Task 2- Animation Pioneers

Biography of pioneers in animation: 

Eadweard Muybridge  

Eadweard Muybridge born in Thames, England in 1830. Who Emigrated to the untied states in 1850's . And returned back to England in 1861 where he started working for photography.
Muybridge is credited as the first photographer to use a split neutral density filter in his landscape work to avoid overexposing the sky but  he kept a large stack of cloud and sky negatives in his darkroom. just in case the sky was blown out of a photograph which  he just then place a nice sky-and-cloud negative behind it then he would make it his final print.  

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Muybridge travelled into areas considered too inaccessible or dangerous by other photographers, and often shot from locations like ledges along cliff edges. His assistants of that time recall lowering Muybridge and his heavy view cameras on ropes over cliffs so he could get exactly the shot he wanted.

                                                                                                                               

When using stop image he used to put his hat in front of the camera and count for two Mississippi and then remove the hat out of the camera way to create and split image effect.  He soon   designed a simple wooden shutter that would allow short exposure times. He also experimented with different chemical combinations for both plates and developers that were more light sensitive, used white sheets and reflectors to maximise the available light, and only photographed on sunny summer days. He was able to make a rather blurry silhouette photograph of Stanford’s trotter ‘Occident’ that showed all four feet off of the ground. Stanford wanted him to improve on the photographs of moving horses he’d done in 1873.  This time he wanted a series of photographs, taken sequentially; every few feet as the horses ran by.

He also invented what he called a zoopraxiscope, which placed a series of images on the outside of a glass disk that was then spun in front of a projecting magic lantern. The result was a repeating clip of a second or two’s length, showing the animal’s actual motion.

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I think That Eadweard's work was very unique in the 1860's and being known as a more of an extreme photographer helped bring attention towards his photos. This helped bring out an whole new genre of photos and i think that is what Eadweard wanted, He didn't want to be known as an individual who followed what other photographers and take the same photos they was focusing on. But instead wanted to go to extreme lengths to get a photo what stand out.

I also personally think that eadweards work was and still is very clever and has helped improve animation in a huge way.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/eadweard-muybridge
http://www.eadweardmuybridge.co.uk/
http://www.biography.com/people/eadweard-muybridge-9419513

Augste and Louis Lumiere 

Where were/are they from?
Auugste and Louis was known as the Lumiere brothers They were both technically minded and excelled in science subjects and were sent to Technical School. Louis developed a new 'dry plate' process in 1881 at the age of seventeen, it became known as the 'Etiquette Bleue' By 1894 the Lumières were producing around 15,000,000 plates a year. 

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The brothers worked through the Winter of 1894, Auguste making the first experiments. Their aim was to overcome the limitations and problems, as they saw them, of Edison’s peephole Kinetoscope. They identified two main problems with Edison’s device: firstly its bulk - the Kinetograph - the camera, was a colossal piece of machinery and its weight and size resigned it to the studio. Secondly - the nature of the kinetoscope - the viewer, meant that only one person could experience the films at a time.

                                                                                          

By early 1895, the brothers had invented their own device combining camera with printer and projector and called it the Cinématographe.  

The Lumières used a film speed of 16 frames per second, much slower compared with Edison’s 48 fps - this meant that less film was used an also the clatter and grinding associated with Edison’s device was reduced.

Louis photographed the world around him and some of his first films were 'actuality' films, like the workers leaving the factory. The brothers began to open theaters to show their films (which became known as cinemas).

What do you think they were trying to communicate with their work?

What do you think of the work?

Sources:

http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html

 Winsor McCay 

Winsor McCay was born in 1867 in Canada. McCay had an interest in drawing from the moment he could hold a pen.Unknown to his parents, he worked as a portrait artist in a "dime museum" in Detroit while attending business college. 

McCay left school at the age of 21 and went to work at the National Printing Company of Chicago. Here, he illustrated posters for circuses and other promotions. After two years he moved to Cincinnati, creating advertising posters for the Kohl and Middleton Dime Museum. He began to create quite a name for himself as a very talented artist. In 1903 he produced sort of experimental comic strip entitled "Tales of The Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle", based on poems by George Chester.

