Animation I INTRODUCTION Finding Nemo A clown fish named Marlin, left, and his friend Dory search for Marlin's son in the computer-animated feature film Finding Nemo (2003). The movie was made by Pixar, a studio that has had great success with digitally animated motion pictures such as Toy Story (1995) and Monsters, Inc. (2001). Walt Disney Co./Courtesy of The Everett Collection, Inc. Animation, motion pictures created by recording a series of still images--drawings, objects, or people in various positions of incremental movement--that when played back no longer appear individually as static images but combine to produce the illusion of unbroken motion. The term animation applies to creations on film, video, or computers, and even to motion toys, which usually consist of a series of drawings or photographs on paper that are viewed with a mechanical device or by flipping through a hand-held sequence of images (for example, a pad of paper can be used to create an animated flipbook of drawings). The term cartoon is sometimes used to describe short animated works (under ten minutes) that are humorous in nature. II TECHNIQUES There are many ways to create animation, depending on whether the materials used are two-dimensional (flat, such as drawings, paintings, or cut-out pieces of paper) or three-dimensional (having volume, such as clay, puppets, household objects, or even people). In each case, an animator must keep in mind the basic principle of frames per second (the number of images needed to produce one second of film). Because sound film runs at 24 frames per second, a film animator must make 24 images for each second of animation that he or she wishes to create. A common timesaving practice is to film animation on twos or on threes, meaning that the animator actually uses one image for two or three frames of film in a row, rather than using each image only once. A The Production Process After choosing an idea for a film, an animator must think about a concept in terms of individual actions. For instance, if the animator decides on an action that will take 3 seconds of animation to complete, he or she will have to create images to fill 72 frames of film (3 seconds of movement multiplied by a running speed of 24 frames per second). Filmed on twos, 36 drawings showing progressive changes in the movement will be needed to create the 3-second action. Different media use different frame rates. The standard for American videotape (National Television Standards Committee or NTSC) is 30 frames per second, while some digital animation programs (such as Macromedia's Flash) can run as slowly as 12 frames per second. No matter what standard is used, the ability to think in terms of incremental movement is essential to the animation process. An animator must do a lot of planning, or preproduction work, before an animation is recorded. Whereas live-action filmmakers might improvise on the set, most animators have everything precisely timed prior to filming. Before any animation of images can be done, many details must be completed, such as developing the concept; storyboarding the concept (sketching the major events in a story with panel-like drawings, much like a comic strip); developing and recording a dialogue track, if used, and other sound elements; timing the dialogue or other sounds and recording this information on a time sheet (which shows, in seconds, the length of each bit of sound); and timing the action to fit the sound. In some cases, dialogue is recorded after animation is complete; this has been a common practice in the Japanese animation industry. Depending on the size and budget of the production, the animator may work with a team of character designers, model builders, background artists, inspirational sketch artists, colorists, and other professionals who influence the look of the work. An individual, or independent, animator can take on all these roles. B Types of Animation Animator at Work Animators use computers for every part of the animation process, from creating a storyboard (a scene-by-scene illustration of the plot) to imitating camera movement. This animator is creating a scene for the motion picture Antz (1998). C. Lepetit/Liaison Agency If an animator is basing the animation project on drawings, one of the most common animation techniques, he or she will first create a series of rough sketches that often will be filmed in a pencil test (simple line drawings of the animated images done in pencil) to determine whether the desired motion has been achieved. If the pencil test is satisfactory, images are refined ("cleaned up") by removing excess lines. Beginning in the mid-1910s, animation was often completed using acetate cels (sheets of celluloid), although this technique is now being overtaken by computerized methods. Using the traditional cel process, cleaned-up drawn images are traced onto a cel by a person known as an inker, using special acetate-adhering inks. Later, a painter applies vinyl paint colors onto the back of the cel. Starting in the 1960s, to save time and money many large studios used a photocopy process, rather than hand inking, to transfer lines from the drawn original to the acetate cel. Puppet animation uses three-dimensional figures that are moved incrementally for each frame of film. Well-known puppet animation directors