is a well known character that fights crime, this saves people's lives. By having this character that people know him very well and likes watching the films he's in.

Working Methods

Tim Burton is well known for making his films by using the technique stop motion. He used this technique to produce a lot of new films, this was his way of producing film.

Legacy or influences

The person that influenced Tim Burton was a person from Disney. This got Tim Burton to produce animations that he would use for his films. Tim Burton likes creating films that are dark he was influenced to do this by a young age. This was from getting his inspirations of this by other films that he used to watch when he was younger, he used to like watching horror and monster movie when he was younger. So this inspired him to use this kind of genre for his own films and animation. By having this influence it made him produce films and that it has made him build a career out of what he likes. If he didn't have these influences Tim Burton may not have started his career as a well known person that produces films.  Some of the drawings that Tim Burton used for his films was what he produced as a child.

Historical context

Tim Burton was born in the 1958s in California. To start his career of he started drawing at a young age that he enjoyed doing. He realised that is what he wanted to do for his career so he attended an arts college that he began studying animations. This began his career very well and he got awarded from someone that worked with Disney. After that he began working on his own work this is how he produced Frankenweenie in 1984. This was a successful film that audiences watched and this began him working on other films to produce with animations.

The Development Of Animation Technology

Chronological development of animation technology:

Phenakistoscope (Joseph Plateau, 1832)

Phenakistoscope is a disc that was first tried out by Joseph Plateau in 1832 where he realised that it was illusion of movement. The disc has to be hand moved to get the illusion of movement working and get the animation film completed. This was a first early animation device this will create an illusion of movement in that year, since then the technology has improved. The benefit of having phenakistoscope was that you can produce an animation film in that year. So this is a benefit because they could produce films with animation in 1832. A drawback would be that it had to be hand moved by the producer so it was a lot of effort to make a film with this. So it would be very time consuming for a very little reward to making an animation film with this type of equipment in 1832.

Zoetrope (William Horner, 1834)

Zoetrope is an animation formed device that is used with a drum that they use animation strips that they have produced. After putting the animation strip in the drum they turn the drum then look through the gap and it the animation images looks alive, moving. This is called illusion of movement this was first tried out by William Horner in 1893.  The benefit of the zoetrope for animation is that it is easier to use rather than the Phenakistoscope as you do not have to use a mirror you just use a drum to make the animation the illusion of movement. A drawback that the zoetrope is very time consuming and takes a lot of effort to make an illusion of movement with animation.

Praxinoscope (Emile Raynaud, 1877)

Praxinoscope has improved a lot since the phenakistoscope and zoetrope this is because it have had a lot of years to come up with a better piece to use for animation. Praxinoscope was first tried out by Emile Raynaud in 1877. Praxinoscope is a kind of the same thing as the zoetrope but it has became better for the quality. They use a mirror instead of looking through the gap to look at the animations, so that it reflects in the middle of the spinning cylinder a drum to make an image at the side of the drum to look like its moving from the image. The benefits of praxinoscope is that as its reflects in the middle of the drum, more than one person can watch the animation at once rather than the zoetrope only being able to watch one person at a time because you had to look in the gap. A drawback that the praxinoscope has is that the viewers have to hand spin the drum to get the animations working on a praxinoscope.

Zoopraxinoscope (Eadweard Muybridge, 1878)

Zoopraxinoscope was first tried out by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878. They use a glass device disk that they move to see the animation moving as a still image. It’s a rotating disk that is making the animation move on the disk. The benefits of a zoopraxinoscope are that the animations can be viewed accurately so that it can be seen properly and clearly. The drawbacks of the zoopraxinoscope are that it’s the same as the phenakistoscope time consuming to use. It will take time to get the animations moving but may take time it will be quicker than the phenakistoscope.

Kinetoscope (Thomas Edison, 1894)

Kinetoscope was first tried out by Thomas Edison in 1894. This piece of machine was first created to be able to view film in the early 1894. For this machine it can only be viewed one person at a time.  This is viewed by a person that can view an animation through a peephole. So the benefit is that it is easy to use and the image was clear. The drawback of this piece of equipment is that the kinetoscope is that it can only be viewed by one person at a time not by lots of people at a time.

Cinematograph (Lumiere brothers, 1897)

Cinematograph was first tried out by the Lumiere brothers in the 1897, they was influenced by Thomas Edison in 1894 to make new equipment that is better.  This equipment is being used from a camera that will record the movement for the animation. To get the equipment to work better they also use a printer on the cinematograph as well as the camera. This piece of equipment was the first equipment that could show movies on a screen and get a good quality of the film to work. This is produced to make the animations better quality for the people who watch it. The benefits of the cinematograph are that it was the first equipment to be able to show the movie on a screen and it could be viewed by more target audience at once. The drawback of this cinematograph is that the equipment looks quite complicated to use so there will be only people that would know how to work this to show the movies on the screen.

Translucent paper

Translucent paper was first used for to trace the animations they wanted to use to create a film. When they were using this technique they had to change the position of the tracing paper to make the animation look like they were walking. This used to be a traditional way to be able to create animation in the early years of producing animation. The benefit of translucent paper is that the animations will be accurate and will be the same size throughout the film. The drawbacks of translucent paper is that it will be very time consuming to make and the person who was producing the animations would have to make sure that they get the drawing accurate. This is to make the animations be at a good quality and make them be accurate to get the drawing be like the animation be walking rather than be stood still.

