Introduction

In the circa 2000 B.C comic strips can be found in Egyptian walls. Since the beginning, early people already tried to capture a sense of motion in their Art. Inside the Altamira caves paintings can be seen.

During 1828 Paul Roget invented thaumatrope which demonstrated a principle: The persistence of vision. After which two other inventions came to further cause animation.  Phenakistoscope by Joseph Plateau in 1826 and zeotrope by Pierre Desvignes in 1860.

Thomas A. Edison developed the motion camera and projector, the other people who came after him provided the first practical means of making animation. Even still the animations were done in the simplest means. Coming to life.

In the early twenties, the animated cartoons declined in popularity because the movie exhibitors were looking for another alternative in entertainment media.  The people who watch these animations were tired of the same old formula of stringing sight gags together without storyline and character development. The capability of art animation was evident during this period with an exception of Winsor McCay such as Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914. His accomplishment was that he had developed a character, a dinosaur. Which was seen in Otto Messmer’s, Felix the Cat. What astonished the viewers was the coming to life of the dinosaur. At this time, many of the animations were just based on violence or merely nonsense.  But when the mid twenties came there was a big change “commercialization”.  Big studios bought smaller studious and set a standard for animation. Animators were given quotas on their drawing everyday.

. The effect was the cartoons decreased in quality. The result: audiences lost interest, which caused the depression of the animation business that coincided with the depression in the economy of the United States.

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 WALT DISNEY

Cell animation became the industry standard, (which was patented by Earl Hurd) in part because of the influence of Walt Disney Studio. The founder – Walt Disney. He animated films in Kansas City in 1919 to 1923. He then moved to California in 1923 to work on Alice Comedies his new series.  In 1928 he developed Steamboat Willie which featured Mickey Mouse which was his first sound film.  This character gained real fame.  The Mickey Mouse series of short films, known as simply as shorts gradually incorporated a number of other popular characters and ran for several years.

During 1930 Disney produced the Silly Symphony series of shorts. This serves as a venue for experimentation like Technicolor, music and relationship between visuals.  Then appeared Fantasia in 1940. Which animated images serves as interpretations of well-known symphonic music. Then at the later part his studio release Snow White in 1937. It was the first animated feature-length film made in U.S.

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MID-to-LATE-20^th Century

Important studious in the 1930s and 1940s include Columbia Pictures Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Inc., Terrytoons, the Van Buren Studio, Walter Lantz Productions, and Warner Bros., as well as studios by animators of Ub Iwerks and Max Fleischer. Ub Iwerks left The Walt Disney Company during the 1930s. In studious labor was mostly divided according to gender. Men had more options compared to women. Women were only limited to non-creative tasks or inking and painting.  One of the studios who practiced this kind of discrimination was Walt Disney Studious. But there were still women like Sylvia Holland and Mary Blair artists, who influenced the look of Disney’s animation. Walter Lanz employee Laverne Harding was one of those few women who were able to work as an animator during this Golden Age in the 1930s and 1940s. At this period animation flourished outside the United States also. Marcel Duchamp and Fernand Leger, French experimental artists were using animation techniques in relation to their other works in fine art. In England, the General Post Office supported films by experimental animators like Len Lye and Norman

McLaren. McLaren founded the animation department of the National Film Board of Canada in 1941. England was also the place for John Salas a Hungarian who founded a studio with Joy Batchelor. Their studio produced many important films like Animal farm in 1954. Notable animators working in Germany included Oskar Fischinger an abstract painter who went to U.S. in 1936. Who then later influenced abstract animators such as Jordan Belson, Harry Smith, James Whitney, and John Whitney. Lotte Reigner created animated films that were considered beautiful. She used intricately cut paper figures. Her famous film is The Adventurers of Prince Achmed in 1926. Many animation techniques have been used through the years with critical and commercial success, but the Disney style of cell animation was known as the full animation

Because it has constant movement and high ratio of drawings. It had the strongest influence worldwide. During the mid 1940s a successful alternate style of cell animation was introduced by another studio which was the United Production of America (UPA) which was founded by Dave Hilberman, Zachary Schwartz, and Stephen Bosustow. These people came from the Disney Studio but left because of the 1941 strike at Disney’s studio.  These artist were interested in modern art, they were determined to create a new style of animation both in content and in form. UPA msfr sn impact on the world of advertising by using simplified designs and stylized color. Their technique used fewer drawings in a more stylized way it was known to be as limited animation.