include Hungarian artist George Pal, Czech artist Ji? í Trnka, and Russian artist Ladislas Starewicz. Animation using wooden puppets has been associated principally with Eastern Europe, which has a strong tradition of toy making. Since the 1980s latex figures--rubber-like puppets usually supported by a flexible internal skeleton called an armature--have become popular in animation. This type of puppet was used in the animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Clay animation employs figures made of Plasticine, a material that has an oil base to keep it flexible. Like latex puppets, clay figures are typically supported by some kind of armature, ranging from a complex "ball-and-socket" skeleton to simple twisted wire (which provided the armature for the popular Gumby character). Clay animation is often associated with the Will Vinton Studio, located in Portland, Oregon, which in 1986 created the famous California Raisins television commercials using its special Claymation technique. More recently, Aardman Animations--based in Bristol, England--has emerged as a leader in clay animation with the Wallace & Gromit series of short films and the full-length feature Chicken Run (2000). The animation technique known as pixilation uses humans or other live subjects filmed incrementally in various fixed poses; when the movements are played back, the subjects move in an unnatural or somewhat surreal way. One famous example of this type of animation is the short film Neighbors (1952), made by the Scottish animator Norman McLaren at the National Film Board of Canada. Pinscreen animation, a relatively unusual method, was developed in France by Russian-born Alexandre Alexeieff and American Claire Parker. The pinscreen (also known as a pinboard, or by its French name, l'écran d'épingles) is composed of a large upright frame containing a white board that is perforated by millions of pins, or nails. Using rollers of different sizes, these pins are pushed inward or outward. Lit from the side with a single spotlight, the pattern of pins creates shadows. Dark shadows appear black, light shadows appear in variations of gray, and brightly lit areas appear to be white. This technique was used in Une nuit sur le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Mountain, 1933) and a few other films. Computers can be used to automate many animation processes, such as shading and coloring (see Computer animation). Although computers were once shunned by studios and animators who prided themselves on handmade craftsmanship, recent projects, such as the motion picture Toy Story (1995), demonstrate that new technologies have gained greater acceptance in the industry. Computer animators are generally expected to have the same drawing skills and understanding of incremental movement and timing that are necessary to create more traditional techniques. Many computer animators work on projects intended for video games and the Internet, and they also find employment creating special effects for feature films. Studios employ an extensive range of technologies in the creation of computer animation. Many studios take widely available off-the-shelf software programs and make proprietary (studio-owned) modifications to enhance the capabilities of the programs. Some digital animation, particularly that which is created for games or for special effects in live-action films, use a technology called motion capture. Motion capture entails the use of live performers who wear suits containing a number of "data points" that transmit data through a variety of wired or wireless technology and cameras situated around the performance area. Using the data collected during the performance, computers can be used to construct relatively lifelike animated imagery, either in real time (immediately) or through postproduction methods. Motion capture often is compared to rotoscoping, a technique where individual frames of an actor's filmed performance are projected onto sheets of paper and traced to create a series of drawings. When filmed, these drawings can create an animated sequence that is very lifelike in its appearance and movement. Austrian-born animator Max Fleischer patented the rotoscoping process in 1917. III HISTORY Looney Tunes Beginning in the late 1930s, the animation studios of Warner Bros. created some of the most memorable characters in pop culture in a cartoon series known as Looney Tunes. Some of the best-known included, left to right, Elmer Fudd, Road Runner, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Wile E. Coyote, and Daffy Duck. The studio created hundreds of short cartoons featuring these and other characters. Warner Bros TV/Courtesy of The Everett Collection, Inc. Precursors of animation include optical toys or devices that involve incremental movement and the appearance of motion. One such device is the thaumatrope, a disk with complementary images (a bird and a cage, for example) printed on each side and two strings that serve as handles; when the disk is spun by twirling the strings, the images converge (the bird would appear to be inside the cage). The thaumatrope, which was developed by English physician John A. Paris in 1825, demonstrates the concept of persistence of vision: Images remain implanted on the eye for a split second after they have moved and, if continuous