Sound in animation (Steamboat Willie) (Disney, 1928)

In the films and animations the film that they did not have any sounds at the start of the producers are making. They then produced this over time to start the film by adding music and orchestra this is because all the equipment that was getting produced was getting better other the years. After this so many years later they produced films with sound in the animations this was to improve the sound and by getting sound in the films. In 1928 they released a film that was the first to have sound on the animation. This film was called Steamboat Willie; this film was a success to the sound for the animations. This film was produced in black and white and then the quality in films improved to create colour on the animation years later. The benefits of sound in animation are that it makes the film so much better and it will gain more people to watch them. The drawbacks for sound in animation are that they have to make the sound accurate to the film they are producing and making it sound good with the animation.

Standardisation of films

The standard of films is that the producers have all decided to do all the films they produce in a frame rate of 24 per seconds. This is because they use have tried out the difference of frame rates and choose to use the best quality of these. So they choose to use this frame rates per seconds so that it is a standard that producers have to use when producing films. However, when producers are making different products they will use different frame rates as they will have a set standard for this.

Computing drawing software

For a computer drawing software produced animations on software. This was called a computer aided design this was to help improve the animations and to produce the films at a better quality. By having this software has helped the producers with time as it saves time in the long run because they can watch the film without hand moving it and looking through a peephole. By using this type of software it helps the animation quality better and more accurate than it would have been when being hand drawn on translucent paper. The computer drawing software has to be downloaded by the producer to create the animation, this is to get the animations accurate. This is an effective way to produce animations this is because it makes the animations more realistic and will help the producers to get the images accurate. This is because when the animation is getting hand drawn may not have been accurate so it’s easy to use. The drawbacks of this software may be slow depending how much space you have on your computer. Another drawback is that they may have problems with the software when making the animations so this may become time consuming in the long run.

CGI animation

CGI animation means a computer generated imagery. This has been produced to make the animations better quality and by having this software it is going to make the animations is that they can produce this properly. An animation that was produced with this software was Toy Story in year 1995. They use this type of software to produce several of different animation such as making games, films and television programmes. This is showing that using this software was a success because it has produced a lot of different animations over the years. The benefits of using this type of software are that a lot of different producers have used this software so it is showing that it has been successful. The drawbacks of this software are that it may be slow so it may take time to produce the animations so they may have delays of this.

Performance (motion) capture

This performance motion capture is that it will record this can be animation that will make the images look like they are moving. This performance capture is used with several of different sources such as television, films and games. All the producers that make these animations use it as it shows that this software is successful as it is showing that more producers use this.  A film that has been used with this software is The Polar Express by the Warner Brother, in 2004. The benefits of this software are that it is easy and quick to use. The other benefit is that it will make the animation accurate and successful to meet the audience needs. The drawback of this is that it could be slow and this could make the producers meet the deadline of the film or game so it will cost them more money in the long run, as they will miss the deadline date that it is meant to be realised. This makes them be losing a profit as people would expect to buy this on the day it is realised and it gets more people to buy the film if it’s on the date it is meant to be out. Another drawback is that the software is expensive so this may make the producer not be able to afford the software if it may be a new business.

How Animation Works

How animation works

People can make animations with the computer or they can hand draw the animations they want to use in a film. They also can use programmes on the computer to make these animations. They work by a lot of different images being put together to produce an animation film this is called a stimulation of movement process throughout the different stages of making animation.

Illusion of movement

Animations is an illusion of movement, this is where still images are used and when you look at it, it makes you see the image moving. There are two different names for illusion of movement these are called persistence of vision and beta movement. Persistence of vision is where we see the image in a total different way than it actually is on the computer. The image looks different because the light is reflected on the image that makes our eyes see the image in a different way and makes it look like it is moving. Beta movement is where the image we think is actually moving in the fixed image but it actually isn’t, this is called an illusion. Beta movement was first found by Max Wertheimer this was in year 1912. Since then a lot of other people have discovered Beta movement and describes it to be your eyes forming a different way of looking at the image by it standing still to your eyes seeing the image moving.

Frame rates

The people who create the films, movies have put some pieces in their work that the images are actually still. This is to make illusion of movement in the movies they also have been known to be called Frame rates in the years. They have a lot of different Frame rates per seconds, for example: 12, 24, 25, 30 and many more. All the different frame rates have specific use to use these types of frame rates when producing animations. These frame rates are showing how many frames have been placed in the movie per seconds for the different images that are in the films and the animations. When editing films you can change the frame rate to make them speed up or speed down to make the animations look better for their overall film.  It is important that you use the correct frame rate as it depends what you are doing on the animations.

In animation people uses 12 frame rate per second. Every time they make a film they use 12 images per second so this makes the images look like they're moving this is called illusion of movement.  In film people will use 24 images per second for the movies. This is 24 frame rate per second. Television uses different frame rate per second rather than animation and films, they use 25 frame rate per seconds. So they will get 25 pictures per second they will use this will make it look like all the images are moving when they're actually still picture.

Suspension of disbelief

For animation they have suspension of belief this is where people watch animations and believe what they are seeing on the film. As it makes the person believe what has happened when in fact the images are still and in their eyes it looks like it is moving this is called illusion of movement.