Stop Motion Animation
Introduction
Stop Motion Animation has been going since the early 1930’s with the creation of the Zoetrope by William Horner. Since then animation has swiftly progressed and is now popularised by the big names such as Walt Disney Studios and Pixar. Throughout this essay I will be discussing the history of animation and how it has changed from the earliest form to the modern day form, I will also be discussing the modern day pioneers such as Tim Burton who has created big box office animation films, on top of this I will be writing about the future of animation films including the new animation films due in cinemas soon and what technology producers are working on now.
History of Animation
In 1834 William Horner created this zoetrope which he called the Daedalum, the way the Daedalum worked was that there would be pictures drawn on a strip of paper which would be set around the bottom third of a metal drum with slits cut in the upper section of the drum. The drum was mounted on a spindle so that when it was spun people would look through the slits and see the strip form a moving image
From the earliest form of animation people such as Joseph Plateau who invented the Phenakitoscope in 1836, Charles Emile Reynaud and the praxinoscope in 1877, Edward Muybridge and zoopraxiscope, Thomas Edison and the kinetoscope.
Further to the inventions two French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumiere were amongst the earliest filmmakers in history, the used the cinematographe to record, develop and project their motion picture, in 1895 they had their first public screening to present their short films – this was the start of the cinema.
From the Lumiere Brothers people such as George Pal and Tim Burton along with major film companies such as the Walt Disney Company and Pixar animation has progressed and is now one of the most popular forms of film making.
Big Pioneers of Modern Day Animation
Now a day the animation industry is dominated by modern day pioneers such as Pixar Animations Studios, who are a subsidiary company of the The Walt Disney Company, they specialise in CGI animation and are one of the most successful film studios in the world with 4 of their films making the 50 highest-grossing film of all-time, these films include Toy Story 3 ($1,063,161,943), Finding Nemo ($867,893,978), Up ($731,342,744) and the Incredibles ($631,442,092), all of Pixar’s animation films are ranked in the top 50 highest-grossing animation films of all-time.
As well as Pixar is DreamWork Animation SKG, Inc. They are a merger of DreamWorks and Pacific Data Images, the company was found by Steven Spielberg and are responsible for making successful and classic films such as Antz, the Shrek quadrilogy, Chicken Run (with Aardman Animations), Shark Tale and Madagascar amongst many others.