images appear rapidly enough, they will seem to be connected (overlapped, in the case of the thaumatrope, or in continuous motion, in the case of animated films). Belgian scientist Joseph Plateau developed another early animation device, the phenakistiscope, in 1832. This rotating disk contains successive images that, when viewed properly, give the appearance of motion. In 1877 French inventor Émile Reynaud patented the praxinoscope, a cylinder containing a strip of paper with animated images that can be seen through the use of a mirror (see Motion Pictures, History of: Origins). Early Cartoon Animation This Mutt and Jeff cartoon from the second decade of the 20th century shows how early the conventions of cartoon animation became established. Jeff teeters theatrically on the column before falling off and is then able to reverse his fall by running in midair as fast as he can. These typical hijinks were repeated in countless later cartoons. Huntley Film Archives Animation has been a part of cinema history from the time the first motion pictures were made in the late 1800s. Some early live-action films, known as trick films, used the animation technique of stop action, in which the camera is stopped and an object is removed or added to a shot before filming is resumed. Some of the pioneers of drawn animation films were well-known newspaper cartoonists, such as French artist Émile Cohl (whose films include Fantasmagorie, 1908), often considered to have been the first true animator, and American artist Winsor McCay (whose films include Little Nemo, 1911; and Gertie the Dinosaur, 1914). Although dimensional animation techniques were used in the early years of filmmaking, American motion-picture studios soon determined that two-dimensional (flat) animation was best suited for the assembly-line techniques they had adopted to make the filmmaking process more efficient. One of the milestones of efficient animation production was the patenting of a cel animation production process by American animator Earl Hurd in 1914. Because they were clear, cels reduced the number of times an image had to be redrawn; as a result, different drawings of moving parts could be laid over a single static image. Cels were not widely used for some time, largely because of the cost of licensing the process. Most early animators used other timesaving methods. With the slash-and-tear system, for example, an artist would draw moving images (the characters, for example) on one sheet of paper and tear away the excess paper surrounding the images. The remaining portion of the sheet of paper would then be overlaid on another sheet of paper that contained static elements (such as the background), which appeared through torn areas. A Walt Disney Walt Disney Walt Disney, an American cartoonist and film producer, started an entertainment empire with his creation of animated movies and world-renowned amusement parks. Disney appears here at his drawing board in 1950 with a drawing of Mickey Mouse, his most famous cartoon character. Disney won an honorary Oscar (Academy Award) in 1932 for his creation of Mickey. UPI/THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE For most of animation's history, cel animation has been the industry standard, in part because of the worldwide influence of one studio, now known as the Walt Disney Company. The company's founder, Walt Disney, was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where he met animator Ub Iwerks and composer Carl Stalling, who were to be important to his future success. Disney began animating films in Kansas City, then moved to California in 1923 to work on a new series he called Alice Comedies. These films, which combined a live-action character with an animated environment, were distributed by Margaret J. Winkler, an important producer in the early film industry who also handled the popular Felix the Cat and Koko the Clown cartoon series. After losing the rights to his Oswald the Rabbit series, which he had developed in the 1920s, Disney (with his then-partner Iwerks) created a character that was to become the most famous animated figure in history: Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse made his debut in Steamboat Willie (1928), which includes a musical score by Stalling and was Disney's first sound film. Mickey Mouse Perhaps the world's most famous cartoon character, Mickey Mouse was created by American animator Walt Disney in the late 1920s. Mickey became a star in Steamboat Willie (1928), the first animated cartoon to feature sound. He went on to appear in countless cartoons, comics, and animated films such as Fantasia (1940). SYGMA/Corbis The Mickey Mouse series of short films gradually incorporated a number of other popular characters and ran for several years. During the 1930s Disney also produced the Silly Symphony series of shorts which served as a venue for experimentation with new technologies (for example, Technicolor, an important early color film system) and for exploration of the relationship between visuals and music (these shorts can be considered precursors to Disney's full-length animated film Fantasia, which appeared in 1940 and in which animated images served as interpretations of well-known symphonic music). Later in the decade, the studio released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), the