History of animation

Hand drawn cell

• Hand drawn cell animation is a technique where each frame of the animation is hand drawn. This technique was one of
the most popular techniques within cinema until computer animation was introduced in around 1959. one of the most
popular hand drawn movies is the snow white film.
• Hand drawn animation uses multiple layers to create the animation. The background 9is typically very detailed and shaded
to make it look very realistic compared to the simplistic character. The characters are usually block colours and unshaded
which makes them basic.
• The background colour will be painted with either oil or acrylic paints, where as the character will be painted onto a clear
cell using acrylic paint. The cell will then be placed on top of the background and either scanned or photographed.
• Generally, the characters are drawn on cels and laid over a static background drawing. This reduces the number of times
an image has to be redrawn and enables studios to split up the production process to different specialised teams. Using
this line way to animate has made it possible to produce films much more cost-effectively. The invention of the technique
is generally attributed to Earl Hurd, who patented the process in 1914.
Flipbooks
• Flipbook animation is typically created using a pen by hand. One of the disadvantages of using a flip book for animation is
that it is very time consuming as it can only be made by one person. The method can be very difficult as you need to get
the dimensions and the positioning of the drawings correct every time otherwise the animation will not work correctly.
• The oldest known documentation of the flip book appeared in September, 1868, when it was patented by John Barnes
Linnett under the name kineograph ("moving picture"). They were the first form of animation to employ a linear sequence
of images rather than circular.
• Flip books are not always separate books, but may appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in
the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip
books.
• Vintage flip books are popular with collectors and especially the rare flip books from the late 19th to early 20th century
have been known to fetch thousands of dollars in sales and auctions.
Animated cartoons
• Within the 1950’s TV animation became very popular and animated programmes became a very serious and competitive business. During
this era, animation was quite limited on styles and colours, black white and grey, the music and soundtrack that accompanied the lacking in
design and quality animations was often the main selling point to the programmes and played a huge part in the entertainment.
• The popular TV animation The Flintstones by Hanna-Barbera was the first cartoon to become successful within primetime viewing in the
America. The show ran from 1960 to 1966 and has had re-runs ever since, some television stations even show the show within this era.
Many networks then followed this success like Top Cat, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and The Alvin Show.
• The most popular animated cartoon produced was Micky Mouse, who has had many spin offs and became Disney’s mascot, the character is
a universal icon recognised by almost anyone.
• Pop-eye and Betty Boop were popular animate series after micky mouse. These characters are no longer in series but they are still quite
popular in merchandise. In 1990 there were not many animated primetime cartoons until the Simpsons which introduced adult cartoons.
Nowbig shows like South Park, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, American Dad, and Futurama are a large part of adult television.
Animation process
• Within the animation process there are multiple different steps within the process. The first step is where the brief regarding the job will be
overviewed. This is important and as soon as all the considerations involving the design of the characters, the backgrounds and the
animation plot/content is taken care of then the animation process begins. The script is a process which is important to move onto
storyboarding. The script must contain enough information on actions as well as verbal content so that the storyboard artists will
understand what is wanted of them for the scene.
• All animation processes begin with the storyboards. Here a group of artists will sketch out the scenes which will be depictions of what is
written on the script. These will be drawn on separate piece of paper and the scenes will be as close as a very brief ‘flipbook’.A debate will
then take place looking at what scenes can be aded and cut, once this debate is overr the scenes will be sent over to the animators.
• Within this stage there are further cuts made. Currently the graphics will be 2-dimentional, 3D productions will be sent onto a 3D rendering
team next, but 2D animations will now move onto the backgrounds. As in cel animation the characters are drawn on a clear piece of film,
they will be overlaid onto a background. They will then be re-positioned and either scanned or photographed In order to be digitally
assembled. If created on a computer the only difference is that rather than re-positioning physical sheets and characters, the alterations will
be done digitally in one of two ways.
• The characters will have ‘bones’ meaning they can be used like a puppet like in the traditional method the characters will be re-drawn
multiple times.
• In the 1950’s TV animation became popular, and animated programes quickly became a very competitive business. The era consisted of
quite limited animation styles, and limited colours, black white and grey, and was usually cel-animation, the music that accompanied the
animation was usually an orchestral piece which was designed to play certain sounds and pitches in time with the animation. The
complexity of most animated cartoons originally was not too complicated, but these boundaries were pushed by Walt Disney.
Graphic informational file (GIF)
• A GIF (Graphical Interchange Format) is an image format invented in 1987 by Steve Wilhite, a US software writer who was
looking for a way to animate images in the smallest file size.
• A GIF file format supports up to 8 bits per pixel for an image, allowing a single image to reference its own palette of up to
256 different colours which are chosen from the 24-bit RGB colour space.
• typically GIF’s will be used to save simple animations, they do not hold audio or sound. They are compatible with almost
every programme meaning they can be used pretty much everywhere. If the GIF format is not compatible with a
programme usually the GIF will be loaded as a still image. Photoshop is commonly used to create gifs and animations,
there are multiple sites online which provide free gif assembly if the user has already created the frames all they will have
to do is upload the files.
• If GIF’s contain too many frames then they will slow down and glitch, however if multiple gifs are saved with small
number of frames but accumulatively create a long animation are all uploaded to software such as Adobe Premiere the
user will have the option to create as long an animation they desire using a gif.
• A lot of businesses use GIF’s as they believe that:
• GIFs are easily shareable.
• GIFs show that the company is paying attention to trends.
• GIFs display a fun side.
• GIFs can add more context or emotion in a much shorter message.
Java applets
• Java applets utilize bytecode to display information. They are used in order to allow for interactive features on a web
page/application which cannot be done using HTML/XHTML alone. A Java applet will recognize a mouse input and this
allows control over buttons and check boxes as well as other input options making it useful for shopping check out
browsers.
• Java applets are usually written in Java, but other languages such as Jython, Jruby, Pascal, Scala, or Eiffel (via SmartEiffel)
may be used as well.
• An applet can also be a text area only; providing something like a cross-platform command-line interface to some remote
system. If needed, an applet can leave the dedicated area and run as a separate window. However, applets have very little
control over web page content outside the applet's dedicated area, so they are less useful for improving the site
appearance in general, unlike other types of browser extensions (while applets like news tickers or WYSIWYG editors are
also known). Applets can also play media in formats that are not natively supported by the browser.

Here is a code with java

applet
Here is some code with no java applet
Conclusion
• To conclude I have found that there is a lot of history for animation. Over the past few years animation has expanded
massively. Animation first started of by being a simple drawing on a cell to then expanding being created using softwares
such as CGI and other big software's.
• Animation has been used widely within cinema and then eventually being used for advertisement. Within this day and age
animation is used massively for advertisement as most of the successful adverts now are ones that feature animation. All
types of animation are used for entertainment purposes even when it was first created, the creator would use it to
entertain viewers.