Animation Reflection by S. A. Khaleque

EARLY HISTORY

When we think about animation we intend to think about just ordinary cartoons as we have been used to it since the first time we set our eyes on one. But animation has a stronger meaning that relates to its definition: To have life in it. According to Merriam-Webster, animation has many meanings, 'characterised by life, full of life, to give spirit to, to move to action'. Giving life may not just refer to human or animal life but can also be given to still objects or shapes. The movement in the animation can also have strong characterisation through it's expression, attitude and behaviour, even if it is an object or a shape. Animation does not only put life into something that can not move or talk but can also make us humans feel more lively. When we watch animation we get all sorts of interesting feelings towards them. They can make us laugh, cry, think in ways we can not imagine. It is just like real life but even powerful because of the way animation appeals to us.

Uploaded: The Drawing Room, 3/10/12, Things You'd Better Not Mix Up, Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sYakk0X4-E, Visited: 22/12/12

I always felt that animation has been used as a tool for many things, such as entertainment or communication. Since the beginning of time, our ancestors have been using it for their own purposes by painting on cave walls. All though there were not any movement in their paintings, there were still a sign of life, movement, story and characterisation going on. It was one of the ideas and probably the first that helped generate the process of animation.

 Lascaux Hunters, 2012, Animal Cults of the Ancient People, 
http://totem.mirgt.com/, 22/12/12 

The image above gives a good example of the motion in the scene of a cave painting. Centuries later, as men's knowledge evolved, many devices were invented to actually be able to see the motion going on within the art we create. Beginning with the use of projectors for animation. The Magic Lantern is the earliest type of image projector used during the victorian period 'the Magic Lantern was invented in the 1650s which became a showman's instrument. Often these shows featured goblins and devils', (Pow. R. PC, 3/26/08, The American Magic Lantern Theatre, www.magiclanternshows.com/filmhistory.htm#book, 23/12/12). Learning about The Magic Lantern gave me a lot of interest into it, because it was used to frighten audience. Also because the style of the animation had a stop-motion cutout  feel to it. Here are some of the examples of animation I have discovered that have a haunting yet colourful feel to it.

 Uploaded: ilovetoeatmicedotcom, 5/12/07, The Rat Catcher, Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZJqRhKBSzg, Accessed: 23/12/12


Uploaded: Terrybor, 14/5/07, American Magic Lantern Theater v3, Accessed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzCNB6z4PUc, Visited: 23/12/12

 An illustration of the magic lantern taken from Animation: The Whole Story by Howard Beckerman, p10, 01/01/03. The device has a mirror in front of a light source, the light projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The ray of light spreads onto  the aperture and hits the lens, the lens reveal an enlarge image of the image scanned inside.

During the later generation of the Victorian era, the devices used for animation became simple toys that created illusions to our eyes. Especially around the 1830s, with the inventions of the phenakistoscope and zoetrope. All though the zoetrope was popular during the late 19th Century, it was a development of Ting Huan's chao hua chich kuan and was invented in China in 180 AD. The early prototype used to hang over a lamp, when it was spun at the right speed, the paintings on the panels would appear to move. The information regarding the chao hua chich khan was sourced out of a web-site titled 'Timetoast'. Luc903, Timetoast, http://www.timetoast.com/ , 23/12/12

An illustration of the zoetrope taken from Animation: The Whole Story by Howard Beckerman, p06, 01/01/03. The device was used by spinning it around and seeing the movement within the panels.


Uploaded: l80omarlllomar08l, 17/4/10, The Phenakistoscope a couple waltzing 1893, Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE3fBDYJKZk, Accessed: 23/12/12

Illustration of the phenakistoscope, invented by physicist Joseph Plateau and scientist Simon Stampfer in 1830. The device is a cardboard disc with slots around the edge and drawings between the slots. It was used for spinning in front of a mirror, the viewer would look through the slots at the reflection of the pictures and would reveal a sequence into the viewer's eye. Information and image sourced from The Projection Box, Available: http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~s-herbert/phenak.htm  

Around the late 1800s, the origins of traditional hand drawn animation was beginning with the invention of the flip book. The difference was that it did not need a machine to make the animation. It was used by binding each of the pages in their order and flipping the pages to create a magical illusion of movement. Most flip books were pocket sized, so people were able to carry them around with them easily while travelling. I did further research on the history of the flip book on an article written by Pascal Fouche, where he says, 'the idea of the folioscope appeared around 1860 and was attributed to the French Pierre-Hubert Desvignes because he animated some pictures, a bit like a Zoetrope. However, it was the English John Barnes Linnet, printer in Birmingham, who was the first to patent the flip book under the name of "The Kineograph a new optical illusion" on 18th March 1868'. Pascal also mentioned the man who was first patented in the U.S. on 16th June 1882: Henry Van Hovenberth. He says, 'the difference between Linnett and him is that he qualified his invention of "Optical Toy" using the phenomenon of of "persistence of vision". He obviously took advantage of Muybridge's works'. Eadweard Muybridge was a photographic pioneer, specialising particularly with photographed sequences of human and animal motion using multiple cameras. In 1879, he invented the zoopraxiscope. Pascal Fouche, 2013, FLIPBOOK.info, http://www.flipbook.info/index_en.php, 20/01/13  

The kineograph, also known as the flip book. Image taken from Animation: The Whole Story by Howard Beckerman, p10, 01/01/03.