first animated feature-length film made in the United States. B Mid- to Late-20th Century Animation The Flintstones The Flintstones was a popular animated series for television created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The show, which originally aired from 1960 to 1966, focused on the humorous mishaps of the "modern Stone Age" Flintstone family. Shown here are Wilma and Fred Flintstone and their neighbor and Fred's coworker, Barney Rubble (at the window). The Everett Collection, Inc. Other important animation studios of the 1930s and 1940s included Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Terrytoons, the Van Buren Studio, Walter Lantz Productions, and Warner Brothers, as well as studios headed by animators Iwerks (who had left the Walt Disney Company in the 1930s) and Max Fleischer. In most studios the work was divided along gender lines, with men having the most flexibility in occupation and women generally limited to inking and painting or other relatively noncreative tasks. At the Disney studio, for example, it was a general policy that women could work only in the ink and paint departments, although some women, such as artists Sylvia Holland and Mary Blair, in fact profoundly influenced the look of Disney animation. Walter Lantz employee Laverne Harding was one of the few women who actually worked as an animator during American animation's so-called Golden Age in the 1930s and 1940s. During this period, animation flourished outside the United States as well. In the 1920s and 1930s French experimental artists such as Marcel Duchamp, in Anémic Cinéma (Anemic Cinema, 1927), and Fernand Léger, in Ballet Mécanique (Mechanical Ballet, 1924), were using animation techniques in conjunction with their work in other fine arts. In England, the General Post Office supported films by experimental animators Len Lye and Norman McLaren (who later founded the animation department at the National Film Board of Canada). England was also the home of Hungarian animator John Halas, who in 1940 founded a studio with British animator Joy Batchelor. The Halas and Batchelor studio produced many important films, including Animal Farm (1954). Notable animators working in Germany included abstract artist Oskar Fischinger, who went to the United States in 1936 and later influenced American abstract animators such as Harry Smith, Jordan Belson, James Whitney, and John Whitney. German animator Lotte Reiniger created beautiful animated films using intricately cut-out paper figures silhouetted with backlighting (lighting from behind). Reiniger's most famous film is Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926), one of the first feature-length animated films. Scene from James and the Giant Peach The motion picture James and the Giant Peach is an adaptation of a 1961 children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The film uses stop-motion animation to bring the book's characters to life. In stop-motion animation, technicians painstakingly change the position of each figure from frame to frame. When the film is played, this creates the illusion of uninterrupted motion. Walt Disney Co./The Everett Collection, Inc. Although many animation techniques have been used through the years with critical and commercial success, the Disney style of cel animation, known as full animation because it has constant movement and a high ratio of drawings per second of film, has had the strongest influence worldwide. Nonetheless, during the mid-1940s a successful alternate style of cel animation was introduced by another studio, United Productions of America (UPA). UPA was founded by Dave Hilberman, Zachary Schwartz, and Stephen Bosustow, all of whom had left Disney due to a strike in 1941. Interested in modern art and in addressing social issues, these artists were determined to create a new style of animation, both in form and content. Using simplified designs and stylized color, UPA made an impact on the world of advertising and the then-new field of television. UPA's technique of using fewer drawings in a more stylized way became known as limited animation. At about the time of UPA's emergence, television was gaining prominence in American society, leading to the establishment of new animation studios by Jay Ward--creator of the Bullwinkle series--and the team of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera (see Hanna-Barbera)--creators of Yogi Bear (1961-1963), The Flintstones (19601966), and The Jetsons (1962-1963, 1984-1985, 1987-1988). UPA's method of limited animation was embraced by many fledgling studios producing animation for television, as a way to create material economically and quickly. High color contrast and solid color fields were also widely used, since television lacked the resolution of motion pictures and therefore required clearly defined images. However, many of the new television animation studios--which helped fill the market for Saturday morning cartoons developed in the early 1960s--were criticized for producing limited animation that lacked the stylistic refinement of the UPA artwork. Some more recent animated shows, such as the Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls (1995- ) and Dexter's Laboratory (1996- ), provide a nostalgic return to that UPA style. Matt Groening Cartoonist Matt