ANIMATION

DEFINITION

•The process of photographing drawings or objects a frame at a time; by changing a drawing or moving an object slightly before each frame is taken, the illusion of motion is realized.

HISTORY

• Some argue that the earliest animations were created thousands of years ago in the earliest cave paintings.

• However, motion picture animation was not created until the late 1800s.

• In 1923 Walt Disney opened his own studio, and in 1928 released one of the most famous early cartoons, Steamboat Willie

• By 1930, Warner Bros. had a cartoon studio.

• In 1995, Pixar created the first fully computer-animated film, Toy Story

History of Animation video

DIFFERENCES IN STYLES

Western Japanese

Western

• Often there is a very clear hero and villain, with little to no ambiguity

• Common use of musical numbers and songs to convey emotions and inner thoughts

• Usually comical in nature and targeted at children, or families

• Physical features are often out of proportion

Japanese

• Lack of clearly evil and clearly good characters

• Rarely use songs and musical numbers, but often have long periods of silence

• Often has adult themes and is targeted at that audience

• Characters’ physical features are often more realistic

HAND DRAWN VS COMPUTER RENDERED

• Hand drawn animation requires a lot of time because each frame must be drawn.

• Most are filmed at 24 fps, and usually one picture is shot for two frames.

• That means traditional animation requires 12 unique pictures per second!

• Of course computer animation can be accomplished in a relatively short time. This is time/money saving for animation studios

• However, many animation artists like the “feel” of hand drawn pictures. They believe it achieves a tone that computer generated images cannot attain.