Some of the fondest childhood memories usually belong to those lazy Sunday mornings spent watching animation, cartoons on TV.
Whether it was iconic tales of our beloved cat attempting to best his adversary in futile match, or carrot munching rabbit humouring just to and from what’s up doc animated pictures have always just captivated the imagination.
It might have been the curiosity and enthusiasm that has led so many dramatic changes in the video animations industry in a short period of time when it comes to the animation industry in Japan, USA and Korea.
If one plunges deeper one will find animations technique as old as storytelling and it continues to captivate both home and business audiences in the form of video marketing.
In simple terms the animation is art in motion, something the human beings discovered as early as the Paleolithic age.
Animation today is very much distinguished by cartoon characters in motion , telling a story.
The history of animation technology showcasing moving art pieces and images changed over years.
Now in a world where computer and internet technology helps create some terrific animated videos very much enjoyed by diversified assemblage.
One might just go back to flashback and might relive the evolution and history of animation and might explore certain things that is yet to come.
- The Fascinating Roots
- The crude Beginnings
- Traditional animation technology
- The computer Revolution
- The Golden Era of CGI
The fascinating roots
People realized very quickly that pictures taken of moving objects could be changed in succession to create an illusion of motion picture.
A 5000 year old pottery depicted a moving goat through a series of images.
Now take a look at the following image from an Egyptian mural showcasing a wrestling match through images.
People actually narrated stories using hand drawn shadows also called shadowgraphy.
People actually told stories using hand drawn shadows also called cinema in silhouette.
Stories were being told with the help of magic lanterns used to project moving images.
The crude beginning
The Phenakiscope was the first real animation device .
This device was discovered by Joseph Plateau in the year 1832.
It was the first device that could create a fluid illusion of animation.
The early animations film were crude with devices that were relatively simple and primitive
The first such system was called the theatre Optique .
The series of animated films included Pauvre Pierrot and Autour d’Une cabine.
Each of his films contained 300-700 frames to last 10-15 minutes.
Traditional animation technology
In traditional animation history hand drawn animation was created using Cel animations.
Cel was a transparent sheet consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor used to create hand drawn objects.
Characters were drawn on Cells and superimposed on common background images to reduce the number of frames and production time.
Colonel Heeza Liar was the first animated cartoon series created using animation technique.
The production house was John Bray Studios.
Steamboat Wille was released in 1928 and it was the first animated film to include sound.
Many considered this the first animated feature film but there were as many as 7 films which were released before.
However this was the first one completely made using hand drawn animations technique.
The movie was the debut of one of the lovable characters, Mickey Mouse.
Following the release of Snow White and Seven Dwarfs in 1937 animated film was a popular form of entertainment.
The stories and characters started getting recognized and remembered by everyone.
Another animation technique that was commonly used in the traditional era was stop motion animations.
One may have observed the jerking movement of objects within the film sequences .
This has happened because the technique is used to create a perception of movement in the object.
The computer Revolution
Motion graphic- Although the first few computer animated films were very basic to the least it in fact changed the way animation was done.
Hummingbird was the first computer generated film .
It was made using 30,000 images and 25 motion sequences generated by computer.
The frame by frame animation of 2d characters could be done entirely on a computer.
Not only it made the process less arduous, it gave graphic artists more control and they were able to produce content without the use of actors, expensive species or props.
One of the 2d animated films in the history of 2d animation was Sword in the Stone produced by Disney.
One of the popular films of the age included Jungle Book, Mary Poppins and the Aristocrats.
The stop motion animations technique was succeeded by what we call today as computer animation.
Modern computer animation includes both 2d as well as 3d animated graphics which were then put in motion using either frame by frame or rigging technique.
The technique ensured that films were created and rendered faster, also ensuring that animation was not just used to produce cinema and TV series but also brand storytelling and webseries.
The Golden Era of CGI
CGI generated images have totally revolutionized cinema and entertainment and then it has had an impact on business.
In Cinema and entertainment –
Computers have pushed the envelope with the development of 3d animations.
3d models or characters were constructed on a computer monitor using geometrical shapes in the 3d coordinate system.
Once the virtual skeleton of the characters are complete, eyes, limbs and clothes were moved on to the frames animation was rendered.
One of the first films to be produced using 3d animations computer graphics in the history of 3d animation was Adventures of Andre and Wally B by Pixar.
Pixar presented the ground breaking form of entirely CGi generated animation with Toy story in 1995.
Using a complex system of model articulation and motion control coding Pixar was usually used to create characters with depth, charm and personality.
Animated Videos for Branded Video content –
Big Brands like Coca-cola, Apple, Hubspot, and Dropbox have started making use of cartoon animated videos and motion graphics to tell their brand story.
Animation has entered mainstream brand storytelling after the advent of the internet and related technologies.
In traditional animations each frame is placed one after another and there are about 24-29 frames per second.
Modern animations makes use of rigging technique wherein one need to create only two frames for each sequence , the computer program generates all the frames in between.
In Modern 3d animations and Motion graphics, Winsupply is another notable example of how one helped a hardware brand create awareness through a story driven cartoon animated video.
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