Groening is best known as the creator of The Simpsons, an animated television series that premiered in 1990. The show features Groening's own brand of twisted humor, first displayed in his popular comic strip "Life in Hell." Getty Images 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. Particularly notable was the number of American women who began to create animated films during those decades, including Faith Hubley, Mary Beams, Suzan Pitt, Joanna Priestley, and Joan Gratz. Internationally, animation continued to be pursued as an artistic endeavor, particularly in Eastern Europe, Canada, and other countries with government-supported animation studios. Aside from television, perhaps the largest influence on the style of recent animation worldwide has come from computer technologies. Experiments with electronic animation began in the 1930s, but it was not until the late 1970s that computer animation became viable beyond scientific and government applications, particularly for use by the entertainment industry. Computer-animated special effects and techniques to enhance live-action images have become a dominant characteristic of contemporary motion pictures, especially in the action, science fiction, and horror genres. The first film to use computer-generated imagery as a major component was Tron (1982), about a computer programmer who enters the world of his own program. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a production company headed by American filmmaker George Lucas, pioneered the use of computer-animation special effects techniques in such films as Star Wars (1977), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2 (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), and The Mask (1994). In recent years motion capture has been used to create amazing special effects in live-action features, including such films as Titanic (1997) and Gladiator (2000). Computer-animation techniques, including motion capture, have also found broad applications in the computer game industry. For many years producers of motion-picture and television animation were not very receptive to computer work--in part because until recently it has been more expensive to use a computer system than to pay artists to paint cels. Computer-animated figures presented aesthetic problems as well, because they tended to be rigid-looking and to lack a sense of weight. Recent innovations in software have enabled animators to create figures more economically and with a more realistic sense of movement. Today, computers are used extensively throughout all aspects of the animation industry. C Japanese Animation Japanese Anime Japanese animation, known as anime, has grown steadily in popularity since the end of World War II. Some of the best characters and shows, such as the Pokémon characters pictured here, have found a large following in the United States and other countries. In addition to television shows and movies, anime characters are often marketed in cards, games, and other merchandise. Warner Bros TV/Courtesy of The Everett Collection, Inc. Japanese animation, known as anime, blossomed after World War II (1939-1945) and today is immensely popular both within Japan and worldwide. Some of the first animation produced in Japan includes the short film Kachikachi Yama (The Hare Gets Revenge Over the Raccoon, 1939) and the puppet film Musume Dojoji (The Girl at Dojo's Temple, 1946), both directed by Kon Ichikawa, who later also made live-action films. The most important historical figure in Japanese animation, Osamu Tezuka, created the first animated television series in Japan, Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) in 1963. Tezuka also made a number of shorts, among them Onboro Film (Broken Down Film, 1985), which parodies American silent motion pictures. More recently, the success of such animated feature films as Akira (1988), directed by Katsuhiro ? tomo, has earned Japanese anime an international following. One of the most famous Japanese animators is Hayao Miyazaki, whose acclaimed films include Castle in the Sky (1986), Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke, 1997), and Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi (Spirited Away, 2001), which won an Academy Award for best animated feature. The Japanese animated television series Cowboy Bebop (1998), by director Shinichir? Watanabe, is another landmark of the genre. Other important Japanese animators include Yoji Kuri, Kihachiro Kawamoto, Renzo Kinoshita, Taku Furukawa, Isao Takahata, Mamoru Oshii, and Shinichi Suzuki. The Toei studio, one of Japan's largest producers of live-action films, has also played a significant role in animation history with a number of feature films and made-for-television series. IV CURRENT TRENDS Scene from A Bug's Life In the mid- and late 1990s, Pixar Animation Studios emerged as a leading computer animation company. One of Pixar's films was A Bug's Life (1998), about an ant colony's attempts to fend off bullying grasshoppers. Walt Disney Co./EC/The Everett Collection, Inc. Two trends in the animation industry are likely to have a profound influence on its future: a significant increase in production and exhibition opportunities, and the growing importance of new technologies. For many years, animation festivals operating under the auspices of an