1914 Gertie the Dinosaur by Winsor Mc Cay

Gertie the Dinosaur is known to be one of the first cel animated films by Winsor Mc Cay, who was an American cartoonist and animator. Mc Cay is well known for his comic strip Little Nemo and of course Gertie the Dinosaur.

 Motion Pictures were something new for the 18^th century and people were still getting used to the idea of drawings coming to life. Although it is known that Gertie the Dinosaur is the first animated cartoons, before Gertie Mc Cay worked on 2 other animations. The very first animation that Mc Cay worked on was called Little Nemo this was a very experimental piece in fact the animation had no story line and consisted of 4000 drawings  which were hand coloured by Mc Cay himself. According to Van Eation “the animation was quite precise and the effects very dreamlike.”

The comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland is considered McCay's masterpiece (July 22, 1906)

The other film Mc Cay worked on was called “The Story of a Mosquito” this animation was about a mosquito that ran into a drunken man. It took Mc Cay one whole year to complete this animation which made a big hit at the theatres, but since motion picture were new for that time it was said that Mc Cay was playing some tricks with wires. And that’s when Mc Cay started working on Gertie the Dinosaur, his aim was to prove that his drawing really did move. 

Gertie the Dinosaur consisted of 10,000 drawings, and with the help of John A Fitzsimmon, the drawings were produced. Fitzsimmon traced the backgrounds on rice paper while Mc Cay did the drawing of Gertie. To produce the animation Mc Cay only had his experience to relay on as he has on guidance from any one. To check the work Mc Cay would put the drawings in a machine which flipped the drawings and helped him view the movement, like a flip book but in a form of a machine.

According to Van Eation “Mc Cay precisely animated details such as particles of dirt falling, and water dripping. He gave Gertie personality and emotions. We see her eating, drinking, playing, and even crying.”

In February 1914 Gertie the Dinosaur debuted in Chicago as part of McCay's vaudeville act and that’s when Mc Cay explained to the audience how the animated film was made, photographed and projected. 

Reference 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GERTIE THE DINOSAUR. 2014. A BRIEF HISTORY OF GERTIE THE DINOSAUR. [ONLINE] Available at: http://vegalleries.com/gerthistory.html. [Accessed 19 November 2014

Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo » Madinkbeard | Derik Badman. 2014. Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo » Madinkbeard | Derik Badman. [ONLINE] Available at: http://madinkbeard.com/archives/winsor-mccays-little-nemo. [Accessed 19 November 2014].

Century Film Project | Celebrating the movies our ancestors loved. 2014. Century Film Project | Celebrating the movies our ancestors loved. [ONLINE] Available at: https://centuryfilmproject.wordpress.com/. [Accessed 19 November 2014].

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2014. Gertie the Dinosaur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertie_the_Dinosaur. [Accessed 19 November 2014].

Change Before Going Productions. Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) - 1st Keyframe Animation - Winsor McCay, 2013 - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXC8gXOPoU. [Accessed 19 November 2014].

The first type of Animation

Cave paintings 

Animation dates back to Paleolithic a time which is over 35,000 years ago when attempts were made to capture motion in drawings. The cave paintings of that time depict animals in super imposed positions these were drawn with an aim of conveying the perception of motion.

In cave paintings across France, animals appear to have multiple limbs, heads and tails, but according to the archaeologist and film maker Marc Azema of the University of Toulouse Le Mirail, who spent over two decades studying the phenomenon, the paintings are actually primitive animations. When these animations are viewed unsteady light or flickering flames the image appears to move.

The Egyptians and The Greeks 

Byrne (2008, p.9) states that although the phrase "cartoon" is very recent, cartoons goes back to the Ancient Greeks and the Egyptians where they used imagery to tell a story and decorate their vases as for the Egyptian hieroglyphics some consider these to be to be the first type of comic strips. (John, B., 2008., need to know? Cartooning. London, HarperCollins)

In 1600 BC the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses built a temple to Isis. The temple had 110 columns on it and, on each column, was a progressively changed image of Isis. People on horseback riding by would perceive Isis moving.

The Ancient Greeks sometimes decorated pots with figures in successive stages of action. Spinning the pot would create a sense of motion!

The images below are a good example of Disney’s influences for instance the Muses from "Hercules", is inspired by the art found on Greek vases and urns, among the other art from Greece. And how they based the "Lion King's” villain, Scar, from African art. One can notice the similarities of the eyes. 

John, B., 2008., need to know? Cartooning. London, HarperCollins

Animation. 2014. Animation. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.slideshare.net/Ravit4/animation-14251091. [Accessed 9 October 2014].

1898 Humpty Dumpty Circus ( Stopmotion Movie)

The basic process of Stop Motion animation is involves taking a photograph of an object or a character by moving it slightly and taking another photograph and when you move it consequently, the objects or the characters appear on their own  

According to Lestyn Roberts the 1898 Humpty Dumpty Circus happens to be one of the first stop motion movies. The stop motion technique was used by both Albert E. Smith who was an American Film producer of the Silent Era and J. Stuart Blackton who was the pioneer and co-founder of the American Vitagraph Company.

The Movie consisted of a circus and wooden acrobat toy animals. It is said that Albert E. Smith borrowed his daughter’s toy animals and used them as the characters of the film which were brought to life by capturing the movements of the wooden toys fram by frame by means of a camera and when the sequence of images were played it created movement.   