After a few unsuccessful tries, McCay developed "Little Sammy Sneeze" in 1904. This was followed by "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend" for the New York TelegramBoth strips were quite successful. "Dream" was actually so popular that there was talk of producing a Broadway musical. However he never put his name on the comic strips and always put used alias  instead.

His next film released in 1918 was "The Sinking Of The Lusitania", one of the first films to use cels. Even when Hearst opened his own animation studio, McCay continued to work on his own, producing six more films through 1921. 

What do you think they were trying to communicate with their work?

What do you think of the work?

http://vegalleries.com/winsorbio.html

Ladislas Starevich 

Ladislas Starevich was a born in moscow in 1882 but is known as an Russian and French stop-motion animator. He also made the first puppet-animated film called The Beautiful Lukanida eveno though In some of his films he used insects and other animals to play the leading characters, using the new cinema technology to capture animal behaviour. 

He wanted to film stag beetles fighting, but as soon as he turned on the stage lighting the beetles, who are nocturnal, went to sleep. So Starevich decided to recreate the fight using the beetles’ carapaces. He replaced the legs with wire, held in place with sealing wax on the thorax, and used stop-motion techniques to bring the battle to life. But after World War One he emigrated to Paris, and started to make longer, fantastical films using puppets. He began to experiment with sound and colour, and he mixed live action with stop-motion. Any place that his imagination took him, he managed to recreate on the screen. His films saw success around the world. He died in 1965

here are some examples off his work; 

This video is called 'The camermans revenge' which he created in 1912. When this was first created the news reported the video that real beetles played the part however this was just Ladislaw Starewicz way of doing stop animation.

This video is called 'Frogland' but also known as 'The frogs that wanted a king' which was created while he was in paris, made a few years after 'The camera mans revenge'. In this video Ladislaw is animating with frogs and making them ask jupiter (there god) For a king, first they get a wooden king who basically isnt capable to do anything. So the frogs ask for a better king wich then jupiter sends them a king who is a stark which isnt any good because starks eat frogs. Which then the frogs plead jupiter for another king which then jupiter is kind of annoyed of the frogs so he sends lightening down to make sure the frogs wont be bothering him again. 

Moral of the story is to always be carefull of what you ask for because you just might get it. 

This animation is called 'The Mascot' which was made in 1933.  

Walt Disney

Walt disney was born on decemember 5th in 1901 but sadly died December 15 1966 from lung cancer. He was an American business magnate, cartoonist, animator, voice actor, and film producer.As well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created  characters including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. Disney himself was the original voice for Mickey. During his lifetime, he received four Academy Awards and won 22 Academy Awards from a total of 59 nominations. Giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual in history.

Mickey Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character.He was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney Studios in 1928. Mickey has become one of the most recognizable cartoon characters in the world.

Donald duck

Donald Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions.
Donald is most famous for his semi-intelligible speech and his mischievous and temperamental personality. Along with Mickey Mouse, Donald is one of the most popular Disney characters and was included in TV Guide's list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time in 2002. He has appeared in more films than any other Disney character, and is the most published comic book character in the world outside of the superhero genre.

Goofy

Goofy is a funny animal cartoon character created in 1932 at Walt Disney Productions.  Goofy is a close friend of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and is one of Disney's most popular characters. He is normally characterized as extremely clumsy and dimwitted  occasionally Goofy is shown as intuitive and clever.

 John Halas and Joy batchelor

 joy batchelor who ran a small animation uni, that created commercials for theatrical distribution, and Batchelor responded to his advertisement for an assistant. Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Films was founded in 1940, and during World War II the company made about 70 animated propaganda short films.
Their first film called Handling Ships (1945) was the first ever British animated feature. After the war, they continued making short films while Animal Farm (1954) was being made
 based on the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. The C.I.A. paid for the filming during the cold war who initially funded Louis de Rochemont to begin work on a film version of Orwell's work and he hired Halas & Batchelor.







 Its best-known animation series were Foo Foo (1959–60)DoDo, The Kid from Outer Space (1965-70) and The Lone Ranger (1966–69). Halas and Batchelor also produced Snip and Snap (1960) and the clip for the song "Love Is All" from Roger Glover's album The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast (1976). And many more. 

