History of Animation

By: Alex Fink

 1887
• H.W. Goodwin
invented nitrate
celluloid film, which is
made of gun cotton
and gun camphor.
1892
Emil Reynaud opened his
Theatre in Paris with a new
animation made by his
Praxinoscope. The
Praxinoscope was a Zoetrope
with mirrors placed on an
inside column that reflected out
the sequential drawings that
were on the inside of the drum.
He was able to project 80
frames without changing reels
and could project 10 to 15
minute "films". But the advent
of film drove him out of
business and in 1910 he threw
all his equipment into a river
and died in a sanatorium in
1918.
1894
Lois Lumiere invents the
cinematograph, a
combination
camera/projector/printer,
it was the first machine
to show movies
successfully on a
screen. This system
used a claw movement
and perforated film that
was synced to an
intermittent shutter
movement.
1909
Emil Cohl
combines live
action and
drawn
animation
together in his
film Clair De
Lune Espagnol.
1914
• John Bray opened his
studio and patented a lot
of the animation
process, but not the use
of cels. This is because
Earl Hurd had patented
the cel technique. So
Bray convinced Earl to
combine their patents
and they formed the
Bray-Hurd Process
Company.
• The US animation
industry was centered in
New York until the late
1920's and early 1930's.
1916
John Bray acquired more
patents and establishes a
patent monopoly for the
animation process. He tried to
enforce the patent by requiring
all animation studios using his
patented animation process to
buy a license and pay a fee.
Some studios paid it, some
ignored it, some of them found
a way around it, and some took
it to court. This issue caused
concern in the animation
business until the early 1930's.
Bray’s interest shifted from
entertainment films to
educational films.
1920
The most popular
character and series of
this time, Felix the Cat,
started on the Feline
Follies show from
Sullivan's studio. Otto
Messmer not only
created Felix, but he did
the stories and directing
on a schedule that made
one film every two
weeks.
1922
Disney's
first
animation
studio,
Laugh-O-
Gram Films
was built.
1923
Disney Laugh-O-Grams
Films studio goes
bankrupt. So Disney
moved to Los Angeles,
California and opened a
new studio in his uncle's
garage. Margaret Winkler
then put Disney under
contract for a series,
which he had proposed,
that combined live action
and animation, called
Alice Comedies. The
series featured a live
action girl with animated
characters.
1928
Disney did two Mickey Mouse
animations, Plane Crazy and
Galloping Gaucho without a
distributor. He was working on
the third animation, Steamboat
Willie, when motion picture
sound arrived. So he added
sound to the third Mickey with
the Powers sound system. It was
not the first sound film though,
Terry's Dinner Time was
released on Sept. 1st, but with
unsynced sound. Steamboat
Willie was the first sound
animated film with synced sound.
It made Mickey an international
star, and launched the Disney
studio of today. It also ushered in
the new age of sound for
animation.
1930
The Warner Bros.
Cartoons are born. The
First Warner Bros. short
was Sinking in the
Bathtub with the character
Bosko who was a take off
on Mickey Mouse. He
was a cousin of the
Warner Brothers and had
helped back the "Jazz
Singer". As a condition for
the studio each short
must contain a Warners
song. So Looney Tunes
began.
1931
•Warner Bros. makes
Merrie Melodies.
•Webb Smith, a
Disney animator,
starts the use of
storyboards, but
some people would
claim that the
storyboard was first
developed at the
Fleischer studios in
1930.
1932
Walt Disney wins
his first Academy
Award for
Flowers and
Trees. This was
the first
commercially
released film to
use 3 strip
Technicolor in
animation.
1935
•Hollywood
Production Code
comes into effect.
• Len Lye,
creates Color
Box, the first film
to be animated
by painting
directly on film.
1950
•Disney produced
Cinderella (return to
feature animation), and
Treasure Island, the first
live action feature and
they’re first TV special.
•Animation for TV
commercials becomes
an important part of the
animation industry.
1960
Hanna-Barbera
introduces The
Flintstones, the
first prime time
animated TV
series.
1961
Tetsuwan Atomu
(Astro Boy)
Japan's first
television
animation series
(Anime) begins. It
was created by
Osamu Tezuka.
1963
In computer
animation Ivan
Sutherland's
doctoral
dissertation
opens the way to
interactive
computer
animation.
1966
Walter Elias
Disney dies.
1971
First computer
animation used in a
feature film, The
Andromeda Strain,
as a special effect.
Special effect
animation during this
period played a
major role in the
amount of animation
produced.
1982
Tron, A Disney
feature has 15
minutes of computer
animation for 235
scenes at a cost of
$1,200 per second.
1987
The Simpsons
begins as spots
on the Tracey
Ullman Show.
David Silverman,
was one of the 2-
3 original
animators.
1988
Who Framed Roger
Rabbit was
released. Getting
over $300 million,
and it proved that
animation, at least
when combined with
live action, was not
limited to a
children's audience.
1989
Tin Toy wins the
Academy Award.
Directed by John
Lasseter and
produced by
Pixar it first
computer
animated film to
win.
1992
Cartoon
Network
broadcasts in 2
million homes,
and by 1995
it's in the 22
millions.
1994
•The Lion King,
One of Disney's
highest grossing
pictures to date
was released.
•DreamWorks
studio formed.
1995
Toy Story, the first
fully computer
animated feature
was released and
it took in more
money at the box
office than any
other film in
1995.
2002
Shrek from
Dreamworks
Studios Feature
animation won
the first ever
Oscar for
animated feature
they beat out
Pixar/Disney's
Monsters Inc.
2013
Elsa from the movie
frozen was made
with 420,000 CGI
threads, which was
20x more than the
threads used for
Rapunzel from
tangled. It required
the making of a new
program called
Tonic.
 References
• http://animation.filmtv.ucla.edu/NewSite/WebPages/Histories.htm
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3bbsDJWlXQ
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_stock
• http://www.pinterest.com/pin/529102656193938120/
• http://movie.douban.com/subject/4059057/
• http://automanga.sourceforge.net/Doc/node3.html
• http://my.smithmicro.com/tutorials/2360.html
• http://www.business2community.com/social-buzz/x-well-known-cats-worldcatday-0970104
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh-O-Gram_Studio
• http://archives.frederatorblogs.com/refrederator/2006/07/20/turning-chicken/
• http://gifsoup.com/view/386773/steamboat-willie-ducky.html
• http://archives.frederatorblogs.com/refrederator/category/uncategorized/page/7/
• https://www.tumblr.com/search/merrie+melodies
• http://rebloggy.com/post/gif-tree-disney-shorts-dance-flowers-30s-1932-silly-symphonies-oscar-winner/435290027
09
• http://mycinderelladreams.tumblr.com/page/2
• http://www.pictureshowman.com/articles_genhist_censorship.cfm
• http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/media/v2/gallerypage/user-id/459194/image-id/2045i45CAD232D6243C3A
• http://giphy.com/gifs/4fWIFukyf7voY
• http://theworldofcomputingcomp1220uwi.weebly.com/ivan-sutherland.html
 References Cont.
• http://www.biography.com/people/walt-disney-9275533
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066769/
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084827/
• http://weheartit.com/entry/37253425
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096438/
• http://www.rankopedia.com/Best-Disney-Pixar-Production/CandidateData/19468/.htm
• http://rebloggy.com/post/adventure-time-cartoon-network-not-my-gif/38550362974
• http://www.socialphy.com/posts/images-pics/16740/The-Lion-King-Gifs.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek_(character)
• http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/sub-zero-vs-elsa-1541881/
• http://lifeofkj.tumblr.com/post/50709673214/on-popularity-and-the-claw