 Uploaded: Nicolas Gamboa, 21/12/06, EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVc68ucgT2o, Accessed: 20/01/13

The video above includes very good examples of Muybridge's early experimentation with his photography work. I feel there is a strong awareness on trying to understand human and animal  behaviour, emotion, movement and action. These art forms are very expressive and inspirational towards motion pictures based on both film and animation today because they show what an animator or film director tries to think about when working on their film or animation. There is no doubt that Muybridge created some of the earliest pieces of motion pictures.

 Image copyright Kingston Museum and Heritage Service, 2012, The Eadweard Muybridge Bequest, Available: http://www.kingston.gov.uk/, Accessed: 20/01/13

The zoopraxiscope used the similar techniques of the zoetrope, the phenakistoscope and the magic lantern. With every single element combined together, it became the first ever film projector and the technique of the zoopraxiscope is still being used today. The device included a lamp, a lens and a shutter, the glass discs had a series of frames printed along their margins. It was used with a disc being placed on a device similar to a sewing machine and being rotated. The zoopraxiscope inspired Thomas Edison to invent the kinetoscope during the early 1890s, (apparently completed in 1892). The device was both a camera and a peep-hole viewer with magnifying lenses in the top of a wooden cabinet. Information regarding the kinescope by Mary Bellis, 06/26/05, The Kinetoscope, http://www.about.com/, 21/01/13 
   
 Illustration of the kinetoscope taken from Animation: The Whole Story, Howard Beckerman, p13, 01/01/03.


 Uploaded: QuarrydaleICT, 06/07/12, Edison Kinetoscope Films 1894 1896, Accessed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG2L2_MpE88, Accessed: 21/01/13 

The video clip above shows very good examples of story telling in film language. All though they are short videos, each of them contain different genres from comedy to romance, which is what most film directors use today. Even the setting of each film being based on an ordinary barber shop or a farm garden shows a further step from just analysing movement and action and deeper into people's lives. But in a similar way, most animation directors need to begin by exercising movement, it is one of the important keys towards a good film language that ables it to make sense. The two Serpentine Dance films show an early form of experimental animation. There were no LSDs during that era, instead each frame was hand tinted with stencils and coloured dyes, 'it was first employed to recreate Loie Fuller's stage magic' (La Loie Fuller - The Serpentine Dance, 20/08/11, Victorian Gothic, Available: http://www.victoriangothic.org/, Accessed: 22/01/13). 

The special effects we see in these early motion pictures are not as unique as the special effects we see in films today. But for the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, experimenting with printed images was a process of adding special effects, the use of CGI has now taken over to create easier and realistic special effects. Animation itself has been used as special effects, because with animation, a person could create a world that no one can imagine in reality and actually make it believable to the audience. This brings us to the stage of early animation from the 20th Century.

 Uploaded: Library Of Congress, 08/10/09, The Enchanted Drawing, Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe7HSnZotbU, Accessed: 27/01/13


After reading an article about James Stuart Blackton, it fascinated me because of the way inventors inspire one after another, yet each bring their own skills into what inspires them. Blackton began his career as an entertainer specialising on speed drawing. He eventually became a reporter for the New York Evening World newspaper. In 1896, he was sent for an interview with Thomas Edison to talk about his vitascope invention. Edison took Blackton to his studio and created a film of Blackton doing a sketch of Edison 'Blackton became so infatuated with the technology that he soon founded the American Vitagraph Company and began producing films, debuting with The Enchanted Drawing in 1900', (Maria Popova, 23/03/10, The Enchanted Drawing: Blackton's Early Animation, Available: http://www.brainpickings.org/, Accessed 27/01/13). James Stuart Blackton became a pioneer of animation specialising particularly on stop-motion. 6 years after The Enchanted Drawing, he produced Humorous Phases of Funny Faces.

 Uploaded: Library Of Congress, 08/10/09, Humorous phases of funny faces, Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGh6maN4l2I, Accessed: 27/01/13

Watching comical designed characters being brought to life by chalk on board or pen on paper must have been a lot more exciting to see back then as it now. What makes an animation so exciting is that it brings joy into our eyes, they are full of light, humorous characters and funny stories. They are able to do things that can not be done in reality. I think animation has always been an easier way to replace the sad emotions of either a child or adult and bring a type of brightness in our lives. Animations has changed a lot today, they are filled with sex and violence, but again it may be because it is easier for a person to create something from their imagination and bring it to life using their own designs and techniques, which is difficult to do in films unless it is combined with animation techniques used as special effects.

