A Brief History of Animation

A Brief History of Animation

People have been telling stories using pictures since the Greek and Egyptian ages. The Bayeux Tapestries’ tells the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 using pictures and studying the tapestry it is clear to the onlooker what happened. Looking at local church stained glass windows we can see events portrayed that happened during the 18th century.

Shadow puppet shows have been around in the East for many centuries. The first type of animation in the West was the Flick Book. Publishers produced these as early as the 16th and 17th centuries.

In 1710, a Magic Lantern was able to make images ‘jump’ around and in 1845 an Austrian, Baron Franz von Uchatius, found a way of projecting these images onto a wall.

In 1820, a Thaumatrope was created. This was a toy cardboard disc suspended on a piece of string. On each side of the disc are images and as the disc is spun round, the images would seem to combine, e.g. a cat in a basket.

In 1822 the first photograph was made by a Frenchman called Niepce. It took a further twenty years for the process to be developed to one similar to that used today.

In 1834 the Zoetrope was invented, having been developed from a series of similar ideas. and in 1867 it was further adapted to produce the Praxinascope. This was similar to the Zoetrope but had a series of mirrors in the centre of the drum and the viewer watched the animation in the mirrors. This was later developed to allow the images t be projected onto a screen.

In 1874 the first comic book was produced in Britain.

1895 saw the first film show by the Lumiere Brothers in Paris.

In 1906 J. Stuart Blackton made the first ever piece of animation in America. At about the same time Emile Cohl made a piece of animation in France (1908)

The drum later disappeared to allow for the early animation films as we know them today and in 1913 the invention of the cell allowed for animation on celluloid photographed against a background that needed to be changed only when the scene changed. This was discovered by Earl Hurd.

1927 saw the Warner Brot Ohers’ make the first sound movie, “The Jazz singer” and in 1928, Disney introduced a character called Mickey Mouse in the first sound animation film, “Steamboat Willie”.

The first colour process was made in 1929. In 1934 Donald Duck made his debut in “The Wise Little Hen” and then came Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom and Jerry (Hanna and Barbera for M.G.M), Woody the Woodpecker (U.P.A.films in the early 1950s) and the Pink Panther.

1936 saw the world’s first public television service from Alexandra Palace in North London.

“Snow White” was the first animated feature film. It was created by Walt Disney in 1937 and in 1944 Hanna-Barbera produced the first “Tom and Jerry” cartoon. The last one was made in 1960.

Thanks to the Animation Handbook

(Middlesex Polytechnic)

Created by Terry Quirk and Marshall Mateer

for this information.