Animation history

Animation and Film history 1905-1915

James Stuart Blackton (USA/UK). James was born in England but worked as a journalist in New York. He knew Thomas Edison because he interviewed him. James then became a cameraman, director, and an animator because of Thomas's impact on him. James created what is claimed to be the first drawn animated recording on film. James created Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906), The Enchanted Drawing (1900), and The Haunted Hotel (1907).

Image from YouTube. Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

Image from YouTube. The Enchanted Drawing

Image from YouTube. Fantasmagorie

Emile Cohl (France). Emile was part of an art movement called The Incoherents, they believed in the power of the ridiculous and ludicrous. They helped people who couldn't draw and challenged convention. They procured surrealism and conceptual art. Emile then created a new style of animation were his characters were distorted, stretched, fell apart, transformed into different things. Emile understood that in cartoons, anything was possible. This is what laid the stepping stones for Disney, Warner Bros, and Pixar. Emile created Fantasmagorie (1908), considered to be the first fully animated film.

Martin Thornton (UK). Martin created the film called In Golliwog Land (1912). This was created though both live action and stop-motion. This is known as the first coloured animation film, using the Kinemacolour process. Coloured animations had been done before but only though painting or tinting every single frame one by one. No image can be found.

Image from vimeo.com › Living Lines Library › Videos

Winsor Mccay (USA). Winsor self taught himself and became the first classic animator. His animations were very good at using the vie of prospective, precise lines and intricate designs. He was one of the first animators to preview, test and refine the flow of drawing before filming them. He created the animation called Gertie the Dinosaur (1914).

Image from YouTube. The Cameramans Revenge

Ladislaw Starewicz (Russia).

Ladislaw was famous world wide for his stop-motion animation with embalmed insects. He removed their legs and reattached them with wax, making it possible to animate them. People used to believe the rummer that his insects were alive and trained to do what they did by Russian scientist. He made the films The Beautiful Leukanida (1910) and The Cameramans Revenge (1912).

George Melies (France). George was a successful magician in Paris but after seeing the Lumiere Cinematograph in 1895 he added films to his future. He had his equipment custom-made because the Lumiere brothers were unwilling to sell him one of their machines. George discovered the art of stop frame when his camera jammed and restarted. This was one of his best magic tricks on the screen. He then went on to pioneer the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. He also pioneered the film techniques like fading in and out, dissolves, reverse motion and cutting in the camera. George's films were very popular in France and abroad but then his films were pirated and he didn't get much money for his hard work and then became bankrupted. After making 510 films by 1912, George stopped making films and was in huge debt. No one truly knows why his original footage was destroyed but some of his films had survived till  this day because of the illegal copies. His most well known films was A Trip to the Moon (1902).

Image from YouTube. A Trip to the Moon

All the information in this post is based of the resource power point shared in class.