international animation society, Association Internationale du Film d'Animation (ASIFA), have screened short works from a wide variety of mostly independent (noncommercial) animators. During the mid-1980s, a number of American 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 United States. The advent of home video, laser discs, and digital video discs (DVDs) made distribution of these works more viable and increased their marketability after the festival tours ended. Traveling festivals and home entertainment have brought recognition to talented animators worldwide, and especially to independent artists who would otherwise have had little publicity. For example, commercially available recordings showcase animation from the United Kingdom that is some of the most innovative in the world, including the work of Joanna Quinn, David Anderson, Barry Purves, and Candy Guard. Other artists, such as Bruno Bozzetto from Italy and Paul Driessen of The Netherlands, have also gained much greater exposure because their work appears on videotapes and DVDs. Toy Story Toy Story (1995), created by the animation studio Pixar and produced by the Walt Disney Company, was the first featurelength motion picture made entirely with computer animation. The film, which took four years to complete, humorously portrays the rivalry between the characters Buzz Lightyear (left) and Woody, the cowboy doll (right). The Everett Collection, Inc. Some of this work also appears on television. In the United Kingdom, both Channel4 and the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) have supported the production and broadcast of innovative animation. In the United States, cable channels Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon have developed original animated series. The Internet is another outlet that has made animation distribution even easier. Animators at all levels have created online animation that can be viewed anywhere in the world by accessing the World Wide Web. While exhibition opportunities for short experimental films and independent animation rose during the mid-1980s, a parallel interest emerged in feature-length, mainstream animation in the commercial motion-picture industry. In the United States, the Disney studio's Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), which combines live action and animation in a feature-length film, was a box-office success. Also successful was Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), which was remarkable because it was made using puppets (rather than animation cels) and contained relatively dark themes. On television, The Simpsons (1990- ), created by American cartoonist Matt Groening, became the most successful animated series to appear in prime time. During the 1990s, the Walt Disney Company produced an average of one animated feature per year, releasing such commercial successes as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), Hercules (1997), and Tarzan (1999), all of which benefited from extensive promotional tie-ins such as clothing and toys. At the same time other American animation studios also undertook heavy production schedules of featurelength animation, as well as shorts for television. The Nickelodeon cable network, another major producer of American animation, released a number of original programs in the 1990s, including the controversial but very popular series The Ren & Stimpy Show, created in 1990 by Canadian-born artist John Kricfalusi. The increasing significance of new technologies in the animation industry is exemplified in the work of American animator John Lasseter, who in 1986 began working for Pixar, one of the leading computer animation studios in the United States. Lasseter's highly acclaimed film Luxo, Jr. (1986) was one of the first computer-animated shorts to depict a character with a very human-like personality. In 1989 he won an Academy Award for his computer-animated short film Tin Toy (1988), a forerunner of the first completely computer-animated feature film, the Lasseter-directed Toy Story (1995). The release of Toy Story by Disney--which formed a production and distribution deal with Pixar--signaled that three-dimensional computer animation techniques had been fully embraced by commercial animation studios to create feature-length films. Other digitally animated films soon followed and were major hits: A Bug's Life (1998), Antz (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Dinosaur (2000), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Shrek (2001), Ice Age (2002), and Finding Nemo (2003). In 2001 a new category, "best animated feature," was created for the Academy Awards, with the Oscar going to Shrek. Computer-generated animation has made a significant impact on the animation industry. In recent years, computer-generated animation has focused a great deal of attention on creating realistic-looking human figures, as well as fire, water, fur, natural environments, and other challenges. It is unlikely, however, that other animation techniques will fade completely. As in the past, independent animators will continue to create innovative personal expressions using a variety of approaches, developing new methods and expanding the definition of animation as an art form. Contributed By: Maureen Furniss Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