Cosgrove Hall 

Cosgrove hall was a British animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall.Its headquarters was in Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was once a major producer of children's television and animated  It was founded in 1976 and 33 years later was then sadly defunct in 2009 however programmes are still seen in over eighty countries.

It is also one of the few studios in the world that have the the ability to produce all three types of animation (drawn / 2D, stop-motion puppet and CGI) under one roof.
Their first ever animated series was Chorton and the Wheelies. Since then they have brought many favourites to us such as Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and The Wind In The Willows. 

Industrial light&Magic

Industrial Light & Magic is an American Academy Award-winning motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas.  It was created when Lucas began production of the film Star Wars. For many years, mainly during the widespread inception of computer graphics in film during the 1980's, 
http://www.ilm.com/

Visual effects supervisor John Knoll and animation supervisor Hal Hickel created the cursed pirate crew from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest using advanced computer graphics and ILM's patented IMOCAP technology.

Jurassic park was a landmark work in CGI. it completed 3d models which were creaed for each dinosaur, resulting in the first realistic digital animal ever seen in a film.

 Pixar

Pixar which is short for Pixar Animation Studios.  Its based in Emeryville, California. The studio is best known for its CGI-animated feature films created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, which is an image-rendering application programming interface used to generate high-quality images. 

Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group but in 1986 they started funding by Apple Inc.  The co-founder being Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder. In 2007 Disney bought out Pixar  at a valuation of $7.4 billion, a transaction which resulted in Steve Jobs becoming Disney's largest single shareholder at the time.

Pixar have made many many  different characters out of all the films they have made for example they had over 217 characters in 2006. The top 10 characters are 

1
Buzz Lightyear
Toy Story


It couldn't really be anyone else at number one. Confused 'spaceman' Buzz strode into Toy Story, just as Pixar strode into the world of animation: with confidence, lots of attractive bells and whistles and eyes set on a brave new future. He's also the only one on the list to cause grown men to camp overnight outside The Disney Store

2

Mike

Monsters, Inc.

Yes, this Monsters Inc employee looks like a tennis ball after a radio-active encounter, but Billy Crystal's sterling voice work as rotund buddy to big hairy Sulley, elevates Mike from sidekick to scene stealer.

3 DoryFinding Nemo

One of Pixar's most loveable characters, Dory (as brilliantly voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) may not be able to remember anything that happened more than 5 seconds ago in her quest to find the son of her friend Marlin.

4
Woody
Toy Story
He's been sidelined a little by the flashier Buzz Lightyear, but Woody's mix of down home charm and grumpy sarcasm make him a classic. And he's in love with a china doll, so he's really doing his bit for integration too. 

5
Rex
Toy Story
This plastic dinosaur may be stupid, but he's loyal and true to his friends, and that's what counts. But don't make fun of his little arms. He's very sensitive about his little arms. 

6
Edna Mode
The Incredibles
Because she's FAH-bulous, dahling. The best Pixar characters can steal a whole movie in a few minutes of screen time and few do this better than Edna, superhero costume designer extraordinaire. Deadpan, ostentatious and with a wit as sharp as her fringe. 

7

Sulley
Monsters, Inc.
His job is to terrify, but Monsters Inc's best employee and walking throw rug is really just a big softy underneath and falls head over heels for baby Boo. Don't judge a book by it's horned, sharped-clawed cover, kids. 

8
Mr. Incredible
The Incredibles
Square-jawed and just a tad lunk-headed, Mr Incredible yearns for the life of a hero once more, after supertypes are outlawed. He's got a lust for glory, but nothing's more important to him than his equally powerful family. Every kid's biggest hero should be their dad, and this guy fulfills the job in all senses. 

10
Green Aliens
Toy Story
They may be completely superfluous to the plot, but these verdant squeeze toys almost rivaled Buzz and Woody as an emblem of the Toy Story series on the film's release. Not bad going for a collection of identical guys with more eyes than IQ points, no limb articulation and a slavish devotion to 'The Claw'. 

If you want to see pixars most famous 20 characters then go to this link:http://www.empireonline.com/features/pixar/default.asp?NID=21258