At the time of UPA’s existence television was gaining in the American society, which lead to the establishment of

Of new animation studios like Jay Ward, Bill Hanna & Joe Barbera. Many studios used limited animation because it was economical and quick. High color contrast and solid color fields were largely used.  However, many of the new television animation studious which market for Saturday morning cartoons in early 1960s were criticized for using limited animation that lacked the stylistic refinement of the UPA’s artwork.

The emergence of college film programs and increased attention to social issues during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s resulted in a proliferation of animation that explored new themes. Notable number of American women created animated films that included Faith Hubley, Mary Beans, Joanna Priestly, Suzan Pitt, and Joan Gratz. Animation continued to be pursued particularly in Eastern Europe, Canada and other countries with government-

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-Supported animation studios.

Aside from television, one of the largest influences on the style of the recent animation worldwide has come from computer technologies. In the 1930s experiment with electronic animation began, but it was not until 1970s that computer animation become viable beyond scientific and government applications particularly used by the entertainment industry.

Computer animated special effect and techniques have become a dominant characteristic of contemporary motion pictures. The first film to use a computer generated imagery as a major component was torn in 1982. George Lucas pioneered the use of computer-animation special effects techniques in films like star wars; many following films were created using computer, but those were already movie films and not cell animation.

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JAPANESE ANIMATION

After the World War II ended in 1945 Japanese animation “anime” blossomed up to the present times worldwide. Hayao Miyazaki directed “Kaze no Tani no Naushika” in 1984 which was a success feature film. Katsuhiro Otomo directed “Akira” in 1988 which was also a success. There were television series shown that has earned a devoted international following for the contemporary Japanese animation. Some of the first animation produced in Japan includes the short “Kachikachi Yama”, in 1939 and the puppet film “Musume Dojoji”, in 1946 Kon Ichikawa directed both.  The most important figure in Japanese animation was Tezuka Osame. In 1964 he created the first animated made-for-television series in Japan which was “Astro Boy”. He also made “Onboro Film” in 1985, which was like an American silent motion picture. Other

Important Japanese animators were Yogi Kuri, Kihachiro Kawamoto, Renzo Kinoshita, Taku Furukawa and Shinichi Suzuki. The Toei studio, one of Japan’s largest producers of live-action films also played a significant role in animation history.

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CURRENT TRENDS

For many years, animation festivals were held. Association Internationale du Fil d’ animation (ASIFA) have screened short works from a wide variety of independent animators.   During the mid 1980s a number of traveling animation festivals such as the Spike’n Mike series and Expanded Entertainment’s Tournee of Animation brought prize-winning films to smaller communities and quickly developed a loyal following in the U.S.   Video and laser discs made it possible to distribute this form of entertainment, which increased their marketability.

Home entertainment and Traveling festivals brought recognition to talented animators worldwide most especially to those independent artists around the globe.  Commercially available videotapes showcase animation like in the United Kingdom.

While exhibition opportunities for both independent animation and short experimental films rose during the mid 1980s, interest in a like feature-length mainstream animation emerged in the commercial motion-picture industry. Disney studios made “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (U.S). On television “The Simpson’s” (1990-) created by Matt Groening. It was the first animated series to succeed like of the “The Flintstones” in the 1960s.

Walt Disney Company produced an average of one animated feature film per year during the 1990s. The Little Mermaid in 1989, Beauty and the Beast in 1991, Aladdin

Aladdin in 1992, The Lion King in 1994 and Pocahontas in 1995. Other studios also made productions like Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera. They made feature-length animation and shorts for television. The Nickelodeon cable Network release a number of original programs during this 90s. Including “The Ren & Stimpy Show”.

 Improvement in technology made a difference in the improvement of animation both in cartoons and films.  John Lasseter made Luxo Jr. in 1986 one of the first computer-animated shorts to depict a character.  In 1988 he won for his short film Tin Toy. Then came “Toy Story” in 1995, which he directed. This release of Toy story signaled those three-dimensional animation techniques. Many more animated feature films and three-dimensional cartoons followed not only by Disney but with other studios also.

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