In 1989 the movies was produced and released at the cinema in the U.S.A as a black and white film.

IESTYN ROBERTS, 2013. Albert E. Smith & J. Stuart Blackton, "The Humpty Dumpty Circus" (1898) -. [ONLINE] Available at: http://splinebomb.com/albert-e-smith-j-stuart-blackton-the-humpty-dumpty-circus-1898/. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

The stop motion technique is seen all the time especially in TV advertisements, music videos, Television shows and films.

Stop motion comes in different styles such as:

Paper cut out Animation

Claymation (clay animation)

Puppet Animation

Object Animation

Pixilation

Silhouette Animation

Claymation (Clay Animation)

The Video below is an example of a clay Animation the character has been sculpted in clay but the sets has been done in cardboard. Joseph Walles states that the entire clip as been shot with a Canon 5D and a DragonFrame which is a mechanism that provides video assist tools for the animator and it is a central hub for capturing and organizing high resolution frames form the camera.

Joseph Wallace. The man who was afraid of flying, 2011 on Vimeo. [ONLINE] Available at: http://vimeo.com/33320789. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

Puppet Animation 

Puppet animation uses similar techniques that are used in Claymation the only difference is that the puppets are ready made rather than having to be sculpted in clay.

Lívia Molnár.Séta (Walk) 2011 - Puppet Animation, 2012 Beautiful Cutout Animation) Cloud Bread - "Cloud Bread" (first episode) - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEoseZw_tok. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

Cut-Out Animation 

Paper cut-out animation is one of the oldest and simplest animation techniques. Cut out animation involves producing 2D characters, props and sciences cut out from materials such as paper, card and sometimes fabrics. Laybourne (1988, pp.60. 61) This technique is usually done by dividing the characters into small sections, piece together the individual cut-out shapes and move them in small steps, and taking a picture at each step, to create the illusion of movement.

These days Cut-out animation is often produced by using computers, by replacing physically cut-out shapes with digitized, scanned images. Cut-out animation is a popular technique because it saves production time and leads to smaller file size.

Gimcman. (Beautiful Cutout Animation) Cloud Bread - "Cloud Bread" (first episode), 2011 - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEoseZw_tok. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

  

Pixilation 

Ashish Garg states that Pixilation animation can is one of the most demanding forms of stop motion animation for this kind of animation live actors are moved in front of the camera rather then moving objects bit by bit in front of the camera ( Ashish Garg,2013. Stop Motion Animation: Another Approach to Animation [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.maacindia.com/blog/index.php/stop-motion-animation-another-approach-to-animation/. [Accessed 18 November 2014].)

Oren Lavie. Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie, 2009. - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

Object Animation 

According to Ashish Garg "Object animation involves the animated movements of non-drawn objects such as toys, blocks, dolls, etc"( Ashish Garg,2013. Stop Motion Animation: Another Approach to Animation [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.maacindia.com/blog/index.php/stop-motion-animation-another-approach-to-animation/. [Accessed 18 November 2014].)

PESfilm. Western Spaghetti by PES, 2008 YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

  

Silhouette Animation 

 

According to Ashish Garg “Silhouette animation involves characters who are only visible as black silhouettes. This is usually accomplished by back-lighting detailed cardboard cut-outs, though other methods exist. It is partially inspired by shadow play.” 

John Paul Sawan. Saccharine (Silhouette Animation), 2009. - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgBY_oqouSk#t=19. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

Referencing

IESTYN ROBERTS, 2013. Albert E. Smith & J. Stuart Blackton, "The Humpty Dumpty Circus" (1898) -. [ONLINE] Available at: http://splinebomb.com/albert-e-smith-j-stuart-blackton-the-humpty-dumpty-circus-1898/. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

Joseph Wallace. The man who was afraid of flying, 2011 on Vimeo. [ONLINE] Available at: http://vimeo.com/33320789. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

Lívia Molnár.Séta (Walk) 2011 - Puppet Animation, 2012 Beautiful Cutout Animation) Cloud Bread - "Cloud Bread" (first episode) - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEoseZw_tok. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

Gimcman. (Beautiful Cutout Animation) Cloud Bread - "Cloud Bread" (first episode), 2011 - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEoseZw_tok. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

Oren Lavie. Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie, 2009. - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

PESfilm. Western Spaghetti by PES, 2008 YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

John Paul Sawan. Saccharine (Silhouette Animation), 2009. - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgBY_oqouSk#t=19. [Accessed 18 November 2014].

Kit, L., 1988., The animation book. New York, Three Rivers Press. 

Cartoon Illustrations In the Digital World

The above image is a mind map that have worked on which lead me to the topic that I want to investigate. 

I intend to investigate live action remakes of animated classics,

I intend to investigate Alice in Wonderland illustrations by John Tanniel which are found within the books of Louis Carrol, and how Mary Blair's illustrations of Alice in Wonderland  had been rejected because in featured visual styles that had been drawn by John Tanniel. 

I intend to compare and contrast the illustrations of Mary Blair and John Tanniel with the ones of Disney and Tim Burton's version of  Alice in wonderland.

I also intend to investigate other artists such as the digital artist and illustrator Tyson Murphy, who has been recreating the scenes from animated classics.