2. Development of Animation

Animation has developed significantly in the few years it has been around, there have been numerous pioneers, the first being Joseph Plateau he developed the Phenakistoscope. The Phenakistoscope used a spinning disc attached vertically to a handle. Arrayed around the disc's center were a series of drawings showing phases of the animation, and cut through it were a series of equally spaced slits. The user would spin the disc and look through the moving slits at the disc's reflection in a mirror. The scanning of the slits across the reflected images kept them from simply blurring together, so that the user would see a rapid amount of images that appeared to be a single moving picture. Plateau was significant because he was the very first main pioneer of animation, he was the father of a generation that would span hundreds of years.




Another notable pioneer of animation William Horner, He created the zoetrope in the year 1834.A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession. It was basically a improvement on the Phenakistoscope. The Zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.







Emile Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in the year 1877. the praxinoscope was a major improvement on the zoetrope. the improvement was that the narrow viewing slits were replaced with mirrors so that the animations could been seen more clearly and gave a better effect. the way the animation device worked was that  it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. Emile Reynaud also created the first public animation that was seen by many people. this was important to animation because it lead to more and more public animations, and got the public interested in animation with this device and also the animation films he created.

Eadward Muybridge Known as the 'father of the motion picture', his early photographic experiments laid the foundation for modern cinema, with his study, The Horse In Motion made in 1882, regarded by many as the first ever moving picture. Developing his keen interest in photography whilst recovering from a stage coach crash in 1860, Eadweard Muybridge moved to America, joining a San Franciscan photo business. Quickly gaining reputation for landscape work, he was appointed director of photographic surveys for the U.S. Government in 1868, conducting studies of numerous remote areas, including the newly purchased Alaska. It is said that his work sparked the creation of the cinema experience that all of us know and love.






Thomas Edison was  the inventor of the Kinetoscope. This device was used in stop motion animation. The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture device, but not a movie projector. It was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet containing its components. This invention was the basic introduction that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before video. Watching it creates the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of film bearing images over a light source with a high speed shutter. This was incredibly significant because it was the first step to projecting animations onto the big screen.







The Lumiere Brothers patented the cinematograph, which contrary to Edison's "peepshow" kinetoscope, the former allowed viewing by multiple parties at once, like current cinema. Their first film, Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon, shot in 1894, is considered the first real motion picture in history. So from then the use of animation in cinema increased dramatically.

From 1931-1932, George Pal worked at UFA Studios in Berlin where he became head of the cartoon department. Then, he set up his own film studio elsewhere in Berlin. His credentials attracted orders from companies for animated advertising. Instead of the cartoon approach, he developed his own take on making inanimate objects move, even dance, using the still evolving art of stop-motion photography. Advertisements featuring, for instance, Overstolz cigarettes, outfitted with faces, arms, and legs, were shown on theater screens strutting and singing as if drawn by a cartoonist. These "puppets" without strings would later evolve into animated characters made of wood who would have names and star in their own films. He was so significant because his take on animation was so different from other styles and previous Pioneers.





DEVELOPERS

Wills O'Brien was a key developer in the animation world. He developed the film King Kong and various other credits. 16 years after his ground breaking work on "King Kong", Willis O'Brien worked as Chief Technician on another gorilla picture for Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack called "Mighty Joe Young". A young Ray Harryhausen would animate most of the animation, but O'Brien did come up with the designs for the film. At the 1950 Academy Awards, O'Brien was awarded an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. This along with "King Kong", are often considered his greatest achievements.

Ray Harryhausen was an American visual effects creator, writer, and producer who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as "Dynamation." His most memorable works include the animation on Mighty Joe Young, with his mentor Willis H. O'Brien, which won the Academy Award for special effects; The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, his first color film; and Jason and the Argonauts, featuring a famous sword fight against seven skeleton warriors. His last film was Clash of the Titans, after which he retired.

Jan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others. He made a huge amount of revolutionary animated films and played a significant role in the development of animation. He has inspired numerous other Directors and Developers to do what he achieved, this making him have a major impact on todays animation credits.







CONTEMPORARY WORK

Stephen and Timothy Quay studied illustration in Philadelphia before going on to the Royal College of Art in London, where they started to make animated shorts in the 1970s. They have lived in London ever since, making their unique and innovative films under the aegis of Koninck Studios. Influenced by a tradition of Eastern European animation, the Quays display a passion for detail, a breathtaking command of color and texture, and an uncanny use of focus and camera movement that make their films unique and instantly recognizable. Best known for their classic 1986 film Street Of Crocodiles, which filmmaker Terry Gilliam recently selected as one of the ten best animated films of all time, they are masters of miniaturization and on their tiny sets have created an unforgettable world, suggestive of a landscape of long-repressed childhood dreams.


Tim Burton has created huge amounts of animated movies, being one of the most well known and well respected directors of all time. Burton has worked repeatedly with Johnny Depp, who has become a close friend of Burton since their first film together. He has also worked with musician Danny Elfman, who has composed scores for all but two of the films Burton has directed. Actress Helena Bonham Carter, Burton's domestic partner, has appeared in many of his films. He also wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, published in 1997, and a compilation of his drawings, sketches and other artwork, entitled The Art of Tim Burton, was released in 2009.