 Uploaded: Canale di phantascience, 02/11/09, Fantasmagorie Emile Cohl, 1908, Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1d28X0lkJ4, Accessed: 17/02/13

The animation above is Fantasmagorie by Emile Cohl. The difference between Blackton's animation and Cohl's is the techniques used to animate them. Blackton used stop motion and Cohl used the traditional animation technique. Even so, Cohl thought about experimenting with his animations, 'the animation consisted of 700 drawings that were filmed as black lines on white paper; the film's negatives were then reversed to make the image resemble a chalkboard with white lines on a black background'. findingDulcinea Staff, 17/08/11, On This Day: Emile Cohl Releases "Fantasmagorie," the First Full-Length Animated Film, Available: /www.findingdulcinea.com/  Accessed: 18/02/13

Fantasmagorie is known to be the first traditional animated film. It almost appears to be an abstract approach to a narrative animation. The clip with the hand pulling the cartoon character out of the paper brings more life into the character and somehow gives a 3 diminutional feel to it. The animation is amazing because it is filled with lots of experimentation, animation techniques and strong characters. I am not certain why he chose to give it the effect that made the animation appear as if it was chalk on a blackboard. The following pioneer of animation kept his film appear as it was created, pen on paper.

 Uploaded: MbEqd, 06/07/12, Gertie the Dinosaur (Winsor McCay, 1914) First Animated Cartoon, Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KiKw2Ow7XA, Accessed: 18/02/13

Instead of experimenting with animation techniques, Winsor McCay (creator of Gertie the Dinosaur) used simple drawings to make a unique 3 diminutional effect. At that time, a motion of movement applied on Winsor McCay's animations was as impressive as computer generated 3 diminutional animation is to us today. Not even that, his drawing skills were impressive as well, he was an excellent draftsman having the ability to draw from memory. During a time when to reference an extinct animal was difficult, he managed to prove anyone who denied his drawing abilities wrong. the character 'Gertie the Dinosaur' also hand a strong human like personality to it.

McCay began his career as a comic book artist. Howard Beckerman has written in his book, 'Winsor McCay's talents were equally at home in vaudeville and, like Blackton, he strode the boards as a chalk-talk headliner. This could easily have brought him in contact with the animated subjects of Blackton and Cohl and sparked his interest in animated drawings. His own explanation was that the simple flipbooks his son brought home had triggered his desire to bring drawings to life'. Howard Beckerman, 01/10/03, Animation The Whole Story, Revised edn, Allworth Press, U.S., p18-19, 21/02/13

The Rotoscope (image taken from Index of/Features/Fleischer/, 10/08/12, Available: http://digitalmediafx.com/Features/Fleischer/?NA, Accessed: 02/03/13 

Max Fleischer invented the technique of rotoscoping. A technique in which the animator traces over live footage, frame by frame to create their animation. It was done by drawing on a transparent easel, on which a movie projects an image. We see many rotoscope animations today, but I have not always been too keen on rotoscoping. I feel that it is like cheating in animation, the animator does not have good drawing skills and we cannot improve on our drawing ability because when we draw either from observation or imagination our understanding of the structure of the form we draw is being absorbed into our skills and our brains. With rotoscoping, the possibilities to absorb that exact skill is less likely to happen. Most people may end up doing rotoscoping if they feel that they do not have enough time to complete their animation into the appropriate deadline or as I have already mentioned, because they do not have good drawing ability.

Many animators have their own reasons for rotoscoping and need to be grateful indeed towards it's inventor, Max Fleischer. Upon reading a book about Fleischer (written by his son; Richard Fleischer), I learned that he did not come from a wealthy family. His farther was an immigrant from Austria, living with his wife and children in Ellis Island and working as a tailor. His son, Max Fleistcher chose to study mechanics at an evening high school whilst working as an artist during daytime at The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He also received training to become a photography retoucher. After leaving The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, he went to work as an engraver, where he picked up new skills. He had so much interest in film and animation, as well as having interest in art, machinery and science. He met a scientist named Waldemer Klaempffert, who encouraged Max Fleischer to find a way to make animations smoother, because he was not too happy with some of the animations he saw at that time. During the mid-1910s, Max Fleischer and his brother, David Fleischer worked together to create a smoother style of animation. Max Fleischer invented the technique of rotoscoping and by 1918, he released the first rotoscope animation Out of the Inkwell, (Richard Fleischer, 24/06/05, Out of the Inkwell: Max Fleischer and the Animation Revolution, The University Press of Kentucky, Accessed: 02/03/13). 

 Uploaded: Scruffy Redwood, 08/01/13, Out of the Inkwell: The Tantalizing Fly (1919) - A Max Fleischer Cartoon, Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keH7yoPeuLg, Accessed: 02/03/13

When we look at this animation by Max Fleischer, we can already see that his character: Koko the Clown looks almost lifelike. But it still feels like a cartoon because Fleischer applied the movement and behaviour of an animated character over a traced character. Which is the magic of Max Fleischer's rotoscoping. To me it almost feels as if he created an animation and brought it into the reality world.