What is Animation?

What is Animation?

Fantamagorie by Emile Cohl 1908 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEAObel8yIE

Watching one of the first animations was incredible the animation is about the experience of watching film which is beautifully shown by morphing the images, playing around with the drawing. Just this simple animation created an explanation of What is animation? Its about Technology, fantasy and movement.

Animation as a medium " A channel or system of communication" all creative forms involve a medium. Animation is a hybrid medium that combines other forms. I can agree with this statement, there are so many different types of animations out there all made in their own special way that other specialisations have to be involved.

A definition by Denslow (1997) which concluded it was impossible to find a definition as animation had so many aspects that it couldn't possible be described in one simple sentence. Again agree, as I look at all the possibilities about animation I realise too it cannot be summed up in sentence.

I look at Cohl's work and realise although there are so many new technologies for animation the new one's are still there. Stop motion is still very popular such as Coraline (2009) which is an ultimate favourite film of mine and very to date. Although i would say now because of the improved technology stop motion is at its best.

Animation, Techonology and Fantasy:

Victorian animation - Thaumatrope, Zoetrope

Little Nemo by Winsor McCay 1911

I really liked this animation because of taking reality and going into fantasybecauseI think animation is for the release of fantasy. Animation is for any possibility because with just a pencil anything can be created. For example a bridge was created from reality to fantasy mainly by Gertie the Dinasaur (1914) also by Winsor McCay. He created a connection between the real world and fantasy.

Imagining Cinema - Gunning (1989) talks about early cinema in context of " An aesthetic of astonishment"

Technology -  New tech has led to significant advances e.g. Cell Animation such as Earl Hurd and John Bay which was revolutionary because you now don't have to completely draw every frame. E.g. Felix the Cat.

Rotascoping - Max Fleischer (1937) a subtle way of combining realism with animation fantasy for example Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney). Snow White was rotascoped to make her movement more realistic.

CGI -  Toy Story by Disney's Pixar. Chosen because of their smooth texture.

Motion Capture - Lord of the Rings (Gollum) incredible way of animating however there are limitations such as the difficulty of hands.

At the end of the session we watched a Scene from Snow White (Disney) and looked at the rotascoping, The animation really experiments with light and dark to create emotion in the scene e.g. fear playing with shadows to make something look scary then change it to make it safe. the scene created effect by the composition of shot.